As score
The music carries emotion where the film does not need words. It has to move quickly, clearly, and honestly.
Case Study · Animated Short Film
Our Song: Music Written From Inside the Story
Brought in before the first frames existed, I composed and advised on the piano music at the center of an animated short about a father, a son, and the moment protection becomes recognition.
RoleComposer & Musical Adviser
DirectorStephanie Glover
World PremiereCleveland International Film Festival
The Film
A father trying to protect his son. A son trying to become himself.
Our Song is an animated short about Ahmad, a boy with ectrodactyly who wants to follow his father into music. His father loves him deeply, but his protection becomes a barrier.
The film follows a family learning to grow, love, and support each other through difference. A song becomes the place where fear, possibility, and understanding meet.
The Assignment
The music had to be more than score.
Darnell brought me in early to write the theme and help score the film. The theme had to work as emotional score, as an object inside the story, and as a piece of music Ahmad could believably reach toward.
Process
The theme started before the picture existed.
01Brought in early
I was brought onto the project before the first frames came together, first to write the theme and then to help shape the score.
02The theme started in motion
The first version came while I was walking through Mexico City, thinking through the emotional shape of the film. I booked studio time there to test motifs and search for the melody.
03Recorded at Shock Studios
The final solo piano work was recorded at Shock Studios with producer Sam Maul, alongside the deliverables needed for the film and soundtrack release.
04Advised through development
I stayed close to the animation process, reviewing performance realism and advising on musician details that would make the film feel true.
Writing for Ahmad's Reality
The point was not to make the music smaller. The point was to make it truthful.
I did not approach ectrodactyly as a barrier to musicality. I composed the piece, shaped voicings that made sense for Ahmad's hands, and worked with advisors with lived experience of ectrodactyly to verify that the performance reality made sense for the film.
The piece is in A-flat because it worked for the melody and sat comfortably in a musical language familiar to many Black pianists. The father is a Black working musician, so the piano writing needed to feel expressive, grounded, and lived-in without becoming overly ornate.
Emotional Arc
Protection → Hesitation → Recognition → Togetherness
The melody had jobs to do. It had to carry the father's fear, Ahmad's reach, the family's recognition, and the final feeling of meeting inside music.
Protection
The father loves Ahmad, but his fear begins to steer the room. The music needed tenderness without pretending that tenderness solves everything.
Optional excerpt placeholder:/work/our-song/audio/arc-protection.mp3Musical Adviser
Making the music believable on screen.
My role extended beyond composition. I advised the team on how piano performance should look: finger placement, sustain pedal movement, instrument realism, camera angles, and the lived details of a musician's home.
Left-hand fifths
Fifths gave the piano writing fullness while staying believable for Ahmad's hand position.
Creative Philosophy
Method musician.
I treated this less like a normal scoring assignment and more like a method acting process. The piece needed a specific emotional outcome, so I spent time inside the story: researching the real person who inspired Ahmad, speaking with people who live with ectrodactyly, studying animated shorts, and letting my own healing process inform the emotional truth of the music.
I do not want to write around a story. I want to write from inside it.
Soundtrack Release
From film cue to soundtrack object.
Because the film is still in its festival window, the public-facing music needed to stand on its own. I released a short soundtrack with multiple versions of the theme so listeners could experience the story through the piano.
Threads (Theme from Our Song)
The complete piano theme: the clearest public expression of the melody at the center of the film.
Optional local audio placeholder:/work/our-song/audio/threads-theme.mp3Festival Moment
World Premiere at Cleveland International Film Festival.
Use this section for festival photos, street interviews, audience quotes, and rollout material from the soundtrack release. Because the film is not publicly released yet, this page should rely on poster, soundtrack, process, sheet music, and festival field notes rather than restricted film footage.
Credits
Built with a team.
Arrangement, social handles, and additional music/sound credits should be finalized before publishing.
Bring me in early
When the music needs to shape the story, not just sit behind it.
I work best with filmmakers, producers, music supervisors, and creative teams who want the music to be specific, researched, emotionally true, and built into the project from the inside.