Cranks

Cranks is a project I composed music for in a course called Music for Media during the winter of 2020, one of my favorite classes I've taken at SCAD. It is a senior film from 2008, and it is based on the concept of "what goes around comes around." It was a very fun challenge to create a bed of music that isn't too large sounding for such a light film, but in the end, I believe I composed a piece that did match up with the visual scale and the meaning of the film.

MELODY

As I mentioned, it was a challenge to write something that matched a bunch of happy robots zooming across a desert. My roommate was a huge help in giving me direction for the simple pattern that the melody follows. She watched the film and said, "I have something in my head, but I wish I could show it to you." So I told her to sing it for me. Once she did that, I sat at the piano and played the melody until she heard what matched the one inside of her head. I'm so grateful that she shared her idea with me because it gave me a strong direction to complete the score for the film overall.

BELLS & PADS

I knew from the first time I watched the film that I wanted the score to reflect the playful, child-like energy that exists in the film's style. The most toy-ish sound in my mind is bells, so I built the score around that feel. I kept myself away from the grand-scale orchestral strings I usually gravitate towards, because it would have felt far too overdone for the scale and style of the film. I did feel a need for that warm swell sound that strings add to scores, so my solution to create that was to use warm pads instead. The pads compliment the playful synthetic feel of the bells, instead of pulling it more towards a wannabe orchestral score.

MODULATION

This was the first score in which I have ever implemented a modulation, and it adds a significant amount of emotion right where I needed it. I needed to figure out a way to maintain consistency with the main melody, while launching it to a whole new level for the climax of the film. The score begins in the key of A, but as soon as the other robot comes over to help the main robot, the melody leaps up a step to the key of B, which resolves the story and hopefully makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.