Tag Archives: 48HourFilmProject

Film Music

Music from the film ‘Aura’

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In the summer of 2017, I scored the short film Aura by Linh Ngo for the Denver 48 Hour Film Project. I recently condensed the music to create a short, stand-alone soundtrack for the film. Here is a synopsis of Aura so you can read along while listening to the music (in the media player).

A woman walks into a board room and puts a gun on one end of the table, and a second gun at the other end. She takes a seat at the middle of the table and adjusts her makeup. When we see her face in the compact mirror, it is in black and white, with a white glow. There is a flashback to a week earlier.

While she is walking outside, she runs into a male friend of hers who she had lost touch with. He confesses to her that he misses having her in his life, and she sees a similar white glow around him. A day later she meets with her female friend and sees the same white glow around her.

Our main character goes to see an oracle, and the oracle tells her that if she sees the color blue in someone’s aura, then that person is her soulmate, but if she sees red in the person’s aura, then that means that she has met her greatest enemy. Our main character has seen both, but doesn’t know which is which because she is colorblind. The oracle gives her a reading and tells her that in a week, she will be together with her soulmate and mortal enemy, and there will be death, but upon death, the aura is so bright that even someone who is colorblind can see its color.

Returning to present day, in the board room, our main character answers the door to first her male friend, and then her female friend. She has them sit at each end of the table, by the guns. She tells them both that her enemy will try to kill her today and that she hopes her soulmate will save her. In an instant, they each pick up a gun and fire! Our main character is unharmed, but she sees that both of her friends have been shot dead… and both are glowing blue. Reeling from the revelation, our main character picks up one of the guns and shoots herself in the heart. As she lies there dying, she sees her face in her compact mirror… and her face is glowing red.

(When I am composing a piece that deals with colors, there is a ‘spectrum scale’ that I use for color associations. For the colors of the auras in this film, I used the note G for the color red, and the note D for the color blue.)

Film Music

Music from the film ‘Synthia’

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In the summer of 2015, I scored the short film Synthia by Linh Ngo for the Denver 48 Hour Film Project. I recently condensed the music to create a short, stand-alone soundtrack for the film. Here is a synopsis of Synthia so you can read along while listening to the music (in the media player).

A father is playing on swings with his  daughter (in her late teens or early 20s) who is reluctant because she thinks she’s too old. We see that something is not quite right in the sky behind them. They are startled and turn around to see a giant alien spaceship. Flaming debris begins to fall around them as they run into the house. Once inside, the father starts packing as the daughter begs to know what’s going on. He only insists that they have to go, RIGHT NOW. She goes to pack some essentials, but on the way to her room, stops at a closed door that gives her a troubled feeling. She opens the door, and inside, there is a life-sized doll, missing an arm… with her face! As she is investigating it, her father interrupts her, telling her that she shouldn’t be in that room, but then he notices an alien creature outside the window, so he runs off. She follows, and when she gets to the kitchen, she comes face to face with the creature her father had seen outside. The creature studies her for a second, but then pushes past her to get to her father, who shoots it with a shotgun.

When we see them next, the father is wearing a white lab coat, and he is running diagnostics on his daughter, who is actually a replicant. When he is satisfied with her status, he permanently disables diagnostic mode and reboots her.

Her human personality returns, and she is confused, with only vague memories of the recent past. After a heartfelt moment between father and daughter, there is a huge explosion in the house that sends them running back outside where they are ambushed, and her father is fatally wounded. With his last bit of strength, he touches her face, looks into her eyes, and whispers, “save us.” As she cries over his body, we see that the distant sky is filled with a massive aerial battle of jets vs spaceships… and the spaceships are winning.