With “She Wore A Yellow Scrunchy,” or SWAYS as I like to call it, Alex has created a modern day girl-power story that is loosely based on the western classic “High Noon.” Taking place at Cooper High School, SWAYS tells the story of Vicky, an upstanding senior who finds herself and her sister threatened by bad-girl Carla – recently released from juvenile detention and anxious to exact revenge on Vicky for getting her sent there.

From the very beginning of our discussions about the score, Alex knew that she wanted the music to take up the western idea but didn't want a traditional western score. What intrigued her was the effect that Ennio Morricone's iconic scores had on the spaghetti westerns of the 60s. The trick, of course, is how to mimic the effect of something that in many ways no longer represents what it originally did. Many of the terrific sounds and gestures that Morricone introduced to cinema in films like “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “Once Upon a Time in the West” have been used numerous times in contemporary films but mostly for comedic effect. The down side for modern audiences who know Morricone's scores only through these 're-uses' is that the music no longer evokes the kind of visceral response it did when it was first heard. It's similar to the way the theme from “Jaws” and the shower music from “Psycho” now elicit knowing chuckles instead of abject terror. But I digress.

The solution was to find a way to incorporate some elements of the Morricone scores while keeping the approach something a modern audience would find serious. Guitars were used to a much larger extent than I have used them before — electric, acoustic steel and nylon — as well as some unique instruments like bowed psaltery and the vibra-tone. The results can be heard in the playlist above. Strings and horns do make an appearance, primarily at the end to support Vicky and her sister as they win the day.

On a personal note, I learned after the final dub that Kenny Hall, music editor and a mentor of Alex's, helped out during the mix and made some great suggestions about using the score effectively. Kenny has been the music editor on some of the most well-known and influential films of the last 30 years — films like “E.T.” and most of Jerry Goldsmith's projects — that have had tremendous impact on me. That's kinda like finding out Conrad L. Hall (no relation) is shooting your next film.