ACS France
This piece is a promotional video of “ACS France” a company specialized in aerial filming for cinema, television, and large-scale events.
Some of the many productions they have worked on include: Mission Impossible, Star Wars, Solo, Dunkirk, Inferno, Transformers, Jason Bourne, Assassin’s Creed, Tarzan, Spectre, Jungle Book, Fast & Furious, Red, The Martian, Les Misérables, Oblivion,
War Horse, Sherlock Holmes, Inception, Cloud Atlas, The Dark Knight, Gladiator, Captain America, Justice League, Aquaman, Gozilla vs. Kong, The Tomorrow war.
I was hired to compose original music for their 2018
promotional reel, which needed to combine the epic-
ness of a blockbuster film, and the steady pace of a
corporate video. I thought appropriate to combine
Drum 'n' Bass elements, orchestral writing, and
trailer effects. The sound design was also meant to
be tonal and treated as an instrument in itself. This
resulted in blurring the line that usually separate
the musical score and the non-musical sounds.
The orchestration includes a string section, brass,
orchestral percussions, a D'n'B drum kit, 4 synths,
2 vocalists, 1 electric piano, 1 acoustic guitar, 1 electric
guitar and 1 electric bass.
Hatching Brighter Futures
On the island of Leyte (Philippines), the American
Red Cross is helping entrepreneurs like Adelina
to rebuild and grow their businesses. After losing
her facilities to a powerful typhoon, Adelina received
seed money to restart her duck and pig farm.
I have been commissioned by The American Red
Cross to write original music for this PSA entitled
"Hatching Brighter Futures". My job here was to
touch the heart of audiences in just a few seconds
through a strong emotional score. Some keywords
that were brought up in my discussions with the
Red Cross included: "moving", "hopeful", "whimsical",
"safe haven", and "celebration of life".
This orchestration includes 2 flutes, 2 clarinets,
1 ocarina, a Mark tree, a harp, a plucked piano,
2 synths, 7 violins, 3 violas, 2 celli and 1 double bass. All have a specific purpose: the woodwinds represent the ducklings, the ocarina (the forest), while the strings, harp, plucked piano and "glittery" synthesizer give a sense of calm, innocence and refuge.
The Ribbon
“The Ribbon” is a 2D animated short film by Polla-
Ilariya Kozino, with a cast and crew of well over a
hundred artists. The short was a hit in festivals all over
the world (in over 20 countries) and has won more than
50 awards and industry accolades since 2019.
“The Ribbon” is an animated short film about a young
girl who finds herself in a magical world. Suddenly
she discovers that the long ribbon of her dress is
holding her back, preventing her from further exploring
this enchanting paradise. We come to realize that
the girl is in fact, in a coma, lying on a hospital bed
and that the ribbon metaphorically represents her
heart pulse. As her young heart stops beating, the
ribbon vanishes and she is finally set free.
For this animated film, the picture and music must
work hand-in-hand in order to trigger a very strong emotional response in the viewer. To accomplish this, I made the music mirror each scene in a Mickey-Mousing style. I decided to intentionally mislead the audience with an enchanting and lighthearted atmosphere, in order to later strike with the devastating reality of the girl’s last moments. The unexpected simplicity of a solo piano during the hospital scene creates a very powerful contrast with the big orchestration heard up to that point. Piano is being highly overused when it comes to motion pictures and animation, and I believe that in this short film, it must only be heard strategically to retain its effectiveness and sentimental quality.
The orchestration includes 1 ethnic flute, 1 ocarina, 1 piccolo flute, 2 flutes, 1 English horn, 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 1 bassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 1 tuba, 1 mark tree, suspended cymbals, 2 shakers, bamboo sticks, castanets, 1 washboard, 1 cajón, 1 drum set, 1 glockenspiel, 1 xylophone, 1 celesta, 1 marimba, 1 harp, 1 piano, 2 acoustic guitars, 1 electric bass, 1 dulcimer, 1 langeleik, 1 psaltery, 5 synthesizers, 8 violins, 6 violas, 4 celli, 2 double basses.
Exploring the Pacific Northwest
“Exploring the Pacific Northwest” is a sixty-five-
minute nature and wildlife documentary directed
by Ian A Nelson and narrated by Gregory Harrison.
It has won numerous international awards from both
film and music festivals around the world.
The documentary takes the audience on the American
and Canadian Pacific Coastline through the states
of California, Oregon, Washington, as well as the
province of British Columbia. The wide diversity of
these regions include dense forests, drylands, waterfalls
active volcanoes, mountain ranges and ice fields,
where many animals thrive. These include the endan-
gered Vancouver Island marmot, the grizzly, black
and Kermode Bears, wolves, bobcats, elks, mountain
Goats, bighorn sheep, owls, eagles, and bats.
The director and myself both agreed on an ambient
score with orchestral elements. The main scoring challenge of such visual project is to write small in order to leave room for the narration, while expressing the epicness of grand spaces and the magnificent beauty of untouched nature. In addition to the regular emotions found in film music such as serenity or danger, this score also needed a Mickey-Mousing approach in order to trigger the physical senses of the listener. My job was to make the music sound dry and cold, warm and steamy, or lush and green… all depending on the imagery. The beautiful time-lapses in this documentary also provided me with great opportunities for minimal music, which adequately expresses the passing of time.
The orchestration comprises mostly synthesizers (for both textural and rhythmic elements) but also includes a full symphonic orchestra, in spite of its subtle use.
MisDirected
"MisDirected" is an ice skating comedy created and
directed by 4 x World Champion and 3 x Olympic
figure skater Kurt Browning, and featuring 10 performers
(including Kurt Browning himself). The piece is produced
by Ice Dance International, a touring company made
up of World, Olympic and National champions, and
award-winning artists working behind the scenes. The
skaters are frequent performers for Disney on Ice,
Stars on Ice, Broadway on Ice, Holiday on Ice, and the
Cirque Du Soleil, among other similar companies.
MisDirected is about a Hollywood movie director
trying to film a Broadway piece, but who always gets
distracted by the various entertainers roaming around
his set. His more focused assistant, does his best
to bring back order in the cast, and on stage.
Each character distracting the movie director is associated with a particular music genre. The soundtrack of MisDirector features Rock music, Flamenco, Latin lounge, 70's Disco, Bluegrass, Dance-Pop, and Big Band music, all sprinkled with orchestral mickey-mousing and cartoon sound effects.
Solstice
SOLSTICE is among the very first professional live
entertainment shows created in direct response to
the COVID-19 pandemic. The short ice dance ballet
was created by Douglas Webster, the executive and
artistic director of touring company, Ice Dance Interna-
tional. The piece, performed by world-class figure
skaters, has successfully entertained thousands of
children and families in the Winter of 2020 for free,
helping take minds off the distressing pandemic.
The original music was released as a soundtrack album.
It contains tracks featuring award-winning vocalist Ying
Chen, as well as 8-year-old Danica Lipetsky, also an
award-winning vocalist.
“The soundtrack for SOLSTICE is not background
music. Each instrument, each note and articulation
serve the noble purpose of narrating this epic story that is being performed on the ice. The music was made to sound like a Cirque du Soleil show or a Disney movie”. It is mostly orchestral, but features some Gypsy Jazz.
