Posts Categorized: Film Scores

Hello again. It’s been a while since my last update in 2018!

Silent Witness has been going strong up to Series 25 now.

I’ve scored a couple of fiction feature films since then too. Cathy Brady’s beautiful “Wildfire” set in Northern Ireland about the intense and troubled relationship between two sisters and the ongoing aftermath of “the Troubles”. Also Martha Tilston’s debut feature “The Tape” a film about a singer rediscovering her passions.

On the documentary side I’ve scored a feature length doc about the Euro currency called “The Euro Story” dir. Annalisa Piras and am just completing a true crime doc for ITN - more info to follow!

Collaborations on the string arranging and production side have continued with Maribou State, Lucy Rose, Aquilo, Hardkandy, Barry Can’t Swim, Chartreuse, Chris Ja and many more! I’ve enjoyed some fantastic live gigs including the Glastonbury Acoustic Stage (Lucy Rose) and the epic West Holts stage (Maribou State) on the same day.

I’ve also just finished an adorable animation about a woman who gives birth to a cat (dir.Lilian Fu). Release date very soon, watch this space!

Very excited to be writing the music for Silent Witness season 22 with Andy Price and Nick Walker. We’ve been writing away since May and will be finished in January 2019 when it will be broadcast. Gives me a nice opportunity to put my weird and wonky hat on mashing up lots of acoustic live instrument stuff with morbid electronica science noise gadgets. Silent Witness very much has a “sound” that has been great to learn and dive into the production styles and we’re respecting that sound whilst now pushing things forward! They are also great layered juicy plots to delve into the characters/subtext/dilemmas and of course….MURRDURR! (Best said like Taggart would).

For Outstanding Debut Feature film! So happy for everyone on the team!

…..for Best Outstanding Debut Feature Film. That’s nice

http://www.bafta.org/film/awards/ee-british-academy-film-awards-in-2018

Well this is a lovely thing to wake up to, the music for I Am Not A Witch has been nominated for a BIFA!

After a bunch of congratulatory texts I had no idea what they were on about I saw the nomination against the likes of Carter Burwell and Paul Weller!!!

The film picked up 13 nominations in total, see here for more info

https://www.bifa.film/awards/nominations

I’ve had the pleasure of scoring these features recently

I’m Not a Witch dir. Rungano Nyoni

A feature fiction film about witch camps in Africa following young Shula who has been accused of being a witch. The score ranged from Vivaldi to rap, country to atonal jazz. The whole film had a very original feel to it and the use of music was always carefully “skewed” to the narrative to fit with the off the wall, deadpan comedy about a very serious and tragic situation. Premiered at Cannes film festival 2017.

Pop Aye dir. Kirsten Tan

Oh no not another arthouse Thai mid-life crisis road trip with an elephant movie I hear you cry! Honoured to write music for Kirsten Tan’s (Singapore) very original debut feature. Thana, an architect who feels he has been spewn out by the city he’s worked for his whole life, discovers his childhood pet Pop Aye the elephant and sets off across Thailand to take him back to their childhood home. The score for this was mainly in the 60s Surf guitar realm with some Morricone cowboy moments, offsetting the sweeping Thai countryside and fitting with the rediscovered youthfulness and sense of adventure from our lone cowboy Thana and his steed, Pop Aye. Premiered at Sundance Festival 2017 picking up the Best Screenplay Award.

Europe at Sea (documentary) dir. Annalisa Piras

A feature documentary for Annalisa Piras and Springshot Productions following Federica Mogherini (picured) High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy . Federica has the momentous task of overhauling Europe’s defence strategies dealing with issues including terrorism, immigration, conventional and asymmetric warfare. The score gave me the opportunity to get experimental and dystopian whilst trying to keep a European flavour, in keeping with it’s cultural breadth and historical depth. For forthcoming broadcast across Europe including Sky, ARTE and SVT.

Hello, well it has been a while, I’ve been really fortunate to have worked on some great projects so far this year, such as…………………………………………………..

Miss Transgender: Britain’s New Beauty Queens

Feature Documentary Dir. Jasleen Kaur Sethi for Minnow Films/BBC1

A documentary following three transgender women competing in the 2015 Miss Transgender Beauty pageant. Really interesting doc and equally interesting to score, trying to capture a sense of bravery and elegance but combining it with occasional vulnerability and the KERPOW! one would expect from these sorts of emotionally charged competitions.

Apprentice

Fiction Feature Film Dir. Boo Junfeng, Augenschein Filmproduktion.

Beautiful and highly original Singapore arthouse film about an executioner’s apprentice, recently premiering at Cannes 2016. I co-scored this with Alexander Zeke, ranging from bubbling and restless strings to claustrophobic sound design, such a rich, moving and understated film all round. Check it out if you can!

Martha Tilston New Album (and new direction!)

I’ve been making music away from film both in the studio and on stage with Martha Tilston singersongstress. It’s always a magical experience. We’ve been beavering away on her new album with a new direction for her heading _BEATS_wards, MUCH fun and we’ve been signed to Membran records in Germany! Here’s to some more European tours!

Every Split Second Counts (The History of Olympic Time Keeping)

Documentary for Omega time keeping. Dir John Dower. Pulse Films.

Well…..I was amazed how engrossed I was by this film, time keeping sounds likes a rather drab subject, but when you get into the history and sports people’s stories and their dedication, either to be awarded or cruuuuuelly denied at the finish line by thousandths of a second….crushing, uplifting. Anyway enough of my opinion, you can watch the whole thing HERE!

Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope

6-part TV series Dir. Cathy Brady. Deadpan pictures for RTE Ireland.

Great comedy drama series written by Stefanie Preisner, following the relationship of two twenty-something party girls. I loved working on this, really great mix of comedy and drama and letting me go a bit leftfield and wonky at times (love a bit of wonky!).

UPCOMING

So just about to dive into some string arrangements for Ninja Tune’s Jono McCleery for his forthcoming album and then onto a feature film called “Popeye” written and directed by Kirsten Tan, starring….an elephant! can’t wait.

Here’s an update on some of the recent features I’ve scored.

IO, ARLECCHINO dir. Matteo Bini, Giorgio Pasotti. A moving Italian film about old and new traditions told through a father and son relationship. I loved working on this film trying to capture a sense of antiquity, the vibrance and earthiness of the Comedia dell’Arte combined with a modern treatment and a nice amount of free reign to go epic! Cinematic release coming soon.

The Great European Disaster Movie Dir. Annalisa Piras for BBC Storyville. A controversial documentary with an interwoven dystopian fiction strand about the way the European Union could be heading if we don’t do something. This was a real joy to work on capturing the breadth and historical depth of Europe combined with a quasi-futuristic dystopia, perfect opportunity to do some wonky weird whilst exploring the wide range of music from across the continent.  Following on from BBC4 broadcast, currently being broadcast and screened across Europe.

As You Were Dir. Jeikai Liao. A subtle and powerful film, loaded with everything that goes unsaid in a relationship between two childhood sweethearts reunited after many years of separation. The gentle and experimental approaches in the film offered me the great opportunity of focusing in on being delicately understated one moment then to be throwing random objects inside a piano and severely mistreating it to coax out some industrial cityscape Singapore jazz mutants.

A lovely Polish film I scored last year “Smutne potwory” (“Sad Monsters”) directed by Justyna Tafel has just won the Grand Prize at the prestigious ZOOM-ZBLIŻENIA Międzynarodowy Festiwal Filmowy in Poland.

What a fantastic and surreal evening at the BAFTAs! A tonne of stars a tonne of free cocktails and Sleeping with the Fishes getting some of those gold faces to take home for Best Short Animation! Wow!!!!! Who’dathunk it?

Very proud to have been the composer on 3 of the 7 nominations for the 2014 Golden Reel Awards by the Motion Picture Sound Editors organisation out in LA, THE top Sound in film awards. Congrats to Tom Lock Griffiths “Miss Todd”, Filipe Paskiewicz “Anamnesis”and Nikola Medic “Sleeping with the Fishes” (who is having to miss the BAFTA awards ceremony to be in LA! I dunno know these awards ceremonies are like buses).

SOOOOOOOO chuffed for the whole Team Fish for our BAFTA nomination for Best Animation Short! _FIN-_gers crossed! More info on the film’s webpage, including how to watch it online, here – www.sleepingwiththefishesfilm.com

“Dollface”, a dark comedy directed by Louis Paxton (scored by me!) will be screening at the following film festivals this January.

Sat 18th Jan at the London Short Films Festival in the programme “Love Makes the World Go Round”

17th – 20th Jan at Sputnik Kino’s British Shorts in Berlin

17th – 19th Jan at Southend’s Horror-On-Sea Festival, apparently playing in a big white bus cinema. I love the sound of a seaside horror film festival in a bus.

“Sleeping with the Fishes” won the Audience Award for Best of British Animation at the London International Animation Festival 2013. Always nice to get the thumbs up from the punters!!!!

…was my latest brief for a forthcoming app trailer. I was surprised I couldn’t find other examples of such a wondrous union of genres. The results coming a-forthwith, watch this space!

Edit 5th Jan 2014: Finished trailer is here!

Amazing news for the “Sodiq” documentary that I scored, winning a prestigious Grierson Award for Best Student Documentary. This is apparently the top accolade for documentaries in this country. Director Yemi is currently out in Nigeria for it’s screening in the Africa International Film Festival plus the film has been nominated for the IDA Documentary Awards, the USA equivalent of the Griersons. Fingers crossed!

I’ve been throughly enjoying writing some additional music for episodes 2 and 3 for the 2nd series of Ripper Street alongside Dominik Scherrer. The series starts Mon 28th Oct on BBC1! The music for the entire series was also one of the three nominees for Best Music at the Royal Television Society Awards.

“Miss Todd” dir. Kristina Yee has recently won the Best International Student Film at the Blackrock Animation Festival in Dublin, Ireland. The film has also made her way into Puchon International Student Animation Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival, Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival and Heartland Film Festival.

“Mass of Men” dir. Gabriel Gauchet has now won 25 top place awards in festivals and has been invited into 47 international festivals so far! Details here http://gabrielgauchet.com/The%20Mass%20of%20Men/themassofmen-awa.html

“Sleeping with the Fishes” dir. Yousif Al-Khalifa has recently been invited into the BAFTA qualifying Leeds International Film Festival, Puchon International Student Animation Festival (Korea) and the  International Competition at the Rencontres Henri Langlois International Film Schools’ Festival.

“Sodiq” dir. Adeyemi Michael has been nominated for the prestigious Grierson UK Documentary Awards (plus some more exciting news to follow!)

aaaand “Our Name is Michael Morgan” dir.Maurice Caldera has been invited to International Film Festival of Cinematic Arts, Miami Short Film Festival, St Louis International Film Festival. If only I could join the Mr.Morgans on their trip!

“Miss Todd” has been accepted to swoop into a few more festivals recently, adding to this list;

YEAH!!It’s also just gotten into London International Animation Festival, screening on 30th Oct 2013 and also in the Oscar qualifying Cinanima festival in Portugal. Keeping those fins crossed…..  .  .     .

Great to see “Our Name Is Michael Morgan” hopping around the globe into International Budapest Short Film Festival, Lund Fantastisk Filmfestival (Sweden), Edmonton International Film Fest (Canada) and having it’s UK premiere at Cambridge Film Festival in September. Catch the trailer here!

MISS TODD makes it to the Best Of The Fest screening as AUDIENCE FAVOURITE ANIMATION at Palm Springs International Shortfest. Has also made it into Traverse City Film Festival in Michigan, founded by documentary film maker Michael Moore and had its US East Coast Premiere at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival.

I’m so excited and happy to have been chosen from over 400 applicants to score the forthcoming theatre production of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” by Flying Bear productions. Puppets, animation, multi-media-primal-folk-classical-semi-improv-experimentalism. First workshop beginning of August, improvising with puppets! YEAH!

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on this gentle and moving doc about the last Argentinian cowboys and their way of life slowing dying out. The slow death of the more natural, holistic traditions is a fairly well trodden idea in films but this one really got me! I also discovered some lovely Argentinian folk whilst researching music ideas for this. Check this out for those with spotify.

Been enjoying getting my jazz on to score clothing company’s G&H new advert, directed by Eddie Wrey.

Very pleased to be asked to collaborate on this lovely understated short film by Geoff Taylor and mixed at Technicolor’s amazing Anvil Teatre. Exciting festival news to follow for this one. Please see trailer here.

So so happy that Miss Todd won the top Gold honours in the Best Foreign Film category at the 40th Student Academy Awards. It’s the first time an animation has won the award ever.

– Like ever ever?

– ever ever.

Let alone a musical animation

Such a lovely end to a fantastic week out in LA.

“Miss Todd” will make it’s South American Premiere in the non-competitive Panorama section of the prestigious Anima Mundi 2013. Also at the festival in the non-competitive “Animation of Course” sections are some chums’ animations “First Light” by Wing Yan Lillian Fu and “Robomax” by Moayad Fahmi. If anyone would like to pay for me to go then that would be really good, thanks.

http://www.animamundi.com.br/en/festival/information/selected-films-2013:565.html

“Sodiq” directed by Adeyemi Michael (Yemi) will be having it’s World Premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest 2013. “Sodiq” is a documentary following the life of Yemi’s teenage friend, Sodiq Adeojo (pictured above), with whom he set up Peckham Youngsters FC, a local football team for kids on their housing estate ‘to give teenagers another kind of gang to belong to.’ At that time (2008), Sodiq dreamed of becoming a doctor.  Five years later (2012), he has been convicted of murdering Sylvester Akpalara and is now serving a 30-year jail sentence in Feltham Young Offenders Institution.

Check out www.adeyemimichael.com for more details.

“Mass of Men” directed by Gabriel Gauchet, cold and minimalist score by one Matthew Kelly, continues it’s great success by winning the Royal Television Society 2013 Best Postgraduate Fiction Film. “Mass of Men” is about how a cold impersonal beaurocratic system can yield even more chilling reactions from the people within it. The film has so far won entry to over 30 film festivals plus numerous other awards including:

The Golden Leopard, San Sebastien 2012

Double win of Critic’s prize and BDMA for Best Short, Janela IFF 2012

Double Win, Golden Mikeldi for Best International Fiction & Audience Award, Zinebi Bilbao 2012

Grand Prix, Tampere International Film Festival

Grand Jury Prize, Lille Festival du Film Européen

For more info please visit www.gabrielgauchet.com

Tom Lock Griffiths doing the final mix today for “The Angel” a short film about grief directed by Elizabeth Caproni that I scored. Screening info to follow.

“Miss Todd” directed by Kristina Yee and “Sleeping with the Fishies” directed by Yousif Al-Khalifa, both scored by me, are to have their Asian Premieres at Seoul Cartoon and Animation Festival 2013.

“Miss Todd” is a stop-motion animated musical using cut out paper puppets about the first woman to design and build an aeroplane, Lilian Todd in 1910. The trailer can be seen on my video reel page.

“Sleeping With The Fishies” is a hand drawn animation about a lonely female fishmonger, fearful of human contact, who develops feelings for a guy who looks like a fish. Trailer coming soon!

I’ve been enjoying scoring a charming little film called “The Ogre Hunters” directed by Luke Rodgers, starring Timothy West and Prunella Scales for the British Library Spring Festival. I like any director that lets me whistle on their film soundtrack.

aaaah!

“Fucking, Drifting, Grasping, City Lights” directed by Ola Jankowska, with prepared piano score by meself, is having it’s world premiere at Festival Premiers Plans d’Angers. FDGCL is a meditative and episodic portrait of a couple who a re lost in a city that doesn’t love them back. More info at www.olajankowska.com

Very happy the dystopian “Our Name is Michael Morgan” written and directed by Maurice Caldera will be having it’s world premiere at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival 2013.