I've been so blessed to have the opportunity to work with filmmakers form all over in the medium of short film. Short films are a wonderful way to deeply and meaningfully engage in a slice of life. Here's a sample of the wide variety of pieces I've worked on in the past.  

Homebound

Homebound is one of those slice of life films that gives me insight into other human beings. That's one thing I love about my job-whether it's documentary or this particular short film focusing on agoraphobia-I love the way that filmmaking and films take me into another life. Also this film score was created while we were deeply entrenched in COVID, so I truly got my all remote workflow together in a post 2020 way. Similar to other films created at the same time, I didn’t meet the filmmakers until our first film festival.

My process can be more texture and sound based. The film starts with such bold, powerful images, and I connected this visual to my sounds. Sometimes just sitting on a single note is super chaotic, and I remember we talked a lot about what the door means. At times, I’m literally scoring the door, using the Roli to actualize micromovements.

Last Ride

Nyle and I have worked together since 2010 or so, beginning with a short film called Mary's Journal. We both love Taxi Driver, so there's references to Taxi Driver and that style of jazz in a horror or suspense film. I think certain kinds of music can have a driving vibe. What does that mean in a late night setting? And having spent late nights in L.A., late nights in New York, I captured that late night, wheels spinning mood throughout the score.

I ended up not using any live jazz musicians in Last Ride. I have my jazz sounds pretty well dialed in from doing the mockups with sample libraries in Max Roach, so I was able to get the jazz to feel natural with a lot of tweaking it with roli and including all those different articulations. To hear a fake saxophone or fake trumpet is truly an awful thing, so I wanted to make sure that that didn't happen. And orchestration wise, I think bass clarinet can just sound like death sometimes. It’s just so throaty and ominous. 

EnSuite

EnSuite does some bold things, namely the camera being in one spot for the whole film, but also not having a click track and letting the score really breathe. It feels almost uncomfortably intimate, and yet human. The hope of what happens next exemplified by a solo guitar. It was a lot of live takes-the specificity of a particular performance was more important than the actual composition.

One of the things about choosing guitar is that it's very intimate. You hug the instrument. Every little nuance of touch can come through, including what it takes to sustain the sound. The second you change something with your left hand, the note is going to stop immediately. Both hands affect the sound, including the left hand after the note has been plucked. But every note, and every person, dies. It also has to do with some of the rock music that happens later. So it did feel like what was appropriate for this couple in terms of their sonic world, what kinds of music would they normally like?

Think Ink

This film is really quirky and funny and I liked the triptych format of the film, which required me to weave each of the musical stories of each character together in a way that is cohesive, but still unique to each individual. 

I wanted to make sure the sounds I was designing meshed well with the style and figurative rulebook I created for this world. For instance, I established that each patient will only make musical sounds and the doctor can get some leeway with his Charlie Brown-esque mumbling. 

Working on this film also made me appreciate the work that foley artists do. In another timeline, I totally would’ve been a full time foley artist. It’s a lot of fun and creatively challenges you in a way that not a lot of other careers can.

See the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/116446047