Between The Lines
For the short film Between the Lines, written by Samira Wang and directed by Samuel Chant, I was asked to essentially oversee the entire sound & music process from beginning to end. The story, a murder mystery thriller, focuses on a burnt-out author who ends up in the world of her own murder mystery novel, as the murderer, who has yet to murder the “final victim” Sierra, and is on the chase from Detective Kenton. My role within the film is to record all of the location sound/foley during filming, and then designing/editing all of the sound elements, including sound effects, foley, ADR & music. All of these elements would be put together in the final mix, where it is mixed together according to delivery specifications and ensuring that they are presented in a way that serves the story. As for my involvement with the music, I am responsible for developing all of the themes, arranging them based on the film’s edit, then potentially working with other people such as additional composers, orchestrators and musicians/soloists to help bring the score to life. I will also be sourcing any existing music (source music) if necessary for some sequences and editing/mixing them together. Currently, at this stage of production, I am currently responsible for developing the musical motifs and themes of the film, which will help inspire the director in how to best approach the film sonically. I am also actively researching many of the influences about the film in terms of their sound design and scoring choices, mainly Se7en, which has some heavy brass instrumentation in many areas to indicate rising tension.
Because a lot of my work, particularly sound recording & design, mainly begins during production, I was not as involved with the pre-production process compared to some members of the group, however, as part of my involvement with pre-production, I had created a motif on the piano that dictated a lot of the themes of the story, and the director liked it enough to include it in our video pitch, and will be used throughout the film depending on how our music spotting session goes. I was largely left with full creative control on how I wanted the music to sound, resulting in around 18 themes being written, which will be changed and developed as we continue throughout post-production. However, I do feel I should have been given more direction, as the film did not find its footing until very late into development, but before then, I was left guessing the direction of where it was going. Now that it has found its identity, I have a better understanding of how to approach the film from now on.
Quite honestly, I have not been able to showcase a lot of my skills so far, as aforementioned, a lot of my work does not begin until production begins in June, so I do not think I am ready to critique my contribution to the project yet, but I can say that I have allowed the director to think more about the role of music & sound in the film, especially in setting the tone and how it informs certain narrative/shot choices. Although I realise a lot of my material will end up on the cutting room floor, I know that this is a scenario most film composers in the industry have to face, and in the end, the music has to serve the story first before anything else. It cannot be just 'background fluff'. Overall, I would say that my contribution has made a meaningful impact on the production so far, but a lot of my work thus far can be further evaluated as we move into production, where my other roles, Sound Recordist & Sound Designer, will come into play.
I have been able to learn a lot more about the scoring process than I have in my past projects (as director), even when I am essentially scoring my own films, as I am able to communicate with someone to decide if my ideas are working with another person’s vision, and it allowed me to reflect on my music-writing and sound design choices, which will be further developed as production (and post-production) begins. Going through this process also made me realise that I do plan on taking on this pathway henceforth, though I am not opposed to taking on directing again in the future.
I would like to mention the Screen NSW seminar that I attended around March, prior to this semester, where heads from Screen NSW spoke about the different financing opportunities available to filmmakers & game developers. While this is not particularly relevant to my role, it does inform me about the ways in which I could get my film financed, particularly a funding pathway that allows short films to be developed into feature-length projects. While I do not intend to utilise this information immediately, it did enlighten me on these opportunities I did not know about beforehand. Another comment about this seminar was regarding a specific individual (I could not remember his name) who worked on the Hollywood film The Fall Guy, set and shot entirely in Sydney, and the advice that I received from him was “Make the ending go out with a big bang. Emotionally, metaphorically, literally.”, which I do hope will inform the writers Samira and Samuel on how to make an impactful ending. I do intend to attend events of this nature throughout the break, depending on my work/life schedule, and I am continuing to talk with fellow Screen Media students on the WhatsApp group chat, especially in terms of getting in contact with musicians. A friend outside the industry has referred me to a directory of session musicians I can contact later down the line.
Below are some of the sheet music that I have written in the lead up to the scoring process. As mentioned, not all of these themes will end up in the film and were simply experiments based on the script. In addition, some photos of the Screen NSW event are included and the teaser trailer that was edited together for the pitch.