OBJECTIVE:

• Compose an ambient cinematic score with gospel overtones that supports the emotional narrative of A Portrait of the American Dream.

PROCESS:

After speaking with the directors about music it was apparent that the most appropriate composers for this project were Christian Almiron and Fatima Diakité (TIMALIKESMUSIC). Christian Almiron is a phenomenal pianist and producer with a decorated background in film scoring. We have the privilege of working with Fatima Diakité at the beginning of her promising career as a film score composer. So with James Beer as creative director and Alex Fulton as executive producer, we mapped out how we were going to approach the score for this 30 min film.

Our approach to the sonic aesthetic was to weave ambient cinematic scoring with gospel overtones, which we accomplished with a foundation of piano and organ, and embellished with beautiful and lush saxophone chords played by FSMG Artist Isak Gaines.

With only one week to complete the full composition, we recognized that a little extra help would go a long way. Carmine Mattia and James Beer jumped in to write additional cues and enlisted Isak Gaines to contribute saxophone for cohesion with the rest of the score.

After our first full pass the directors expressed that their vision for this film was for music to have a less present role in the film while still holding the same space, so we supplied additional ambient cinematic cues to replace some of the pieces that we wrote in the first version that had more melodic motifs.