Selected Short Films (Sound Design & Music Composition)
Just Friends (2019)
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Just Friends (2019) is a coming-of-age story exploring the ambiguous relationship and homosexual attractions between two teenage girls. The film delves into themes of bullying, religion, and self-discovery. A pivotal moment comes when one protagonist tells her girlfriend, “I’m a boy, I think. I feel like I'm supposed to be a boy,” encapsulating the complex journey of identity.
Director: Gally Michel
Producer: Madeline Gilbert
Executive Producer: John and Laura Michel
Director of Photography: Sam Tetro
Production Designer: Kelly Li
Editor: Marco Gonzalez
Associate Producer: Wendy S Wilkins
Music: Ben Michel
Sound Department
Sound Mixer: Joseph Damico
Boom Operator: Emily Jerison
Sound Editor & Sound Designer: Ziqian Liu
For this project, I was responsible for sound editing and design. Notable moments in the sound design include the playful sounds of balloons, water splashes, rustling clothes, ambient noises, footsteps, and the lively chatter of children at a pool. I also experimented with spatialization techniques to enhance the auditory experience. One of my favorite parts was the final sequence, which focuses on natural sounds, such as a rabbit's voice and its symbolic connection to water and nature.
The theme of the rabbit is particularly significant, appearing twice in the film: first as a mural in the swimming pool, and later when the girls find a rabbit by a nearby river. The rabbit symbolizes innocence, vulnerability, and renewal, mirroring the protagonists’ emotional journeys. Its recurring presence ties the narrative to themes of nature and purity, serving as a visual and auditory anchor for their self-discovery.
A particularly creative challenge came in the opening sequence, which required arcade machine sounds. Lacking experience with arcade environments, I used a crane sound to simulate the mechanical noises of arcade machines, blending it seamlessly with other elements to create an authentic atmosphere.
Her Garden (2019)
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Her Garden (2019), directed and written by Robert Baudouin and produced by Nieves Garcia Perchin, was created as part of a final-year film production course at Boston University. The film stars Dave DiLillo as Joseph and Nathaniel Sylva as Matthew, with cinematography by Chase Shamlian and production design by Meliora Xu. For this project, I was responsible for the film’s complete sound and music conception and execution.
My work encompassed location sound recording, dialogue editing and synchronization, foley, sound design, and original music composition. I developed a restrained, atmosphere-driven sonic approach that prioritizes emotional subtlety and environmental presence, allowing the rural landscape to function as an expressive narrative element.
Through extensive field recording, I integrated natural ambiences into the film’s sonic fabric, reinforcing its pastoral themes and sense of contemplation. The musical score evolves from sparse, textural writing toward a more lyrical expression in the final sequence, mirroring the film’s emotional trajectory. A key sound-design moment includes a J-cut transition using the sound of a train to bridge the countryside and the city, underscoring the thematic and emotional distance between father and son.Her Garden became a formative exploration of how sound and music shape cinematic space, emotion, and environmental meaning—an approach that continues to inform both my creative practice and my research interests in cinema and sound.
From the NEM Forum to Ravel: Creations, Synesthesia, and Research Perspectives
By Ziqian Liu, Oct 2, 2025, Montreal
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This afternoon, I attended the Composition Forum of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM) at the University of Montreal, a leading ensemble known for its modern approach to 20th- and 21st-century works. The program included contemporary compositions with innovative textures, discussions on sound-image relationships, “attached cinema,” and new orchestration techniques.
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I was particularly struck by Tom Lachance’s presentation on synesthesia and the interaction of tactile, visual, and auditory sensations, which resonated with my Extended Cinema research at Concordia. The forum also addressed the material and financial challenges of contemporary creation.
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Building on these reflections, I continue to explore connections between music, cinema, literature, and visual arts during France’s Belle Époque, focusing on impressionist music, avant-garde silent cinema, and the work of composers like Ravel, Debussy, and Lili Boulanger. I remain fascinated by cine-concerts dedicated to French silent cinema.
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To conclude the day, I played an excerpt from Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess on the University of Montreal’s public piano, reflecting on the beauty of both the piano and orchestral versions, recently included in the Orchestre National de France’s Ravel Paris 2025.
Music Performances
Four Songs — Practice Recording
by Ziqian Liu, August 24, 2025,
This week, I recorded four songs that are close to my heart in the stairwell of the John Molson Building at Concordia, a place full of memories from my master’s studies. Each piece tells a story and evokes a particular emotion:
Program:
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Sainte, M.9 — Maurice Ravel / Poem by Stéphane Mallarmé
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Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep — Poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye / Libera adaptation
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Youkali — Kurt Weill / Text by Roger Fernay
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Nuit d’étoiles — Claude Debussy / Poem by Théodore de Banville
These songs have accompanied me through different stages of my life, from the Children’s Choir of CCTV in Beijing to my studies at Concordia and Boston. They reflect my deep connection to poetry, symbolist music, and the emotions they evoke.
Experimental Audiovisual Projects
Synesthetic Cosmos
April 2, 2021
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Synesthetic Cosmos is a one-minute visual-music film that explores Gene Youngblood’s concept of expanded consciousness and synesthetic cinema as articulated in Expanded Cinema. Constructed from filtered and superimposed footage of everyday objects found in my bedroom—such as a desk lamp, fabrics, and small sculptures—the film transforms the mundane into an uncanny audiovisual experience. Guided by an original musical composition, the visuals are edited a posteriori to prioritize sound as the structuring force of the film, emphasizing audio-visual synchronicity as an expression of internalized synesthetic perception.
Drawing inspiration from the work of Stan Brakhage and Jordan Belson, the project employs techniques of superimposition, optical effects, and collage-like montage to create a continuous metamorphosis of form, light, and texture. These strategies align with Youngblood’s notion of syncretism, dissolving traditional hierarchies between image and sound while encouraging multiple viewings and interpretations. The film’s kaleidoscopic transformations aim to induce kinesthetic and oceanic states of perception, moving toward a sense of cosmic consciousness.
Through spatialized sound design, reverb, and geometric visual patterns, Synesthetic Cosmos seeks to expand cinematic space beyond the screen, echoing Belson’s integration of electronic sound and sacred geometry. Ultimately, the project demonstrates how everyday digital technologies can serve as tools for exploring expanded cinematic form, bridging art and science while foregrounding conscious experience as the core of audiovisual creation.
Infinity: A Sound Response Project
Boston, 2017
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Artwork Referenced: Endless Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism (2007)Josiah McElhenyMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston