The soundscape of our film has became incredibly important in bringing it to life. I feel that it’s taking it from After Effects sequences to a real, deep and immersive story. 

I was interested in Ólafur Arnalds’ music for our film. I have always kind of imagined it working well due to its hybrid between classical orchestral and cinematic, and more ambient, electrical and neoclassical sounds. I went to his concert in London, and what impressed me was his use of motifs in what was not traditional film music, in some cases, it’s actually modern synth pop (fun fact: across his albums, he has consistently revisited melodies in a very cinematic, characterful way).

Using this inspiration, my goal is to build a mix that seamlessly blends the two, reflecting Charli’s emotional allegiance to her comfort zone (the classical) and her call from an exciting world (the neo-classical, more experimental Arnalds-style).

I’m using Epidemic Sound and YouTube to look for royalty-free tracks, and I’m starting to piece them together into a mix. It wasn’t as simple as placing a backing track, as our film has its own distinct timing and pacing. A big problem solver for this was risers and pads. They allowed me to “bandage” up harsh stops in tracks or make transitions land clearer and smoothly. I want to push this even further for our EOYS edition, and make sure all sounds feel fluid and clean.

00:00:00

I knew when seeing the shots come together that I wanted the opening to be an immediate buy-in for audiences… so I went a little Star Wars. I love the Rogue One opening, where the audience just gets snapped into a sea of stars with a booming orchestral hit. It took a while to find a track that worked. I ended up blending Highway Chase by Hampus Naesailius and Sorti by Bonn Fields.

00:00:22

I then introduced a more emotive, high-pitched riser when we cut to Charli’s face to sell that first personal moment with her. We don’t just go closer in focal length, the music swells, and we’re invited to think differently about this new shot – and really look into her eyes and understand Amy’s captivating eye animation. 

00:00:30

I combined this with some clean, subtle sound effects, such as the sketchbook smacking on metal railing, her pencil on the sketchbook page, and some sighs and breaths. I specifically made the last hit of the sketchbook quiet and weaker, to emphasise this feeling of utter defeat.

00:00:41

Then, as she walks, a cymbal denotes the name of our film to the audience, and hopefully exposes a little more of what we’re getting at with these first moments.

I wanted to reference old Samurai films here, as the slow-paced, concise staging made iconic by auteurs such as Kurosawa in Seven Samurai was a big inspiration for our editing approach. I believe that clear, concise execution really tightens and simplifies the complex story we’re conveying, and moments like that convert it into something followable. The structure is almost poetic or book-like.

00:46:00

The shift to inside the apartment was again, fully classical. It needs to read as her self-appointed comfort zone, so it has this warming, but equally sombre and isolated energy as she crashes into her sofa. A major shift occurs when things start to get dicey with her sketchbook and the city lights. After a lot of research, I found this track, which ends up being a bit of a motif for the abstract world, especially when she gets trapped in the void later on. I layered this with diegetic electrical lightning noises as the city switches, building to this moment of tension where she falls back into the cafe. 

00:58:00

The cafe was a graphic match, so it had to be an audio match too. I layered some sounds so that the music felt continuous, whilst the mix of diegetic sounds needed to be changed. It becomes more ominous, and a little more techno/neo-classical in comparison to her familiar space. I’m intoducing a building shift as we rise to the void environment in Scene 4.

02:18:00

I then retracted it again as she began to walk through the city, relying on no non-diegetic sound. I loved this idea of the city streets having an abandoned town feel. I found this great sound effect track that sounds like an empty area of a city, with slight hints of life far away. I’m going to add my train model in for EOYS, and further sell that this is an abandoned zone, with signs of life only far away. It’s also absolutely a reference to the pandemic, and the experience students had there. There’s something so distinctive about the emptiness of cities from that era. I wanted to bring that here. 

02:43:00

The next scene had to build to a crescendo. I used this track to reflect her moment of panic when the signs appear, alongside some synthy risers to sell story elements such as the people and signs. 

03:02:00

The climax of our musical shift is when we fall fully into that neo-classical ambience, occurring when she wakes up in the void. I specifically used the same lightning/electricity sound effects as before, alongside layers of this track and several others to emphasise the surreal, abstract nature of this strange place. Her challenge zone. It gets more and more bizarre as she has to make her choice about the sketchbook, then I used pads to seamlessly bring us to a more hopeful, mystical track, one that reflects this tender moment between her dreaming and waking up. Slow, decelerating, and contemplative. 

04:00:00

This allowed for a solid transition to when her eyes open in the sunrise the next day. I worked hard on the risers, synths and pads to sell this transition, and to really make it feel like she’s snapped back into reality. One where her confidence has shifted. The music now finds its confidence in a middle ground major key techno, but it’s also warm and classical. I used Flown by Olafar Arnalds for this alongside a mix of royalty-free tracks. For the show/festivals, I’ll need to find as close as possible I can for royalty-free, or reach out to the artist for permission. 

We cut to black, and the credits roll to it as we hear in the background Charli’s door slam. This is somewhat open to interpretation, but with strong sound effects and clear, solid mixing, I believe this allows for that.