Distinction : Composing for Media
Why I came to Point Blank
Whilst doing my HOFA College Diploma as part of my BSc Degree in Creative Media (Audio Engineering) at Trigon Academy Malta I felt I needed some extra support and help with my course outside of what was provided. The HOFA course is primarily a self training online course with extensive online manuals to make notes from and numerous exercises and tasks to complete for which you receive written feedback and also some webinars but not zoom classes and a VLE that promotes online communication at the international academy level. I felt after 4 years study I needed to talk to others involved in Audio this side of the EU boarder and to make friends with potential clients in London, now I was getting to the business end of the course.
I didn't know how I was going to realistically make contacts in the UK without paying to network and paying my way in so I've shelled out 950 quid for a composition for media course in 4 instalments with Ben Medcalf (DJ Rouge Beatz) who has a reputation for Composition for Media. I was lucky enough to pass that Level 5 module in all but name with distinction and to employ an A+R lady to help me get work in the field. Back in 2022 I did a Guildhall School of Music and Drama introductory course with Barbara Di Biasi who got some music into the Cannes Film Festival. That was called Film Music Composition for Beginners and was ungraded. Point Blank's composition for media course covered the same topic in more depth. I was given a distinction grade too.
I did that course in 2022 because Audio Engineering seemed such a broad church at the start of my course and as a rookie I had no idea what field of study to focus on as a career interest. There is live Deejaying that most people make it in at first, but I'd have to be DJ Teetotal because of my diabetes and that's more of a young person's game. I did 2 gigs of work experience in Live Deejaying at Colchester Arts Centre where I shadowed DJ Graham Hales producing Some Kinda Wonder and another jazz singer. DJ Graham is going into acoustics and soundproofing of concert halls to prevent sound pollution into the environment late at night. Room acoustics and building, and studio design is another related field. That, and deejaying shows and my own gigs might make me something as a late starter, but one of the best fields to make it in still is composing for media and I'm good at it. Indeed I started off composing 235 scores in Sibelius. These are old fashion notational scores which you can play from or render a .MIDI file of and import into logic to produce from. I already have an extensive library of compositions to draw on then. Some of which I made use of syncing with the videos for my final projects at PB.
1. Composition for Media with Ben Medcalf
The composition for media tasks were split into two. The mid term tasks were to design three themes for the film ET The Extra Terrestrial by Steven Spielberg with a brief to represent three contrasting sections in the movie with an arrangement of the whole or part of the ET theme. 3 situations with 15 to 30 seconds of music for each brief.
- ET Making Friends
- ET being chased by the FBI
- ET Going Home
My making friends theme :
The FBI chase theme :
My going home theme :
The Final project was to score three 30 second Old Carling Beer and Cider Advertisements
1. Trick Shot
This was a bar scene in which the protagonist attempts a trick shot on the pool table that's really quite amazing but it doesn't quite come off and his friend doesn't allow him a beer.
For the music for this I chose to pull from my library as I did for all three. This is a movement for string quartet from my first complete 4 movement quartet for strings called Schweizerpslam after the Swiss National Anthem. It's written to Nigel Farage as a compliment for beating me as a Praetorian Guard Remainer in the 2016 referendum campaign which I took part in as an activist and vote checker. He said we were all going to be Swiss so I listened to the Swiss National anthem and got inspired to write this. It works quite well with pool balls too!
2. The Catch
The catch is a game of cricket being held on a village green. The protagonist runs to stop the ball hitting the ladies but accidentally throws the cricket ball through the window of a parked van thus no longer earning his Carling.
For this I used some of the first movement of my 21st 3 movement piano sonata with the title 'Berlin'!
3. Apple Bobbling
A man is set up to dunk for apples from a balloon in the sky. He bungees down and grabs an apple in his mouth from about half a mile in the air but missed the carling cider bottle underneath it so he is returned empty handed to the sky via the bungee rope.
For this I used some of the 3rd movement of my Sonata Nr.4 entitled 5 Variations and 2 part fugue. It was inspired by my favourite night in with a girl in 2014.
I scored over 90% the final three ads counting for 100% of the marks and was awarded a distinction grade from Point Blank college for that performance. He said he'd only given that mark a handful of times before (3x before).