THE SPIRIT OF ISABEL [2010]
composer
A Nu-Wave Films Production
Written & Directed by: Robert Jospeh Butler

starring: Aphrodite Nikolovski, David G. Brown, Jacob Hodgson, April Canning, Steven Sorro, , Val Arnold, Gregg McNeal, Robert W. Maples and Dan Howard

• SCREENINGS::.

• 2010 Flint Film Festival -
  ** WINNER for BEST MICHIGAN FILM & AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD **
  

• 2010 Santa Fe Film Festival
  

• 2010 Blue Water Film Festival -
  ** WINNER for BEST FILM **
  

• 2010 Cincinnati International Film Festival
  

• 2010 Michigan Film Festival
  

• 2010 Ferndale Film Festival
  

• 2010 Wild Rose Independent Film Festival
  

• 2011 Buffalo - Niagara Film Festival
  

• 2011 Queens International Film Festival -
  **WINNER for Best Actor - Female**
  

• 2011 Green Bay International Film Festival
  

• 2011 Washington D.C. Film Festival
  

• 2011 Capital City Film Festival
  

• 2011 River Bend Film Festival
  

• 2011 44th Annual Houston International Film Festival
  **WINNER - SILVER REMI AWARD **
  

• 2011 13th Annual Bare Bones International Film Festival
  **Nominated for Best Short**
  

• 2011 Big Island Film Festival
  

• 2011 Downtown Boca Film Festival
  

• 2011 Favourites Film Festival in Berlin
  

• 2011 Central Florida Film Festival
  

• 2011 East Carolina Film Festival
  

• 2011 Philadelphia Independent Film Festival
  

• 2011 Las Vegas Film Festival
  

• 2011 Detroit/Windsor International Film Festival
  

• 2011 Seattle True Independent Film Festival
  

• 2011 Ventura Film Festival
  

• 2011 Action On Film, International Film Festival
  

• 2011 LA Shorts Fest
  

• 2011 LA Reel Film Festival
  **WINNER for BEST ACTOR, and Honaorable Mention **
  

• 2011 Made In Michigan Film Festival
  **WINNER for BEST ACTOR, and BEST NARRATIVE SHORT **
  

• 2011 Great Lakes Film Festival

• 2011 East Lansing Film Festival

• 2011 Riverside Saginaw Film Festival
  ** WINNER for BEST NARRATIVE SHORT **
  

In a story of survival in an economically collapsed Detroit, a young woman named Isabel struggles to get by. All alone, desperately seeking work, and on the verge of eviction from her apartment, she hits the streets as a... part of the world's oldest profession. Ashamed and tormented, she refuses to give up, having faith that hope and redemption are just around the corner. In a world growing smaller, and exponentially more dangerous, can Isabel find the strength to carry on?

ABOUT THE SCORE

This is the 3rd film that I've worked on for Robert Butler. Working with Robert is always a great experience. He leaves the door wide open for me. It also helps that we have the same musical tastes when it comes to film scores. In creating the music for this film, I was inspired by a track that Robert made aware to me, "Tommib" by Squarepusher.

The music idea behind The Spirit Of Isabel, was to create a moody and ethereal sound to go along with the pace of the film. I wanted to create more of a musical sound design and to stray away from the realm of music structure, to give the sense of what's going on in the head of Isabel. I compiled alot of my atmospheric samples to create the dreamy undertones. You'll hear soft, faint guitars looming in the backgrounds [some with a reversed effect]. Most of the score is in a minimalistic style that I seem to gravitate to more and more. However, there is one jazz cue, Cliff Bell's, which I wrote for a club scene. It took me back to my jazz roots - which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I'll BE GOOD is the second music cue that you hear in the film and it features my wife Sarah on vocals. This song took us a few hours to write and record and was the first time we had worked on something musical together!
Instrumentation used were guitars, piano, dudek, waterbowls, and flutes.