At the beginning of the project, the collaborators provided me with several important music references, including Olson of Boards of Canada, Thomas Newman’s Up the Down Trench, and the theme music of 2001: A Space Odyssey. These references help me understand more clearly the overall atmosphere and sound direction that the film hopes to establish.
When analyzing these works, I found that although they have different styles, they all have one thing in common: music is not simply to serve the promotion of the plot, but more like establishing a “state of existence”.
For example, Olson of Boards of Canada uses a lot of fuzzy, old and unstable sound textures. The music itself does not have obvious emotional climax, but it will make people feel about memory, time and unknown space. The “sense of uncertainty” in this voice is strongly related to the theme of assumption in the film.
Thomas Newman’s music made me realize the importance of “space white space”. His soundtrack does not continue to fill the whole space, but through the use of restrained sound, the audience can feel the flow of time and the distance of space more clearly.
And the theme music of 2001: A Space Odyssey has more influenced my understanding of the rhythm of climax.
Influenced by these references, I tried to avoid using traditional melodic soundtracks in the preliminary experimental stage, but paid more attention to the duration of the sound, the sense of low-frequency space and the slowly changing texture.
At the same time, my music creation process did not start after the film was completed, but was synchronized with their video production. As the film structure, camera length and editing rhythm are constantly changing, I also need to constantly adjust the music content and structure.
This way of synchronous creation has obvious advantages. Because we communicate very frequently and exchange each other’s ideas almost at any time, I can understand their needs for the atmosphere and conceptual expression of the film more quickly. At the same time, music can also participate in the structure of the film earlier, instead of the elements added later.
But there are also certain problems with this way of working. Since the film itself is still in a state of constant revision, many completed musical passages need to be readjusted as the editing changes. Sometimes small changes in the rhythm of the camera can also affect the internal structure and emotional advancement of the music. I gradually realized that in experimental image cooperation, sound is not a stable later stage, but a dynamic process that will be continuously overturned and reconstructed. This kind of repeated revision also makes me feel that the time cost is high to some extent.
After they finished the second version of the film, I began to continue to add more layers and structures on the basis of the original demo. However, during the first feedback, the partner thought that my original piano sound “lacked vitality” and was more melancholy, so I hope I can modify the direction of the music.
We have had an in-depth discussion on this point. Because in my design logic, the melody of the piano in the early stage itself paves the way for the emotional advancement of the later string climax. If the overall harmony is directly changed from minor to a brighter major at the beginning, the tension and structural progression of the later climax will be weakened.
Therefore, in the end, I did not completely change the direction of the melody, but weakened the excessive emotional sense by adding the soundscape of the natural environment, while retaining the paving relationship in the overall musical structure.
This process made me realize that voice creation in interdisciplinary cooperation is not only technical execution, but more like a process of continuous consultation. In many cases, sound needs to find a balance between the logic of personal creation and the perception of the partner at the same time.
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