Tales of a Shoebox

“Tales of a Shoebox” was the codename for my version of a small project I worked on as part of a much larger short film.

Last year, a club was formed at my school dedicated to putting out a short film. The name was Shoe, and it focused on a janitor with anger management issues. (I’m butchering the summary in case any of us want to revive it.) We never released it (due to a bunch of factors, such as us not establishing a rigid filming schedule – but that’s not the point).

A few of us members still created music in anticipation of the short film’s release. None of us were officially commissioned to do this – nor did we ever establish who was doing what. We did it out of passion and excess spare time.

I didn’t know what I was doing at the time, and I was also fairly new to the DAW and software I was using (which was all free!) This is a rough listen.

By the way, some of the best ones are also available on my Newgrounds page. Technically, you’re not allowed to download these because of some copyright stuff.

Main Theme?

We never got as far as establishing a theme. From my end, this was the tune I was working with. It’s actually based off another song I was working on at the time – like the film, that song was shelved indefinitely. I don’t know if I’ll ever revive the song, but stuff can happen.

This was the very first export I made of it. I scrapped the beginning after there was a real chance of me turning the intro into an actual song.

The second export I made of the song was way creepier and probably fit the vibe for the opening way better.

Chess Scene

Somewhat of a reprise. Considering that one of the major plot elements in this story was a (underwhelming) chess tournament, this still misses the mark.

I would also like to point out that one of the actors was playing on my 3DS during the filming of this. They somehow died in World 1-1 of 3D Land.

Chase Scene

I’ll be completely honest and say I had no idea what I was doing when I made this. I was throwing ideas in and I was choosing anything that stuck. That’s why this is a mess. In retrospect, I probably should’ve followed the formula that other movies had used. But it’s fun to be creative!

I attempted to also include a theme from a different project I was also working on (yes, cheap shot) to try and tie these into the same universe. Little did I know that both projects would get cancelled.

Alternate Theme

I also composed an alternate theme for the fun of it. This one had some lyrics attached to it – so it was an automatic red flag to me. (Considering that I didn’t know that just under half of the club was in choir, it was a red flag for me at least.)

There’s essentially no point in me holding back the lyrics. They weren’t good by any means, but they were workable. I think I came up with these in 10 minutes on a random day and it stuck.

Reprise

This was made in the span of 20 minutes before being abandoned on my hard drive. I may as well give it a last hurrah so it doesn’t go into the void of future corrupted hard drives.

Closing Notes

Participating in this short film was fun – even if we never got to finish it.

The music was just something I tried on the side. I never really expected any of it to be selected for the final film. And luckily, we never had to choose.

As of the writing of this post, I am currently working with two other (way more) talented writers on a short film. This’ll be our second “first film.” And, so far, it’s going way better than last time. (That’s what we like to say. In actuality, the writer’s room is currently being stretched thin with impending doom in the form of deadlines approaching.)

Ropey will have his revenge.