Pornographica | Alexander Langsam 2022
A recently humiliated sound engineer starts working for a porn site. When he stumbles upon an unintentionally recorded secret, he faces an ethical dilemma: remain a passive listener, or get entangled in a dark online conspiracy. The brief for this film was to create an eerie soundtrack highlighting themes of loneliness in an online world. I developed this through the mixture of acoustic instruments and synthesisers playing simple single line melodies as well as, the heavy use of distortion and delays.
Credits
Writer, Director, Editor: Alexander Langsam
Producer: Lukas Ernst
Composers & Soundtrack: Aris Diacolabrianos
Starring: Luke Rotella, Anna Louey, Mikhayla Dennis and George Alexander
Scene Excerpts
Opening montage scene from Pornographica. My approach for this track was to begin with a melancholic instrumental that then morphs to become distorted and eerie as the montage progresses. This more or less foreshadows the plot of the film and sets the stylistic tone for the rest of the soundtrack.
Early on in the film the protagonist Grant is dumped by his girlfriend Sam during one of her online streams. For this track I created an unsettling, low droning sound which was a mixture of string instruments layered with a synthesiser. My goal was to make the audience feel uncomfortable, putting them in the viewpoint of the protagonist.
As we progress closer to the climax of the film, Grant discovers what he believes to be an uncomfortable truth about his new love interest Kumiko. He now decides whether he will act on it or remain passive.
Musically the main motif aims to inspire intrigue as the feelings Grant has begin bubbling up towards action.
After being tricked by his boss and love interest Kumiko, Grant returns to his new job feeling defeated and burned. He now carries on with his new job.
Similar to the opening track, the credits begin with a melancholic instrumental guitar. As the track progresses we here feedback and distortion ring out as a layer accompanying the guitar. The idea here was to mimic Grant’s feelings as he lives alongside his defeat.
Pornographica Soundtrack
I composed 7 original pieces of music including the outro/credits theme in which I preformed the guitar. Throughout the 7 pieces I re-used similar instrument palettes and melodic motifs to represent particular emotions the protagonist was experiencing. After writing the melodic theme for the Intro Montage I collaborated with a session musician to perform the guitar heard in the piece.
Come As You Are | Rachel Giles 2022
'Come as You Are' follows Charlie Bradstreet, a 21 year old, who has been scarred by the world around her. After an unnerving night at a party like no other, Charlie is forced to piece together fragments of her memory and hopefully begin to unlearn the narrative she has created for herself.
Credits
Writer & Director: Rachel Giles
Producer: Isabella Cousins
Director of Photography: Jacob Potter
Editor: Benjamin Creanor
Composers & Soundtrack: Aris Diacolabrianos & Liam Reid
Production Design: Euan Harris
Audio Post-production: Gianni Drougas
Scene Excerpts
For this particular scene I was tasked with creating diegetic music for the house party that would eventually come to the forefront of the audiences attention. although the track is supposed to be party house/techno I’ve included some more sinister undertones as Charlie becomes more intoxicated.
During the climax of this short-film we are presented with a montage of Charlie’s recollections from the evening, in a string of swirling and disorienting flashbacks. I helped create the tension and rising feeling through the use of detuned synthesisers and string instruments pitching up in the background of the soundtrack.
As Charlie begins coming to terms with her past, the piece aims to match the sombre end of the film while retaining some hopefulness.
I composed and produced the credit soundtrack alongside director Rachel Giles who is the vocalist in this piece. Rachel Giles wrote the lyrics however I also workshopped wording and phrasing with her. I ran the vocal recording session in a studio on an Audient Small Format Analogue Recording Console.