Insider Knowledge: Audio Arts capstone project and internship experiences Part 2
For this Insider Knowledge post, Queenie Li, alumni of the audio arts program, shared her Capstone project experience as the composer for the film ’55 Days’.
Li was asked to join the team during bootcamp 2014. Professor Douglas Quin recommended Li as the composer for the documentary. The documentary had completed filming when she was brought on. The directors gave Li a general preference of the type of music they were looking for and then she started composing the story.
Li composed and recorded short rifts and then got feedback from the directors and the team, then progressed to a written score later on and brought in musicians to record in the studios at Newhouse and Belfer Audio Archive.
’55 Days’ is a documentary about letting go – a war widow trying to let go of her past and move on. It’s a true story that was filmed a year and a half ago in Arizona. One of the directors, Evan Vucci, was a good friend of the main character Jose Regaldo, an American soldier who served in the army and was killed 55 days before he was to return home. Li found that the first hand footage captured when Regaldo was active in service, and the story itself were powerful.
Li was honored to work with the talented group of 7. 5 people on the team were current or former students of the multi-media photography and design program (MPD) at Newhouse. Li was blown away by the level of professionalism when she first met with Ross Taylor, the director, and Lenny Christopher, the sound editor.
Li feels like the best part of her capstone project was how her composing and editing skills grew exponentially throughout the entire project. Li was able to use what she learned from sound engineering and editing classes at Newhouse while she working on the project. Li also thought it was a valuable learning process for the entire team, especially to communicate with the directors and film editors who often did not speak in the same language in terms of film making or musical background.
Li wants readers to follow Haptic Cinema on Facebook for news and the release date for ’55 Days’.
Please note: Photography credits belong to Lenny Christopher
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Delisa Morris is a current master's in PR candidate and third-year law student at Syracuse University. She studied political science and communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her bachelor's degree. Delisa is originally from Chicago.