The Project
When a project comes along that’s going to involve all of our services, Sencit will jump at the chance for a new challenge. That’s exactly what happened when A24 - the studio behind Moonlight, Lady Bird, Ex Machina, Hereditary, and much more - came to us in search of a song for their Stars at Noon trailer. We had our whole team involved and worked alongside Giaronomo Productions’ Lynn Franciotti. Brett Weyhrich, our music supervisor, got the ball rolling by pitching the Natasha Kmeto track to A24 which our composers, Kris Kovacs and Joseph Holiday, remixed by adding stronger percussive breaks and synths to build up the tension and thrill felt in the final trailerized version.
Background & Process:
When Lynn Franciotti reached out to Sencit for help finding the perfect audio to enhance the movie’s themes of adventure and indulgence, our Director of A&R and Music Supervision, Brett Weyhrich knew exactly where to look. The trailer needed to compel feelings of suspense, mystery, and excitement and could be easily sourced from Sencit’s extensive collection. Once the song was pitched, the client asked if our team could provide some custom embellishments to the track to build more tension and create a greater thrill. Working with a team that can provide not only sourcing and supervision, but custom compositions is one of the most noteworthy parts about Sencit’s 360 project abilities.
Morgan Mackintosh, our Client Services Manager, communicated with the client to better understand specific points and breaks in the audio that should be emphasized to induce the highest emotional impact for viewers. The client suggested using rhythmic or percussive sounds to elevate the tension beyond the existing build of suspense the Natasha Kmeto track held. With this direction and feedback our team quickly organized our composers to create the high quality synthesized requested layers. Our composers produced two versions within a two day turnaround to offer the best options to our clients and allow them to have their remix of choice.
The Result
In the end, one mix was approved and used in the trailer to masterfully invoke sensations of thrill, seduction, uncertainty, and exhilaration. This project was unique for our team because of the amount of dialogue included in the trailer. This needed to be worked around to allow for the movie’s context to be fully understood, yet at the same time balanced with the rise of sounds to inflate the emotional intoxication of the viewer.
Stars at Noon, produced by acclaimed filmmaker Claire Denis and starring Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn, will be released October 14th in theaters. It is based on the novel ’The Stars at Noon’ by Denis Johnson.
Watch the trailer here.