by Meredith Coats
Writing the score for Proximity was such a whirlwind of an experience. I would say, throughout the process of composing this film, I felt almost every emotion from excitement to frustration and everything in between. In college I minored in music composition, which included a class specifically about writing music for film. However, this was the first time I actually had the opportunity to write an original film score with a local film company.
My main motif for the film score, heard in the opening scene, came from just hearing the film’s story-line, before actually seeing any footage. I knew instantly the music that I had in mind would fit the footage once I saw it, but it was still challenging to line everything up in the appropriate places.
This short film’s story is unique in that the bulk of it takes place in two scenes with very different locations. I tried to marry the two scenes together in transition by using a lot of the same instruments and musical elements, but changed the melodies distinctly to continue building the suspense of the story. As the scenes intensified, the music matches the intensity so that you can feel the passion of the characters and get a sense of what they are going through.
My intention was to use the music to build upon what was taking place within the story. I did not want to write music that just fit into the scene. I wanted to write music that was tailor-made for the characters to communicate their specific feelings at certain moments. For me it entailed watching the scenes over and over again, while simultaneously writing melodies to determine what audio-visually fit together and made sense.
Overall, it was an amazing experience and I cannot wait to do more projects with Root & Branch Films. It’s such a great team, filled with creative and hard-working individuals that will do whatever it takes to make an idea come to life!
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