Ok, so if you read my basic info you read that I went to NY this past weekend to record the music for a short film a friend of mine directed. The film is about 9 minutes long and has no dialogue so I had the challenge of coming up with music that would "speak" for the character in the film. (The film focuses on on character - a woman - who has gone through a terrible loss - death of someone very close to her. It's meant to express her emotional crossings - even though the audience doesn't know who died or what exactly happened. She fluctuates in and out of reality briefly - almost to the point of losing it -but then resolves with a gentle redemption...you could categorize it as an "art-house" short film). The actress in the film is a long time friend of mine and she convinced the director (who is also a friend of mine) that I HAD to be the one who composed and performed the music (I have a BA in Music Performance - Cello). So the soundtrack would be just me playing the cello - nothing else.
Like I said - the music would have to be a voice for the character because there is no dialogue. This turned out to be a great challenge for me because I haven't composed for a film before (I've only composed concert pieces). It also was a challenge because they wanted me to compose on the fly - meaning improvise the whole thing as I watched the film play. Now, I've played in jazz ensembles before where all we did was free improv - but this was different. It was improv - with somewhat of a structure. What does that mean? Well, I still had to come up with some basic themes or melodies that could be recognizable - so it wasn't as random as improv is/can be.
Saturday - 2pm - Recording inside a church in Brooklyn. Beautiful acoustics! WOW! But now I was feeling a bit unsure - what was I going to play? What was going to be the recurring theme? Could I make it original without sub-consciously adding Luke's theme from Star Wars or something like that!?! What if someone said "You stole that from Brokeback Mountain!" LOL! But my anxieties soon subsided as we soon got underway.
We first did a couple of takes of just me playing - without watching the film. It was just the director, sound designer and myself in the church - so not a huge amount of pressure was felt. So I played a couple times playing with various modes and melodies, etc. and then we took a break so I could get feedback from the director - what she liked, what she didn't like - what she wanted more of, etc. So then started the takes with me playing with the film running. The first couple of takes with the film disappointed me - while the music was nice - I couldn't connect on an emotional level with the character in the film. It was something foreign to me. But as we went on I started to connect and there it was! AHH! After one of the "good takes" the director came up to me with tears in her eyes -and I thought "Oh shit - she's totally disappointed and thinks asking me to do the music was a complete disaster!" However - just the opposite. She loved it. I didn't believe her (my own self-doubt) so I asked if I could hear some of what we had just recorded. I put on the headphones - the sound designer pressed play - and.........WWWOOOOOOOOOOW. Not to toot my own horn - but I had never heard my playing done so well and recorded so perfectly - it was beautiful.
We started at 2pm and got done at 10pm. A long day - but one that left me with a great education in film composing among other things.
So what now? Well, now the director & sound designer have to work with all the takes and put together the score in sync with the film - not an easy job. They're aiming to get it submitted to Cannes by March 13 - then Toronto Film Festival and a slew of others.
I'm going to put a sample of the recording up on the web sometime soon so if anyone who has actually read this and is actually interested in hearing it - they can. I'm really proud of it and I hope others will be too!
Stay tuned - I'll post when I've got a sample up on the web!
-Jerry
