Arcane: Bridging the Rift is a documentary series from Riot Games exploring the creation of their hit Netflix animated series Arcane. With the complexities of how Riot Games and Fortiche designed and crafted the series’ signature look delved into in the last episode, this week’s journey looks into all the time, effort, and personnel that went into bringing Arcane‘s stunning soundtrack to life in Arcane: Bridging the Rift Part 4.
Leading up to the release of Arcane, Riot Games released a music video for the show’s intro theme “Enemy” that featured the show’s stunning visual designs and Imagine Dragons and J.I.D.’s unique musical sounds. Everything about this release set an insanely high bar for what the series would be expected to deliver on the musical front. The way the video presented a sort of outline of the journey viewers could expect to take when the series was released would ultimately be a taste of how intricately the show’s music would be woven into the series as a whole.
One of the first major details about the show’s approach to music that Arcane: Bridging the Rift Part 4 presents that differs from many projects is how early in the show’s creation they began working on the music. While many projects leave musical accompaniment to post-production, Arcane‘s soundtrack was hand-crafted to flow with, and build out, the show’s narrative from extremely early on. Every step through the series’ nine episodes was to be augmented by music custom crafted for it. While the result is a harmonious blending of visual and audio stimulation, there were more than a few struggles with creating that special sound.
From finding the right talent to getting the tracks to flow seamlessly within the scenes they appear in, Arcane: Bridging the Rift Part 4 leaves out none of the creative struggles that come with creating this world-class soundtrack. Hearing the pride and passion in the voices of the many creatives interviewed during this episode leaves the viewer awestruck. The energy is so positive, that it almost feels like the end result couldn’t have possibly turned out any other way. Despite this, the show makes sure to emphasize that, at any number of places along the way, it could’ve easily gone wrong. That at some key points, happenstance brought an arrangement or an artist to a song or scene at just the right moment.
To accompany this episode’s narrative, Arcane: Bridging the Rift Part 4 takes the viewer to concert halls, video conferences, personnel studios, and even to The Game Awards for a performance of one of the series’ songs, to highlight the incredible journey the music in this series takes as it augments the series and becomes an intricate part its overwhelming success.
Just as with every piece entry in this series, Arcane: Bridging the Rift Part 4 delivers the focus of its episode with loving care as it seeks to further enlighten its fans about the herculean effort by so many it took to bring the wonders of Arcane to life.
Arcane: Bridging the Rift Part 4 is streaming now on YouTube.
rating 10/10
