Avery tries to tell her parents that the doll is possessed; they, of course, are skeptical. But they inevitably realize their daughter is telling the truth about the evil doll. They run into the woods to search for her, but it's too late. They find their daughter limp and inanimate, being rocked in the arms of the now-human doll. Dun-dun-dunnnnn!
Guinivan thought the film looked like a bad family drama the first time he watched it. But as the plot progressed, the drama seemed to call for some music. Guinivan's freshman year roommate asked him to do a favor for his friend and write the score for the film, to be submitted to the New England Film Festival. Guinivan agreed.
Now, he says he's glad he did. The score was one of five nominated for "Best Original Score" at the New England College SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University, Boston.
Although it didn't win, Guinivan says the opportunity was one he enjoyed. "It was a cool opportunity to submit for that kind of festival and get some recognition and an academic opportunity outside the School of Music," he says. "I feel lucky."
The score-writing experience was a quick one; Guinivan had three hours to write, record and edit the score at the music school's Center for Electronic and Computer Music. The score is written for a music box-like instrument called a celesta: a set of bell-like keys hit by a hammer and laid out like a piano, which is used to achieve a mystic, childlike affect. The score evolves with the plot. It begins as an innocent background to a story about Avery and her new doll, and comes to an ominous end as a minor, dissonant cry for a family with a daughter lost to a haunted toy.
Guinivan has been playing the drums since he was 10 and writing music since 17. After joining his high school band, he wanted to figure out how to write for it. "So I made it a year-and-a-half long project," he says. The band ended up playing his composition.
"It was so rewarding in this way that's hard to come by, to see people use your music and benefit from it," he says. He still writes high school band compositions for one school in Columbus and one in his hometown. "It's still fun!" he says.
Guinivan says his concentration in drums sets his music apart from that of other composition majors, many of whom focus their efforts on piano playing. His compositions are "pretty rhythmic in general," he says. "Percussion feeds into the way I write. I think in pounding and pulsing, of beats and patterns."
During the interview, Guinivan keeps calling himself a music dork, sort of apologizing when asked "what's in your CD player?"
"I feel unplugged from pop culture," he says.
He's not sure, however, that it's a bad thing.
