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Indie Film Music Contest: Caminandes 3 - Llamigos

Duncan Krummel

Just Passing Through
Hey everyone! Didn't see a thread for this particular iteration of the contest, so I thought I'd go ahead and start it. The Indie Film Music Contest, the same one that featured the animation Poulette's Chair, has started up again. This time it features the video Caminandes 3 - Llamigos, made for (as far as I can tell) the software company Blender:



I was just going to post my submission in the Member's Composition area, but realized there was no competition announcement yet. It seemed a little unfair to not direct people to it, so the link - should you wish to enter - is here:

https://www.indiefilmmusiccontest.com
Finally, you can watch my submission here:



*Note, there is a popularity prize, so - should you wish to like my video on YouTube - it will count towards this (you've been warned).
 
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If I could give two thumbs up on Youtube I would! This is a brilliant composition, and I personally loved the orchestration. Very John Powell. I thought the mix sounded great to my ears too. If you'd told me this was the original score, I would have believed you. Best of luck!
 
Ah, thank you Mat! Very kind of you. Mix wise, I have to give a big shout out to @Joël Dollié. He offers mix reviews on his website that - especially in conjunction with his fantastically concise and informative book - made a significant difference and were highly educational. I would recommend anyone to check his services and book out!
 
Hi all!

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I've entered this competition too - here's my submission!



I'm pretty new to this game - my background is mainly in sheet music arrangements - so if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it. I'm always looking to improve!

Duncan, I really like yours - the flute at the start/end has a really cool sound, and it sounds really professional.
 
Thanks, Kayleigh! The tin whistle at the beginning was the one element I recorded myself playing, and I only had a very short amount of time when no one else was home and the dog was outside to get a few takes. :roflmao: I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I also thoroughly enjoyed your submission! The mandolin(? Uke?) at the beginning and end was such a nice touch, with the slight out-of-tune-ness really adding a lot of character. I also really loved that you used the theme throughout. Great pacing!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like EWQLSO. I say that having used that library for about 11 years straight. It's been a while, but it still has a very familiar sound to my ears (going to laugh if I'm wrong!). Still a solid library imo.

As for any feedback I might offer, firstly I might suggest that the high-action sections be given a bit more bite and low end. The strings feel a bit soft overall. Changing to a closer mic position, adding in solo strings as first chairs, using higher velocity/dynamic settings, or tasteful EQing could all give these places more edge in the strings.

In these same sections, I think you could utilize brass a bit more as well. The long sustains are nice and heroic, but brass can be surprisingly agile and add a lot of punch and movement!

Last consideration I'd give is to play around with other combinations of articulations, especially for woodwind and brass lines. This is most noticeable to me when there are shorts. No horn player will play the exact same length of staccato in a row. To tongue short notes, especially at higher speeds, a performer has to alternate between different regions of the tongue to stop the air (such as by using a T-K alternation). This means one will be a bit different in length by default. Additionally, many lines benefit from some amount of slurring. Long-short, or long-long short-short, or even long-long-long short, are really common combinations of slurs and staccatos that give a line a lot of life without sounding machine gun-like, since they replicate what musicians commonly play.

So what you could do, practically speaking, is look to combine either a longer staccato articulation with a shorter staccatissimo or repetition articulation, or marcato and stacc., or even longs and shorts of some variety. No two libraries sample these the same way, so using your ears is your best bet.

Really nice work! :grin:
 
Thanks Duncan! The instrument at the start is a charango, from Spitfire LABS - I was all set to use a guitar or something and suddenly remembered I had that and thought it would add a bit more colour. Glad you like it! And actually, pretty much all of the instruments/samples I'm using are Spitfire - I haven't managed to invest much money into this hobby (yet, haha, I'm sure I will get sucked in soon!) so it's a mixture of the free BBCSO, LABS and a couple of their paid products.

Thanks for all the feedback about articulations - that's really solid advice, listening back now I know that if I gave this music to any horn players I know the result definitely wouldn't be as precise as I've made. I also had some issue with making the brass lines 'sing out' over the rest of the music and I guess I made the strings a bit too quiet to counter that. Next time I will spend a bit longer playing around with mic positions, as well as the articulations, to try and get it a bit more balanced.

Thanks again for such a comprehensive answer - I find that the best way to learn is to just 'do', but without feedback or guidance the results can be a bit hit or miss, so I really appreciate it.

Good luck with the competition :)
 
Hello ! Great submissions !
I entered this competition too an here's my submission, hope you'll like it :) !

(If someone's interested, done with BWW, CSB, SFB, CINEHARP, CSSS, CSS, 8dio Agitato, and a bit of DM307 and Ensemble Drums from HEAVIOCITY)



Thanks !
Michel-ange MERINO
 
Hi, I saw this post and entered weeks ago and now that my entry is finished I can finally watch these!

I appreciate you posting this @Duncan Krummel, I am just getting started with music this year and it turns out I really enjoyed scoring the short film. The fact that we can get feedback from the judges and the emphasis on ideas over sound quality in the judging criteria made the idea of a paid competition less intimidating. Your mix was extremely impressive to me -- I have no mixing/mastering skills yet so I took your advice and bought the book by @Joël Dollié, but I I think I need to learn the basics and practice more first. The tin whistle in the great song at the end inspired me to learn about tin whistles and I also loved the music around 1:57. If that gorgeous swell is from CSS, if I'm not careful my wallet might be unhappy with me this Black Friday.

@knileuh, I enjoyed it and was impressed with what you got out of mostly free libraries. I liked the charango part in the beginning and the part where the penguin drifts away. I think using the spitfire labs charango is pretty clever and fitting since it's from the region the film is set in. I don't feel very qualified to give you much advice except that if you don't already have Spitfire's 29$ string libraries (originals epic strings and originals intimate strings) I think they have a surprisingly great sound and really punch above their weight considering the cost.

@meaks, I thought the sound quality was really great in your submission. I thought the little recurring song that starts at 11 seconds in was very catchy. I also really liked the music that played in the "sad llama" part.

Here's my submission. Ableton Live kept crashing and then not loading the saved project files whenever I worked with video in the project, so it was frustrating to try to get something finished, but I enjoyed making it so it was all worth it.

 
I didn't manage to make the deadline due to being hospitalized, but after being discharged still set out to complete it. I posted mine in a slightly different section to hopefully get some feedback and make something out of it. :)

 
The Winner takes it All!



Congratulations to Matan Franco (#1): composer of my favorite score of the finalists! I love the fun trumpets in the beginning, some great surprising Jazzy chords … the Train-scene has a great retro feel, stereo imaging is fantastic, it’s very simply the most “Filmic” score I’ve heard. With lots of personality - fitting to the images. Superb. The Flight scene is beautiful and the use of octatonics during the fall is original. This really is the most fulfilling score. If I’m allowed to make one comment: the “sad scene” is a bit too “cocktail” before the wonderful ending (for my taste that is).


#2 Juan Torrecilla was also very enjoyable with especially a very nice ending.


The #3 was also a fav of mine: Donal Rafferty AGAIN a 3rd place! Lot’s of Mickey Mousing which I like. It’s really a rich sounding track - maybe the most “mature’ sounding score, with a very nice ending. Bravo! Only comment - if I’m allowed - is that we have to wait a little bit too long for the “happy feeling” in the music at the end.


Reuben’s piano score is also lovely, absolutely very musical and the choice of only using the piano brings us back to the beginning of filmscoring history.





All in all great winners, and - as a non finalist who paid extra for the feedback - I’m lookin forward to the next week.





It was a treat. I’ve listened to ALL finalists in an attempt to get even more out of this this fantastic, and very inspiring competition. Such a fantastic and marvelous movie - simply wonderful, I had a big smile on my face for many, many days!


So please forgive me my comments, - since I’m a failing composer - maybe I can pick up “reviewing” lol.


I can imagine the jury had a hard time listening to hundreds of scores … so, many thanx! Best, Peter.


By the way feel: free to comment on my submission, have a great night and a big shout-out to all of you hard working talented fellow composers and the Indie Fest that gave us all some very enjoyable moments!!
My submission:







The winners can be heard here: https://www.indiefilmmusiccontest.com
 
Hey everyone! Didn't see a thread for this particular iteration of the contest, so I thought I'd go ahead and start it. The Indie Film Music Contest, the same one that featured the animation Poulette's Chair, has started up again. This time it features the video Caminandes 3 - Llamigos, made for (as far as I can tell) the software company Blender:



I was just going to post my submission in the Member's Composition area, but realized there was no competition announcement yet. It seemed a little unfair to not direct people to it, so the link - should you wish to enter - is here:

https://www.indiefilmmusiccontest.com
Finally, you can watch my submission here:



*Note, there is a popularity prize, so - should you wish to like my video on YouTube - it will count towards this (you've been warned).

That sounds amazing Duncan. After looking at your work, I'm much excited to score even its is over.I couldn't find the video without music ,can you share me the clip without music if possible.Thanks and best wishes .

Email id:[email protected]
 
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