The workshop, sponsored by the National Cultural Foundation and hosted by noted Canadian film composer John Welsman was designed as a collaboration between Barbadian/Caribbean film directors and composers. While assisting NCF Coordinator Annette Nias, I was also (thankfully) able to participate!
John Welsman began by describing the roles and relationships between directors and composers, and took us through the nuts and bolts of a spotting session. A spotting session is a meeting between a film director and composer, where they work out the musical needs of the film. During the workshop the directors and composers were divided into pairs and, with the helpful and experienced guidance of John Welsman, we proceeded to have individual spotting sessions using short video clips provided by the director participants.
Imagine my delight when I was presented with this exciting clip by Maria Fitzpatrick and Nicholas King of MarNiko media. Filmed as a part of the Miss Barbados 2011 Beauty pageant, the clip featured contestants acting out a 'tongue in cheek' spy/action movie sequence.
My direction from Maria and Nicholas was to make the music sound like a Hollywood action film. With only two days to complete the project, the schedule was tight! However, I managed to create something that I felt was appropriate to the director's instructions and the film.
I actually started composing material for the middle 'dropped handbag' sequence first, and then worked back towards the beginning of the cue. I used techniques learned from my Berklee College online film scoring and orchestration courses to put the music together. My goal as a composer is to collaborate with regional film producers to create great sounding Caribbean films. Special thanks to all those mentioned above for a fantastic workshop!
