Benjamin Krause

On the set of TS

I’m home in Carlsbad, CA and have been devoting the past few days to finishing the music for Travelling Salesman, a feature film written and directed by Timothy Lanzone, produced by Fretboard Pictures. Producing and editing the music can be a tedious process filled with minuscule, mundane moments and details, but its incredibly rewarding and fun at the same time. Having begun the process without much experience with electronic music, it’s also been quite the learning experience. I’ve been using a variety of sound sources:  samples of strange piano sounds that I recorded while in school in Houston, additive synths that I made with Max/MSP, and an assortment of MIDI-based VST instruments. I’ve been manipulating, tweaking, editing, etc. with a combination of Audacity, Cubase, and Logic.

It’s been a joy and a challenge (intimidating at times) scoring the film since it’s paced so carefully and deliberately. Sequences of escalating tension abound, particularly as the implications of the film’s premise are gradually revealed. And it’s beautifully shot as well.  I just keep hoping the music somehow lives up to the rest of it!

The film depicts the heated backroom discussions of four mathematicians who have solved the P vs. NP problem and a government agent (a severe, creepy, Big-Brotherish sort of guy) who has come to collect their findings and coerce them into silence. I should be finishing this all up (hopefully) over the next few days so that the team can send out the final version for festivals, screenings, etc. Better get back to work!