Performance of a Lifetime

Performance of a Lifetime, 2026 (Score/Film); Composed, Recorded, Mixed, Foley, Post Production Audio, On Set Sound Mixer

PORTION OF SOUND DESIGN INCLUDED IN REEL ABOVE, LONGER SAMPLE AVALIABLE UPON REQUEST

Performance of a Lifetime follows a young clown discovering themselves on and off the stage. Megan Jensen wrote and directed this as her senior thesis and I was brought on early to record sound on set and do the post production audio and score. The brunt of the post audio work surrounded the soundscape of the two perfomances in the film. Each one had to be a blend of realistic crowd sounds and reactions; while also emphasizing the mental state of the performers- and with all that in mind, each performance had to be distinct given the very different states of the characters at these different points in the film. The crowd ebbs and flows while also reacting naturally to the tricks and expressions of the screen.

The score was inspired by, of course, classic carnival organ music- though it needed a more cinematic and complex emotional core than tradional circus music which was created to wallpaper a fun day. In this film, the score has to reflect the emotion in the scene while believable being a wallpaper to this circus. The blend was created with sampled instruments and performances of my own on bass, drums and various percussion. Percussion was crucial to the performance scenes as they needed energy and grandiosity that would be found during a real circus performance.