Behind the gripping music in the Oscar-nominated animated short The Flying Sailor

"If a feature film is a novel, then I think this film is sort of like a poem," reflects Luigi Allemano. He's the sound designer and composer of the original score for The Flying Sailor, an NFB-produced film by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby that's been nominated for best animated short at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Their film is based on the true story of a sailor who was blasted into the air by the Halifax Explosion of 1917 and later found more than one kilometre away, naked but alive. While there's no dialogue, the film speaks with powerful imagery — poetically, as Allemano suggests — infusing a brief moment with a mix of terror, nostalgia, even humour.

"They really wanted sections of the film to have the feeling of a ballet," explains Allemano. "The character is not an elegant dancer, and maybe the orchestra is not a polished ballet orchestra, but that feeling of peace and control under a very stressful situation — it was a really fine balance. There are moments of humour and absurdity, but we didn't ever want to lose sight of the fact that it's meant to be a fairly profound feeling that you're left with."

The Flying Sailor is the 77th NFB production nominated for an Academy Award and is among the first Canadian short films mixed in the new Dolby Atmos, which allows for sophisticated spatial effects. "I'm really hoping at some point the audience will be able to hear this film in an actual cinema, where it was designed to be presented," Allemano points out.

Allemano, who's not only a composer but also himself an animator and associate professor of film animation at Concordia University, spoke to CBC Music about his work on The Flying Sailor, which he describes as "an audio-visual composition." Our conversation, below, has been edited for brevity.

How did you react to the news that The Flying Sailor had received an Oscar nomination?

Everyone working on that project was absolutely delighted. There was a bit of an expectation, I suppose, because the previous films that Wendy and Amanda have directed at the NFB have all received Oscar nominations. But we had our doubts because it's fairly unusual that a film depicting a character [who's naked most of the time] would reach a mainstream level of acceptance and popularity. We had conversations at some point where they said, you know, this would just be completely unpresentable in certain contexts. And so, that would probably eliminate any chance of there being an Oscar nomination. But it has turned out happily not to be the case; it's been really well received everywhere it's been shown. So, yeah, I'm still pinching myself. It feels a little surreal.

How did being an animator yourself help you approach the sound and music for this particular film?

What was unusual about this particular film was the level of collaboration. Both Wendy and Amanda are very musical people. They have a keen sense of what they like in music, so they were very hands-on, making specific suggestions about the music in terms of structure, form and feeling.

If there's any kind of insight that I might have as a composer when I'm working on an animated project, I guess it might be that when it's a collaborative endeavour like this one, I'm very aware of the consequences of my suggestions or commentary on the visual aspect. If I suggested a little bit more time for a certain musical statement to be expressed, I knew full well the implications on their side of what that would involve, as opposed to just throwing out some random suggestion, which would give them a nervous breakdown.

The film depicts a very brief moment during the Halifax Explosion in 1917. How did that era influence your music?

It's not a documentary, so we weren't trying to be period-specific or accurate in any way. And in fact, there are some anachronisms. For example, at the beginning of the film, the music is sort of an homage to early cartoon music. But in fact, those types of musical cartoons didn't really come to prominence until after the Halifax Explosion. The 1917 audience would have still been mostly listening to either live performances in a cinema or no music at all. It would have been silent. So there's an anachronism there in that we were referencing 1940s cartoon music in a film that's ostensibly happening in 1917.

But the musical references that Amanda and Wendy drew inspiration from were, in a way, unfortunate for me because they're huge landmarks in musical composition: Claude Debussy's Clair de lune and some Igor Stravinsky compositions that everyone knows. It's always a tall order to go up against something like that as a reference. But what I took from those references was actually that a lot of those compositions would have been new in 1917 and possibly even something that this sailor, J.C. Mayers, may have been aware of to some extent. If anything, I was trying to imagine if this sailor was imagining the most beautiful music as his life flashed before his eyes — it wouldn't actually be Debussy that he was hearing; it would be his personal, subjective, maybe simplified version of Debussy.

You've done some scholarly research on animation and improvisation. Is any of the music in this film improvised?

I'm pretty sure every note that you hear in the final score was composed and notated in fairly specific detail. The trick was to make it not feel that way. The most challenging part, I think, was for the pianist, John Sadowy, a fantastic improviser, but also a fantastic accompanist. And even though much of it was recorded as a solo performance, I wanted the feeling of a pianist who's accompanying something — in this case, a man flying through the air. Even though it was fully notated, John was able to add expression and nuance that made it feel like it was not through-composed. I have the feeling he practiced a lot to achieve that.

And then there's a violin solo performed by Lizann [Gervais]. It's a very simple melody and I told her, "This character believes he's about to go into the afterlife. Please infuse the performance with this sentiment." And, I mean, it's incredible what she did. It's just so nuanced and genuine. So again, not improvisation per se, but some individual expression that came up spontaneously, shall we say.

Talk about the ending of the film.

The decision was taken that there would be no music at the end, which is unusual for a film of this type and duration. To leave the audience in a soundscape that suggests something terrible has just happened — without any musical statement on that feeling — was a bit of a risk. I can't remember if I needed to be convinced or not. Probably they would say I needed to be convinced that the ending should have no music. But I'm really happy with the ending, that it leaves the viewer in a state of contemplation, which is probably needed after all the chaos that's just come before.

You recorded the music during the pandemic?

It was all recorded at the NFB's recording studio, a relatively new facility. It was, I believe, the first or second scoring session that was allowed to take place in person, toward the end of the pandemic. (If we can even say that we're at the end of the pandemic.) I knew it would have to be broken up over several dates and sessions, with different instrumental groups.

If there's any kind of emotional richness in the performances that we recorded, I think it was because, for me, it was the first time I'd been in the room with another musician in over two years. And many of my colleagues, especially the string players, had said the same thing. And even though it was a recording session and not a live performance for an audience, it was extremely emotional for many of us. I teared up at one point just realizing what we had been through as a society. For many, it was a situation of financial precarity because they depend on being able to perform. It was their first working opportunity in a long time. It was emotionally charged. I hadn't been to a recording session ever, I think, where the musicians just immediately were able to get into that introspective and emotive state with very little convincing.

The 95th Academy Awards will be presented on March 12, 2023, in a ceremony held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.