Dean Valentine’s Unseen Algorithm for Cinematic Impact
Dean Valentine’s Unseen Algorithm for Cinematic Impact
He's the unseen force behind Hollywood's biggest emotional moments. Now, with 28 Years Later, Dean Valentine's influential sound is finally stepping into the spotlight.
Words by Loren Sunderland
Dean Valentine is the composer you’ve heard more than you realise, his music has shaped some of cinema’s most unforgettable moments, and this year, he’s at the heart of one of its most highly anticipated releases: Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later. The score includes Dean’s music in the pivotal scene ‘Causeway Chase’, featuring Young Fathers and layered with a 70-piece orchestra arranged by Rosie Danvers in Air Studios. His additional music, featured during a prominent sequence in the film, didn't land there by chance; its creation stems from a serendipitous yet inevitable alignment of Dean’s long-honed instinct and his growing influence in the industry.
This wasn’t a sudden breakthrough either; Dean’s fingerprint is deeply embedded in the trailers that turned anticipation into an art form. His extensive work includes Dune, Power of the Dog, Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hunger Games, Fury, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Batman v Superman, Rogue One, and American Sniper, to name a few. His film scores include a trilogy of award-winning Holocaust feature documentaries, and feature films like Tiger Raid and Viking (both with vinyl score releases). These are the trailers that made you buy a ticket before knowing the plot. Dean reveals the unique challenge of his craft: “You never get visuals in trailers. Ever.” He recounts, “The closest I ever got was just two minutes of black, it went: moment, bigger moment, hero moment, stop, really big hero moment. That’s the only footage I ever received.” Composing in the dark, his music alone had to evoke the full emotional spectrum of multi-million dollar productions.
Dean Valentine’s path into shaping cinematic sound wasn’t through formal training, but a deeply ingrained understanding of narrative. Completely self-taught, his early background in animation provided an unparalleled grasp of visual storytelling, teaching him instinctively how emotion and plot unfold on screen. This unique perspective allowed him to carve his own sonic language. Instead of adhering to existing musical conventions, he redefined them, crafting sounds that resonate deeply without needing a manual. Dean was unaware that his track ‘Sharks Don’t Sleep’ became the industry standard for slow burners. “I was the slow burner. Start quietly and go like a freight train. The sound became the industry standard,” he says plainly, describing a style that you hear in countless blockbuster trailers. This approach—focusing on emotional depth and massive scale, particularly with brass- is what truly sets him apart.
He’s also candid about the emotional sleight of hand in trailer work. “I’ve seen a trailer and gone, ‘Oh my God,’ then watched the film and thought, ‘That was terrible.’ These are ones I worked on. I nearly felt guilty, I made that look like the best thing since sliced bread, and actually it wasn’t.” He's disarmingly humble, with a refreshingly direct approach that cuts through any hint of grandiosity. “I know what I’m doing, but I don’t know what I’m doing, if that makes sense technically half the time,” he laughs. No chord books. No formal theory. Just instinct, storytelling, and an ear honed by years of listening to what moves people. His creative versatility, honed from his background in animation and sculpting, allows him to seamlessly navigate between film, TV, games, and trailers, approaching each as a single, unified creative challenge.
And then, of course, there’s the story that has become something of industry lore, perfectly encapsulating the high stakes and unexpected turns of his early career. Early on, Dean landed both Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises on the same day. While his track didn't land in the final cut of The Dark Knight Rises trailer as Hans Zimmer eventually scored the final chapter in the Batman trilogy, his track "Dark Matter" eventually landed in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and won the Clio Key Arts award.
That’s precisely how his career has largely unfolded: a master of his craft, operating with quiet power, composing relentlessly, yet often remaining just out of sight. “It’s like having all the music but no stage,” he says. “It becomes all about the music. You do have great moments with supervisors and editors, but it’s definitely isolating.”
However, there’s something thrilling about the anonymity. “It’s pretty cool, too, when you do stuff that nobody knows. I have loads of conversations when I walk the dog, someone says their favourite thing is this, and I go, ‘I did that.’ And they go, ‘What do you mean you did that?’” He notes that the trailer world uniquely levels the playing field, allowing his music to grace massive productions like Star Wars, even if his name isn’t on the poster.
“If you feel you’ve got this, I think you’re done. Pressure is always part of it; it never really goes away at any level.”
Now, Dean isn’t just composing for traditional on-screen projects; he's among those directly shaping the next frontier of sound. As Head of A&R and one of the lead creatives at Infinite Samples, he’s driving a seismic shift in how composers, sound designers, and producers manipulate sound. Dean’s role goes far beyond curation; he describes it as a “crash course” in sound design, pouring his deep understanding of cinematic impact into every pack. His unique, film-first, emotion-led approach is coded directly into the company's DNA. “I was bringing all of my cinematic instinct from the trailer world. I was nearly writing them like they were scores, but with structure. That’s what set them apart.” This very thinking guides his work at Infinite, creating samples as compelling ideas designed to spark immediate inspiration. He’s hands-on, providing constant edits and notes, taking to the A&R role “like a duck to water,” and ensuring the platform resonates with true artists.
He’s also the co-founder of Dark Matter, a custom music house and a creative offshoot of Infinite Samples, forged in collaboration with Simon Astall at Colourbox Music. Here, his hybrid voice, emotional, cinematic, expansive, can really stretch. Dark Matter builds bespoke music for film, TV, and games and is a space where composition, sound design, and storytelling collapse into each other, reflecting Dean’s personal fascination with the concept of “dark matter” itself: everything you can’t see but that powerfully shapes the universe. This venture, currently a key focus for Dean, is set to deliver volumes of groundbreaking custom music to top-tier clients.
Infinite and Dark Matter are fast becoming essential creative infrastructure for the scoring world. Their FX engine, Abyss, custom Kontakt samplers, and advanced watermarking tools are pushing standards forward. But what makes them matter, in Dean's view, is the creative intentionality behind them. These aren’t just tools for productivity; they’re extensions of a mindset, rooted in artistry, precision, and the space to make something new.
“You are your own business, you’re representing yourself. It’s a collaborative business and being personable and listening is very important,” Dean emphasizes. He stresses the importance of composers coming into projects with their own ideas, not just waiting for direction. Even amidst these collaborative demands, Dean remains candid about his own areas for improvement, noting "procrastination." But for him, the work is always the relentless focus. “If you feel you’ve got this, I think you’re done. Pressure is always part of it; it never really goes away at any level.”
Dean has shaped how we feel about films before we even see them, elevating trailers into emotional events and helping sell some of the highest-grossing films of the last two decades. With his track now featured in 28 Years Later, and Infinite Samples and Dark Matter pushing the sound world forward, Dean is carefully designing its future. His work has always operated beneath the surface, but make no mistake: he’s been at the commercial and creative core of modern cinema for years. Now, with his name finally moving into the foreground, it’s clear, this is exactly where he belongs. Watch what he builds next.
