Normally when you hear instruments that are having a hard time producing their sounds, that’s a bad thing, but on Quiver Distribution’s new thriller, The Girl in the Pool, composer Adam Bosarge leaned into this idea.
The Girl in the Pool follows a well-to-do family man, Tom (Freddie Prinze Jr.), who is forced to struggle through a surprise birthday party moments after hiding the murdered corpse of his mistress. The filmmakers wanted the perception of reality to be in question, so Adam created a score to match this uneasiness. To capture these feelings he explains, “The Girl in the Pool had a lot of prepared piano in the score, which is piano with objects placed into or onto the strings”.
The result of this technique are sounds that are all just a little off or almost like the piano is being tortured at times.
Adam also used a lot of vocal samples, but put a twist on them by drowning them out with effects. “I processed a female voice and used that a lot in the score, so the mistress’s presence was always being felt subconsciously. Either in the distance or whispering right into Tom’s ear. This imagined version of her that he can’t stop thinking about”. The overall musical tone of The Girl in the Pool isn’t exactly straightforward, which was the goal for Adam.
Adam dives more into this in the below interview.
The Girl in the Pool Trailer #1 (2024)www.youtube.com
Editor's note: the following interview is edited for length and clarity.
No Film School: How did you first become involved with The Girl in the Pool?
Adam Bosarge: One of the producers of the film, Larry Greenberg, recommended me. I had scored a few other films for him in the couple years before, and The Girl in the Pool was right in my wheelhouse. One of those films I’d done previously was a kind of Hitchcockian neo-noir (Out of the Blue), and another an all-in-one-night thriller (Fear the Night). Both directed by Neil LaBute. The Girl in the Pool sits sort of nicely right between the two.
NFS: Did the director, Dakota Gorman, have a specific idea of how she wanted the score to sound? Or did you have more freedom to experiment?
Bosarge: There was plenty of both! Dakota was great. The tone of The Girl in the Pool isn’t exactly straightforward, so there were a lot of spinning plates to balance in the score and she kept them from wobbling too far. For the music itself, her idea was clear and at the same time very open-ended: less orchestra, more sounds and sonics. So there was a lot of experimentation. Finding sounds and instruments that felt appropriate, that worked together, and with which I could actually write a full film score with all the emotion and drama it demands.
NFS: When beginning a new film, what are some of the first things you do?
Bosarge: First, I take long walks to think about the story of the film and do some basic dramatic analysis. You don’t want to start working on a film with a director and realize you’ve completely missed something crucial. For a composer, something crucial can be how a character secretly feels, or that statuette in the corner in act one is the one they use to fend off an attacker in act three.
In the score you can subtly mark these things and let the audience know, subconsciously, that all of this is unfolding by design. And, if I’m scoring a close-up of a pained look on an actor’s face, then I owe it to them to do some of the work they did to get in that character’s head and get the moment right. After that, I can start crafting the musical palette. The style and the themes.
'The Girl in the Pool'Quiver
NFS: Can you talk about your musical approach to The Girl in the Pool? Did you watch any films to get inspiration for this?
Bosarge: The main thing I knew I needed to nail was the tone, which took some time. The main sounds of the film are percussion, prepared piano, very processed voice, some synth, and then of course strings. Strings are as important to movies as popcorn. But those signature instruments all had some sense of built-in tension in their sound.
There were three films I thought about actively while scoring this, though the inspiration is maybe not so direct. Raising Arizona, The River Wild, and Inherent Vice. The Raising Arizona score would come to my mind any time I felt “am I going too far here?” Whatever line of tastefulness I feared I was crossing, Carter Burwell’s iconic score was miles ahead, laughing at my insecurity. The River Wild was scored by Jerry Goldsmith, and I was just in awe of how simple and confident it was.
I’d be neck deep in a cue with a couple dozen layers of instruments and processing and sound design, and he would score an action scene with a single horn. I could lose all those layers but one if, like Goldsmith, I totally understood the scene and played just the right notes. And Inherent Vice has this very fleshed out, sympathetic “femme fatale” at its heart. The Girl in the Pool has a similar character, one that we really didn’t want to play for cliches. Her big scene was the hardest to score in the film, because naturally she’s the hardest character to figure out. So at one point I just had to step away and watch Inherent Vice to see if I could get any tips from Jonny Greenwood.
'The Girl in the Pool'Qiiver
NFS: Did you give each character a signature theme? If so, can you talk about that?
Bosarge: There were only a few real “themes” in the score. There’s a simple motive for Freddie Prinze Jr.’s character, Tom, and then there’s a theme for each neglected thing in his life that’s tugging on him and slowly pulling him apart. The dominant one being the titular girl in the pool, Hannah. I put a lot of processed female voice in the score, so her presence was always being felt subconsciously. Either in the distance or whispering right into Tom’s ear. This imagined version of her that he can’t stop thinking about. Then there was the real Hannah, whose theme was connected to that, but distinct. After a lot of trial and error it became this careful mix of detachedness, confusion, and just a dash of sadness.
NFS: Composers have been known to create unique musical sounds from “found objects”. Did you do anything like this? If not, what would you say is your “go to” instrument?
Bosarge: This movie had a lot of prepared piano in the score, which is piano with objects placed into or onto the strings. A classic move is to twist a screw between the strings to get this beautifully muted, harmonic sound. The metaphor of the tightening screw is almost embarrassingly obvious. Those sounds slowly ended up replacing almost all of the traditional percussion elements I began with.
I also used a lot of samples of a female voice singing and absolutely drowned them with effects. I love the sound of instruments that are having a hard time making their sound. The piano being tortured, the voice being drowned, while they desperately try to sing out.
Adam Bosarge
NFS: According to your IMDB you have scored a few horror films. What do you think makes a horror score effective?
Bosarge: I think of horror like comedy, where the success of the thing is really simple to judge: did you laugh or did you not? Were you scared or were you not? But unlike comedy, all of the technical things need to be perfect for it to work. Editing, lighting, pacing, blocking, and score can totally undo the effect. You’re often ultimately trying to trick or surprise the audience, so a horror score needs to be completely aware of and in control of what the audience should be feeling at all times. Music can make a scene move faster and more comfortably, so deploy it carefully. But in short, you need to really trust your director, really trust the movie’s sound mixer, and score the protagonist’s experience.
NFS: Is there a piece of advice you would give to composers first starting off, that you wish you had gotten?
Bosarge: Find a method of making music that works for you and get good at it. I spent a lot of time insecure about my musicianship and trying to fill the gaps, like that I can’t sight-read jazz piano charts very well, I don’t understand baroque figured bass, I don’t appreciate modular synthesis enough, etc.
While expanding your musical vocabulary and improving your weaknesses is absolutely necessary, I think it’s also necessary to simply make music with whatever tools you have and in whatever way works easiest for you, with no pressure of proving anything to anyone. That way you get good at making music on your back foot, in a rush. A complete workflow and sound you can always fall back on. In my experience, that is the music I get hired to make, not my unlistenable jazzy baroque modular synth stuff.
'The Girl in the Pool'Quiver
NFS: Is there a genre of film you would like to work in that you haven’t gotten to yet?
Bosarge: I’ve wondered a few times how on earth I would go about scoring a straight comedy, so I hope I get the chance to give it a go someday. I’d also honestly love to score a gentle, touching kitchen-sink drama. Or a sweeping romantic adventure movie or historical epic. But thrillers and horror really let you pull out some of your wildest musical tricks in a context that makes them palatable, so I’ll never get tired of scoring them. I could just sit there in those knotty, pained string voicing all day. And often I do.You can watch The Girl in the Pool here.
