Traumatizer - Finding Further Ways Into The Darkness

Old studio - current synths

Heh, I just had to return to a much much earlier version of the cut to retrieve an entire part I up till now had replaced with an After Effects composite. Sometimes it feels like nothing happens and I wonder what the hell I'm doing with my time. Regretfully, that's a very natural part of being intensely focused for extensive periods of time - you forget what you had to begin with.
Even backtracking a single week was very rewarding for my self esteem - seeing what was made a year ago was seriously good for the morale.
There is a lot left to do, and when the edit is locked, there will be all the true (non-temp) sound design, the actual dialogue, massive Foley, and what little music there will be. And grading. Not to mention the re-dubbing mixing.

To ask why to use hardware when there are much cheaper plugins is like asking
 why to have girl/boy-friend when there are perfectly good hands

The original thought was to have absolutely no music save for the intro and end credits, and let the soundscape do that magic completely alone, a decision I still stand by mostly - music is a very conscious medium telling the audience exactly what to expect, and they will know it, whereas a very mindful sound design can fuck with people in ways they'll never realize. They will know they feel, but will think it's something else, and will in most cases not truly understand that it's actually intended for effect at all.
Not all movies can be all sound design and no music though, it's as much a matter of style and taste as it is effect. Imagine Matrix or Star Wars without music. Nope. Just...nope.
But this isn't Matrix or Star Wars. It's a claustrophobic tale of a man trying to escape hell with only the help from someone/something he hopes is his only friend. Tangible music would give something to grasp onto, and everything here wants him dead in ways that's beyond human comprehension. No grasping here.

Once the pinnacle of home computers. Now an analogue hybrid synthesizer.

On the other hand, correctly used minimalistic music also have a lot of very good properties that harmonizes well with the picture without leading the audience by the hands in many ways. I can't, for reasons that eventually will become pretty obvious, get into great detail here until the movie is released, but experimenting with subtle music in particular together with a heavily designed soundscape has proven very effective!
Though it bears no resemblance whatsoever with this movie otherwise, a good example I just have to mention that uses this to perfection is the good ol' movie Once Upon A Time In The West.
Man, I need that one on bluray!

/CvanC