European Talent Competition 2015
Saturday 22nd August 2015 at 10.00am (winners announced: 7.00pm)
Forum Volkshochschule, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cäcilienstraße 29-33, 50667 Cologne
Tickets: €7 (€5) | www.soundtrackcologne.de
David has been shortlisted as a finalist for the European Talent Award 2015 at SoundTrack_Cologne 12, having been nominated in both the score and sound design categories.
Along with 11 other film composers and sound designers, David's score and sounds for Oma (2014), a short animation by Karolien Raeymaekers, will be showcased publically in front of a jury of renowned industry professionals on Saturday 22nd August 2015.
Oma (or 'Grandma') is a deeply moving film about a young girl who has to come to terms with the impending death of her poorly grandmother. To try to avoid the truth she retreats into a dream of sunny meadows and happy memories, but each time her reverie is interrupted when her suppressed anxieties manifest themselves as a terrifying nightmare that forces its way to the front of her mind and overwhelms her. Ultimately she has to confront the stark reality of death in order to conquer her fear of loss and reach a state of peaceful acceptance and understanding.
David's score for Oma blends the boundaries between music and sound, combining a lilting, pastorale style for the dream sequences with a brutal, modernist atonality for the nightmares. The music was scored for wind quintet, harp, piano, synthesiser, solo soprano and chamber strings, and each orchestral section was recorded in isolation so that their sounds could be manipulated and mixed in unorthodox ways to heighten both the dreamy and nightmarish qualities of the film.
The orchestra was recorded in the Belle Shenkman Studio at the Royal College of Music in early July, with David conducting and playing piano, whereas the soprano and synthesiser were sampled separately in David's studio. Sound effects were recorded on location in the Burgess Field Nature Park in Oxford, and foley was recorded both on location and in David's studio.