Woman of the Moon - Sound and Music

Music was always going to be a part of this film. It is after all a silent film. But I didnt always think sound design would be. I really didnt but I'm so glad I decided to include sound in it. I think it modernises the silent film concept enough to make it timeless instead of gimmicky, because, you know AVOID CLICHE!!!

The story of my composition is a little complicated so I'll go through that first. Initially the composer I had signed up to do it was a different composer to who ended up scoring the film. My initial composer, bless him, over worked himself and as we're really good friends I didnt want him to overload himself and so I gently pushed him off the project. The new composer took the news that he had about 3 days to compose 5 and a half minutes of film like a champ and damn is the composition good.

Initially in talks about the music I had told them about how silent films were often ragtime and how I didnt want comical ragtime but wanted something that evoked memories of silent film without falling into it. Then there was also discussions of classic sci-fi music such as Forbidden Planet. Also Nichola suggested I listen to the soundtrack for a netflix film called an evening with Beverly Luff Linn which has some very unusual music that I found really interesting. So I sent all these things to Nick Harbourne who is the composer but told him ultimately that I wanted him to be as creative as possible and bring to the film whatever he felt. One of my favourite things about working with composers is that they bring a whole new level to the film and they contribute entirely different ideas. It's great. I did send him through a big list of timecoded notes that explained what was going on when and kind of what was meant to be happening that might not be obvious without the music or sound. I sent black goblins (the sound designers) similar notes about the sound design.

Talking about sound design, Black Goblin were also amazing. They also really blew me away with how spot on they were with the sound design. I gave them some really bad descriptions of what I wanted some of the sounds to sound like and they just rose to the challenge like champs. Can't speak highly of enough of them. The whole process was so simple and easy. I think I really learnt a lot from Dissonance that's made me a better project manager and director. I asked a lot of both sound designer and composer and but when push came to shove we all had our shit together enough to pull it off. I am so impressed with the fruits of everyone's labours. Ana from Black Goblin did the mix and would like to better create some of the sounds in time for the film house which is wonderful, she's a star. I am so thankful to have a team behind me that really got the vision and understood the film and want to help.

And that's really it. Whole film done. Complete. Coming to a degree show near you. Thanks for having me ECA. <3