48 Hours to Compose Guinness x Field of Vision’s Six Nations Soundtrack

This year’s Six Nations was not like the others. Guinness, the title partner and official beer of rugby’s greatest championship, teamed up with assistive sports technology start-up Field of Vision on its ‘Never Settle’ initiative, empowering fans to feel every match-day moment – literally.

A pioneering haptic device put the game into the hands of visually impaired fans, allowing them to physically follow along with every tackle, try, and kick in real time, with accompanying radios to provide commentary. In a win for inclusivity, 15 visually impaired fans were able to benefit from this enhanced immersive experience during Ireland’s opening fixture against England.

Two-time Paralympian and Guinness ‘Never Settle’ ambassador, Martin Gordon, stars in the campaign film from Catapult. Ken Wardrop directs the heartwarming arc from Martin gearing up for the game to learning how the device works, and his crescendo of joy upon using it for the first time.

The narrative’s moving enough, but an intricate score really supercharges the emotions, thanks to Denis Kilty. The founder of Dublin-based music and sound company, denis., provided original music, sound design, and mix, thoughtfully drawing out the nuances of each moment. What’s more, he turned it all around in just two days. Yes, two days.

LBB’s Zara Naseer caught up with Denis this week to discover what went down in that whirlwind 48 hours.

LBB> How did you first get involved in this project, and what brief were you given?

denis> I was brought on board by Catapult, who created the film with director Ken Wardrop and Venom Films, right at the end of the edit. The brief was quite simple: capture the magic and energy of live sports, with a special consideration for the visually impaired. I had to communicate the feeling of the film as if I couldn’t see anything on screen. Two versions of the film were made – an assisted dialogue version with extended scenes and audio descriptors – so it was really interesting working across both cuts.

LBB> You’ve mentioned that the score, sound design, and mix had an extremely tight turnaround of roughly two days! What first steps did you take to hit the ground running?

denis> That’s right! The entire film had a tight schedule, so I had to move quickly with the composition. The first question I asked myself was: how would I like to be left feeling at the end of this powerful story? That was my starting point, and I took it from there.
Ken Wardrop is a world-class documentary director, so the narrative and edit – and the authentic story told by two-time Paralympian Martin Gordon – just made sense. I was lucky that it clicked on the first watch. After that, it was a case of creatively matching that tone.

LBB> Were you inspired by any other creative works?

denis> The short answer is, no! I trusted in my own process and the great story I’d been presented with, and let the creativity take me where it needed to go.

There were certainly moments that inspired the music though. For example, the scene where Martin and his friends share a pint in the corner of a pub – it’s a beautiful, social moment that resonates with Irish people. Not because of the pints, but because it’s a shared experience. It’s a very Irish thing, and I scored it using live strings to reflect the weight of that moment. That musical theme ended up returning at the end of the score during the Guinness titles, and really helped ground the story.

I also loved the moment of anticipation before the try is scored. That feeling, where everyone waits with bated breath – it’s electric. It’s powerful and universal, so a mix of silence followed by cinematic synths and epic percussion felt like the right call. You’ll notice the score flows between synthetic and organic instrumentation – that’s a bit of a marker of my style, and it worked well for this story.

LBB> There was also an assisted dialogue version of the film made for the visually impaired. How did this impact your craft?

denis> This was my first time ever creating an AD version of a film. Essentially, scenes are extended to allow for professional voiceover descriptors to be added. It mainly impacted the musical phrasing – I had to accommodate those longer scenes while still keeping the energy in place. Interestingly, we didn’t actually receive the AD dialogue until after my music and sound design mix was finished, as that component was created separately for that cut. So I didn’t know how the voice was going to sound.

It was an unusual experience – I had to speculatively compose those moments without knowing how it would turn out. Thankfully, it worked really well. The film’s been watched over a million times on Instagram in just a few weeks.

LBB> What was your approach to musically capturing and blending the feeling of the narrative and of the Guinness brand?

denis> Guinness is an interesting brand because it doesn’t necessarily have a ‘sound’. It’s an ideas-driven brand when it comes to messaging – you can see that in the various films it’s produced over the decades. It tends to follow a strong idea rather than a product-specific aesthetic. It was a micro-documentary – my focus as a composer is always to enhance the story first. I also handled the sound design, so moments like the opening whoosh of showing the ball, and things like crowd sounds and ambience are all part of communicating the narrative. It wasn’t a super sound design heavy piece, but it played its role where it needed to. Elsewhere, music led the charge.

LBB> How much did the soundtrack adapt throughout the process? Is it largely the same as your initial vision or did it evolve through a process of back and forth?

denis> Given the tight timeline, I had to commit to my gut response to the film – and that’s what we ended up with. Catapult were great at trusting me to just do my thing.

I believe there was only one note of feedback – other than that, it came out of the oven as intended, so to speak!

LBB> What was the recording process like?

denis> A lot of the score is synth and electronics-driven, so most of it was built in my studio – in the workshop, as I like to say. I did get to record some live violin and cello at short notice, which was the cherry on top. That was done at my studio with long-time collaborators who I record with on many projects.

LBB> What was the most intricate or challenging part of bringing this film to life using music and sound?

denis> The first step with a slightly longer edit is usually establishing pace. Every edit has a natural rhythm or DNA, so the goal is to find it, play with it, and then hit key moments with music or sound design that enhances the story. In this case, the edit was locked, so I had to jump right in and work with what was already there. Luckily, due to the care and attention Ken and the post team put into the storytelling, it wasn’t hard to tease that rhythm out.

LBB> What’s your favourite aspect or detail of the track?

denis> I love the moment the try is scored. In the AD version, there’s an extended scene where Martin is shouting with joy as the try is scored. There was something about the way he expressed that joy that just hit me – it pushed me to make the music in that scene as emotional and raw as possible. It’s always curious what part of a performance triggers that feeling. You can rarely plan for it – it’s just about how it makes you feel. Knowing Martin was the real deal rather than an actor portraying a story – and an incredibly articulate person – made it even more compelling.

I also loved the musical moment when they’re discussing the Field of Vision device, which is central to the film. I composed a very electronic, synth-heavy piece for that, with little glitches and distortions to represent the tech being explained. I got to experiment with some pretty abstract modular synths, which was a lot of fun!

LBB> What has the response to the film been like?

denis> The film has gone down exceptionally well. As I mentioned, it’s been watched nearly a million times since launch – and I think, despite it being more of a documentary-style film than a traditional cinematic TVC, its core story really resonated with people.

It proves, once again, that great stories (with great music!) will always find a willing audience.