Film Scoring / Cues
What Once Was
What Once Was - Film
“What Once Was” is director and actor Kat Chodaczek’s senior comprehensive film for the Media, Arts, and Culture track at Occidental College. I had the pleasure of providing the film with it’s score. I took a stripped down approach, focusing mainly on the piano heard throughout the film. I wanted the score to feel close and intimate, just as many of the shots are. Kat trusted my vision with the score, which allowed me to see my creative vision through. I also provided some diegetic music for scenes in the car. My songs “Soaring” and “Aiming at Apollo / Green Balloons” are tucked into the background of these scenes. This was valuable experience as a musician, learning to compose to a moving image as well as making sure each element of the score doesn’t overpower the scene, but doesn’t go unnoticed.
Other Experience
Intro to Film Scoring
One of the most beneficial classes I’ve taken in my time at Occidental College as “Intro to Film Scoring” with award winning composer Adam Schoenberg. In this class, we learned the essentials to what makes a good score, as well as various techniques and methods to use while scoring. Listed are some of the pieces of music I created for the various assignments in this class.
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For the final project of the class, we were assigned the opening scene from the movie “I am Legend.” The original scene has no music, but we were tasked with creating a score for the scene as if the director asked for one. My score aimed to capture the chaotic intensity of Will Smith’s character hunting a pack of deer in a Dodge Charger in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
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For our first assignment scoring an actual scene from a movie, we were assigned a scene from “The Martian.” The sci-fi genre of the film directed the way I went about scoring the scene. Making use of arpeggiated synths and lush atmospheric pads, I aimed to capture the feeling of surviving on a desolate planet.
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We were tasked with creating a title theme for a show we created the concept for. The log line for my theme is:
“Endeavor” - The year is 2245, and most of Earth is uninhabitable, or so we are told. Humanity has resorted to pooling all its resources into creating a vast, connected network of space stations, where a fraction of the once booming population survives. A group of 3 teenagers suspects that something is being hidden about what really is happening on Earth, and they venture to expose the secrets of the space stations and to change their lives. Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Drama/Mystery, comedy elements
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We were tasked with creating a piece of music that is meant to fit a suspenseful scene. We had to come up with a log line for the scene ourselves. Mine is as follows:
Detective Swartz is looking around a crime scene in a New York apartment on a rainy summer night. While looking at the evidence, he notices a trail of destruction leading towards the closet. Just as he is about to open the door, he hears a door shut from inside the apartment, and footsteps walking toward him. The detective then makes his way around the apartment, avoiding the footsteps, making a break for the fire escape when he sees his chance.
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We were tasked with creating a cue for a scene from an epic or fantasy movie. I tried to create a scene in a similar vein to that of the Lord of the Rings movies. My log line reads:
Our group of heroes traverse over a narrow mountain pass as the fog rolls in, when a large group of goblins begins following them and a chase ensues. They sprint across a rope bridge hanging over a chasm. Their only option is to cut the bridge, and as the last member leaps across to safety, the bridge is cut and the goblins fall.