Richard Hair - Composer http://www.richardhair.net Music for Film, Television & Concert Hall Mon, 04 Feb 2013 04:40:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 TROPSCORE 2013 http://www.richardhair.net/tropscore-2013/ http://www.richardhair.net/tropscore-2013/#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2013 05:26:00 +0000 Richard Hair http://www.richardhair.net/?p=478 Here is my entry for Tropscore 2013. Unfortunately I wasn’t shortlisted, but to quote Frank Costanza, “THEY DON’T WANT ME, I DON’T WANT THEM!”
In 2012 the competition had 895 entries, so it seems reasonable to conclude 2013 would have had even more. Despite not making it to the final ten I’m still pleased [...]]]> Here is my entry for Tropscore 2013. Unfortunately I wasn’t shortlisted, but to quote Frank Costanza, “THEY DON’T WANT ME, I DON’T WANT THEM!”
In 2012 the competition had 895 entries, so it seems reasonable to conclude 2013 would have had even more. Despite not making it to the final ten I’m still pleased with my effort and wanted to share it with you. If you’re interested, below are some notes about what I wanted to achieve with my score.



**SPOILER ALERT**

Some brief notes on The Exchange

When writing my entry there were a few things I wanted to avoid: creating a stereotypical horror/suspense score (i.e. reliance on low or dissonant drones) and using a celeste to represent the child character.
I chose an oboe for the ‘voice’ of the child and wrote melodic lines I hoped would create a sense of intrigue/mystery rather than outright suspense. To represent the clown I chose a mixture of accordion, snare, bongos and xylophone, and used an ascending motif to suggest that the clown was beckoning the child, enticing him to investigate further.
Despite my desire to avoid it, on a few occasions I found that the content of the film was such that use of well-worn suspense/horror music techniques became necessary, I just tried to keep their use to a minimum.
Finally, in the closing scene I wanted to create a feeling of sadness as the boy is trapped and left behind by his mother.

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]]> http://www.richardhair.net/tropscore-2013/feed/ 0 GAME OF THRONES – MAIN TITLE OVERTURE http://www.richardhair.net/game-of-thrones-main-title-overture/ http://www.richardhair.net/game-of-thrones-main-title-overture/#comments Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:15:40 +0000 Richard Hair http://www.richardhair.net/?p=471 Of those who have seen it, I suspect most would agree that Game of Thrones is a terrific, utterly addictive show. That being said, I’ve always felt that Ramin Djawadi’s theme was somewhat underwhelming giving the scope of the story. With this in mind, below you will find my take on the show’s opening credits. Djawadi’s [...]]]> Of those who have seen it, I suspect most would agree that Game of Thrones is a terrific, utterly addictive show. That being said, I’ve always felt that Ramin Djawadi’s theme was somewhat underwhelming giving the scope of the story. With this in mind, below you will find my take on the show’s opening credits. Djawadi’s music isn’t bad by any stretch (it’s damn catchy, in fact), but it has always struck me as something of a missed opportunity.  Of course, perhaps mine is nothing more than cliched, ‘epic’ music.

In any case, I hope you enjoy it.

 

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]]> http://www.richardhair.net/game-of-thrones-main-title-overture/feed/ 0 LUSH STRINGS, WINDS AND PIANO http://www.richardhair.net/lush-strings-winds-piano/ http://www.richardhair.net/lush-strings-winds-piano/#comments Sat, 20 Oct 2012 08:32:57 +0000 Richard Hair http://www.richardhair.net/?p=436 The learning curve of Logic 9 is quite steep. Feeling I should become more familiar with the software, I composed this piece in order to have a project to learn on. For this reason ‘artistry’ wasn’t a primary concern; the piece is essentially tonal and not terribly complicated. Of course, my goal was simply to experiment [...]]]> The learning curve of Logic 9 is quite steep. Feeling I should become more familiar with the software, I composed this piece in order to have a project to learn on. For this reason ‘artistry’ wasn’t a primary concern; the piece is essentially tonal and not terribly complicated. Of course, my goal was simply to experiment with a variety of textures, dynamics, tempi and rhythms within Logic. To my ears the final track sounds like a mixture of Elmer Bernstein’s score for Far From Heaven, Abel Korzeniowski’s score for W.E, John Lunn’s theme for Downton Abbey, with hints of John Adams, Elliot Goldenthal and John Barry. While it may not necessarily suit the picture, it also brings Neil Jordan’s film, The End of the Affair, to mind.

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]]> http://www.richardhair.net/lush-strings-winds-piano/feed/ 0 SUNSHINE RELEASE http://www.richardhair.net/sunshine-release/ http://www.richardhair.net/sunshine-release/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:26:02 +0000 Richard Hair http://www.richardhair.net/?p=368 As some of you may know, I recently composed music for Doug Nichol’s short film, Sunshine. The good news is that the picture is now available for viewing, but even better than this, it has been selected by Vimeo as their ‘staff pick’ for this week. If you can find a spare 15 minutes [...]]]> As some of you may know, I recently composed music for Doug Nichol’s short film, Sunshine. The good news is that the picture is now available for viewing, but even better than this, it has been selected by Vimeo as their ‘staff pick’ for this week. If you can find a spare 15 minutes to watch it and maybe even post a comment (on Vimeo or here), I would be very appreciative.

You can also find a review of the film over at Short of the Week.

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]]> http://www.richardhair.net/sunshine-release/feed/ 0 SUNSHINE http://www.richardhair.net/sunshine/ http://www.richardhair.net/sunshine/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:45:41 +0000 Richard Hair http://www.richardhair.net/?p=358 I have recently finished work on my first ‘real’ film project, Sunshine. The film, directed by Doug Nichol, follows an advertising producer as he travels to China to make a TV commercial.

I was very flattered that a filmmaker of Doug’s skill and experience placed their faith in my ability to write a [...]]]> I have recently finished work on my first ‘real’ film project, Sunshine. The film, directed by Doug Nichol, follows an advertising producer as he travels to China to make a TV commercial.

I was very flattered that a filmmaker of Doug’s skill and experience placed their faith in my ability to write a music score for his film. The picture will be available for viewing in March, however you can listen to the cue I wrote below.

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]]> http://www.richardhair.net/sunshine/feed/ 0 SITE UPDATE http://www.richardhair.net/site-update-2/ http://www.richardhair.net/site-update-2/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:54:03 +0000 Richard Hair http://www.richardhair.net/?p=1 Welcome to the newly redesigned site! If you like what you hear, don’t forget that you can now post comments as well as ‘like’ the content on Facebook, YouTube and Soundcloud

]]> Welcome to the newly redesigned site! If you like what you hear, don’t forget that you can now post comments as well as ‘like’ the content on Facebook, YouTube and Soundcloud

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