MY FIRST SOUNDTRACK! - 'INFESTATION' IS PART OF THE SCORE OF 'STAY' - INDIE HORROR FILM
HOW I WENT FROM A SYNTH JAM TO A FILM SCORE
DARK AMBIENT FOR HORROR FILM
BIG NEWS! 'Stay' by Brandon Walker is out now!
In May 2020 I was contacted by the director and producer Brandon Walker for some music & sound design work on an indie film he was shooting with the actress Ashley Park. He watched and liked a dark ambient, drone, horror synth jam I did with VCV Rack. Brandon wanted to adapt and use part of that jam, along with some custom-made material for a scene in his film.
The collaboration was mutually great. Constant feedback, great understanding, very good directions, lots of passion. I'm looking forward to the next opportunity.
Listen to the final score and its variations below:
Check out the trailer below and enjoy some fear meets fashion model & influencer meets paranormal and wait for the final scene with my wicked music ;)
USING FREE & OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE ON LINUX FOR FILM SOUND DESIGN & MUSIC
You know when they say 'nothing comes from nothing'?
Well, it is true. In this case, a horror film score and sound design work came from a drone, dark ambient synth jam with VCV Rack. A little jam I did - as usual - just for fun. I did not put much faith into but it then landed me my first official music for media job.
You can watch the original synth jam here:
To stay (pun intended) within the spirit of the programme used for that dark ambient, horror drone jam, I decided to use only free and open source software on Linux for this work: VCV Rack, Ardour and Audacity, Geonkick, samplv1 and a host of other plugins, plus my hardware equipment.
This was just a choice, I do work with proprietary software on both Linux and Windows, and I do use outboard gear; I use whatever tool I find useful for the job.
The audio is heavily processed both in VCV Rack itself and within Ardour, working with EQs, saturation, delays, pitch shifting, etc. to achieve the desired gritty and earthy quality required.
Sound Design
For some sound design special effects, I used a hybrid approach recording jack hum, hits, whooshes and other noises, and mixing them with sounds I synthesised and then processed them to taste.
I synchronised audio and video directly in Ardour, took advantage of its great snapshop feature. This process allowed me to provide both video and audio files to the production, and there was a constant and very quick email exchange which allowed for a relaxed and stimulating atmosphere to achieve the final results.
Tension Crescendo
The purpose was to build up the final tension using the eerie drone and the percussive thumping crescendo, along with specific sound effects to enhance the overall mood and highlight what happens on the screen.
I am very glad my work has been used in the final scene of the film and that Stay is finally out for the world to watch and listen to.
I hope my sharing this experience with you serves to encourage you to never give up, work hard, grab every little opportunity life throws your way, use whatever you have, and have lots of fun while doing it.
Get even more insight into this project by visiting this section on Behance