Our recap of IMPULSE production continues as we move into the post-production phase. First up is a brief recap of our editing & scoring process. Coming next: our sound design/mixing process at Skywalker Ranch!
THE EDITING PROCESS
Our editing phase lasted several months as Bryan, myself, and our editor Russell Andrew went back and forth on hundreds of variations of the film. After wrapping production on November 12, Bryan and I assembled our first rough pass in a week. From there, we fine-tuned. With over 20 scenes in the film, we scrutinized each with precision, resulting in multiple editing options for each scene. And, since we were all editing in different cities, we worked remotely via a private FTP; it proved sometimes burdensome having to upload and download clips. By March 8th, we finally locked our cut. For those of you interested in tech specs, we edited in Adobe Premiere CS4 on a PC. Workflow was great, as Premiere CS4 uses the raw RED files without needing to transcode clips for the edit.
THE SCORING PROCESS
We first showed our composer, Corey Wallace, a cut on Feb. 28. Then we all discussed the direction to take the music, brushing upon inspirations of James Newton Howard (and his Signs score), Alan Silvestri (and his Cast Away score) and Bernard Hermann (all of his Hitchcock scores). The film blends from horror to suspense to lighter shades all within 20 minutes, and we needed the score to carry the movie and the audience.
Bryan & I were quite impressed when, within a week, Corey had completed his first pass of the score. We hashed through a bunch of notes, and Corey subsequently delivered several complete revised passes. By the end of March, we had more or less locked on our music.
However, after sharing the score with our producers, a conversation was prompted about the tone of the music. Our first passes had emphasized a love theme in moments, but we realized that we were missing an opportunity to push the action/suspense elements of the film. We discussed this new direction with Corey, who was graciously on board with doing a complete re-haul. So, with only two weeks before our recording date (which we could not reschedule), Corey went back to work. His next pass was incredible and delivered on all of our notes.
The score was recorded on April 10th at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles, which is a gem of a studio hidden in a nondescript building (originally a Masonic temple used for Transcendental Meditation in the 1960s) off of Santa Monica Boulevard. The studio has a rich history, with numerous film scores recorded there such as The Shawshank Redemption, WALL·E and my personal favorite I Heart Huckabees. It's also the same place where Bob Dylan, The Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt and the Rolling Stones (...and Lady Gaga) have recorded some of our generation's most important albums. Frames of best-selling records lined the hallways as a humble reminder of the star power that had graced the studio. What was our short film doing here?
We brought in over 30 musicians for our score and recorded around 10 cues in 2 hours. It was a phenomenal experience to hear the score brought to life by these live musicians as the corresponding clips played on screen. Later that month, we did the final score mix with Zack Howard at Todd-AO West in Santa Monica. Our music was complete.
Enjoy a brief taste of the IMPULSE score at the Village Recorder below...
Last movie Scott watched: Deep Water (Louise Osmond & Jerry Rothwell)
