Inside the Sound of Madam - Crafting Comedy, Chaos, and Character

Inside the Sound of Madam - Crafting Comedy, Chaos, and Character

After a successful run around the television festivals rocking up some impressive awards: 

• Monte-Carlo Television Festival - Golden Nymph for Best Creation (2024)
• Berlin TV Festival - Best Comedy (2024)
• Asian Academy Creative - Golden Goddess Award for Best Comedy (2024)
• C21’s International Drama Awards - Best Comedy-Drama Series (2024)
• Flicker’s Rhode Island International Film Festival - Best Television Pilot (2024)

And some local broadcast air time on THREE New Zealand and Channel 9 Australia, breakout series Madam, produced by Tavake & XYZ Films, is now available on Netflix in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom!

Mack Leigh (Rachel Griffiths), faced with a philandering husband (Martin Henderson) and a mountain of debt, starts up an ethical brothel in small town New Zealand to provide for her family and put a new spin on sex and work.

We sat down with the team behind the unique sound of Madam to give you some insight into the magic behind the scenes. 

Nick Buckton - Composer

What was the emotional or tonal direction you were given for the score, how did you translate that into sound? 

Initially it was more of a holistic approach; I wasn't being asked to provide a full composition for the series. It was more a case of finding themes for Mack and the Sweethearts, and from those major themes the idea was to edit up the stems and place them throughout the series to use as a general flavour for each of the characters and their storylines. For Mack we were looking at a piece with a strong and assertive kinda feel, and the Sweethearts more on the playful yet vulnerable side of things. But there are many shades of grey, and emotionally their respective roles almost reversed through the series; Mack becomes more vulnerable, and the Sweethearts, Tui in particular, become more assertive characters. So fairly quickly we realised the show needed more musical nuance, and it was going to need a full score. 

As well as finding motifs for each of the characters, the major brief and consequent challenge was to find that elusive sweet spot between the comedy and the drama. In terms of achieving that, it was really a case by case, trial and error type thing. Usually I would start by finding the precise tempo that suited the feeling of each scene, and building up the instrumentation from there. I’d generally just follow my instincts from here, and not over think it. Having watched as much content as I have in my regular life as a sound designer, you can usually tell fairly quickly whether something is sonically marrying to the picture or not. I kept playing around until it felt right. A lot of experimenting, and a lot of fun.

Another factor that I had to be cognisant of, was that this is very much a female story. To counter the fact that I am not female, I enlisted the vocalisation talents of Mika Smulian, who happened to be working in our production team at my studio, Native Audio. She reluctantly said she could sing, so I popped her in the booth, and wow, she could sing. Her tone sat in perfectly with my material. Given this was a new thing for her, there was almost a shyness and reluctantness to her performances, which again played right into the whole ‘lack of polish’ vibe I was going for. I ended up using her on many tracks, and she became quite a significant flavour to the overall score. 

Were there any signature instruments, motifs, or production techniques that became the “sound” of the show? 

Where I landed production-wise was a lo-fi type aesthetic, which suits my musical sensibility, and is probably one of the reasons Tom Hern (executive producer) asked me to jump into composing. It has a bit of a home-made kind of vibe to it at times, which seemed to marry to the picture. Being that the world is set in a quirky, yet at times grim small town in New Zealand. Here, things are a bit broken and the people are a bit broken. A slick sound track would have been a rather grating sonic aesthetic.

I used a huge amount of chorus and vibrato, even on bass lines where I wouldn’t traditionally have chorus. This created what I like to call a sonic wobble, which invokes a sense of uncertainty, or even vulnerability at times, like it’s just a bit unsure of itself. 

The main motifs were the vocalisations sung by Mika; having a human voice in there, even though there were no words, gave the tracks a human quality, a feminine quality, and totally brought them to life. 

Instrumentation wise, one of the main instruments I landed on was a tenor ukulele, which I used  in places where I’d normally use an acoustic guitar. It doesn't have that kind of overtly kooky sound of a regular ukulele; more like a cheap but characterful acoustic guitar. This again played into the whole lo-fi sound I was attempting to achieve. There were many layers of percussion too, which became quite a strong flavour for the series. Nothing beats a perfectly placed triangle.

Brendon Morrow - Music Editor

How did you work with the composer and picture team to shape the emotional rhythm of each episode?

Tom Hern (executive producer) is always very hands on when it comes to the music choices and  placement in his productions. Madam was no exception.  

For every episode we had a ‘play around’ session. Nick Buckton (composer) had most of his score cues in a really good place, and we would sit with Tom and play with the score stems. We would try looping, breaking these down, basically just seeing how we might be able to make the music work with the show in the best way possible. Sometimes it was a process of breaking the cues down completely and rebuilding them. Other times they were already playing perfectly so we left them alone. 

Once we had everything in a really good place, as music editor I would go away and compile all the ‘locked’ score with the licensed music from Jenna Ackerman (music supervisor). This then went out as a WIP, so everyone had the chance to see the full compiled music track in context. After some final notes and tweaks, the music was ready to go to the mix stage. 

This was a really creative and productive process, meaning that there were no ‘music surprises’ by the time the mix was underway. It also meant we felt that the score and music placement had really been ‘stress tested’. By the time we hit the mix stage, we were confident that the music was serving the show in the best way possible. 

Jordan Smith - Dialogue Supervisor

What role did the ADR and mix process play in polishing the final performances we hear on screen? 

ADR was used only to enhance the story telling where directed by the filmmakers. This includes recording Loop Group to create unique and bespoke crowds and groups of people for the show. As with most projects, We kept technical ADR to a minimum to keep the feel of the chosen performances. This is a lot easier with modern noise reduction and repair tools.

Do you have any rituals or habits when editing – like listening to different speakers, or walking away before a final pass? 

I personally prefer cutting dialogue on headphones, that way I can be sure that there won't be any anomalies before it hits the mix stage. I will then listen on speakers once I'm confident in my edit. I always reference the original intent of the offline edit so that I'm only ever improving on the sound and intentions of the filmmakers. We work very collaboratively at Native Audio between departments so as I'm cutting I will often premix the edit to make sure things are sitting in a great space before handing over to the mix stage, saving time in the final mix.

Madam is quite a different scope of work compared to other films or television series you’ve collaborated on in the past. Did you find you were able to get into a groove easily, or did you have to adjust your collaboration process for this one?There was definitely a bit of finding our feet at the start, especially since the timelines were quite crunched by the end. We had to find a groove for what was achievable within the mix timeframe. Once we’d worked through a couple of episodes, we got the review process down to just a few hours after figuring out the formula for the show. Most of these decisions were mainly based around what was working musically, and that all started with Nick Buckton (composer) and Brendon Morrow (music editor). 

How did you and Tom Hern work out the distinct sound decisions between Mack’s world and the Sweetheart’s?

The environment of the Sweethearts took a while to find because it was a motel that wasn't particularly busy. It would have sounded a bit boring if we’d been too realistic with it, so we had to find ways to keep the motel active without being distracting. Sometimes that meant using diegetic music. For example, if the Sweethearts were all sitting around waiting for clients to come in, as an audience you’d expect to hear music in those moments. 

We also had to create the sense of people next door – bumps, knocks, little sounds coming from around the motel to make it feel busier than it appeared visually. Creatively, we found ways to fill it out sonically; otherwise it would have felt a bit stagnant. 

Did you find that you had to rely more on sound in the storytelling to sell this series to an audience? 

Not overly so, I think the drama/comedy – or dramedy – is a tricky genre. It’s difficult to strike the right balance between comedy and drama. Sound itself can be quite funny; it can be used to enhance little moments or jokes, character beats, and timings. Moving in and out of scenes that are serious or sad, and then immediately back to something lighthearted and funny, is a difficult weave. That was probably one of the main challenges in making it work as a show. 

For over 30 years, Native Audio has been the driving force behind New Zealand's vibrant audio scene. From its roots as Airforce Studios, the legendary recording studio where some of the country's most iconic records were made, Native has continuously evolved to become today's cutting-edge audio post facility. Combining unparalleled experience, award-winning creativity, and state-of-the-art technology, we've partnered with the top talent in film, TV, and gaming. At Native, we're not just part of the industry – we're leading it. Want to know more about us? Check out our website here Native Audio

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