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The Hum

The Hum: The Secret of Ardbruichmore is a hauntingly offbeat mockumentary where sound becomes ritual… and silence is never guaranteed. On a remote Scottish island, a mysterious festival pulses beneath the earth. Deep within limestone caves, locals gather to operate massive synthesizers, creating a sound said to transcend reality itself. But when tragedy strikes, the harmony begins to fracture - exposing tensions between tradition, truth, and the cost of devotion.

  • Olaf Taranczewski
    Director
  • Olaf Taranczewski
    Writer
  • Olaf Taranczewski
    Producer
  • Olaf Taranczewski
    Composer
  • Olaf Taranczewski
    Editor
  • Olaf Taranczewski
    Sound Design & Mix
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Mockumentary, Documentary, AI
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 11 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 17, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Shooting Format:
    100% AI generated footage
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Mixed*
    Portland
    United States
    February 4, 2026
    North American Premiere
    WINNER: Asterisk Audience Award / Official Selection
  • ECU European Independent Film Festival
    Paris
    France
    April 24, 2026
    European Premiere
    WINNER: Best AI Short of 2026 / Official Selection
  • Sarasota Film Festival
    Sarasota
    United States
    April 18, 2026
    Official Selection
  • Vienna Shorts
    Vienna
    Austria
    May 29, 2026
    Austrian Premiere
    Festival Favorites Section
  • Soundtrack Cologne / See The Sound
    Cologne
    Germany
    July 15, 2026
    German Premiere
Director Biography - Olaf Taranczewski

This is the first official short film by Olaf Taranczewski, who is a German-Polish classically trained pianist, composer, and professor known for his genre-bending work in jazz, electronic, and film music, often incorporating prepared piano and synthesizers, with numerous award-winning film scores (including "best music for an animated short" at Annecy, and The German Film Music Award) and collaborations across various creative fields, including teaching jazz/pop production at the Trossingen University of Music.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Link to director's statement video on YouTube (2:20m):
https://youtu.be/cZg_2XFwBwA

This film was born from a vivid, slightly chaotic dream I had that was so striking I had to write it down the second I woke up. In this dream, I found myself on a remote Scottish island at an obscure music festival where dwarf-like musicians were performing deep inside limestone caves, huddled around a massive modular synthesizer. As a film composer with a lifelong obsession with synths, the music I heard in that dream stayed with me for months.
I spent the following year building out this world in my notebooks, slowly spinning a narrative around this strange festival. I always had the inkling that AI tools might one day allow me to bring this vision to life as a mockumentary, but the tech hadn’t quite caught up yet. That changed in late 2025 with the release of Google's Nano Banana Pro and Veo 3.1. After experimenting with these models, I realized the time was finally right to bring the dream to the screen.
While the visuals were AI-assisted, the whole process was still deeply human. I spent roughly 80 to 100 hours writing the script, refining prompts, „casting“ virtual characters, and handling the entire edit in Premiere Pro. The voices were generated and synced using ElevenLabs, and of course, being a film composer, I composed the entire score myself using my analogue synthesizers to match the otherworldly vibe of The Hum.
As for the name “Ardbruichmore,” I have to confess it’s a total invention—a shameless mash-up of three of my favorite Scottish whisky distilleries. I hope you enjoy these seven minutes of absurdity. It’s a little slice of a world caught somewhere between a Scottish nature documentary, a modular synth nerd’s fever dream, and a touch of Fantasy.