Soundtrack for an Imaginary Movie

Mike Edwards

Categories: Friday Fun

As an exercise:

  1. Fade in. Daytime, exterior. Distant aerial tracking shot with slow zoom on residential street. Stevie Nicks, “Edge of Seventeen.” Cut to interior of car.
  2. Daytime, interior. High school hallway between classes. Close handheld shot following _____. The New Pornographers, “Jackie, Dressed in Cobras.”
  3. Daytime, exterior. Empty bleachers at high school ball field. Face shots, dialogue. LL Cool J, “Going Back to Cali.”
  4. Evening, interior. Small bedroom. Overhead shot. Sly and the Family Stone, “If You Want Me to Stay.”
  5. Evening, exterior. Medium three-quarter traveling shot, from behind, of car on residential streets. David Essex, “Rock On.” Cut to interior of car.
  6. Evening, exterior. Medium overhead shot of car in empty parking lot. Firewater, “When I Burn This Place Down.” Cut to close overhead shot.
  7. Evening, exterior. Urban sidewalk in nightclub district. Close handheld shot following _____. Grace Jones, “Slave to the Rhythm.”
  8. Evening, interior. Nightclub. Distant overhead shot of crowded dance floor. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” Cut to close handheld shot on dance floor.
  9. Evening, interior. Club bathroom, fluorescent lights. Medium shot at sink. DJ Shadow, “Stem / Long Stem / Transmission 2.”
  10. Evening, exterior. Narrow alley with dumpster. Side shot, medium distance, slow zoom. Knoc-Turn’al, “Muzik.” Cut to close handheld shot.
  11. Dawn, exterior. Urban sidewalk in nightclub district. Distant handheld shot, from front, following _____. Nouvelle Vague, “Guns of Brixton.”
  12. Daytime, exterior. Medium aerial tracking shot, slow zoom out, on residential street. Funkadelic, “Maggot Brain.” Fade to black and closing credits.

Plot? Genre? Actors? Characters?

Comments

  2. mike (author)

    I do like Sarah Polley, but I can’t recall having seen anything with Wes Bentley in it. So what kind of a movie were you thinking about?

    This started out as kind of a game with myself, like OK can I put together something that has a specific feel to it without being specific? And what are the directions in which it might go?

    But while I was doing it, I started to feel like I was doing it for other people, like wanting to put something out there that people could remix in interesting and/or surprising ways: like, what if this was a John Hughes teen romance? A werewolf/zombie movie? A high school noir? A Gus Van Zandt minimalist drama?

    So in that way, maybe it could be an attempt at a meme or a quiz type thing.

    Rules:

    1. Twelve songs. No less, no more.
    2. All songs should be available online, either at iTunes or elsewhere, so people can at least hear samples of what you’re working with.
    3. No plot, no characters, no themes. Just camera and scenes.

    With the object being a sort of Exquisite Corpse process. Thoughts? What would your movie sound like?

    Reply

  3. Clancy

    You’ve never seen American Beauty? Wes Bentley was the daughter’s boyfriend, Ricky, the guy who walked around with the camera all the time and who sold drugs.

    Reply

  4. mike (author)

    Ah. Well, compared to everybody else in the movie, he was a bit on the bland side: I mean, up against Kevin Spacey, Thora Birch, Annette Benning, and Mena Suvari, isn’t it a bit hard to be memorable?

    Reply

  7. niall

    hey, i’m trying to get into putting soundtrax to movies, shorts etc, can somebody please tell how i can get into this

    Reply

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