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watch LATE NIGHT HORROR MOVIE - Horror Film Score

This is the score track for NIGHT OF THE LIVING HEADS (2010) for the sequence when Billy Baker hears something upstairs, only to discover that his parents have smoked the evil "voodoo" weed - and - well - see for yourself happens...

(warning - graphic violence and gore)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTv5OTqg8dE

critiques welcome
 
Some really good stuff there! I'll have to check the movie out...looks right up my alley! Definitely enjoyed it and would be happy to give you some critiques. My two cents, for what it's worth (I've only done one feature score myself):

I loved the opening metallic scrape/groove. A little on the low-fi side, but sounded really great. The sounds didn't really seem to blend very well at the beginning...maybe a touch of reverb could help that. The string lines are good, but sound a little dull, dynamics-wise. When the strings cut out at the 2 minute mark, it sounded a little awkward...not jarring enough to be jarring, but not smooth enough to be natural. If you're going for jarring, maybe really crescendo the strings before...push them REALLY up, then cut out. Maybe stick an extra couple of beats in there after you cut them. Silence is good, unexpected silence better!

Interesting choice to have a sort of mellow groove going on during the death. It definitely worked before she attacked, but as she's attacking, it feels like the music is saying "something is going to happen", when something actually IS. The flash stutter/editing was pretty neat.

Not sure how I feel about the pad during the second attack. Once again the visuals are shakey and quickly edited, but rather than being exciting it kinda makes it feel like the attack is not the point (if that makes any sense). The pad also seemed to cut out, rather than fading smoothly into the end movement, though the ending on the bass and sad strings, I really liked. You could have even hammed those strings up a little more; make them REALLY swell.

Anyway, there's my two cents. Thanks for sharing, and looking forward to listening to some more of your stuff!
 
thx for the input and advice - it always helps moving forward. I aim for a different style that what is traditional. That isnt really how the director used the score, I overlayed the track I built over the sequence, film audio drowned out - for instance it was pretty silent as he went up the stairs in the movie. What we all agreed on was how well the awkwardness of the strings added a sense of slow, dying sensitivity to him having to kill his mother - ALMOST pulls the heartstrings. I composed this sequence differently than I did the rest - using the music almost as sound fx in a sense. Hopefully you can catch the film somehow somewhere. It was done on a 3,000 budget and I managed to put together an international soundtrack with bands from around the world, including The Foxes, and The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Experiment to name a couple. We gave the soundtrack away for free as a promotion, and some might say it surpassed what was expected of it. If you ever get to see the film, hit me back and let me know if you enjoyed any of it (we know how super low budget films go). And if youre still composing and not as busy as you'd like to be, hit me back, Ive gotten a FLOOD of upgraded independent feature film work, and am nearly in over my head - always looking for new musicians/composers to work with on projects. In fact, this month, Ill be reaching out to find people to collaborate with, and dropping a post in here on that soon. I believe IndieWire is dropping an article on ZOMBIES UNLIMITED in the coming week. If you or anyone reading this would like to discuss this, drop by the website (still under construction) at www.zombiesunlimited.org and hit me thru there.... thx again for the constructive criticisms. JM
 
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