Your opinion is requested

[codyap09]

I've been doing a conceptual score for a film I look to do in the near future based on one of my short stories. My aim is straight horror so don't expect anything light or comedic in this conceptual score suite I'm posting. The title of the original story is Blood Wings and this conceptual score suite is comprised of several pre-existing elements and you will no doubt laugh when you see me list the contents used for this 11 minute suite but rest assured that you probably won't recognize them at all. I used mostly Penderecki works blended with music from Hellraiser, The Evil Dead, Let Me In, Lady in the Water, Superman Returns, and Bride of Chucky. The majority of the work is Penderecki with the aforementioned scores blending seamlessly in with the Penderecki music creating a sound scape that, to me, is very epic and large scale. Naturally once the film gets made it's not going to feature any of this music but the intense sound is what I'm going for. Keep in mind that this music is definitely not for the weak of heart or easily startled. It's as dark as dark can be. There are no jump scare style stingers here, just pure horror music. This conceptual score has gone through so many dramatic changes and this result is so far my absolute favorite and the one likely to stick with me and help in the original score composition process when I begin production on the short (I have decided the story works best as a short film). It has a very Lynchian vibe to it (I spotted the similarity after checking out Lynch's Inland Empire and it's similar use of music for unease and fright) and I'm just curious for you, the users', input. I had posted this before but I've made some additional modifications to it so I hope you all enjoy and if anyone has any curiosity to read the story to help better understand where I'm going with the music, feel free to let me know.

1 track, TRT:

http://www.mediafire.com/?u30bdzgxgswxaw5

[HCL.]

Cool ! Although the beginning is a little bit extended for as long as 1 minute. More piano is certainly needed near the end. It reminded me of Alan Wake (The game) score. I so recommend you to hear the game rip and the OST if you have not. Consider checking Fatal frame, which is a PS2 games, OSTs as well.
Overall, great job.

[Orie]

DUDE!

I am a lover of Horror soundtracks, and I love this suite. Looks a bit like a final scene or final "battle" for an Horror direction.
The strings are what keep me up to it.
Try also checking Koji Endo Horror movie soundtracks. You may get some inspiration from him too.

[Sparktank 2.0]

Checking this out.................now!

PS: I like the title~


---------- Post added at 11:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 PM ----------

Wow, that was awesome!!!


Really loved the chorus crept in and the drums just rolled around. Very nice. Intense string work. Very solid opening, scared the jebus out of me! O_O
I sense a very strong Pendericki influence here.
The deep horns are a really nice Goldenthal-touch.

More "metal clanging" would be nice to go with the percussion.

Really hope there's going to be more.

Excellent work, Codyap09!

[codyap09]

Here's the synopsis of the short story I wrote: a young boy is taken from his bed one night. His parents, upon hearing him screaming down the hall, follow his screams down to the basement only to find nothing. They hear his screams again and dash up the stairs to find a shattered picture frame on the floor with the boy's face removed from the family photo that once sat in the picture frame. The next moment, the mother sees a red liquid drop on the picture frame. She thinks nothing of it at first until two or three more bigger drops begin landing on the picture. She and her husband slowly look up and what they see is enough to nearly paralyze them with fear. I'll act as the camera now that way the music can become part of this conversation subconsciously. The camera slow pans away from the mother and father's shocked faces and begins pulling up and up until suddenly a hand becomes visible in frame. The camera continues panning up and up, slowly scanning the boy's body until another object comes into view. It appears to be a creature of unknown origins. The most particular thing as the camera is panning up is that the boy's body is hanging upside down and in two perfectly straight lines red goo is shown flowing upwards, not a drop escaping apart from the few that landed on the picture frame, and as the camera follows the two gravity defying lines of blood, we get our first good shot of the creature's feet: taloned, almost like an eagle and which appear to be holding the boy by his foot. The blood continues to flow up and up and once we reach the midsection of the creature's body from our point of view, the blood begins to flow back behind the creature's back and we pan up once more to reveal a growing mass behind the creature. As the mass begins to grow larger and redder, we begin to see it for what it is: wings made out of the boy's blood. That's when we get another clear shot of the boy's face which by this point has already gone whiter than a sheet. We turn back to the wing formation again and we see that it's almost complete. By this point we have not yet panned all the way up to the creature's face which is completely shrouded in darkness and we can tell that it's eyes are closed as if in heavy meditation. It's at that instant that the taloned foot that was once holding the boy's leg has lost its grip and the boy falls in what feels like us to be an eternity, the last few seconds before crashing to the floor filled with the boy's last memories, the distorted view of his parents, and childhood innocence underscored by an angelic voice. The boy plummets to the ground while his parents run to him and verify whether their son is in fact dead or not. After confirming his death, they hear a horrible screeching sound as if a hundred flocks of seagulls had somehow flown into the room but the sound that came out had a far more alien sound to it. As we do a much faster pan up this time, we get a quick glance at the creature's foot and notice a needle-like protusion and as we pan up to the creature's face we realize that that is what the creature was using to siphon the blood out of the boy. As we pan up to the creature's face, its eyes suddenly burst open one at a time revealing ghost white eyes and glowing red corneas. Cut to a wide shot of the situation and we see the once gooey red wing mass is now spouting black feathers and the creature's body is convulsing madly. Once the creature stops convulsing and there is a brief moment of silence, it takes the time to try out its new wing set. The rise of the wings to the slamming down following by the flapping sound is underscored by disturbingly religious choral harmonising and rolling drums before the creature flies out the window possibly never to be seen again. In the parents' final moments of sanity, they admire their son one last time before falling down on their knees, almost as if in prayer, and let out an equally voluminous scream as we pan away from them and go up once again only this time we go out the window which fades into a shot of the creature flying above the clouds searching for its next victim. THE END.

Hopefully that can kind of give you some imagery to go with the music and help you to appreciate it in a different way. Like the creature itself the music went through its own series of transformations until it was finalized here. So in a way this was a really transformative piece for me as well because it took me from editing purely innocent music to indulging a bit in the dark side and getting familiar with the comfort that the dark side can offer in terms of style and substance. This idea came to me in a dream after a heavy night of Penderecki listening sessions and with A LOT of experimentation produced what you've just heard. I hope you all enjoyed my walk down the dark side and maybe one day will see the film I intend to make with the story which I assure you will be quite horrific and scary.

[codyap09]

I started experimenting today and decided to expand upon the initial suite and ended up with what would ordinarily be called a 3 movement symphony, which runs 29 minutes. I've taken the liberty of uploading it for you all to hear. Thanks again for the support!

http://www.mediafire.com/?hnf51c7m53g2d1a

[docrate1]

I'm listening to it right now (the one up there in the op. post), and it does sound creepy. Reminds me both of orchestral horror scores for the 70's, especially works of Donaggio and the likes. I'm not an expert, though, but it sounds really good to me.

[cuckoo77]

Excellent job.

Downloaded this a few days ago. Hadn't the chance to listen till this morning.

I love it.

Borderline micropolyphony.

Very cool. Reminded me of Penderecki of course. As well as George Crumb and Gyorgy Ligeti's dissonant orchestral projects.

Oddly enough I caught a few traces of Alan Silvestri or Marco Beltrami in some of the more skittish moments....and of course JNH's Lady In The Water.

All in all, I can assure you it will receive several repeat listens.

Thank you kindly for sharing.

[Orie]

Hearing the movement parts now.

The first movement is FU***** INTENSE!!!
The second I found it a bit chiling and relaxed (this may be just me that might have a killer mind XD)
The third was like a final battle to me.
Those parts where the instruments get louder and louder and louder.......
my god it gives chills in the heart.
good work

[Sparktank 2.0]

George Crumb

THAT'S WHO ELSE I WAS THINKING THERE IN OF WHEN I WAS LISTENING HERETO!

[codyap09]

Oddly enough I caught a few traces of Alan Silvestri or Marco Beltrami in some of the more skittish moments....and of course JNH's Lady In The Water.

No Silvestri but there was some Beltrami's The Thing (in fact in the one segment it's used I overlaid 4 tracks from the complete score over each other) plus The Omen and JNH's Lady in the Water. If anyone's interested I can draw up a complete list of all of my sources. Then comes the challenge of trying to pinpoint each one.