Creating A Soundtrack- My Journey
I have never put as much time into a single work as Out There. From Day 1, the movie has a been a project that would either "go big or go home." Originally the last movie assignment for a Film I class, Out There evolved (in my opinion) into a work of art. With a minimal production and pre-production crew (just my partner), we might have bit off more than we could chew by writing a script (12 pages) double the length than the maximum of 6. However, all it took was a lot of work by a lot of people. Although helmed by my partner Tomas Irias-Vaughn and myself, Out There is the culmination of so many different people's hard work. From inception to completion, we all sculpted a message through both verbal communication and our individual contributions to the film.
For the purposes of this class and for this website, I will talk about the incredible experience of making a soundtrack. Out There is a story of movement and imagery- therefore I had always believed sound would play a crucial role. Indeed prior screenings made the lul in dialogue seem flat, and our "long introductions" seemed unnecessary. That is before Steven Gohlke, an excellent guitaritst and lyricist, played his role in the film.
Since creation, I had always kept him in the know of the movie and showed him one of the first cuts. When it came time to lay down music, he already knew the message and what kind of film it was. Armed with a couple of soungs that he felt would fit, we set out to lay sound on the picture.
Now, I'm not an audio engineer, and before this project I didn't know how to use ProTools. While the technical difficulties were many, I felt like a kid trying to record his friend in the garage. However, the actual experience was in a studio with professional equipment- and it was much more than just recording. I remember plugging his guitar in the first time and hearing him play a riff. "That would be perfect for the city scene," I added and he quickly replied "That's what I was thinking."
I don't know how everyone else's experience goes with music, but it was such a luxury to record with an artist who had similar tastes and feelings about the movie. The result? A movie where the sound is a crucial and telling part of the story, half narrative and half art. While I will not divulge the exact process step by step, here are some of the key highlights:
-Laying down the first track for each scene. We chose to record each track seperately so I could mix them. By laying the first track, we were choosing a direction for the whole part of the movie. Usually we laid in the drums first, however, thats when the magic first started happening.
-Listenining and watching. Over and over. And either person just throwing in their ideas: "Maybe a cool guitar solo." or "It should sound more like that" or "What if we move that part here, and make something new. I got an idea."
-Hearing the lyrics of the song passing over the bridge. They are still stuck in my head.
-Talking about the film and about the messages of the song.
-Agreeing so quickly.
In the end the music that transpired was a mix of Steven Gohlke's previously written music tailored for our movie on top of a wealth of creation and tweaking.
So what?
I really don't like talking about my work and lauding myself about it, but I feel that the music propelled the movie far beyond what the images alone could have. While creating my movie, my teacher really didn't like any of the cuts. I would always say "But wait for the sound. Its part of the movie." But he would not bend, a movie should be edited for picture than throw on some music. "It should be able to play with music." I'm sorry, but I disagree. A movie is a culmination of different medias, there is no reason to be a slave to one process or one idealogy. If there is anything ACTLab has taught me, it is how to challenge the boundaries from tradition. While I appreciate RTF for teaching me the historical approach to film, in the end a film is still a piece of art. And when creating art, you should be encouraged to find your own path-- not how everyone else before you has done it.
Nahmaste.