“Ah…the music was wonderful, wasn’t it?” Have you ever left the movie theater or turned off the DVD player and found yourself saying that? There are a lot of really great movies out there and when you analyze them to find out what made them so great, usually the musical score was part of the equation. It was the element that seemed to push you over the edge emotionally (in a good way or a scary way) and it enhanced almost each and every scene for you. That’s what great movies are made of and when you find yourself walking around with the film’s score playing over and over in your head, that’s the sign of a great film score composer.
Nami Melumad, who is a highly skilled film composer, falls into that category on a regular basis. Her film scores can be otherworldly and very down to earth, but they are always spot on to what the film is trying to express. Nami’s music simply echoes the story in another language that speaks to our emotions. Her film score to the film At Last tickled our fancies and made us feel like we were dancing with a great big smile on our faces. It was such an original score, filled with a full range of human emotion that it was nominated for Best Film Score at the Huston Comedy Film Festival. Her colorful orchestral score to the documentary The Other Dreamers lead the movie to its huge success in festivals across the world. The music in this movie is very prominent, almost like it is a character on its own. Roy Zafrani, the director, has previously stated that the score brings the film to life, and he received many beautiful comments and reviews about it.
Nami’s film scores have been continually singled out for praise, rave reviews and honors of all kinds. She has composed not only for film and TV productions but also for video games. One of these video games, Octobo, received the highest honor in the video game industry, by being accepted to present at GDC (Game Developers Conference, in San Francisco in March). Another game, Curiouser and Curiouser, presented at the huge E3 game convention in Los Angeles in 2015. Both games are for children, so the melodies and background music are critical to their commercial success. Clearly, Nami was the right person chosen by the developers to create the music for the games. Her tunes are catchy and memorable, and the kids who tested the games fell in love with them and with the melodies created by Nami.
Nami is the kind of person who thinks that going to work is fun, and it truly is for her. She works at movie studios, on their recording stages and conducts live music with talented performers. She gets to collaborate with some of the most creative people in Hollywood but also collaborates with filmmakers from Israel, Germany and Spain.
Nami also composed the score for the breakout web series Behind The Blinds, which has become a huge Internet hit. It’s a comedic look at two Eastern European mobsters in Los Angeles who become producers in the film industry in order to launder their hard-earned illegal mob money. Nami’s music is as versatile as her very fertile and endless imagination. For example, for the show, she wrote Russian traditional tunes, mafia/crime style music, EDM songs, romantic music for the love scenes, and a very dramatic emotional theme – but with all of this, she still managed to keep the coherency of the soundtrack. And of course, her main theme, performed by Balalaika player Andrew Synowiec is so catchy and memorable it is likely you’ll hum it after watching the first episode. Andrew, by the way, performed on notable films like Zootopia, The Secret Lives of Pets and Frozen).
This proves that Nami can score any type of film from suspense and love stories to documentaries, commercials and video games. Next time you watch a movie, listen to the music and then read the credits to see who composed it. It might be Nami Melumad , if you’re lucky.
