BY CHRISTOPHER LEON WITH STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Pedro Bromfman is not a gamer.
Sure, as a kid he played a bit of Nintendo and Atari. But as he grew older, he found a stronger passion for music.
So how did the California-based composer end up writing 49 tracks for the new Far Cry 6?
For this Ubisoft game, Pedro composed a score that conjures the fictional nation of Yara — and sends gamers into the action. In this interview, Peter tells CutCommon how he drew from his experience writing for other screen-based projects (such as Narcos and RoboCop), and how he wove three core themes to one in his standout cinematic track The Lucky One.
Hi Pedro, it is great to chat with you about your new music! So, how do you go from the mindset of composing a Netflix series like Narcos through to a AAA video game like Far Cry?
Each time I begin a new project, it’s a similar process. If it’s a movie or a TV show, I usually get a rough edit to work on and through my conversations with the creatives — director, producer, showrunner — we define what the project needs musically. Tone, style, instrumentation are all important aspects to narrow down early on and make sure we’re all on the same page.
With a video game, it’s a similar process — except when I started Far Cry, it was so early on, we had hardly any footage to look at. I relied heavily on the story breakdowns from narrative director Navid Khavari and my conceptual conversations with audio director Eduardo Vaisman. After the initial concept and direction is defined, I lock myself in the studio and start working on ideas.
Ultimately, it’s all about storytelling — how to best portray our characters and help tell their stories with my music, whether on a game or a TV show.
Still, compared to your work for TV, gaming requires you to respond to so many cues. What was the experience of working with this source material to produce an enormous 49 tracks?!
Forty-nine tracks is what our ‘complete soundtrack’ was ultimately edited down to. I’ve created well over three hours of music for Far Cry 6.
It’s a massive endeavor, composing music for a game of this size and scope. Fortunately, as I mentioned, I was brought in very early on and actively worked on Far Cry 6 for almost two-and-a-half years. On a TV show or movie, we never have such a large time frame to work with. I’m usually brought in after the movie has been shot, and the composition time is significantly compressed. The fact that I was in so early allowed us a tremendous back-and-forth where I was able to influence the creative process as their characters and designs were influencing my compositions.
For example, as they were developing Anton’s storyline, they would be able to hear the music I was creating for the character and for Yara. That ultimately created what, for me, was the ultimate collaborative experience.
What do you see as the function of music when considering a game such as Far Cry? The music is so deeply connected to the user’s experience, and plays with the way we anticipate, react to, and feel about certain elements of the game.
My job ultimately is to be a storyteller through music: setting the mood, creating character themes, and finding the right sound for Yara and its people. There’s an aspect of creating music for a game which is just like working on a movie. Far Cry 6 has over two hours of cut scenes within the game. That part is exactly like scoring a movie; those scenes will always play the same way. We define what the music should do and, after I’m done, the music will always play the same exact way. Music and picture are locked together.
However, there’s the open world aspect of a video game like Far Cry, as well as the tremendous number of specific missions that needed to be scored with blood-pumping, high-adrenaline music. Those missions have to be scored in a very different way, as they’ll play differently and last a different amount of time each time they’re played.
That’s where the mechanics of scoring a game is usually very different from working on a film or a TV show. You have to be able to create pieces that can loop for a long time while increasing and decreasing in intensity, and with enough variation that will keep the player interested without sounding redundant.
Are you a gamer yourself?
I’m not a gamer. I used to play games — Atari, Nintendo — as a kid. But in my teenage years, musical instruments and ultimately the studio became my ‘video game’.
I think if you’re a gamer, you may understand the dynamic of what the music is supposed to do within a game a little better that someone who’s not. However, having a few games under my belt, I understand the medium and how music works within all aspects of the game.
No matter what, whether you’re a gamer or not, there’s a learning curve for someone working on music for video games — how the music needs to be created but, especially, how it has to be delivered so the game engine can handle it properly.
Let’s talk about Yara. How do you portray the character or atmosphere of a fictional location you’re helping to create from scratch?
Through immersion and a lot of creative conversations.
It was very important to understand the story of Yara and its characters — who they were, and what they were trying to accomplish. It was important to understand what the developers were looking for as far as tone and instrumentation. It was important for all of us to root this music in Latin American and Caribbean music, but to create something new and very original.
Ultimately, I think it’s easier to create the music for a fictitious place than an existing one. We have more freedom, and it can sound however we’d like it to sound, as long as everyone is on the same page.
The Lucky One is a track that’s been singled out from this soundtrack, and I’d like to know what went into it — including the three main themes and how you wove them into one.
This piece scores a key moment in our story. As you mentioned, it’s the only time we hear the three main themes from Far Cry 6 combined in one piece of music. It was composed for an important cinematic that I can’t really discuss, since it would spoil the resolution of our game. However, I can talk about the piece musically.
The Lucky One starts with Anton’s theme: the iconic cello melody played in the low register of the instrument, as Anton is driving the dramatic narrative of the scene.
As we navigate through the cinematic, we hear the revolution theme, Libertad. We understand things are changing, and the power is shifting within scene and the story.
Ultimately, we conclude with Clara’s theme, my personal favorite, played on acoustic guitar. Clara’s theme is full of yearning and sadness, but it manages to look to the future with courage and above all, hope. Hope for the future of Yara.
Before we sign off, what’s your top piece of advice for a burgeoning games composer looking to break into the industry?
Don’t narrow your focus. It’s great if you know you want to ultimately compose for games, but there’s so much content being created, and it’s so important to get your feet wet and your hands dirty. Do as much as you can. Score documentaries, commercials, podcasts, films, TV, games, whatever you can, so you can practice and develop your sensibility scoring to picture and creating music for someone else’s project.
The relationships you create now will grow as your careers do, and you never know where you’ll ultimately end up.
I never planned on being a film composer let alone working on video games. One thing led to the next, and here I am.
If you’re prepared, professional, and talented at what you do, with a little luck, the sky is the limit.
Find the Far Cry 6 Official Playlist | Ubisoft Music on Spotify.
Images supplied.
