As previously mentioned, this project was my first attempt at composing for screen. It was a completely new way of working for me, and I really enjoyed it – I found it really helpful to have a visual reference to inspire me whilst making the piece, and I think I definitely chose the perfect film to score as there was so much imagery to bounce off of.

I think this is the mix that I am the proudest of this year, and listening back to my earlier pieces I can definitely hear improvements both conceptually and technically. I’m also happy that I managed to bring the electric guitar (my primary musical instrument) into the piece, and I hope if I keep doing this it may help me develop my own unique voice within my art. I think I’ve also developed my technique in terms of using distortion in my work – this is something I have shied away from in the past as I’ve never felt like I could successfully implement it into a piece, however I feel as though I’ve been developing a good ear for how to implement it when needed.

However, I do believe there are points I could improve on. I found it hard to get the master level of the track to stay at an adequate volume – I appreciate that having a varied dynamic range in a track is part of what can build and release suspense, however there were times when the master fader would clip at 0.4db, and if I tried to turn the master volume down as a whole this made the quieter parts too quiet, in my opinion. I did try to use compression but I didn’t really feel like I was getting the result I wanted without the piece losing something.

I also think that I could’ve potentially introduced more new elements into the score for the section in the morgue. I really liked the creepy breathing sound that I used, however I feel like I could’ve had something extra come in halfway through, as in my score there is around a minute of just the drone and the breathing. When watching it I feel conscious that nothing new is coming in, although maybe this is more an insecurity on my part as the composer, and I could learn to embrace moments when there is less going on as a means to making the busier moments stand out more.

Overall, I am very pleased by how this piece turned out, and I really look forward to improving further in my second year at LCC (and doing more film scores!) Although there were definitely aspects I feel that I could make better, I’m happy to have learnt lessons now that I can bring to future units.