Obviously a very popular and, perhaps, overdone favourite of modern students, Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive is a fantastic film. Since the film Rhys' group is going to be making has many similar elements Drive is one of the first places I went for inspiration on the soundtrack.
Perhaps the most iconic scene is this opening robbery and getaway. It is immaculately shot and paced, but the main reason (in my opinion) that this scene is so effective struck so many people is the driving synth soundtrack. It subtly moves in and out of prominence in the mix perfectly suiting and enhancing the tension.
Nicolas Winding Refn said in an interview that he wanted the music to be like a clock ticking. Much like the watch Ryan Gosling's character places on the steering wheel. It's supposed to represent the mechanical way that the character can drive and the near lack of emotion of the character himself.
The effect is achieved through using a low pass filter and increasing and decreasing the frequencies being cut off in order to let more or less sound through. When there is very little happening the low pass filter allows just the bass to come through which keeps the tension high. When the action picks the low pass filter is increased to allow more of the treble through and so the sound becomes more full and alive, suiting the image on screen.
Since the film being made appears to have a lot of Drive influence (including similar tense shots of someone driving) it makes sense to attempt something similar in the soundtrack. However Drive is so well known and distinctive that imitating it would be stupid and obvious. I have to come up with a way to achieve similar tension without ripping it off.
My initial idea is to use the same convention as the soundtrack from the opening of Drive, but use much more distorted and "heavy" synthesizers and sounds. These represent the character from Rhys' film better as he appears more openly violent and aggressive and so this fits with the film thematically as well as sounding different to Drive.
