I’ve always liked film music. From the days I started to go see movies more regularly, it’s always been something that grabbed my attention and by and large will determine how good a movie is in my opinion. In fact it’s such an integral part of my musical landscape that one podcast I follow which is great fun and really insightful and which I would recommend you check out as well is Score the Podcast. And if it wasn’t for these guys, I would have never heard of a company called Spitfire Audio. This has to be the only podcast where I’m more than happy to listen to their regular sponsor pitch because Spitfire is a really cool company.
You see (and by the way I shouldn’t have to mention this because I’m so insignificant it would be laughable it it wasn’t the case) they’re not paying me to write this but although their catalogue of sample libraries can be a little on the expensive side, they also provide a set of free libraries called LABS, as well as the Discovery Edition of their BBC Symphony Orchestra package. Two invaluable set of sample libraries which are invaluable for any inspiring composer.
Because yes, after all this time, composing is something I’m more and more getting drawn towards and while my skills are still rough around the edges to put it kindly, that’s not gonna stop me from trying out opportunities to write music. And in that regard, I was quite excited to hear about the competition that Spitfire put together to score a scene from DC’s Stargirl.
If you’re reading this before the 12th of August 2021 and you would like to give it a go yourself, follow the link above. I’m not participating because I think I have a chance to win. I’m taking part because this is giving me a chance to write a score for something fun and try to write the music I’m hearing when watching the scene. Or at the very least write music around the vibe each scene is giving me, which is more accurate.
So here is my entry, if you’re curious. It’s written almost exclusively using Spitfire’s LABS sample libraries but a smidgen of the BBCSO package too. It’s not John Williams or Hans Zimmer but it’s my first attempt and I hope it is the first of many.
I have ideas I want to explore where I could put music to various time lapse videos. I had fun with time lapses in the past but I would need to explore more interesting settings than what’s going on in the sky outside my bedroom window. But that’s for me to explore going forward. For now I hope you enjoy this music I made.