COMPOSER CIAN FURLONG TO CREATE HELL’S DRIFTER SCORE

Composer Cian Furlong is attached to create the music score for Hell’s Drifter. His philosophy on scoring is simple: "There's a famous quote among film composers," he begins, "the best film score isn't heard at all; it just injects some more life into either the action or emotion that's trying to be expressed through the visual media. You may be able to write the best piece of music in the world, but if it towers over the film in it's grandeur, then you're not doing it right."

Wise words, indeed. Cian, an accomplished musician with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music and a Master's Degree in Musicology, has been writing orchestral music for over 8 years. He promises that his score will be something new and special – and different.  "The challenge here will be trying to tie all the main themes in together," he says, "and not write something that's just cliché."

When asked what attracted him to composing the score for Hell's Drifter in the first place, he says, "I wanted to work on a feature-length film to see if I could write music on that scale.  Writing music for film is, I think, a servile process. You are serving the film, and so your goal as a composer is to improve and embellish the final product."

So how does he approach such a potentially daunting task as writing maybe up to an hour of music for a feature film? ”My method of composing is pretty straightforward," he replies. "I watch the film a couple of times, then mark all the cues where the temp tracks were. Then I set to work sketching a few musical motifs, and of course taking some note of what the temp score was like.  This involves watching the film alongside a music sequencer and then trying to create something that can enhance the action of each given scene.”

Postproduction work on Hell's Drifter continues.

Updated: 17/04/08

 

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