The instrumentation of this score is based around traditional Chinese instruments, including the erhu, guzheng, and dizi, to complement the film's cultural background. Given the substantial amount of dialogue, the director sought music that seamlessly integrates without drawing overt attention.
This movie tells the story of a family dealing with the loss of their teenage daughter. It shows how they cope with their feelings and emotions during this difficult time. I applied the "less is more" concept to the score, as it allows the narrative to take centre stage.
The life of a woman, beginning with a poetry performance that sets the tone for her journey. When she receives an unexpected message from her long-lost father, expressing a desire to reconnect in person, her world is sent into a complex emotion. The score conveys with moments of strength, vulnerability, and ultimately, resilience.
This film is exploring the contrasting realms of Idealism and Realism. I combined piano and electronic samples to represent the contrasting nature of the character. With each interaction between the characters, the music becomes more lively, breathing life into their encounters and deepening the atmospheric layers of the narrative.
Moving On
A short track composed for a story about an old man inviting a woman on a date for the first time since his wife passed away. The track is dedicated to a scene where they are having dinner, and diegetic jazz music was used as the background.
Irreversible
soundtrack was composed for a story depicting a young couple in the early stages of their first pregnancy. This particular scene portrays the female character fleeing from her boyfriend, who becomes violent towards her. The emotions in this scene are complex and are reflected in the sound world of the track.
Distance
This track was composed for a film centered around the theme of COVID. It portrays the protagonist returning home each day to a dark and empty apartment. The emotions conveyed in the track focus on the exploration of loneliness, particularly the experience of loneliness during the COVID pandemic.
The Guestlist
A film where the protagonist throws a birthday party, but none of his friends show up. This leads his grandma to seek revenge on the four individuals who were supposed to be his mates. This soundtrack, in particular, is a pastiche version inspired by the well-known soundtrack from Mission Impossible
Barbican Film Project
As a film composer, we want to compose a music that matches the scene but not telling the audience in advance what will happen next. Therefore, I composed music in modes rather than a major or minor key as in this part, the emotion is not clear enough to fit in either tonality.
The motif appeared at the beginning of the music, and developed further on. I used the sound from system 100 in low frequencies as a background sound to create the mysterious feeling in this section of the film. On the instrumentation, I only use 1 - 3 instruments at a time so that it does not overshadow the film.
National Theatre
This was my first piece writing for theatre music. As dialogue is an important part of the play, I kept the music gentle and quiet to support the plot. I also applied the same motif in various scenes, giving the music a better consistency.
At the end of the piece, I used mode music to present the mother's feeling, as she must be feeling both happy and sad. (Happy because her child will have a better life, but on the other hand she is leaving her child.)
Bauhaus Festival
In this piece, the music is composed with my imagination inspired by the scene. The movie is very abstract, so I want the music to sound mysterious as well.
To match the pace of each section, there are quite a lot time changes in the music. Also, there are a lot swinging movements in the scene, which I think quavers matches really well with this movement. Therefore I used a lot of this element in my music.