White Cloud

I took a summer screenwriting workshop a few years back. I'd never written a sci-fi or fantasy script before and I wanted to try. When doing something new and unknown to me, I like to put all of myself into it so I know I'm scraping the edges. With White Cloud, rather than just writing the script I explored the story through other creative means. While writing, I illustrated characters and wrote a soundtrack to the movie.

One of my hobbies is remixing tracks from video games. I've done a few that are out there on the net, but nothing more than a few tracks. White Cloud gave me the opportunity to tell an entire story in another way. It gave me a chance to understand my characters musically and to learn how to harmonize with many orchestral instruments I was not yet familiar with. While always relying on the piano, White Cloud gave me a chance to branch out from a single instrument and explore where many others could be effective.

When I started, I still began with the piano. The root of the soundtrack is the piano, and the entire score came from a couple of improvised tracks I recorded to come up with ideas. There were a few phrases and rhythms that really stuck with me and helped me build the sound.

As scoring later became a professional endeavour with Brightcove Support TV, I looked back on the shortcomings of this project as a learning experience. Many of the tracks in White Cloud, perhaps because of the short length of each scene, were rather quick and didn't always flow together as subtly as I'd have liked. With Support TV, I feel I was able to get the hang of subtle transitions and extended tracks, but that's another story.