Interview with Bram Meindersma, Composer and Sound Designer of Oscar® Nominated Stop Motion Short Film, "Negative Space"
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| Sam and his father, from Negative Space. Source: Vimeo. |
Unlike practically every other medium, film has the unique aesthetic of being composed of the elements of sound and image, and, curiously, whenever watching a film, the two blend together into something of an impeccably hybridized concoction.
With as much influence as sound has over the audience’s final experience of any given film, composer and sound designer Bram Meindersma’s work on the Oscar-nominated stop motion short film Negative Space – directed by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter – proves an endlessly fascinating and extraordinary case study, as it uses sound – both its soundtrack as well as every other element of sound design – only sparingly and in subtle ways, one that could almost be called conservative. Yet it is perhaps just that component of its sound design that, at least in part, makes the film such a powerful one.
Perhaps the reason why Meindersma’s delicate work on Negative Space is so powerful is its thematic resonance with the film’s subject matter. The film poignantly explores a father-and-son relationship through what is something of a ritual between the two characters – packing a suitcase – as well as the emotional and psychological effects of immense personal loss.
The film begins with the journey of the son in the story – Sam – and starts with a scene of Sam packing his suitcase in his home before embarking on a journey to his father’s viewing at a funeral home, all while in near silence excepting a gentle ambience. The film then adds on another layer of sound design – Sam (voiced by film director Albert Birney) breaks the fourth wall and starts to narrate the story of his relationship with his father, which happens to be based on the 150-word poem “Negative Space” by Ron Koertge upon which the film is based. And yet, even this voiceover remains, to a certain extent, subdued.
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| The first scene from Negative Space. Source: Vimeo. |
Beyond the ambience and voiceover, another element of the film’s sound design is that of the texture of clothes being packed, as well as the film’s cello-themed composition. Once again, throughout practically the entire film, all of these elements are remain reserved, in perfect support of the story – which is in Sam’s perspective – as one gets the impression that the character of Sam is himself holding back emotion as he, throughout the film, attempts to process his loss as well as his grief that comes from it. Sam’s characteristics of conservation and efficiency also come across in the film’s recurring visual motif of packing, which encapsulates the entire theme of the film.
Perhaps the biggest irony of the entire film is in the last scene of the film – the finale, the final culmination of Sam’s journey. While one might suspect that Sam’s emotions, which seem to have been brewing for the entire film up until that point as he processed his grief, might come to a simmer and boil over – perhaps manifesting itself in an explosion of loud noise – and cause him to break composure, nothing could be further from the way Porter, Kuwahata, and Meindersma approached this scene. Instead of noise, we – the audience – are met with silence. A perfect, unerring silence that lasts for an entire six seconds, before the last line of the film is uttered, and when it is uttered, it’s in a near whisper.
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| A scene from Negative Space. Source: Vimeo. |
In regards to how he approached this scene, Bram tells Stop Motion Geek, “It kind of happened organically: I built up the foley sounds as naturally as possible and placed them in a natural surrounding (reverb FX). This creates resonance and reflection, but doesn’t generate background-sound – it literally defines the room in a ‘negative space.’ We have been very light on the actual background sounds, so there is hardly anything but the words of the poem and the foley/FX. By constantly carefully controlling and managing the background, it turns into true silence in the end-scene around the ‘pay-off’ of the poem.”
Negative Space has been screened at more than 140 festivals and has won 68 awards and nominations, including the Nomination for Best Animated Short Film in the 90th Academy Awards and the Nomination for Best Animated Short Subject in the Annie Awards (‘18). Its soundtrack and use of foley won it Best soundtrack/use of foley in the Dublin Animation Film Festival, Ireland (‘17).
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| One of the packing sequences from Negative Space. Source: Vimeo. |
In our interview, Bram Meindersma discuses his creative process on Negative Space, his collaboration with the Porter and Kuwahata, as well as how his journey in sound design began and has transpired. Having worked as a composer and sound designer on dozens of short films, commercials, and television shows for clients such as HBO, MTV, and Cartoon Network – both animated and live action pieces – Meindersma also discusses the differences between composing for animation versus live action. You can read our interview below in full.
A.H. Uriah: Hello, Bram! Thank you so much for doing an interview! To start, I’d love it if you could tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you end up composing and designing the sound for films, commercials, and television spots? Why is this particular medium – music and sound design – important to you? Also, what draws you to compose and design sound specifically for film?
Bram Meindersma: Musically I started out as a producer for different hip-hop-groups in Holland, and that started my interest in music. I went to the Dutch Film Academy to study film sound. I then combined working as sound-designer for animation with composing for film and shooting documentaries.
Sound and music have always felt like natural material for me to work with. In film, I love the challenge of finding the right tone and rhythm for the image and the story.
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| Negative Space title sequence. Source: Vimeo. |
A.H.: Can you walk us through your creative process on Negative Space, for which you did both the composition and sound design?
BM: In the making of Negative Space, I picked up on Max and Ru their ideas from the animatic which had a basic FX and music temp-track. From there on I continued developing the sound-design and write the music.
A.H.: I would love for you to tell us a little bit about how you go about collaborating on any given project with the others involved. I imagine you’re working primarily with the director(s) and perhaps a few mixers and other sound engineers (when you aren’t doing everything yourself). What kind of conversations do you initiate to make sure that you and your collaborators are on the same page? Specifically on Negative Space, how did your interactions with the others working on the film evolve your work on the project?
BM: The process is different with every project, it all depends on the length, story, medium, and of course the director(s). Sometimes the director has a specific idea of where to go and sometimes its more of a search. Max and Ru were pretty clear on what they wanted to do, so I picked up on that and followed that lead.
I pretty much go my own way with the material then and come up with a first draft. These drafts usually bounce back and forth with commenting on things like rhythm or tone of the sounds and music, basic ideas, sometimes things have to be re-tried a couple of times to see what works best. With Negative Space we worked a lot over email, but I also went to visit them when they were working at the Ciclic Center in France. In those days I mainly did the music. It’s a good thing to be around each other in the final process of sound and music. It’s easier to get into the vibe of the film and to understand the direction.
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| The scene from Negative Space where Sam leaves his house. Source: Vimeo. |
A.H.: One of the things that sound in film – both in soundtrack composition and the rest if the sound design (atmosphere, voiceover, and special sound effects) – plays an amazingly influential role in is in the realm of establishing tone. Can you describe for us how you found the tone of Negative Space? Secondly, how did you go about establishing the tone throughout the film in both composition and the non-musical sound design of the film? Thirdly, in your creative process do you have any kind of litmus test once you’re finished with the composition and sound design for how to determine whether or not you’ve established the proper tone?
BM: For me the whole sound-design is a composition in itself – there is no on-set-recording, everything needs to be created. In Negative Space, I started from the material used in the animation and worked on finding sounds that seemed to match the objects best. Every little sound has a tone, a function and has a means to tell the story in a stronger way. It is an interesting process to play around with stacking sounds until the desired feel of reality is conveyed. When the audio perfectly fits the image, it’s just a magical thing. That must be the litmus test. The same goes for the music, the basics were there pretty fast, but it still took a while to get the right tone and articulation in place: It shouldn’t be too over-sentimental or maybe we can push the drama here a bit further…Those kinds of questions arise.
A.H.: Can you tell us about what you saw the language and sound of clothes and texture – the rustling of a shirt being folded, a clinking belt – meaning in Negative Space when you first came to it? How did you go about designing these effects and what did implementing them in the final film give it?
BM: The film has a strong coherence between the spoken word and the overall sound. Every animated sequence had a challenge in finding the right tone to match the object on the one hand and matching the poem/storyline on the other. The sounds had to match up with the voiceover and work as an exclamation mark or a point or a funny highlight.
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| One of the surreal flashback sequences from Negative Space. Source: Vimeo. |
It’s very meticulous work and it’s weird: I sit working at a sound sometimes for hours and the scene is just not working and then suddenly there is an element and I have a reaction to the scene that is genuine and it’s suddenly working. I feel that to be really magical in working with animation, the moment that happens and it just feels in a way that you can’t quite put words to.
The final layer of cello-strings by Henrik Meierkord also added a lot to the whole design of the film, these came in at the end of the process and really were the finishing touch for the film. The tactility of live, breathing strings together with the emphasized fabrics seemed a good combination.
A.H.: As the title implies, Negative Space is very much a film about silence and efficiency – self-conservation. For me, this comes through in how poignantly and conservatively sound effects and music are used in the film. In the last scene – the scene in the funeral home – there is a pause between 4:40-4:46, a silent breath the main character – Sam – takes before uttering the final line, “Look at all that wasted space.” That moment is everything – it encapsulates the entire film. Can you tell us about the thoughts that went into holding off for that long – six seconds – before that last line is uttered? How did you design that moment to be as emotional as possible?
BM: We have played with this in a couple of versions to see what would work best. The interesting part of the sound of Negative Space for me is that we tried to implement the idea of ‘negative space’ into the sound-idea.
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| Sam packs his father's suitcase in Negative Space. Source: Vimeo. |
It kind of happened organically: I built up the foley sounds as naturally as possible and placed them in a natural surrounding (reverb FX). This creates resonance and reflection, but doesn’t generate background-sound – it literally defines the room in a ‘negative space.’ We have been very light on the actual background sounds, so there is hardly anything but the words of the poem and the foley/FX. By constantly carefully controlling and managing the background, it turns into true silence in the end-scene around the ‘pay-off’ of the poem. It was more a matter of how long we should wait to start the music and give the viewer time to handle the impact of the last sentence. This felt very precarious.
A.H.: You’ve composed music and have engineered sound design for dozens of films in many different mediums including animation and live action. Do you approach the composition and sound design of an animated film differently than you approach the composition and sound design of a live action film? If so, what is it specifically about an animated film that makes the job of composition and sound design a different one from the composition a live action film? If not, how do you make sure that your approach remains the same when approaching an animated film rather than a live action film?
BM: Every medium has its own set of rules. It’s a part of the job to find out what music works best with each project. In general, I could say that in animation the music takes more of the forefront and can be more leading and outspoken. With live-action, it seems to be more ‘invisible.’ Animation always has a bitt ‘bigger’ than life feel because of the way it’s made and the stories it can tell...Maybe the music is allowed to go to other places than to? In live-action, the music seems to assist the story and the actors in a more supportive role.
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| Surreal flashback scene from Negative Space. Source: Vimeo. |
A.H.: What composers – either film composers or classical composers – do you look up to and why? What lessons have them emulated that you wish to learn and practice?
BM: It’s hard to pick one. In film, I admire a composer that takes what’s proven and pushes it into a new direction. The composers I look up to always change – there seems to be so much to listen to and discover. I’m always amazed by the things I haven’t heard before.
A.H.: Do you have any advice for the aspiring composers and sound designers out there who want to make a career out of their passion?
BM: Work hard and try to be lucky at the same time – you really have to enjoy what your doing and push yourself naturally to the next level. Don’t be afraid to go a couple of extra rounds, especially in the beginning of your career.
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| Negative Space poster. Source: Ikki Films. |
If you’re interested in exploring more of Bram Meindersma’s work, you can do so by visiting his website.
You can now rent Negative Space in full online by going here. You can watch the trailer for the film by going here, and you can visit the webpage for the film by going here.
This article is the first in a series of interviews coordinated by Stop Motion Geek with the creative team behind Negative Space. You can read the second article in the series – an interview with Sylvain Derosne, the lead animator on the film – by going here. You can read the third article in the series – an interview with Nadine Buss, the cinematographer of the film – by going here. You can read the fourth article in the series – an interview with Edwina Liard, the producer of the film – by going here. You can read the fifth and last article in the series – an interview with Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, the directors of the film – by going here.
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