Landlocked (2017-2023)
This is a long post featuring multiple disciplines. jump ahead to my contributions in…
“Summoned to his soon-to-be demolished childhood home, Mason discovers an old VHS camera that can see into the past, driving him to record as many memories as possible before the doomed house is destroyed. Utilizing the director’s actual childhood home movies and casting real life family members to play fictionalized versions of themselves, LandLocked combines narrative and documentary with horror and science fiction to create a movie unlike any other.”
LandLocked was one of the coolest projects I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of, being a film that contains many of my favorite elements of artful filmmaking; beautiful cinematography, graceful storytelling, and sheer intrigue. LandLocked is also one of the best films of 2023, according to The New York Times. Director, Paul Owens, is a long-time collaborator and creative partner, having worked together on many projects over the past decade or so. I’ve mastered music for his chip music band, The Shortsleeves, followed his direction under film crew, 2 Player Productions, and a whole lot more. When he invited me to mix and do sound design for his directorial horror debut, I jumped at the opportunity after watching the first rough cut of the film. LandLocked moved me, surprised me, shocked me, and generally gave me the impression for the overwhelming potential it contained in redefining the found footage genre, and maybe horror, as a whole.
One of my favorite parts about this film was Paul’s leniency and trust in giving me the freedom to create impactful sound design to my heart’s content. I feel that half of a film’s horror comes from the audio coupled to its imagery… and not just the run of the mill jump scares, either. The anxiety-inducing soundscapes, subtle ‘water lapping at the shore’ ambiences, the meticulously placed ‘stepping on wood’ sound effects, and over-the-top crashes and booms all had to compliment one another to make the desired impact when paired to the visual elements of the film. After many rounds of revisions, I was happy to incorporate entirely new meaning to a lot of the scenes that Paul felt had something missing, adding themes throughout the film when coupled with Drew Prusko’s meaningfully ambient score.
After 7 years of production, and several iterations later, the film was released to overwhelming critical response, screening in film festivals around the world. While the film debuted in the middle of a pandemic, it found (and continues to find) its audience through streaming festivals (and in theaters around the world as pandemic restrictions lift). Over the course of its viewings, the ‘laurels’ have added up, and so have the awards including “Best Screenplay.” Paul even won a part in the George A. Romero Film Fellowship, awarded during its very first in-person screening as part of Salem Horror Festival.
A lot of people liked LandLocked, including The New York Times, USA Today, and premiere horror site, Bloody Disgusting. LandLocked received so much love that it had the distinct prestige of being featured in Fangoria, alongside mainstream blockbuster horror films.
“There is, in fact, a world hidden within this film, a lingering caution about getting lost in loss and growing too attached to what once was. Here, there is no collective memory. Even the past, terrifyingly, has a mind of its own.”
Working on LandLocked was both a pleasure and a challenge. Since both the film’s talent and crew were almost entirely amateur, it made capturing some audio a bit tricky without a dedicated sound engineer on site. Additionally, as most of the dialog was improvised, microphone placement was unpredictable. As a result, the audio post production process was a challenge, requiring substantial audio repair to dialog with too much background noise, all fixed using Adobe Audition’s Spectral Repair tools. Due to technical restraints, the film had to be broken into several manageable chunks, a workflow Paul and I had devised years earlier while working on 2 Player Productions’ “Minecraft” documentary.
The film also had to be upscaled to surround sound which required learning and implementing NUGEN’s “Upmix” plug-in. As part of my mastering pass for the audio, the film was previewed in a professional theater environment, in a rented theater. Before sending the files off to film festivals, the film was converted for DCP at Zoetrope Aubrey Productions. This process was a steep learning curve, having been the first film project I’ve been a part of that required a surround mix. This knowledge was essential for preparing the film for proper distribution, as highly specific audio files were required by the film’s distributor, Dark Sky Films.
One of the many joys of working on small collaborative teams is pitching in my other skills when needed. Aside form mixing the feature and trailer, I also contributed design skills toward creating our electronic press kit, and to the forthcoming VHS release of the film, utilizing the process designed while while producing the VHS version of Makeup and Vanity Set’s 88:88.
LandLocked was picked up by Darksky Films in 2022 and is available now to stream on all major platforms, after it’s initial theatrical release, 1/6/23!
Director: Paul Owens
Music: Drew Prusko
Starring, Sets, Poster: Mason Owens
Released by: Darksky Films