The Wren in the Wood

The Wren in the Wood, 2025 (Album/Film); Composed, Recorded, Mixed, Foley, Post Production Audio, Actor

SAMPLES OF FILM AVALIABLE UPON REQUEST

The Wren in the Wood follows a woman returning home to find her mother missing and a forest creature haunting the place instead. Led by the talents of Em Baker, the project is a dialog-less film and thus made heavy use of the score and sound design I created for it. I also wore stilts to play the creature in the film, more of a fun fact than a portfolio performance given the costume, but it highlights my dedication to this project from set to export.

Having worked with Em before, I was given a lot of freedom and trust in how I approached the score. My instincts were towards a folktronica styling for the score given the natural feeling and otherworldly tone. I tried to obtain a banjo while making the score during my final semester of college in Los Angeles. Though I failed to obtain a banjo, I was blessed with a $40 four stringed mountain dulcimer that became the heart and songwriting pallet of the score. Pitching it up and down for different octave parts and even using its wooden body as percussion. The songs were accented by wind chimes recorded on set, vocalizations, various synthesizer pads and, on the intro and outro tracks, lyrics. I continued work on the score for months after the films completion as it had grown into a project of its own and I felt it deserved extra care in finishing up and releasing the album.

As previously mentioned, there is no dialog and recordings on set were primarily untethered to the shots. In other words, almost every sound in the film is foley, dubbing, or music- making this a prime example of some of my best work. Approaching the sound, the wind is a mix of real wind, air vents, refridgerators and mouth noises, the goal being to create wind that would be realistic yet unnatural, filled with life and also not annoying. The creature materialized in the film through tree creaking sounds to add weight as well as heavily effected moaning to create its shriek at the the films climax. Flies buzzing around old food, footsteps in the snow, glasses smashing, retuned humming, etc. The Wren in the Wood is a feast for the ears as much as it is for the eyes and the soul.