ERIKETA COST
Life & Arts Editor
You may be familiar with the recent local horror film “Widow’s Point,” that was shot at the Dunkirk Lighthouse.
Fredonia professor Armand Petri wrote the musical score for the film and recently took part in a discussion panel at the premiere.
Petri, born in Silver Creek, has been involved in the Buffalo film scene for a while, and enjoys working so close to home.
“The film community in Buffalo is such a great working environment,” he said.
He met “Widow’s Point” filmmaker Gregory Lamberson through the help of his wife, who has been involved in the acting community.
At the time the two met, Lamberson was working on a film “Killer Rack” — a movie about a surgeon who uses a breast enhancement patient as a target for an evil plan.
“I went up to Greg, and I said ‘I’m interested in writing the music for this movie.’ He said yes, and it worked out great,” said Petri.
For “Widow’s Point,” Petri’s score- writing process started with attending a readthrough, meeting the actors and reading the script.
The film involves a writer who locks himself in a haunted house for a weekend, as a publicity stunt. But he ends up with more supernatural trouble than expected.
“The scoring process took a couple of months,” he said. “When you are scoring a film, you need to wait for the film-editing to be done first. And then as soon as you get that, the film editors are still tweaking things and putting in special effects. So I may want to do a jump scare in the score, but the effect isn’t there yet.”
Lamberson and Petri decided to go for a traditional approach for the music, with a lot of strings.
“It’s kind of a throwback to a lot of 70s Italian composers … Fabio Frizzi, Bruno Nicolai,” said Petri. The 1968 Polanski film “Rosemary’s Baby” was a prominent inspiration for Petri when writing the score.
He liked how the orchestration was sparse and left room for space.
“It’s not just the music you put in; it’s the silence you leave in the film to make it effective,” he said.
Petri also had to develop a musical theme for each character. This is typically a four-bar melody that varies with each person.
“When I’m on set, I meet the actors, and I’ll think of themes for each character. The lighthouse is actually a character, so I had a ‘lighthouse’ theme,” he said.
The process doesn’t happen overnight, though.
“Sometimes you’ll score an entire scene, and you’ll go, ‘it’s not working,’ and then you’ll have to do it all over again.”
Petri has scored a few other films for Lamberson.
“One was ‘Johnny Gruesome’ and I had Robby Takac (bassist for the Goo Goo Dolls) sing the title track,” he said. “I’ve worked on five Goo Goo Doll records — I’m pretty close with them.”
His advice for students interested in breaking into the industry? Don’t be afraid to approach someone, like he approached Lamberson.
“Don’t be afraid to … jump in, even if you are scared and afraid, do it anyway,” he said.
Lamberson agreed and said a lot of it comes down to prioritizing.
“If you want to do the work, do it, don’t talk about it. Parties and concerts and video games have to take a backseat,” said Lamberson. “Make short films, hone your craft, learn from your mistakes, then make new mistakes from which to learn.”
The money raised at the recent premiere and talkback went toward upkeep of the Dunkirk Lighthouse and support for the Fredonia Opera House.