# BIFSC2020 - Escape



## Illico

Award Winners & Finalists for the Berlin International Film Scoring Competition 2020 (BIFSC 2020) are announced!
Congratulations, hopefully there's a chance to listen to their work soon.


_First Prize Winner_
*Gianfranco Pedroli*

_Second Prize Winner_
*Nikita Yamov*

_Third Prize Winner_
*Danilo Silva Aguiar*​


Danilo Silva Aguiar
Gage Behnkendorf
Francesco Berta
Kwangho Cho
Hakan Glante
Wilkus van der Hoven
Tony Lavaud
Ioannes Papanikolaou
Gianfranco Pedroli
Nikita Yamov​









Berlin International Film Scoring Competition | BIFSC


Berlin International Film Scoring Competition offers emerging Film Composers the platform to showcase their work and compete to receive multiple Awards.




www.bifsc.org


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## Loïc D

Did you attend?

I will post my soundtrack here (not at my computer now).


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## Illico

LowweeK said:


> Did you attend?


Yes...


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## TechHarlan

Congratulations to the finalists! This is my entry


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## Loïc D

Here's mine :








BIFSC-2021125.mp4


Shared with Dropbox




www.dropbox.com




(not sure video can be published on YouTube)

Mickeymousing to the fullest LOL



Spoiler: Libraries used



Libraries used :
- Strings : SCS Pro mainly
- WW : SStW Pro
- Brass : SStB Pro + JXL
- Percs & Harps : Rhapsody + OT Inspire
- Choirs : Spitfire Labs + OT Time Macro
- Jazz instruments : Swing More!
and also : Noire, various Spitfire Labs libs, and a real SH101 

Config : MBP late 2013, 16GB RAM, Mojave, LPX

I used my "4 reverb aux bus method" (tm), based on 4 similar ProR with various distance/diffusion/EQ.
Master bus has Softube Tape, ProR glue reverb, Ozone 8 Elements.





Spoiler: Musical development



I took this movie as a kind of tongue-in-cheek SF action short.
Not really serious ; the monster looks actually pretty funny.

So, I've been developing 3 ideas :
- Bassoon for the girl (reflective, a bit hollow and melancolic)
- 4 notes motive for the crystal (G F# D# E, repeated and transposed)
- Evil big band for the monster, because jazz is evil music, we all know this

It was my first experience at sync'ing + tempo mapping to the accurate frame in LPX.
That tempo map looks like the ECG of a democrat in Iowa.

First experience at writing "jazzy" stuff. First experience with JXL & Swing More!
So, all I can say is that I learned a lot.
I estimate it took me 100-130 hours (yikes!) among them a fair lot waiting/freezing/restarting LPX/yelling at Swing More inconsistent keyswitches.




Congrats to the finalists, can't wait to watch the 3 winners.
And of course, I enjoy a lot watching all your contributions, all different, all nice 




Spoiler: Story



Don't you find that the editing is weird ?
Scene cuts every 2 seconds.
It took me 4 viewings before I fathom that the end credits tell the introduction of the movie.
And those long cuts to black in the chase scene...
Really hard to mickeymouse LOL


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## PeterBaumann

LowweeK said:


> Don't you find that the editing is weird ?
> Scene cuts every 2 seconds.
> It took me 4 viewings before I fathom that the end credits tell the introduction of the movie.
> And those long cuts to black in the chase scene...
> Really hard to mickeymouse LOL



I agree, the editing was really tricky to work with in places, and is something I had to play around with a lot when doing the sound design for it a few months back, and when I tried my hand at scoring it over Christmas.

Out of the handful of scoring competitions I've taken part in, this is probably the trickiest to work with in terms of the pacing (with the slow opening before the droid powers up, and then it's fairly full on from there). The original has a song which plays over the second half (with minimal sound design underneath) and I think this approach works well for the fairly rapid, time-hopping style of the editing. For a film scoring competition, though...

With film scoring competitions it's always a bit of a guessing game as to whether they're looking for the score which provides the best overall viewing experience (where the music ties in nicely with the other sonic elements in play, where in places it might be very low in the mix, or maybe it's not the most interesting/unique musically) or whether they're looking for a more prominent score which shows off the composer's chops but doesn't necessarily provide the most rounded overall viewing experience - hopefully it's a mix of the two!

It'll be really interesting to see what direction the 10 finalists took - I had a quick look earlier and could only find one of the scores online so I'm hoping the others will post in the coming days.

Well done to everyone who's shared so far! I've enjoyed hearing all the different approaches.


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## shomynik

Strange, I made a post here yesterday and now it's gone along with some others. Also I couldn't load vi-c all day until evening, maybe that has something to do with it...

Let's try again. Congrats to everyone for their work! Really interesting and fun listening to your works. 

Here's mine:


Milos


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## Nomadozic

Not sure why my post was deleted ? Technical reason I guess...
Anyway here is mine. As I said I think I was probably a little bit too musical... I knew it was a risk but it was fun


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## silouane

This is mine :


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## wlinart

Here's my entry: 


I just started out, and it's the first time I did more then just one scene. Loved the video, and i'm really happy with the result. Feedback is always welcome though.


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## axb312

wlinart said:


> Here's my entry:
> 
> 
> I just started out, and it's the first time I did more then just one scene. Loved the video, and i'm really happy with the result. Feedback is always welcome though.




Loved the vibe on this.


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## Loïc D

PeterBaumann said:


> I agree, the editing was really tricky to work with in places, and is something I had to play around with a lot when doing the sound design for it a few months back, and when I tried my hand at scoring it over Christmas.
> 
> Out of the handful of scoring competitions I've taken part in, this is probably the trickiest to work with in terms of the pacing (with the slow opening before the droid powers up, and then it's fairly full on from there). The original has a song which plays over the second half (with minimal sound design underneath) and I think this approach works well for the fairly rapid, time-hopping style of the editing. For a film scoring competition, though...
> 
> With film scoring competitions it's always a bit of a guessing game as to whether they're looking for the score which provides the best overall viewing experience (where the music ties in nicely with the other sonic elements in play, where in places it might be very low in the mix, or maybe it's not the most interesting/unique musically) or whether they're looking for a more prominent score which shows off the composer's chops but doesn't necessarily provide the most rounded overall viewing experience - hopefully it's a mix of the two!
> 
> It'll be really interesting to see what direction the 10 finalists took - I had a quick look earlier and could only find one of the scores online so I'm hoping the others will post in the coming days.
> 
> Well done to everyone who's shared so far! I've enjoyed hearing all the different approaches.



Peter, my reply to your post was lost in the server crash.


First, congrats to you since if I'm not mistaken, you won the sound design contest !

Also, I was wondering what the original score is. Imogen Heap is credited, and she's not really orchestral, far more electronic.

Early in the composing process, I was hesitating to drop the orchestral for a full electronic score.
Something like Blade Runner would work I guess. I'd love to hear this kind of score from the finalists.

I also thought about... a song _à la _Disney. But I suck at lyrics and know no english-speaking female singer. Call me crazy. 

Well I ended up mixing orchestral & pseudo-swing with saxes, which was funny to do but certainly weird. 

Anyway, lots lots of good entries above, that's great to be able to listen to ppl's approach (actually it's one of the main reasons why I attend).


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## Wiktoria Zac

it's really amazing to hear other entries and different approaches! 
This was my first competition and it was such an exciting challenge.

So, here is my entry:


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## laurikoivisto

here's mine 

and the short score: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6py8wf46dcpe981/BERLIN_2019.pdf?dl=0


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## Jamierobb1988

This is my entry first attempt at anything like this i had fun not overly happy with it but was good at showing me what i need work on. Ps Congrats to everyone that made the top 10


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## davidson

Nomadozic said:


> Not sure why my post was deleted ? Technical reason I guess...
> Anyway here is mine. As I said I think I was probably a little bit too musical... I knew it was a risk but it was fun




If this didn't make the finals, I have no idea what they're looking for. Fantastic stuff, the final minute especially!


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## Woodie1972

It's fun to listen to other people's version; so many ideas of how to score a short animated movie.
anyway, I didn't make it to the finals either. Here's my version:









BIFSC-2021151.mp4


Shared with Dropbox




www.dropbox.com


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## Nomadozic

davidson said:


> If this didn't make the finals, I have no idea what they're looking for. Fantastic stuff, the final minute especially!


I think maybe I pushed the idea that music "tell the unseen" too far this time 
For exemple, from 0.30 to 1.00 I underline the fact that it should be the end of her struggles, so I tell something positive while I think they were probably looking for something more negative, focusing on her struggles (we can see that on screen).
I actually think this little part at the begining unvalidates all the rest of my entry, unfortunatly  But maybe they were also looking for something more SF with more synth and so on. Guess I will have to listen to the finalists to be sure about that.
Anyway, thank you very much for your encouragement, it helps a lot !


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## davidson

Nomadozic said:


> I think maybe I pushed the idea that music "tell the unseen" too far this time
> For exemple, from 0.30 to 1.00 I underline the fact that it should be the end of her struggles, so I tell something positive while I think they were probably looking for something more negative, focusing on her struggles (we can see that on screen).
> I actually think this little part at the begining unvalidates all the rest of my entry, unfortunatly  But maybe they were also looking for something more SF with more synth and so on. Guess I will have to listen to the finalists to be sure about that.
> Anyway, thank you very much for your encouragement, it helps a lot !



In regards to your thoughts on 30-60s, possibly, but personally I think it added to the arc of the story in a *big* way. You should be proud


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## brek

Nice work people! Always fun to see the different approaches.
I'll put my cards on the table as well:


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## UDun

Here is mine as well. I tried to develop a consistent theme but that was quite difficult given that the scenes are very short and about different emotions. The main challenge I feel was to try to be between the extreme of mickey mousing and a simple underscore. Happy to get any feedback.


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## Woodie1972

brek said:


> Nice work people! Always fun to see the different approaches.
> I'll put my cards on the table as well:



Really nice atmosphere and orchestration!


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## PeterBaumann

brek said:


> Nice work people! Always fun to see the different approaches.
> I'll put my cards on the table as well:



Really enjoyed this - great work!


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## Loïc D

Since it seems ok to put it on YouTube, I repost mine.
Any comments highly welcome !


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## Illico

You can watch the winning submissions. I added links on first post.


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## hibhardwaj

Illico said:


> Award Winners & Finalists for the Berlin International Film Scoring Competition 2020 (BIFSC 2020) are announced!
> Congratulations, hopefully there's a chance to listen to their work soon.
> 
> 
> _First Prize Winner_
> *Gianfranco Pedroli*
> 
> _Second Prize Winner_
> *Nikita Yamov*
> 
> _Third Prize Winner_
> *Danilo Silva Aguiar*​
> 
> 
> Danilo Silva Aguiar
> Gage Behnkendorf
> Francesco Berta
> Kwangho Cho
> Hakan Glante
> Wilkus van der Hoven
> Tony Lavaud
> Ioannes Papanikolaou
> Gianfranco Pedroli
> Nikita Yamov​
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Berlin International Film Scoring Competition | BIFSC
> 
> 
> Berlin International Film Scoring Competition offers emerging Film Composers the platform to showcase their work and compete to receive multiple Awards.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.bifsc.org


Can someone please post the link to the original video? I missed it completely, but it would be good practice. 
Thanks in advance.
~Himanshu


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