"Tech Troubles" Best Original Score at Rohip Fest

"Tech Troubles" wins "Best Original Score at Rohip Fest

Many congratulations to the makers of the VFX short film "Tech Troubles", which has won the award for "Best Original Score at the Rohip International Film Festival.

Directed by David Akinyose and produced by Louis Gaffney,  Tech Troubles was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students, working together to create an original story.  

The original score was composed by Ben Salwey. 

"Tech Troubles" Best Score (Hon Mention) in Milan

"Tech Troubles" Best Score (Hon Mention) in Milan

Many congratulations to the makers of the VFX short "Tech Troubles", which has won an Honourable Mention in the category of "Best Score" at the Milan Gold Awards.  

Directed by David Akinyose and produced by Louis Gaffney,  Tech Troubles was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students, working together to create an original story.  The score was composed by Ben Salwey. 

"Love, Mum" wins "Best Score" at Halicarnassus

Love, Mum wins Best Soundtrack at Halicarnassus

Congratulations to the makers of "Love, Mum", the short film created by our second-year students at Escape Studios, which has won "Best Soundtrack" at the Halicarnassus Film Awards.

"Love, Mum"  tells the story of a young woman who tries to find the secret ingredient in her beloved mother's favourite recipe.  

"Love, Mum" was written, directed and edited by Amelia Watson, and produced by Llewelyn Whitney.  Music was composed by Francesco La Porta.

"Love, Mum" Best Score (Hon Mention) in Tokyo

Love, Mum wins "Best Score" (Hon. Mention) in Tokyo

Congratulations to the makers of "Love, Mum", the short film created by our second-year students at Escape Studios, which has won "Best Original Score" (Hon Mention) at the Tokyo International Film Awards.

"Love, Mum"  tells the story of a young woman who tries to find the secret ingredient in her beloved mother's favourite recipe.  "Love, Mum" was written, directed and edited by Amelia Watson, and produced by Llewelyn Whitney.  Music was composed by Francesco La Porta.

Royalty-Free Music at Bensound

One question that animators often ask when making a short film, or compiling their demo reel, is where to get Royalty Free Music - either for free, or at low prices. 

One very useful resource that we recommend is Bensound. At Bensound.com you can download royalty free stock music for animation, YouTube and multimedia projects.

How Animators Work With Composers

Original music composition helps to lift our student films to a professional level, as our students learn to collaborate with composers and sound designers to push the level of quality of our film projects.

An original score also helps to avoid problems with copyright music, which can be a barrier to entry in film festival competitions.

So, how do our students work with composers to get the best possible results? 

Composer Stuart Bramwell Scores at Escape

Stuart Bramwell 

Stuart Bramwell is a musician and composer, currently studying at Berklee College of Music for his Masters' Degree in Scoring for Film and TV.  Stuart's specialism is in writing music for animation. 

Stuart has recently collaborated with our second year students on their short film project "A Long Way Home", directed by Harrison Bell, which will soon be entering festival competitions. 

Stuart's original music composition helped to lift the film to a professional level, as our students learn to collaborate with composers and sound designers to push the level of quality of our student film projects.

Free Music for Film-Makers from Mobygratis

As our second year animation students put the finishing touches on their film projects, it's important to remember the importance of sound design - audio is fifty percent of the audience's experience. Fortunately for our students, there are many free (and royalty-free) resources out there to help with student film projects. One newcomer is the musician Moby, whose website mobygratis.com is an excellent free resource for independent film-makers.  Moby has released many free tracks for use in independent film projects, including student demo reels. 

Paulette Vassell Teaches Music Composition

Paulette Vassell

Paulette Vassell from PV Music Services visited Escape Studios recently to work with our MA students studying Storyboarding and Previsualisation.

Paulene came in to assist with our students on their storyboarding projects, composing bespoke music for their short films using Logic Pro.

Music and sound design are important parts of the film-making process. Successful films from Escape Studios such as BAFTA-shortlisted Jerich0 have paid close attention to music and sound design, with excellent results.

Introducing "Offcut"

Escape Studios proudly presents "Offcut", a short film directed by third year animation student Petroc Menuhin, produced by Tosin Ogunleye and Ethen Dent, and completed as part of the third year animation Module PR6001,  a Studio Project worth 60 Credits.  In this module our animation and VFX students join forces to produce a visual effects (VFX) project, with three months to take the project from initial pitch to final render.