Music

When selecting the music for our film opening, we identified two key moments that required non‑diegetic sound rather than dialogue: the opening sequence in Anastasia’s bedroom before the fade into character introductions, and the final montage of her traveling, which concludes with the plane taking off. These moments rely on music to establish tone, emotion, and narrative rhythm.

Originally, our group considered using a lyrical song to directly match the visuals. While this was a creative idea, the track we chose “Glimpse of Us” by Djo ultimately did not align with the tone we wanted. As our concept evolved and we shifted toward emphasizing Anastasia’s personality, especially by beginning the film in her bedroom, we realized the opening needed something more upbeat and energetic to reflect her character and daily life.

From there, we explored songs with a brighter, more optimistic feel. Some of the options we considered included “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina & the Waves, “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealers Wheel, and “Suddenly I See” by KT Tunstall, all tracks that capture the lively, coming‑of‑age atmosphere we wanted to establish.

When deciding to find music for the background of our film opening, we had two key moments where we needed to rely on music (non-diegetic sound) instead of speech (diegetic sound) including specifically the beginning opening of the bedroom before it fades out into the introduction of characters and the ending where Anastasia is traveling ending with the plane flying away. 

In the end, we decided to use “Stuck in the Middle with You” because it best matched the tone and pacing of our film. Once we made that choice, we reached out to the producer to request permission to include the song in our opening sequence. Although we did not receive a response, we still made the effort to contact them and ensured that proper credit was given in the opening titles.