‘Dysconnected’ covers one of the hottest topics in today’s modern society: the impact of social media and AI on our lives. All in the span of 10 minutes.

The movie, directed by Tom Schlagkamp, premiered at L.A. Shorts International Film Festival on 21st July 2019 and is now available online.

The story is about Roxy, a millennial struggling to find her place in life.

Everything she does is connected to the digital world. She even has an Artificial Intelligence therapist, having more and more trouble distinguishing between her online world and the real world. She’s only on the lookout for likes and instant gratification, but gets lost in the mayhem of social media.

The fast-paced narrative needed to have an impactful score that conveys the impact (or as some would say, the dark side) of social media and AI on our lives.

That’s where we stepped in.

The 10-min movie shows the ugly side with no judgement, silently questioning the viewers on their main takeaway. Because of its length – longer than the average campaign we usually work on, we had to approach it in a different way.

Job Poels, Senior Music Producer at MassiveMusic, says: “The main character goes through a rollercoaster of emotions so we wanted to reflect the state she is in and translate it into music. That’s why the score changes with her perspective, yet it still keeps a consistent and recognisable theme.”

We worked on a dramatic score that echoes the pathos and intense speed of the visual storytelling, all while keeping the bigger picture in mind.

The result is a mix of music composition, which sees sound design as an unavoidable complementary element, as well as licensing, with ‘Carry You’ by Welsh multi-instrumentalist Novo Amor as ending track.

Director Tom Schlagkamp comments: “MassiveMusic managed to translate each scene into sound with a blend of fairytale-like orchestration, loud EDM tracks and edgy sound design, weaving them together as if they were made to coexist in the first place.”

Listen to it on Spotify.