Closer

Simon Feldbein Bachelor Project, my sound design.

https://vimeo.com/174029963

I worked on this Project during my time at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover, Germany. I worked on it in 2016 and I do remember some stuff.

This project was a mixed bag for me personally.
Let’s start with the good stuff.

The Project looks great, and there was a ton of music and sound design to be made.
I remember spending hours recording keypresses, plastic bags, different plastic caps for shell sounds, rustling and falling paper as well as other things. I had a lot of fun doing foley work!
I also got to work in the Universities newly setup audio mixing studio, so I had the best environment for my work!
Mixing this took a lot of work, especially because I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time. at least compared to now…
This was, without a doubt, my best sounding work for quite some while.

Which leads me to the bad stuff.
Unfortunately, the music in this is basically not composed by me. Simon Feldbein was already working with temp music at the time, and was victim of the association effect. He saw and worked on the video in tandem with the temp music all the time, which is a BIG MISTAKE for anyone who wants to change the music later on.
It was impossible for me to convince him to accept any other composition other than the temp music.
I really tried writing something similar, but to no avail.
In the end, I had to basically copy the temp music / write it from scratch, and make one part slightly longer.
I don’t blame him, this is a common problem, and even happens in big movies a lot.
My one example of this from the top of my head is the original theme for the movie 28 days later that came out in 2002. very iconic and specific song, with a long build up…
Then the movie kick-Ass releases in 2010, and the score features an oddly familiar song called Big Daddy Kills.

here are the two songs for comparison:

Unfortunately I don’t remember the title of the song, nor the composer.
I often felt uncomfortable showing this project to anyone, because the music in it, although arranged and mixed by me, was not written by me, and I also was frustrated, because it was my best sounding work.

I am fine with it now, and I also realize that all of these things are my personal problems.