Humanity & All Its Flaws is the BAFTA* Nominated Original Score from Sunsets & Silhouettes.
Includes 70 page booklet featuring exclusive production photographs by Sam Brill
FILM SYNOPSIS
Bethany is an elderly woman, slowly dying in the calm solitude of her own home. Jessica struggles through a life of abuse as an ageing prostitute well past her prime. Their lives change by the arrival of Matthew, a stranger harbouring his own dark secrets.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
"I'm not interested in what makes monsters monstrous, I'm fascinated in what it is that makes them human. Sunsets & Silhouettes is a film about humanity and all its flaws, what drives good people to do bad things and why we all fear dying alone."
- Tim Courtney
THE SCORE
"Like all my previous film projects, Sunsets & Silhouettes had a lot of difficulties getting through the production stage. We started out with all the best intentions and a carefully planned budget, unfortunately after the death of our Executive Producer we lost all that funding and had to rely on the generous graces of our friends and family.
With our crowd funding campaign raising only half of what we had initially planned, our priority was to just get through the production stage and worry about the money for post later. As ever, we managed to get the right talent in place and grab favours here and there to push us over the finish line.
It was not my initial intention to write the film's score myself, but with the lack of budget we had available, there wasn't much of an option. However, I tried to make those restrictions work in our favour instead of hindering the project. I focused a lot of my attention on digitally manipulating some previous recordings and layering new guitar and bass parts on top to create a haunting texture that reflects the character's dark internal conflict. Despite getting a sound I felt was working very well, I felt that it was still missing some piano and strings for some of the film's emotional beats.
My friends Matt (whom I worked with on Cariño) and Paul (whom I worked with on No More Shall We Part) came to my aid by offering a morning/evening of their free time to help me record additional parts. One sunday morning Matt recorded my sketchy piano playing at the Edinburgh University, on one of their beautiful grand pianos and Paul generously giving me some free time at his studio to record the girls from Lyra Ensemble playing my crudely written score.
I owe a huge thanks to Paul for finding me Cat, Nichola and Ruth, three immensely talented musicians who were very understanding of my very limited knowledge of score writing. Together I feel like we've created some of my best work.
In the end, all our hard work was rewarded and In March 2014 we were nominated for a BAFTA New Talent Award for Best Original Music, which saw us up against some of the countries brightest talent. Even if we didn't pick up the award in the end, I still consider this my proudest achievement to date, because even after all the problems that were thrown our way, we still managed to create such a wonderful piece of art and get some recognition along the way."
- Tim Courtney
*Scottish BAFTA New Talent Award for Best Original Music Nomination
credits
released January 19, 2015
Composed by Tim Courtney
Produced by Tim Courtney
String Sessions Engineered by Paul McInally
at 45/R Studios, Glasgow.
Piano Sessions Engineered by Matt Collings
at Edinburgh University, Edinburgh.
Guitar Sessions Engineered by Tim Courtney
at Tim's home Studio, Glasgow.
Guitars, Bass, Piano and additional Violin - Tim Courtney
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