film music – Heather Fenoughty

5 December 202224 August 2023

The Penultimate Draft – Blogmas #5

I’m at (fingers crossed) the stage of the penultimate draft on this project. Between the last draft and this one was a massive overhaul in tone to really shift the vibe of the film to a far more dark, serious and ominous arena.

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3 February 201215 January 2025

Speaking at Creating Connecting Composing

close up microphone in front of an audience

I'm speaking at the Creating-Connecting-Composing event at The Showroom in Sheffield on 17th February, 2012 about composing for film and business and the like. There'll be coffee and biscuits and chit-chatting too!

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17 May 20102 February 2024

Watch Brian Blessed be Fantastical in ‘Mr Bojagi’

Note: 'Mr Bojagi' has now finished its short but very successful run on Daily Motion but you can still scroll down to watch me talk about the process of scoring the film and watch some other behind-the-scenes interviews with Brian and the rest of the cast and crew here. Brian Blessed stars in the fabulous, …

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14 October 20099 February 2022

How Important Is Formal Education To The Film Composer?

How important is a formal, relevant education to the film composer? And specifically media-related music degrees?

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1 April 200918 October 2023

Composing Music Tips: Suspensions

black and white image of vintage condenser microphone for voice

So here's today's easy-to-implement tip: suspensions. Suspensions are an incredibly easy way of adding colour to a series of chords. At their simplest, suspensions 'suspend' one note of a chord over into and replace the nearest note in the next chord (usually the chord's middle note, or 3rd), and then 'resolve' to the note it …

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31 March 200918 October 2023

Composing Film Music Tips: The Pedal Note

Today's tip is all about the 'pedal note' or 'drone'. It's really a very simple concept: a single, sustained note or tone. Pedal notes can be upper or lower. Upper pedal notes are high-pitched and are generally above any other movement of melody or harmony; lower pedal notes (or drones) are low-pitched - in the …

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23 March 200917 February 2022

Finding Inspiration

inspiration n stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings, etc., to special or unusual activity or creativity the state or quality of being so stimulated or aroused someone or something that causes this state an idea or action resulting from such a state the act or process of inhaling; breathing in From English Collins Dictionary - …

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13 October 200822 March 2022

Is Film Music Art or Just Low-Brow Commercial Fluff?

Is any music that is created for a purpose, other than that of it's own existence, art? Is film music art, or theatre music, or advert music, or music that appears on a CD-Rom presentation, or accompanying a website promo film, or music on a trailer? Even if the music's primary purpose is purely commercial - to sell that product or promote another - does that preclude its intrinsic value as art?

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26 September 200815 January 2025

10 Top Tips – Writing Film Music

So you've got a great commission, composing music for feature film. Congratulations! But now what? Here are a few ideas that I've learned (often from some pretty tough lessons) to help the process go a little more smoothly... Get involved as early on as possible Communicate with your director Communicate with the editor Be really …

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