The Descent WIP 6 with first draft of composition

This is roughly my sixth draft of the assessment piece, paired with the first draft of the composition by Elias Vasiloudes.

Thoughts:

I'm ALMOST there in terms of picture lock, some things need tweaking still to help the narrative/non-narrative balance, and I need to fix some grading as well as swapping some shots around.

I am SO HAPPY with the music, I think it sets the scene and grounds the audience in this deeply uncomfortable environment. The droning bass really sets my teeth on edge when watching it which is exactly what I want, as well as the timing with various cuts being spot on. I am obsessed with the bass drop when the scene changes to the cave dream sequence, it works so well. The water drops add a whole other element as well which I was not expecting, but it works so well in setting up this dark, wet environment. I'm so glad it's tapping into my research of Creed, Kristeva, and Le Guin, it's really boosting the visuals. The music is such an important part of this film and needs to be spot on for it to work.

My notes for the next draft are as follows:

With my new edit, I’ve timed it to work with the rhythm and pacing of the first draft of the score as I love that and that does not need to change at all.

Have timed the close-up of the mouth with black fabric to go straight into the “cave” movement of the music on that epic downbeat with the water drips. I think the bass needs to be a bit bigger straight off the bat going into the cave sequence as it’s creating the environment, and that boat engine/ heartbeat pulse is so powerful.

The whole section till the end high-hat bit is fantastic. I am obsessed with that gear change at 04:21 it’s so good, really loved that tension building up. When it goes into the downbeat at 04:33 something needs to either build and then “break” or it starts coming down again after the peak of the piece. As mentioned before the drum kit doesn’t quite work so that needs to change, maybe with more organic sounds and less regular.

A B A structure is needed, with the music coming down again like how it was at the beginning of the cave sequence. I will be putting more footage in at the end to help with this, probably the membrane sea or something like that so it comes full circle.