Audio + Script!

Audio Elements in the Tunnels

For the sound elements in our film, we have much planned! For the diegetic sounds in Ana's bedroom towards the beginning of the film, we had planned to create foley sounds for writing with pencil on paper, keyboards typing, papers rustling and other sounds that one would hear in a room while doing homework. 

My partner and I started thinking of non-diegetic sounds and songs that we would use and not get copyrighted for. The more we would listen to them, the more boring it got so we decided to listen to underground artists that do not have many following in case we would have to email and communicate how we want their permission for the usage of their song. We also immediately went for smarter choice which was the smaller artists as they sadly, aren't worldwide and aren't too busy giving and receiving attention in every which way. We had found several that caught our eye but I'm gonna show you which ones we chose and which ones we didn't and why so you are able to understand the honest vibes and aura we are going for. Super fun fact is that I ended up adding all of these songs to my playlists..

This song is called Sombras by Dearveni. We really enjoyed this song as my partner even referenced it to "The Marias" which is a band we both enjoy listening to. I enjoyed Dearveni's soft and light toned voice and her slow paced tempo. She does speak Spanish in the song as well, which I think was actually able to create an even lighter vibe to the song. The song also uses light drums in the background of her vocals which gives good closure to the mood she is trying to give off with this song. I do wish we ended up choosing this song because of the comfort this song creates, but I am not disappointed with the ones we did choose. I do think this song did not exactly give the connection verbally towards Ana or her problems throughout the film opening. I find it important that the vibes are either really prominent about the emotions or the words are either straightforward about it in a way.

The second song that we found is called Nons by Vivienne Eastwood. This song created a light-hearted and gentle aura throughout the progression of the song. It keeps a constant drum set also playing extremely soft considering the fact how loud that specific instrument can get. This song was not a bad option at all but I do think it created too much of a positive vibe if we would have  used it. The song itself is very calming to the point it does create an empty feeling when listening to it, but for our film, it definitely did not match. The type of vibes I got from this song were "I'm driving back home after hanging out with my friends at 12am in 38 degree weather" and as specific as that sounds, I just really couldn't see us using this song. The environment that this song was creating was different from the one we want to build. I did really like this song for a car ride home while being alone but not for my project.

The third option we had was Jane by Dearveni, I started going through the other songs she had produced after my partner introduced the first one to me and I found this song. I really liked this song because it doesn't create a strong nor cute vibe but more of a simple yet entertaining vibe. It creates a very uplifting yet the perfect amount of emptiness for our film. The song doesn't have any crazy climaxes throughout but it just continues to build a soft, warm tone. I also loved how it often has softly cut, abrupt beats that I had suggested we could match up our shots too even thought it might be a bit corny, I still really liked the idea. I also did tell my partner that I liked how we could use the mood of the song and the pace it progresses at to show more emotion of Ana. My partner had also told me that it sounded romantic and I agreed, but I did think it's what made it better. We did keep this song as our top 3!

Lastly, I did save my favorite and the most successful one for last. This song is called Stranger In You by Ebril and it's been a song I listen to often since last year. This song has always created such a deep hole in my heart because of the way Ebril's voice is so sweet and soft. It creates such an easy going feeling as it is still a very sad song one could cry to. "Stranger In You" has some sounds in the background of the environment outdoors which I absolutely love because it is not something you find often in a song and she was able to produce something so happy, but sad at the same time with these small "strange" factors in her thought process towards this song. She also has amazing vocals that are able to create an art of sweetness and caution. This has always been one of my "sad songs" I listen to but the more I listen to it, the more I just think about my past choices and the people and world around me that eventually leads to creating a sad tone. Another thing I enjoyed about this song, was that it constantly repeats "I find a stranger in you" which I told my partner, could easily relate to the way Ana isn't the same person she once used to be. Considering her family and friend's perspectives, Ana's new fixation on academics has swallowed her personality as a whole and whose new personality would be considered a strangers'. They could refer to her to someone they wouldn't be able to recognize anymore because of how much she's changed and how successfully she managed to throw away the majority of her social life and connections she used to once cherish.

Eventually, I ended up emailing Ebril, my partner ended up emailing Dearveni and Vivienne Eastwood. We messaged them around 2pm and during my shift, at 7:47 p.m. I received a response back from Maxwell Flohr who is Ebril's manager. I couldn't stop smiling throughout the rest of my shift. Considering the fact Ebril is the one who had the most monthly listeners out of the three we emailed, I never would have thought we would actually get a response back. Mr. Flohr was very sweet and understanding about the film and even asked for me to send it to them when it was done. I was more than happy to tell my partner about this as we were both nervous about this entire thing. We still have to confirm with our teacher about the email and everything, but it still feels so cool that I got a personalized email from Ebril's super cool manager. I have never in my life been so excited to send an email. This made me so excited and happy to be able to use a song I love in a film opening I will be creating with my partner. I am forever grateful! We are still waiting for the other artists to get back to us as we had planned to use their songs at a different time. There were two specific scenes we had planned to use these types of songs and it was at the beginning when we introduce Ana and the setting to the viewer and the second one was when she puts on her headphones to listen to music while she's eating and doing her homework during lunchtime. 

Finally, I also wanted to share our finalized script we will be using for Tunnels, enjoy! ~ TunnelsScript