SONGES
2027
SONGES
SONGES is an original music video / short film project that is part of my master's degree program at Université Côte d’Azur and aimed to be mixed in the Dolby Atmos format.
For this occasion, I chose to work on a 100% original project that would bring together a group of competent people from different fields and, hence, work on something that can be as close as possible to a professional experience to conclude my curriculum.
Pitch:
Mallory dreams of making dance her career. She’s fully committed and works very hard (too hard) for it to the point where she cannot find sleep almost every night. For months, overwhelming doubts, fears and questions about her future have constantly filled her mind.
Over time, these relentless uncertainties and her destructive lifestyle have only served to amplify those doubts and fears, which she now perceives as the "Songes": strange voices seeking to echo ever louder in her mind, threatening to drive her insane.
To calm herself at night, she goes to a place she knows, one that’s large enough, where she can let it all out and lose herself in dance, freely, to escape, to forget, to deny her situation.
This project portrays the events of yet another night spent dancing to forget, as told by the dancer herself, until she collapses from exhaustion due to her lack of sleep.
Songes Actors - From left to right:
Hana Derar, Paolo Lembo, James Cruzalegui, Zuzanna Wiącek, Lucas Kleffert, Anastasia Eliseeva, Marina Yang
This project is a French musical short film / music video hybrid where the music and ambiance are the most important elements. As the project is meant to be rendered and listened to in Dolby Atmos 7.1.2, voices, various sound effects and soundscapes play a major role in the spatialization and the wanted result for that project.
Because SONGES depicts the fragile and all-over-the-place state of mind of the character, the goal is to illustrate the chaos she’s living in her head and turn it into a musical experience as if she was performing on stage, by using the different sounds and the voices in a very chaotic way on top of the music. And we, the listeners, should feel like we are in her mind.
As we follow her performance: the more time passes, the more intense it will become almost until the end before she collapses. The beginning of the performance is meant to be calmer andsets the tone of the dancer’s mind, with not so many uncanny sounds nor voices, then the music will go towards an uncanny territory where the Songes’ voices and the music dissonances and intensity will blast.
Not everything is necessarily continuous throughout the whole film: there will be short silence
breaks and transitions in order not to bother the audience with a never-ending climax that never
comes nor overwhelm them with non-stop chaos. This is also made a way so that it helps to see
the character’s state of mind.
I directed this project and supervised the team from start to finish and took personally care of everything related to the music and sound aspects, from the initial composition to the final mix rendering. We organized multiple rehearsals and meetings before the filming to get everything ready, had one day and a half of filming and multiple weeks of on-site and remote recording sessions for voice acting and music.
As of today, I managed to get everything needed in time for the version 1 to be finished. Although now, it is still under production. I gathered quite a few instrumentalists for the music, and the main recording sessions for the voice actors are done, but multiple sessions are planned in the coming weeks and months to properly complete this project and deliver something as polished as possible.
I post a few updates and behind-the-scenes on my Instagram, so make sure to follow me there!
Main Production Team - From left to right, top to bottom:
Sacha Lahbadi, Lucas Kleffert, Anaé Arnould, Lucas Hermange, Antoine Plumain, Mathilde Casas, Lilian Grégoire, Karel Galland
CREDITS
DIRECTOR
Lucas Kleffert
PRODUCERS
Antoine Plumain
Lucas Kleffert
SCREENWRITER
Lucas Kleffert
SCREENWRITING ASSISTANTS
Camille Dumaye
Mathilde Casas
STORYBOARDER
Camille Dumaye
CHOREOGRAPHER
Mathilde Casas
CAMERA OPERATOR
Anaé Arnould
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Sacha Lahbadi
GAFFER
Thomas Bertagnolio
SPARK
Lucas Hermange
HMC
Anaé Arnould
Mathilde Casas
PRODUCTION SOUND MIXER
Lilian Grégoire
BOOM OPERATOR
Karel Galland
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Léa Borrely
COLOR GRADING
Lucas Kleffert
FILM EDITOR
Lucas Kleffert
EDITING ASSISTANTS
Karel Galland
Lilian Grégoire
COMPOSER
Lucas Kleffert
SOUND DESIGNER
Lucas Kleffert
FOLEY ARTIST
Lucas Kleffert
COPYIST
Lucas Kleffert
COPY ASSISTANT
James Cruzalegui
SOUND EDITOR
Lucas Kleffert
SOUND MIXER
Lucas Kleffert
MIXING ASSISTANT
Lilian Grégoire
________________________________________________________
SOPRANO RECORDER
Clara Arcelon--André
ALTO RECORDER
Clara Arcelon--André
SAXONETT
Clara Arcelon--André
CLARINET
Pierre Bailey
TRUMPET
Lucie Hauser
THROAT SINGING
Paolo Lembo
CHOIR
Clara Arcelon--André
Hana Derar
Rita Veiga
Zuzanna Wiącek
Antonio Moral
Dam Frémy
James Cruzalegui
Lucas Kleffert
ELECTRIC GUITARS
Lucas Kleffert
SOLO VIOLIN
Lauranne Godard
VIOLINS I
Lauranne Godard
VIOLINS II
Lauranne Godard
________________________________________________________
MALLORY / THE DANCER
Mathilde Casas
THE PIANIST
James Cruzalegui
SONGES
Anastasia Eliseeva
Hana Derar
James Cruzalegui
Lucas Kleffert
Marina Yang
Paolo Lembo
Zuzanna Wiącek
SONGES - VOICE ACTING ONLY
Antonio Moral
Clara Arcelon--André
Dam Frémy
Rita Veiga