Solidarity - Short Film

This was the development of a story idea our director (Aidan Lockhart) had been working on for some time, and was able to realise through our major project’s unit. Additional team members were Kayla Comley (Producer), Robbie Skelton (DOP), and Cameron Dyer (Editor).

As part of the research and project development activities, we identified three reference movies (Midsommar, Prisoners, and Hereditary) which provided the inspiration for the musical score I developed for the film. In particular, Midsommar was of great influence, in particular ideas for the bathroom scene towards the end of the film.

The composition mainly relied on the use of samples (e.g. drone / tone based sounds), orchestral instrumentation as well as instrumentation from my Kontakt library to produce the tone and emotive feeling I believed suited the film’s storyline and visual content. I wanted to layer both synthetic and orchestral based instrumentation throughout, relying on samples to incorporate thriller based sounds such as drones and tinnitis tones.

Limited development of traditional musical composition techniques, such as the use of simple melody lines in various scenes, adopting a rising and falling contour line in the main. Use of different articulations (e.g. sul pont, molto vibrato) to instill a sense of unease and tension through the string instrumentation was also applied.

Overall, I was happy with the final result, and the film was well received at the SAE University College showcase event where it was presented along with other short film / animations. Particular note was made of the musical score, which I was very happy to receive!