Client: Harvey Greenfield Movie
Project Title: Personal Bests

Objective:
This project focused on creating immersive and tonally precise sound design and music for the short horror comedy film Personal Bests. The goal was to craft audio that would not only support the narrative but also heighten both tension and humor. We aimed to balance unsettling atmosphere with comedic timing, using sound and music to amplify scares while landing jokes effectively.

Sound Design and Music Approach:
From the beginning, tonal balance was at the core of the process. We drew inspiration from classic horror sound language, utilizing drones, textures, and rhythmic pulses that evoke unease, while contrasting them with playful musical motifs to underline comedic beats. Organic woodland ambiences, distorted foley, and stylized musical elements were combined with subtle modern processing to ground the film in a natural nighttime setting while enhancing its genre-driven impact.

The soundscape and score were designed to align closely with the film’s pacing and tonal shifts. Sparse, tension-building sound design underscored moments of suspense, while exaggerated musical stings and rhythmic accents brought clarity and timing to comedic moments. Each sequence was carefully shaped to guide the audience’s emotional response, allowing the audio to feel both cohesive and reactive to the film’s narrative flow.

To further support the film’s atmosphere, we paid close attention to spatial depth and dynamic range, ensuring the woods felt expansive, alive, and occasionally threatening. Sounds were allowed to breathe and decay naturally, avoiding overcompression in favor of contrast and surprise. This approach created an audio environment that felt immersive and cinematic, pulling the audience into the nocturnal forest setting.

Logo Animation Music:
The closing titles featured a restrained musical cue built from minimal textures and a light melodic motif. This provided a humorous yet slightly eerie final note, echoing the film’s blend of horror and comedy.

Tone and Style:
The sound and music were atmospheric yet playful—imbued with tension, contrast, and precise timing. They were crafted to serve both the horror elements and the comedic rhythm of the film.

Technical Delivery:

Delivered in stereo format for online and festival screenings.
Mixed to preserve dynamic contrast, ensuring clarity, impact, and spatial depth.