Rob Wright WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS performance / presentation

6PM Tuesday 3rd May 2022 – Room B01, FMM Building

plus special guest musicians from the de Havilland Philharmonic Orchestra:

Helen Cass / Anna Dryer-Beers (violin), Liz Maskey (viola) and Tim Steggals (cello).

This event offers a very practical insight into some of the activity associated with scoring music to moving image, and in particular explores the working partnership of composer and musicians.  This event aims to be fun and accessible to all, even if you have only a passing interest in film-music.

Nowadays we really don’t have to look very hard to find plenty of ’behind the scenes’ (BTS) footage showing how our favourite movie moments were captured or how particular visual effects were achieved – indeed this content is sometimes hard to avoid – it often being released as part of a promotional package. However, for those interested in the processes behind film-music, BTS content seems more hidden… almost as if this work happens in the shadows despite its obvious importance to the success of the film in question.

In an open, informal and candid format, Rob will be discussing his own thoughts on all this and his own approach to composing for screen – supplementing conversation with live examples drawn from his recent, personal music writing – (with the help of real-world musicians, playing excerpts and joining in on the conversation). To illustrate points being covering, we’ll be looking at / listening to excerpts from an alternative / reimagined score (by Rob) inspired by the German Expressionist horror film “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” (directed by F. W. Murnau and released exactly 100 years ago this year).

In a perhaps brave move, in addition to the sharing of compositional ideas and processes, this rare event invites you to join us in a practical workshop, which at times may feel more like a live rehearsal session, to see what actually happens when a composer first hands over their music, in paper form, to a group of professional musicians, and counts them in: 1, 2, 3…!

Book tickets here.