DEIMOS
My friend Jeff Schwinghammer (Schwingy) approached me with a simple, but intriguing, concept for a film: what if there was a castle falling slowly from the sky?
Jeff's film Deimos asks viewers just that. What would you do if a giant floating entity threatened the peaceful existence of your college campus? The protagonist, played by Michael Rubbelke, watches as his whole town evacuates in fear. To him, this fear is baseless; no one seems to know what "it" even is or what will happen when it reaches the Earth.
As an Adobe After Effects wizard, Jeff was able to create a remarkably convincing castle hanging in the sky. The opening scene alone gave me the chills (and still does). After seeing the initial mix, I was thrilled to be able to write and record the music for Deimos.
Since this was my first attempt at scoring a film, I decided it would be best to work with piano. As my primary instrument, I knew I'd be comfortable composing and recording with it. The piano seemed like the right tone color for Deimos - harmonically versatile, emotionally powerful, and mostly devoid of cultural associations. Plus, I had a few piano pieces already written that I thought might fit the mood perfectly.
With some mixing assistance from my friend Matt Suarez, we ended up recording the entire soundtrack in one night. I had practiced several ideas while watching the video, but even so, much of the timing was improvised that night. It was an exciting experience, probably akin to early film score improvisers playing live piano in the theater.
Through Jeff's vision and the persistance of his crew, Deimos really came together. The film even attained a quasi-legendary status, at least among the students in Jeff's digital video class. The whisper of "Deimos" still brings smiles to everyone who worked on the film. But you can judge its merit for yourself: