This post is all about the 2012 Tropscore Film Composition Competition. I have included two outstanding works by my students, as well as a work of my own and others I just had to include from Youtube because of their exceptional quality.
When the winners were announced I was a little confused. Not because I didn’t win, but because I thought they just didn’t work as film scores. I listen to a-lot of Howard Shore, James Newton Howard, John Williams, Klaus Badelt, Jerry Goldsmith and of course, Hans Zimmer. The chosen entries did not have that ‘sync to film/action/emotion’ factor that I have heard of in the great composers’ works. ~ anyone else notice I called them great composers? That’s another blog post waiting to happen.
This got me thinking. How about I hold my own comparison here! I cannot upload the video due to copyright but I have included some student works with scores (because that is how it should be done), my own piano quintet, as well as some YouTube finds. Choose and vote for your favourite using the comments section below.
Then listen to the winners over here at the Tropscore website and you tell me which should have won 🙂
My Students’ work
Nathan
Joshua
My Work
Other wonderful works
RETURNING by Nathangoblemusic
Tropscore 2012 Entry – “Submergence” – Original Composition
Returning – Tropscore 2012 shortlisted entry by Daniel Soffner
Tropscore 2012 Entry – “I Can Hear You Now” feat. Alana Jagt
Tropscore 2012 Entry – “Finished The Race, Kept The Faith”
I hope you enjoyed these entries and the scores.
I look forward to seeing your comments, on the compositions, below!
image courtesy of Compfight ~ a Flikr creative commons search tool
I loved your post. Much obliged.
I thought the winner and both finalist’s entries where far better than anything here. What was it about their entries that ‘didn’t work’ for you?
Please let my students know constructively what you think. This post was designed to generate discussion 🙂
I would be glad to post your entry and opinions.
Could you please refer to the musical material so they (and I) have avenues to improve?
Upon review some of the youtube entries work or have captured the right mood for the film.
The compositions themselves are fine, they just don’t reflect the mood of this film.
Sorry if the above post seemed a little blunt, but you were a little blunt in your dismissing the work of the three finalists.
I didn’t have an entry as I didn’t know about the competition until it was too late, but I’ll be entering next year. Good luck to both of us!
Hats off to you all. I enjoyed them all as a piece of music, but i am not convinced that it captured the tone of the film. I was one of the finalists, and quite frankly i was surprised that i was, but i think that an orchestral score just doesn’t quite suit the tone of the film. I am finding it hard to explain, but it is quite obviously an ‘amateur’ film, so a ‘hollywood’ sound just seems out of place. I wrote 8 different scores for the film, my first was orchestral. My second was a small orchestra. Third was a string quartet, and i kept getting smaller and smaller with my overall sound to try and find one right for the film.
Now i have no experience whatsoever in film scoring, or orchestration for that matter, so take my views with a grain of salt 🙂
I also much prefer to write orchestrally, and study the works of Shore, Williams, DeSplat, and even Zimmer for something easy, which is why i really appreciated the scores you have posted, particularly Joshuas.
So while i consider your students’ works to be more musically intellectual pleasing than my own, they (apparently) don’t tell enough of a story to accompany the image.
I think a way to improve would be to have a clear returning theme, one the reoccurs.
Keep up the good work
Fantastic!
Thank you very much for the time it took you to write this post, I appreciate it immensely.
I think your insights are correct and well said; no need for any salt 😉
The fact that you wrote 8 scores is very impressive and shows alot of foresight.
This post was originally designed to generate a discussion of composition to film so I thank you again. It has sparked off a few other ideas of mine (including writing for computer games as another genre with its own style)that I intend to research and blog about. What research I have done so far supports your comments above.
I’m sure Joshua will enjoy your comment too 🙂