Recently, I had the opportunity to score Missing Rose, a silent short film directed by my friend Matthew Millay and Jarod Luedecker. Matthew and I first met my freshman year of college at the prestigious University of Notre Dame when I was visiting my girlfriend at the time who went to school there. An incredible filmmaker and videographer, Matthew has done a range of short films and videos and did much of the video work for the women’s soccer team at Notre Dame. Between our love of film and sports, we bonded instantly. So I was thrilled when Matthew reached out to me earlier this year in the hopes that I would be able to score his short film.
Missing Rose excited me right off the bat. Not only is it a well acted and wonderfully shot short, but the concept of a silent film meant the prevalent need for music as an even greater part of the storytelling experience. The score would need to take over for the lack of dialogue and sound effects and be more at the forefront of the film’s emotional story. Of course I leaped at the opportunity, even with baseball season in full swing, I knew this was a project that I couldn’t miss.
(Gabe Krut as Royce)
The film, which was shot of Notre Dame’s campus, tells the story of two strangers, Royce and Eddy, who are dealing with the recent disappearance of Rose, a student at the university. While their exact relationship with Rose is left unclear, the two men clearly knew her well and are left devastated by the loss. As the film goes on, Royce and Eddie begin to suspect each other of having a hand in Rose's disappearance.
Here's what Matthew has to say about his creative process and inspiration for the film:
"Jarod and I set out to craft a unique story but we weren’t entirely sure where to start. We knew we wanted to have a “break-in” scene and we eventually discussed the idea of someone going missing and another character breaking in to rescue them. We came up with a few variations of this idea before settling on the story line in the film. We were inspired by Denis Villeneuve’s film, Prisoners and David Fincher’s film, Gone Girl. The shots in these films, the lighting in these films, and even some of the plot lines in these films inspired us to make a mysterious thriller dealing with a character who has gone missing. We tried to put our own spin on it by having several different plot points and point of view shifts. I have always loved the feeling of being confused while watching a thriller until the end of the film when everything comes together, or at least partially does. I love having to watch a movie several times to catch everything and even sometimes enjoy leaving a movie with questions unanswered. Jarod and I were hoping to bring out these same sort of emotions from viewers when they watch our film. More than anything, this film was simply an opportunity for us to see what kind of short film we were capable of creating."
(Aileen Markovitz as Rose)
There are a few different themes and motifs that I ended up using for the film, in all of which I tried to convey the eeriness and overall disparity of the situation as well as the suspicion the two characters are feeling towards each other throughout the film. Because the film revolves around disappearance of Rose, I wrote a main theme conveys the loss of Rose instead of writing themes for both Royce and Eddy. The theme has both an A and a B section which I found easier to weave throughout the score.
(Theme from Missing Rose)
As I wrote the A portion of the theme, I made a conscious effort to avoid landing on the tonic in the melody (in this case Bb). This I hoped, would really drive home the feeling of incompleteness and yearning, as the characters are constantly looking for someone/something to point to for Rose’s sudden absence. You can hear the theme in its entirety in the opening cue "Theme from Missing Rose" which you can listen to at the bottom of this blog or over on the music page.
The B section then modulates to F# minor and while harmonically it only switches between two chords, the section re-emphasizes the minor-major 7th chord (a minor chord with a raised 7th above it). This dissonant chord has been a staple for mysterious, eery films and can be found in a multitude of film score themes. I found this chord and progression to perfectly fit the serene yet troubled scene and tried to emphasize the dissonance of the raised 7th against the minor chord as much as possible throughout the film.
("B" section of the Main Theme)
There are multiple instances in the film where the characters confront each other, sometimes violently. But throughout the film, Royce and Eddy are constantly stalking each other, snooping around in each other's business and overall just acting suspicious of one another. So again, I found that instead of writing themes for Royce and Eddy, it worked better to have a stalking motif to add on top of the main theme.
( Stalking motif from "Data Extraction and Hallucinations")
An additional motif that makes an appearance a few times in the score is the confrontation motif. This motif is a clear indication of when the characters are about to clash and distinguishes itself from the rest of the score in that it is written in 5/8 time opposed to the rest of the film, much of which is written in 3/4. I wanted to make it super clear that whenever the viewer hears this odd rhythm and time signature, it's about to go down on screen!
(Confrontation motif from "Breaking and Entering/Re-visiting the Memorial")
Like much of the rest of the score, the motif also emphasizes the minor-major 7th relation but is given a new timbre with the melody being played by the celesta. It’s also accompanied by crescendoing, chugging chords played in the string section and built on the Octatonic scale. All of this starts slow, but accelerates in tempo leading up to the confrontation on screen. The intention behind this was to create a dissonant pulse, getting faster and faster like the beating of someone's heart who knows they're heading into a fight.
Scoring Missing Rose presented such a unique challenge and I’m incredibly thankful to Matthew for giving me the opportunity to score his film. It's not often you find a director patient enough to deal with you writing music on a bus traveling between daily baseball games. You can check out some other Matthew's other works at his Vimeo page here.
Hopefully this was able to give everyone a quick insight into the themes used in film and the building blocks on which I based the rest of the score. You can listen to Missing Rose over at the music page or on my Soundcloud Profile. Cheers!
TK