We just got word that our documentarian, Roman Safiullin, journeyed to Haiti last week on the 8th of January. Danny Daneau spoke with him via email last Wednesday who told him:

I’m in my last semester at UF and we’re about to start editing the film we’ve shot profiling two young guys who run a non-profit and conduct deworming and medical missions around the world and run a number of orphanages and schools for homeless kids. We’re focusing on their efforts in Haiti. Our third trip there is this Friday. One of them is opening a school in a rural village, should be exciting.

To our relief, The Miami Hearld reported today that Roman, along with his documentary partner John Bougher, are alive and okay. He is hopefully going to be coming home in the next couple days. Our thoughts and prayers remain with Roman and his family as well as all of the tragic victims of the earthquake.

For those interested in helping these victims immediately, simply text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

That was very much the case in the score for “The Attic Door”. It was an exercise in restraining myself and stripping back unnecessary elements. There are cues in the score that have 15 seconds of rest. It is funny though how you feel that when you get hired as a composer you should deliver the best possible music with beautiful themes and colorful layers because that makes it more interesting to listen to. Having 15 seconds of rest felt like I was cheating. But Danny kept reminding me that less was more, and he was right. In the end the minimalist music was the right choice for this particular movie. It’s an intimate, quiet film with multiple emotional layers. Piling on with musical layers would have overwhelmed the picture. It was a bold choice, but I think the right one. And as for the long rests – not having the music come back where you expect it can create an unnerving atmosphere. It can make the audience squirm uncomfortably at the tip of their seat. That was the effect we were going for to reflect the situation of the children left alone in this vast, beautiful, but terrifyingly lonely landscape of the Utah desert.

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Thank you again for all your support. Please make sure to stay safe this holiday.

Best Wishes,

Danny Daneau & Erica Harrell
Writer/Director – Producer

Early on we decided that we wanted to limit the amount of instruments in the score. Financially it made sense as we were working on a relatively tight budget, but that wasn’t the main reason. The characters in the story are forced to utilize their available resources to their maximum in order to survive. Having very few instruments that were being used in all possible ways would reflect this. I also think I work more creatively when I have limitations. Especially since this film didn’t have much temp music at all, I had to come up with everything from scratch, which sometimes is a pretty daunting task.

You can check out some never before heard music tracks from the film’s soundtrack and read the full article here.

Please take a moment to congratulate Scott Uhlfelder on our Facebook Page.

Here is the full Sundance line up.

KOHD Daybreak interview for the Bend Film Festival. Featuring Eric Ernst (writer) and Danny Daneau (director). THE ATTIC DOOR went on to win “Best Feature” “Best Cinematography” and “Best Score” at the festival.