Soundtrack

Above is a presentation that concludes my research of the conventions of soundtracks within the gritty realism genre. What my group and I decided would be the most effective thing to do for our opening sequence was to create our own soundtrack as we could tailor the pace and lyrics specifically to our narrative which would hopefully aid the audience in interpreting our film's message.
 

The recording above was one we made after an hour of writing the music and lyrics of which Mr Hickman, a music teacher within our college, played and sung. We wrote the lyrics because they reflected the action and emotion shown on the image track. The acoustic guitar we used made the soundtrack similar to that used within Submarine's opening sequence which was actually our inspiration for the song. We used the line "can't escape my shadow" because we liked how it suggested that Chris' other personalities were controlling his thoughts and influencing his actions. We used a male signer within the piece of music because it would allow the audience to connect better with the character if they felt as though he were communicating on another level as opposed to just visually. Admittedly the recording is filmed unprofessionally on a phone in a school environment as this was a first draft that we wanted to improve so by having a recording of the original song we would be able to recall aspects of the song and avoid forgetting parts.

Lyrics:
Running,
Running,
Running from my shadow,
I can't escape my shadow,
Seems like everytime i turn around,
He's standing there,
Watching me.

You got me,
Itching under your gaze,
Can't help,
But anger u with all my ways,
Everything i do it's not good enough for you.

Running,
Running,
Running,
Running from my shadows.

Analysis of Lyrics and Intent
We used the word "running" to show the extent of his disorder as if it has gotten so destructive it's initiated a response associated with survival. The use of shadow, as previously explained, aims to personify the mental illness in which our protagonist experiences to help show the severity of it. The feeling of someone "watching" you if one that our audience will be able to relate to which will help them understand how uncomfortable and in danger suffers of dual-personality disorder feel. Once again, not feeling adequate and that everything you do is "not good enough" enables our audience to relate but the preferred reading of this is that all the actions Chris is encouraged to do due to his illness do not satisfy his disorder's desire to destroy him internally and externally.
 

The recording above is our second draft of the soundtrack. This was filmed on a professional programme as opposed to a phone which meant the quality was better. Within our group we agreed we liked the relevance and originality of our song but wanted to add more instruments to make the soundtrack follow the gritty realism genre.



Naturally the lyrics slightly changed as we rehearsed and re-recorded which we encouraged because it made the soundtrack more organic which worked well with the gritty realism genre. This is the final piece and has now had a cello, piano and an electric guitar added in which is what our group aimed to do.

Improved Lyrics
Running,
Running from my shadow,
I can't escape my shadow,
Seems like everytime I turn around he's standing there,
Watching me.

Got me itching,
Itching under your gaze,
I can't escape from your gaze.
Seems like,
Everything I do,
Isn't good enough for you.

Hiding,
Hiding from my shadow,
Can't escape my shadow.
Feels like,
I spend my life trying,
Trya' hide from my demons.

Listening.
Listening for his footsteps,
I can't unhear his footsteps.
Approaching,
Always getting closer.