Twice I have attended a bone marrow transplant gala at the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel. Each time I came out of the event with an idea about Sam Spalding. The first was a short piece called “An actor was funny”. The second became I hope so!

 

In the idea, Sam Spalding would be talking, and one by one, cartoon flowers would appear, crowding the screen and obscuring Spalding’s speech. I didn’t want the flowers to come across as scolding or impatient. The flowers wouldn’t silence Sam for any reason other than Sam’s own benefit. Beth liked the idea. Shortly after this, Tessa Wick reached out to me. She wanted to put on a show. I proposed this piece as our feature.

 

The flowers themselves were an afterthought. I imagined them on printer paper, overlaid on Sam’s monologue. Beth’s interpretation was more substantial. She began preparing a list of dimensions for a flower I had never specifically considered: a purple coneflower. The purple coneflower when made giant is an otherworldy looking thing. Beth’s flowers developed a real presence as they were painted, stuffed, and upscaled. Beth’s flowers further grew in size leading up to the premiere, reaching the high ceilings of the old, lead warehouse. A bit menacing, fun, and bouncing, the giant echinacea groupings defined I hope so!’s appearance. 

 

In January, I decided to add a second act to Sam Spalding’s story. The silencing flowers became a vehicle to another scene, one in which Sam ends up somewhere he doesn’t understand. During his ramblings, there is an impression that Sam Spalding understands the life he lives. Instead of poking a hole in this or punishing Sam for a nearsighted perspective, I imagined a spirit conglomeration making the transition into the unknown gentler than you’d expect. The spirits are carefully chosen pieces of junk from Facebook Marketplace. They are voiced by family and friends, each voice with their own bespoke and mismatched reverb chain. The spirits are supposed to be funny and sweet. 

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The music and musical aspects of I hope so! were the most important pieces of the project to me. Melody, musical effects, and the performance itself afforded the story its feeling. I had a melody for the movie months before we began filming. Hardly a minute into I hope so!, Sam Spalding's foot-twirling is mapped musically with synthesizers, and when performed live, clay bird whistles. Spalding's guitar playing was placed in the center of the film on purpose, and his music speaks to his personality as much as his ramblings do. A booming musical sound plays alongside the arrival of every coneflower. Each flower sound is different. J, Zach, and Cabe each added their musical ideas to the score. Played live, I hope so! was as improvised as it was through-composed; not too adventurous in musical form, but malleable in delivery. The second showing, for instance, was far more rambunctious and humorous in response to the joviality of the crowd. I am thankful to my friends in music who made the score possible. As far as what's recorded, J's extensive technical wrangling of the recordings themselves, and the sound design at large, was greatly appreciated. I hope so! ends with a cover of Justus Köhncke's cover of "So weit wie noch nie". The song's melody was originally sampled from Daliah Lavi's "Vielleicht Schon Morgen".

 

I hope so! came together during a cold and difficult Minnesota winter. An untrained military came to town. They murdered Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Violent Elon Musk fans were given federal permission to arrest innocent people. Greg Bovino stood there short and awful.  I couldn’t stand the sight of Tom Homan on my phonescreen. I had an odd and new (for me) knot in my stomach of being in direct conflict with my own country.

 

Beth made a habit of marching with one of the coneflowers. Among the justified and vulgar signs that we all held high, the flower was easy for us to stand under as a family. I hope so!  isn’t a political piece, far from it. I don’t think fast enough to be political, and I don’t know enough history. With that said, the state of the world, inhaled in high doses throughout last winter, left a bigger mark on I hope so! than it has in any other project I have presented. 

 

In May we put on the premiere. We had three shows in a room that was designed for the performance; collected chairs, a repurposed schoolhouse chalkboard, and many candles. Tessa and Beth worked tirelessly to install I hope so!  Mary the snowwomen and Tyler the chef led attendants up the concrete factory stairs up to the performance. I was thankful for every show; the third being the best, the second the strangest, the first the nicest. 

 

For 15 dollars, we secured “www.ihopeso.info” for a year. The movie will be here and only here, same for the music, for at least a few months. Maybe the whole year, but the Wix fee is a steeper price to maintain. Thank you for visiting this site, I hope you enjoy the film and the music! 

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Sam Walker

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