This is another Kern Saxton collaboration. This scene was finished after a week of shooting to help lure investors. Another set of unique challenges both musically and in terms of sound design.
Kern and I discussed the music on and off for a while. He was interested in a fully-orchestrated electronic score ala Brad Fiedel's score for Terminator. I had some ideas of my own, so I did a demo that had an acoustic, gritty vibe. Kern liked it, but asked for a demo that conformed more to the Terminator aesthetic. Four demos later, I revised my original idea and we had ourselves a scene.
The sound design has lots of fun elements. This scene lives and dies on production tricks. The violence is essentially well-edited footage that makes it feel real. The sound design takes the same tact. Looking at the raw footage, you lose any sense of foreboding or tension. My goal was to make sure attention was drawn to the more frightening aspects of the scene: the razorblades, slingshot, the impacts etc.
I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of the film.