Laminar / The Other Side

Storyboard

The future is not somewhere else. It is the same enterprise, finally flowing.

Prepared by Max Mao.

The Other Side, sound design

The sonic idea for the whole film. Turbulence resolving into flow. The dry world'''s tension bed, the turn when the water emerges, and the warm resolve on the other side. Not one scene, the shape of the entire piece in sound.

The Other Side intro sound design
Scene OneThe dry riverbed
Sound direction: a tension bed built from the room's own single sounds, the water emerging only for her. Reference, Still Awake, or Caribou, Can't Do Without You.
Music references
Still Awake
Caribou, Can'''t Do Without You
01
The clock
Sound The clock, steady and even, filling the frame. The tension track begins beneath it, low and driving. No melody, just pressure and time.
02A
The keystroke
Sound A single keystroke, clean and isolated. The tension track holds beneath it, steady and even. One key, one sound, nowhere for it to go.
02BB-roll: her screen beside the board, a progress bar sitting at 99 percent. Plant it here and never mention it again.
B-roll: her screen beside the board, a progress bar sitting at 99 percent. Plant it here and never mention it again.
02CB-roll: overhead, both hands working the same all-ENTER board, cables everywhere. The scale of the same wrong input.
B-roll: overhead, both hands working the same all-ENTER board, cables everywhere. The scale of the same wrong input.
03
The page
Sound A single sheet lifted, the soft precise rustle of fanfold paper, the tractor feed ticking somewhere off frame. The tension track steady beneath.
04
The mouse
Sound One soft, singular mouse click, on the beat. The tension track steady beneath, unbothered.
05
The stapler
Sound A firm stapler press, then the wrong sound: a crunch and scatter as the staples mangle and spill. The beat holds anyway. The tension track steady beneath.
06
The drawer
Sound The drawer rolls open by itself, a soft mechanical sigh and a stop. Nobody asked it to. She does not react, and the tension track holds, unbothered.
07
The pen
Sound The pen clicker, click, click, click, restless and compulsive. A nervous tic breaking the even pulse, the first hint of unease under the tension.
08
The dry pool
Sound The tension holds. Something is quietly off, a hollow where a sound should be. The absence of water, not yet the thing itself.
09
The reveal
Sound The tension opens out into a vast, cold room tone. The scale of the wrongness, all at once.
10Revising for image quality. The beat and the blocking are right, the render is not final. Needs a cleaner, sharper, more photoreal pass.
Her pod
Revising for image quality. The beat and the blocking are right, the render is not final. Needs a cleaner, sharper, more photoreal pass.
Sound The room tone tightens as the camera lands, the vastness narrowing to four desks and the hollow where water should be.
11
She's confused
Sound Held on her eyes. The tension track thins almost to nothing, one small human hesitation in a room that never hesitates. She is trying to make sense of a number.
12
The progress bar
Sound The same bar we saw at the top, still not done. It ticks once, a tiny dead increment, and holds. The tension does not resolve because the work does not.
13
The power dies
Sound The room drops. Fluorescents die with a descending hum, her machine powers down, and the tension track finally stops. Near silence. One keyboard somewhere to the right, still going, still fine.
Scene TwoFind the flow
Mid section. An energetic, fun song develops with colourful transitions. The world turns grey to colour, music and visuals telling the story together.
14
Back to zero
Sound Out of the silence, the power surges back. Fluorescents strike on one bank at a time, the machine chimes awake, and the bar starts over at nothing.
15
Disbelief
Sound Held on her eyes. Nothing but the room and the hum of the machine that just did that to her. No music. Let it sit.
16
Find the flow
Sound Then, underneath it, for the first time, running water. Faint, impossible, clear. The hollow from the dry pool finally has a sound in it. A low resonant tone rises. The turn begins.
17
Who sent it
Sound The words hold on the screen. She scans the sterile floor for who sent them, and finds no one.
18
She rises, and no one else hears it
Sound The trickle steadies. The deadline noises fall behind her, and a low resonant tone enters.
19
The wall opens
Sound Her hand meets the wall. A deep resonant bloom as the sealed wall cracks open under her palm, warm light spilling through and the water surging up. The room breathes outward, infinite.
20
Through the tunnel
Sound Water growing into a stream, the resonant tone rising under it.
21
The secret doorway
Sound Full running water, the resonant tone blooms wide, then everything drops away for a held breath.
Scene ThreeThe other side
The song resolves, warm and full, the world in colour, before it settles to a calm hum and one last clear note.
Scene 3 music
Oasis, running water ambient
22A
Her face, in colour
Sound Out of the held breath, the first warm chord. The colour arrives on her face. The song of the other side begins, gentle and full.
22BB-roll: blooms cascading to the edge of the running stream, the sun breaking on moving water. The first texture of the other side, flowers and current together.
B-roll: blooms cascading to the edge of the running stream, the sun breaking on moving water. The first texture of the other side, flowers and current together.
23
The flowing corridor
Sound The corridor opens ahead, full running water down its length, the warm song widening into the space.
24
She touches the water
Sound Her fingers break the surface. The water ripples, warm and alive. The dry riverbed of Act One, finally running. The current sings.
25A
She takes it all in
Sound She stands and takes it all in, head lifted, wonder breaking across her face. The current sings down the aisle, the full warm song blooming.
25BB-roll: the blooms she takes in, dew and gold in macro.
B-roll: the blooms she takes in, dew and gold in macro.
26
Her workstation reborn
Sound She settles at her desk, hands to the keys, at home. The current warm and full around her, the turbulence gone.
27
The screen, alive
Sound The screen that would not resolve, resolved. It rests in warm light, a low current humming behind it. At peace.
28
Her, at peace
Sound And her, at peace. The song settles to a warm, quiet hum, the turbulence gone from her face.
29A
The same pod, alive
Sound The current, steady and luminous, one last living detail before the pull-out.
29BB-roll: the current flows on down the rose channel toward the sun, the last flow forward before the pull-out to the mark.
B-roll: the current flows on down the rose channel toward the sun, the last flow forward before the pull-out to the mark.
30
Endcard
Sound One last clear note over moving water, then quiet.