Capturing Emotion with Sound // Presented by the Dolby Institute
Olivia is sitting in her room in upstate NY. She's in her early 30s and has received some bad news lately. Her father’s health is declining and she’s coming off a recent break-up. As she sits in an easy-chair thinking about her current situation, a loud train goes by further rattling her upset state of mind. This month’s challenge invites you to combine sound and music to help tell this story and to bring Olivia and her internal landscape to life.
Olivia is sitting in her room in upstate NY. She's in her early 30s and has received some bad news lately. Her father’s health is declining and she’s coming off a recent break-up. As she sits in an easy-chair thinking about her current situation, a loud train goes by further rattling her upset state of mind.
This month’s challenge invites you to combine sound and music to help tell this story and to bring Olivia and her internal landscape to life. Thinking about her character and her situation, write or produce this scene where sound richly plays a major role in capturing emotion to tell her story. Your final submission can be either a written scene or a completed audio piece, with sound and music intentionally and creatively highlighted throughout. Scripts should be no longer than 5 pages and produced audio pieces no longer than 3 minutes. We’ll select one winner in each format.
SUBMISSION LIMITS
Scripts should be no longer than 5 pages.
Produced audio pieces should be no longer than 3 minutes.
Scripts: PDF format only
Accepted audio file formats include: AIFF, ACC, FLAC, MP3, MP4, OGA, OGG, and WAV
Deadline to submit: June 30 , 2021 at 2PM PT.
CHALLENGE RULES
Our monthly challenges are open to everyone in the Sundance Collab community. One entry per person, per challenge. All submissions will be viewable to the community. All submissions will be given equal consideration and the final winner will be determined by the consensus of the designated Sundance judges.
Only those submissions that meet the criteria outlined in the submission guidelines can be selected as the winner.
The challenge closes on June 30, 2021 at 2PM PT.
If you have questions regarding the challenge, please email collab@sundance.org. Please do not contact members of the jury directly.
PRIZES
Winner will receive:
- The winner will have their work featured on Sundance Collab
- One-on-one mentorship session with a Sundance Advisor
- Sundance Collab Annual Creator Membership (12 months) which includes:
- Invitation to monthly Member-only Advisor Q&A Live webinar
- Opportunity to receive feedback from a Sundance Advisor on work-in-progress you post to Share Your Work
- Eligible to participate in online Writing Groups (coming soon)
- Final Draft screenwriting software (12-month license)
Runners-up (two will be selected) - Sundance Collab Annual Creator Membership (12 months)
Jurors
Chanell Crichlow
Juror
Chanell Crichlow is a low brass multi-instrumentalist, Composer, and Performer residing in Los Angeles, California. She formed PitchBlak Brass Band in 2010 at the start of what became a vibrant brass band Movement in New York City and across the globe. The group received high acclaim in both Downbeat Magazine and The Source Magazine during their tenure.
A 2021 Sundance Composers Lab Fellow, Chanell had the opportunity to work closely with Film and Television composers on her craft. Creative Advisors for the intensive include Laura Karpman, Blake Neely, Heather McIntosh, George S. Clinton, Mychael Danna, Kathryn Bostic, Jeff Rona, and Christopher Willis.
As a tubist, she has performed with Yuga Cohler (YEETHOVEN, K-POP), Ludwig Göransson, (Wordless Music Orchestra), Solange (Governors Ball Music Festival), Andy Grammer (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Today Show), Shamir (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), Pharoahe Monch (The Ecstatic Music Festival, Duke University), and more.
Chanell has released two projects under the moniker tubafresh in which she composes using Jazz-Pop structures as well as incorporating vocals and a custom King 1130 Flugabone designed by Scott Sweeney.
Chanell received her Masters in Classical Tuba Performance at Pennsylvania State University and her Bachelors in Classical Tuba Performance at The Manhattan School of Music.
Kalaisan Kalaichelvan
Juror
Kalaisan Kalaichelvan is a composer, music producer and classically trained pianist based in Toronto, Canada. His music spans across the screen, theatre, dance and visual media. Kalaisan has worked with some of the most exciting emerging filmmakers on a variety of films that have been recognized for “Best Music” at the Santorini Film Festival and the Largo Film Awards. He is a 2021 Fellow of the Sundance Composers lab and is currently serving as one of the 2021 Slaight Music residents for the Canadian Film Centre.
Kalaisan’s music is defined by its genre-bending boldness, its refined classicism and musical ingenuity. Having worked across various disciplines and communities of thought, Kalaisan seeks to bring together incongruous institutions to build novel structures that reflect his artistic upbringing.
Glenn Kiser
Juror
Glenn Kiser is the Director of the Dolby Creator Lab, Dolby’s initiative to bring education and inspiration to filmmakers and content creators about the creative use of sound and picture in storytelling. Previously, Kiser was the VP & General Manager of Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound, where he oversaw sound work on film projects such as Avatar, The Incredibles, the Star Wars prequels, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter films.
Before joining Skywalker, Kiser was a post-production executive at Propaganda Films, where he worked with directors including David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Jane Campion, and Neil LaBute. Fun facts: Glenn played a mean tuba in high school, and at one time Marlon Brando called him obsessively for two weeks.
He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Natalie Metzger
Juror
Natalie Metzger is an award-winning producer, director, and writer, who explores the dark, surreal side of human nature with her visually rich and thoughtful work.
She is a Spirit Award nominated producer whose credits include the upcoming WEREWOLVES WITHIN (which will be premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival and distributed by IFC Films), THE BETA TEST (Berlin Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival), THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW (MGM/Orion), GREENER GRASS (Sundance Film Festival), THUNDER ROAD (Grand Jury Award - SXSW), THE ROBBERY (Sundance Film Festival), MATPAT’S GAME LAB (Streamy Award), and Lil Dicky’s FREAKY FRIDAY (over 664 million views), among numerous others. Metzger is currently in post-production on a new sci-fi series as well as Yogi Berra documentary IT AIN’T OVER.
Metzger's feature writing/directing credits include LGBTQ sports documentary ALONE IN THE GAME (AFI Docs, Outfest) and healthcare documentary SPECIAL BLOOD, which won the Dolores Huerta Award for Best Director at Long Beach Indie Festival and Best Feature Documentary at California Women’s Film Festival. She was also selected for CoverFly’s Endorsed Writers Program and for Eastern Oregon’s Filmmaker Residency. Her feature script IMMORTAL won the Gold Prize at the Page International Screenwriting Awards, was a finalist in the Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition and a semifinalist in Screencraft’s Drama Competition, and is on the top 10 sci-fi of Coverfly’s Red List.
She has directed numerous award-winning commercials and short films, including a short film adaptation of IMMORTAL, which won Best Narrative Short at Eastern Oregon Film Festival, Best Set Design at Trans Stellar Film Festival, and screened at 17 film festivals including the Oscar-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival and psa TOPLESS WOMEN TALK NFL which was featured in the Washington Post and Huffington Post and won an Aurora Award (Platinum Best of Show) and a Telly Award.
Metzger holds a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts and is a Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Emory University, where she received the Sudler Award in the Arts and the Pioneer Award. www.nataliemetz.com
Emily Rice
Juror
Emily Rice is a British born composer for film and TV, who started her musical life as a cellist playing in orchestras and rock bands. She has recorded and conducted her work at Warner Brothers, Capitol Records, and The Wiltern. She scored the Netflix series THE I-LAND and is in increasing demand as a composer for indie films. Emily’s most recent scores include the documentary feature FOR THE LOVE OF RUTLAND, and narrative feature MISS JUNETEENTH which featured in U.S dramatic competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Her music can also be heard in Hollywood blockbusters such as TOMB RAIDER and ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. Emily recently finished scoring the short anime film SOL LEVANTE for Netflix, and is an alumna of the prestigious Sundance Institute Film Music & Sound Design Lab and the Ucross Foundation Artist Residency programme.
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