A Life in Waves - Title Sequence

A Life in Waves explores the life and innovations of composer and electronic music pioneer, Suzanne Ciani. From her earliest days learning the piano, to her multi-million dollar advertising ventures, her successes in the world of New Age music, and her recent re-connection with her beloved Buchla synthesizer.  The film is a journey into Suzanne's mind, offering a feminine glimpse into the often complicated world of electronic music. Premiering at SXSW in 2017, the film had a theatrical tour and VOD release in August 2017. 

I have a passion for title sequences and the filmmakers, Brett Whitcomb and Bradford Thomason, gave me a lot of creative freedom. In one of the interviews for the film, Suzanne was described as a "cyborg," and said that she always had "these big synthesizers with wires going everywhere." That image stuck with me. I started with the music and chose one of Suzanne's compositions that was originally created as a TV jingle for the classic Atari arcade game "Liberator" (recently re-released by Finders Keepers Records). It's such a dynamic piece of music, and has the perfect energy and tone to launch us into the film.  From there, I knew I wanted to make something bold, colorful, technical, and futuristic, yet beautiful and feminine - which is exactly the combination that set Suzanne apart in the male dominated worlds of advertising and electronic music.  Looking at images of synthesizers, circuits, piano components, we established the look and feel and the animation took off from there.