Music
My original plan for the music was to keep it very subtle, ideally always coming second to the sound design. This is due to the context of the project, I have taken the visual from a music video so I wanted to avoid making music a main focus of the piece, otherwise it wouldn’t be very transformative. During the writing process I do think I got a little carried away and made it more prominent than I first intended, however I believe it still works as a supportive element rather than a focus. I think I have created a score that fits well with the visual, it doesn’t pull focus from the story, i think it just emphasises certain visual shots and brings a bit more emotionality to the film.
The process of making was very much through experimentation. I began with a prophet V synthesiser alternating between two chords, I then created some low drones using a bowed kalimba drum I had in Omnisphere, using a mod wheel I made it slightly move in and out of tune at points to make it sound more natural. After this I created two harmonising melodies using cello plug ins. Ideally I would like to have recorded this with a real cello, but I don’t have access to one, instead I tried to mimic the hand movements with the mod wheel. It doesn’t sound as good as I would like it but I think its the best I’m going to get it with my means. Lastly I used a granular violin to create a screaming synth that had a bird like quality grounding it the context of the scene, I believe this sound is one of the most effective at conveying/suiting the visual environment (open plains on a mountain).
I think that this experimentation has resulted in an effective score so far, it holds the emotional value I wanted it to (a sense of despair with occasional nostalgia). The pallet also suits the environment, a mix of classical instrumentation with distorted otherworldly sounds, I’m hoping this reflects the split of reality and delusion in the visual storytelling.
I plan to extend the music further later in the piece, and I specifically want to create a motif for the Juliana character, something comforting to cut through the sadness and despair of the overall theme. I think I will do this through implementing the human voice in the mix, perhaps comforting harmonies that pair nicely with some of the more un-natural sounds. If possible I would like to create some chords using the un-natural sounds that feel uncomfortable or incomplete, and then using the human voice, complete the chords to make them feel resolved or comforting. This would, in a musical context, convey the same relationships as told in ‘Birthday Letters’, Hughes being surrounded by vitriolic attack and criticism, but at the core his late wife bringing a sense of comfort, an untouchable memory impervious to outside influence.