Creative Process

For the existing sonic brand of IRONBARK DIGITAL, we had been utilising a sample pulled from a piece Julian Neuhaus, our founder, made for a documentary project he scored while at film school in 2016, but for our first film festival partnership at the end of 2025, we wanted to redefine what a sonic brand can be with something more memorable and intentional.

“It has to take us on a journey, it needs to be cinematic, emotive, and carry a retro 90s kind of nostalgia, but it also has to be the most memorable and iconic and fresh thing the viewer hears, but also intrinsically familiar… it must be distinctively Australian, but it also has to be no longer than 20 seconds and not so overstated that it diminishes the impact of any film it plays alongside” is the impossible creative brief Jules set for composer Scott Majidi during the initial consultation phase.

After some time discussing the brief and project scope, a clear direction was established, and Scott began creating some drafts, or ‘sketches'.

“I sent them a first round of 4-5 different tracks, each one exploring the themes discussed, but […] none of those tracks would turn out to be what they were after. Instead, it would be an amalgamation of 2-3 of those tracks.”

The finished ident is the culmination of a 3-month process, with Josh Wermut of XO Sound engaged for the final mixes in both 5.1 & 7.1, as well as Dolby ATMOS.

On completion of the mix, we then took cameras into our edit bay, filled it with haze, and captured the stunning visuals of our DCI projector firing up in anamorphic to visually portray the sound.

Scott Majidi, Composer
Image courtesy of BEL & CAL PHOTOGRAPHY 

‘Our DCP mastering service is the best option out there for independent filmmakers. Each time our ident plays, it brings with it a guarantee that the presentation quality of that event or film will be of the highest technical standard.’

— Tom Farrelly, Ironbark Digital