On this page, you can find the Culminating Experience (CE) Projects for all graduate students from the Berklee College of Music master’s program Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games (SFTV) from 2015 – present. Click on any title for more information and access to the full paper and other deliverables (if available).
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Labyrinths
Nipun Bhatnagar
2022Labyrinths is a documentation of my process of writing music for the film Perspectives and all the events that took place and lessons I learnt that led up to it. Writing music for film is always challenging in a variety of ways. Composing the music is, of course a vital part of the process, but there are many others. Interpreting the film, communicating with the director, working around last minute changes and making hundreds of tiny decisions that will affect the whole outcome in convoluted ways are just a few of the other parts of the whole process – each as significant as the rest. The first half of this dissertation provides an insight into the challenges I faced during the process, starting from trying to find a film to score for my final project to the day of the recording sessions at AIR Studios and the ways I found to overcome them. The second half of this paper talks about the musical aspects of the cues I recorded – analyzing them from thematic, compositional, orchestrational and developmental lenses and how the two cues became what they are. It also describes some of the tools that were used to tell the story of the film musically.
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The Wolves of Jericho
Joshua Brazil
2022My Culminating Experience project, “The Wolves of Jericho” is a composition intended to be presented with a registered screenplay I wrote with my brother and my father. Both of them are also both professional journalists; my brother is a senior editor at the Los Angeles Times and my dad is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. So, it was a good way to learn from them and share our interest in film, television and storytelling. The purpose of the composition is to provide a sound and tone for the screenplay when presenting the story to filmmakers. The script is registered with the Writers Guild of America and is currently undergoing revision based on feedback and notes from industry contacts, and thus, I felt that creating a trailer type composition that constructs a musical tone and feeling with the script could help when presenting the idea to producers and potential collaborators. The script is based on true events and tells the story of a woman who worked as a detective during the U.S. Civil War era. My culminating experience project describes the process of writing the script as well as the methodology used in conceptualizing and writing the music for the story, and how I envisioned the types of scenes and imagery that would be present for each section of my final project. The project concludes at its highest point of recording at Air studios, the preparation for recording day, and the process of mixing and mastering the final recording.
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Look To The East
Luke Celenza
2022Composition for visual media is a multifaceted practice. I have learned that it requires many different skill-sets spread across several parts of the process. Establishing oneself within these industries is the culmination of years of study, practice, and probably a bit of luck too. In addition to this, creating a professional film, television show, or game, requires teams of people, each an expert in their own respective field who have come together to produce something. It is the marriage of these different people; the musicians, conductors, engineers, editors, and many more, who bring our compositions to life, and eventually, onwards to the big screen. In roughly the first third of this thesis I have chosen to not so briefly highlight some of my musical past, leading up to arriving in Valencia at Berklee’s Campus. I feel that the journey that has led me here, like everyone else, is unique to me, and has helped to shape the kind of composer and person that I am. In the second two-thirds or so, I have explained my process for creating my Culminating Experience Project, from selecting a scene, analyzing the score of the original, and finding ways to best navigate it on my own through a combination of insight new and old. Mostly, the cue I wrote stems from intuition, drawing on harmonic and melodic ideas that could have come from any number of influences soaked up over the years. I like to think that everything can be an opportunity to learn, grow, and better oneself when approached with the right attitude. I do my utmost to take new things and add them to my ever-brewing stew of musical information. The key after that, is to figure out how to strain out the bits that go together best when pouring that stew into a bowl. Because the goal is certainly not to have a stew with every ingredient in the world, the goal is equally not to write something with every idea you’ve ever learned. I believe therein lies the kind of musical maturity that can only come with experience and intuition.
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LOST IN COSMOS: The Journey of the London Recording in AIR Studios
Pei Chin Lee
20222022 will undoubtedly be an important year for me, in which I have experienced recordings of film scoring that I will never have in my previous scoring career. In this reflective paper, I’ll talk about the whole process of my film scoring process for my CE collaboration project. Including finding the collaboration short film from the beginning, analyzing scripts and plots, composing, orchestrating, recording, conducting at AIR Studios, and post-production. I hope this reflective paper can completely register the whole process in detail and make a summary for this year.
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Yin and Yang - Reimagining Music Through Reading
Sara Fakhry
2022After a year filled with active learning, getting our hands dirty with DAWs1, orchestrating duets and many sleepless nights, this project finally came to fruition. This project aims to discuss a subject that I am very interested in; how music can redefine a whole story. Since music has that ability, it goes beyond saying that music has a very intimate relationship with films, hence the importance of music in movies is one that should never ever be understated. This project however takes a look at how music can redefine a written-based story and transform the reading experience. I have always been fond of reading and most often when I take up a book, there is some sort of music accompanying me while reading. This is because music can always transform the underlying emotion of the imagination the reader conjures up and because of that the reading experience is heightened. This is why for the Culminating Experience I decided to compose a piece based on a short story and apply all the things we have learned this year from understanding the narrative, creating a realistic mockup, orchestrating, creating the score and parts on Finale2 to finally preparing the Pro Tools3 session to record at one of the most renowned studios in the word with some of the best musicians in the world. It goes to say that the process of composing a piece based on a text was very different than that of composing a piece synced to film, but the purpose of this piece was to capture the true essence of the emotion of the story rather than syncing and spotting everything to perfection.
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La Historia de la Sima
Jose Benjamín Falces Vaquero
2022This paper shows the result of the Culminating Experience that I have carried out as a student of Berklee's Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games master's program. After a very intense year in which I have acquired an amazing variety of knowledge, I have been able to apply everything I learned to produce the animated short film La Historia de la Sima. This Culminating Experience requires knowledge of musical composition, as well as interpreting the narrative of a story, audio mixing and editing, and the ability to find and work with potential collaborators to make the production. That is, apply everything learned during a year in the same work. In this document I will explain the entire process that has led me to create this animated short film, from the search for an idea and the creation of a script to the contact with collaborators to record the voiceover and design the animation. I will also talk about technical aspects that have been a great motivation for me. I will mention the musical techniques used and the relationship of the themes with the characters. I will also talk about post production work, editing and audio mixing. Being able to carry out this work on "la Historia de la Sima" has been especially exciting, since it has a very personal background. For this reason I have tried to reflect in the final result the importance of this story for me, trying to capture my personality as a composer in the music.
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The Odyssey
Carolina Fontecha
2022This project describes the pre-production, composition process, recording at Air Studios, and post-production of an orchestral piece based on the narrative of some parts of the ancient Greek poem The Odyssey. In doing so, I applied the knowledge and techniques I learned this year in my master's program in Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games.In this process, I tried to find three different musical atmospheres to develop my compositional skills in three different musical genres. In this master thesis, I will talk about the technical steps I took to create a midi mockup, the analysis of the musical themes I composed for this piece, and the orchestral techniques I used in some passages. I will try to use my words to take you on my trip to London, where I had the wonderful experience of recording and conducting my piece at Air Studios. I will also show you the post-production process I follow when mixing and mastering an orchestral piece. Finally, I will show you how I worked with an illustrator to create images for a piece of music based on a story. I hope this project will inspire future students to pursue an idea that motivates them to make music and work to make it happen.
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The Dog and the Dragon
Jacob Hanna
2022The Culminating Experience (CE) is the final project for students enrolled in the Berklee Valencia Master of Music in Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games. Students select a piece of audiovisual material or a script, and compose a musical cue of no more than 3 minutes, which they must then mock up, orchestrate, and provide completed, professional sheet music for. At the end of the process, students travel to London to record their cues in the world-famous AIR Studios Lyndhurst. The CE is less focused on the “getting it done” project-based aspect of the recording, and more focused on the experiential learning process it causes students to go through. This learning experience is invaluable as an opportunity to synthesize and apply the numerous skills learned over the course of the year-long master’s degree program. I found the experience to be enlightening, motivating, and extremely valuable. By pushing me well outside my comfort zone, the CE induced substantial personal and professional growth, and motivated me to begin setting goals that will eventually lead to similar recording experiences in the future.
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Finding Haku: A Rescore of Spirited Away
Mark Hendry
2022Finding Haku represents the culmination of what I have learned at Berklee. This paper aims to reflect and analyse how I approached my time here at Berklee and what I did to prepare for the final stage of the program that is recording at AIR studios with a world class orchestra. Although the pressure and responsibility felt immense at times, the process of creating a piece to record was incredibly enriching and exciting. From the early stages of looking for a project to score, to standing in front of the orchestra I will reflect upon each step taken over the previous months. Through the analysis of my piece you will see the musical and narrative decisions I made as well as the struggles and realisations I made along the way. There were many composers and artists that inspired me to compose Finding Haku, I’m sure much of it subconsciously. I’ve included some of the most important inspirations and how they informed my writing process.
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Timelapse Antigua': A little suite for timelapses and drone takes of Antigua Guatemala
Isaac Hernández Campos
2022This final project for the Scoring for Film, Television and Videogame’s Masters (SFTV) at Berklee Valencia, consists of a score for a 3 min. video of timelapses and drone takes by the Guatemalan astrophotographer Sergio Montúfar, which will be included in a documentary called “La Antigua Guatemala Suspendida en el Tiempo” (Antigua Guatemala, suspended in time), recorded at the lockdown, and produced and directed also by Montúfar. The video scored is a chronological collage of different footage of the Guatemalan town of Antigua Guatemala and its surroundings, from early morning to midnight; it’s worth mentioning that the nature of the video is temporary as the photographer is going to do a re-edit based on the final version of the cue. This paper describes my overall process, from the initial approach to the whole Culminating Experience (CE), the analysis of the video, the dissection of its thematic and musical construction and some brief details about the recording and the postproduction of the result, a 3-movement little suite, called “Timelapse Antigua”.
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Man Against Dream
Niccolo Hilgendorf
2022Man Against Dream is the score to a script, but it is also a deep exploration into the bridge between music and the written word, and my attempt to tell a story – or a portion of a story, more accurately – through music alone. I chose this project for my Culminating Experience because I wanted to explore the essence of storytelling and the language of music, and because I wanted to challenge myself to score to something more ethereal than picture: words. My approach was to use a combination of literal scoring, in chronological order and following a timecode, and a more conceptual, less linear approach, centered around creating specific moods and developing themes. I worked hard to find a balance between extremes, and my hope is that I have succeeded in creating a final product that is capable not only of telling a story but also of standing alone as simply a piece of music.
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Moon Jelly: A Journey to Find My Musical Color
Sue (Jinny) Lee
2022This project describes the process of creating music by MIDI, having a live recording session at AIR Studios, and the post-production of mixing. Moon Jelly is a project that I implied most of what I have learned in my past 10 months at Berklee Valencia as a master’s student. Every music that I write for new projects could always be done better and improved in any way after looking back to it, which I think is a natural thing that happens to a lot of composers including my peers. However, for this project I was able to reach the point where I was satisfied enough with the result considering the provided environment. The provided environment here meaning not only the unexpected external obstacles but also the internal struggles which will be described shortly. As a classically trained person for half of my life, there was not a limit or an end for learning which tremendously helped me as a starting composer. However, this had a snowball effect on me which at some point I was clearly overwhelmed while not noticing it. I have always had to spend more time trying to run away from the ‘predictable’, ‘obvious’, and ‘simple’ progression subjectively judged by myself in my own circle. After this short but long thesis project I am now realizing that I do not have to run away from it, but I honestly can’t say that I have figured out the solution for this yet. I am sure that it will take a while for me to find the exact answer if there is one, but I see myself at the end of that tunnel soon.
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Spring
Yuna Lee
2022This project used an animation video titled “Spring” and is composed, considering the organization of an orchestra of 51 players to be recorded in Air Studios in London. “Spring” is a result of a new creative work produced with the existing video and my music through analyzing the existing music for visual media scoring, finding my visual narrative scoring method that well matches various storylines, and using various musical genres and my musical background. This study includes my approach using musical elements and analysis of transformation techniques for musical forms and themes to support narrative storytelling. The effect created by audiovisual elements for visual media presents to us a stronger impact than listening to music or watching a video does. “How does film music operate?” “What are the processes in which the music is made?” “What makes one make musical attempts in the processes?” “What makes composers excited and move to make them?” This study is a course of a long journey to find the author’s answers.
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Paperman
Meiling Liu
2022Paperman is a final project representing the culmination of a year's worth of study at Berklee College of Music, Valencia Campus. The main focus of this project is to provide the making of the orchestral music cue for a short animation film from WALT DISNEY Animation Studios to establish a sense of who I am as a film composer, reflecting my challenges, desires, and dreams of being a storyteller through the music. This thesis explains my entire process from the beginning: how I found and searched for a video, how I prepared before creating music, and then the process of composing, orchestrating, and preparing the score and parts for the orchestra recording session. In addition, it pointed out how I prepared the conducting for the Air Studios recording session in London, the post-production about mixing, and the conclusion of the learning journey and this final project. In addition, this thesis mentions how the music reflects through the film by the composer herself. This project is designed to ensure fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Music in Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games at Berklee College of Music, Valencia Campus.
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The tomb of Alexander the Great
Aleix Losa
2022After a year of trying to find myself as an artist and as an ever-growing person, I am now at the culmination of that experience. I finally have the chance to set my final piece of music, which will be recorded at Air Studios in London. The amount of grace I feel at this moment is incredible and overwhelming at the same time. I cannot put into words what is going on in this moment not only in my head, but also in my heart and emotions. Everything is a beautiful jumble of realisations, adventures and new bonds that will surely last for a long time. Since I graduated from university, I knew I wanted to go down the path of film scoring. Actually, I just thought I wanted to be a storyteller, whether it was through films, theatre, or just using music as a path to bring the audience together. I've studied music since I was a little kid, and it's been with me for a long time now. So I wanted to show the world how much good music has done for me, and how much better and greater it can do for future generations.
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Our Planet: The Search for Structure
Arun Mangrulkar
2022In this reflective paper, I address the philosophical quandaries that I have confronted this year as I learned to adapt to this industry of music for visual media. The Master of Music in Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games program at Berklee culminates in a final project requiring the student to compose, orchestrate, conduct, and produce a three-minute score for a full symphony orchestra to be set either to picture or to a narrative. The cue was recorded at AIR Studios with some of the finest orchestral musicians in the world. I decided to dedicate my project to spreading the message about the importance of renewable energy. I re-scored a video from the World Wildlife Foundation about the melting of the ice caps in hopes that it will draw attention to the impact of our economy’s actions on the environment and the effective and ineffective methods of combatting this very real climate crisis. In tackling this cue, I was forced to draw on every single skill I worked to develop during these extremely intense nine months at Berklee. I've had struggles with mental health, with imposter syndrome, with work inefficiency, and with time management. During this year, I have worked to develop skills to combat all of these much more effectively than I ever could before. These skills were put to the test in this project, and I am quite satisfied by the findings.
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The Marriage of Music to Picture
Youssef Moustafa
2022This dissertation explores the techniques, skills and mindset required to be able to marry music to picture in the most fitting way possible. The mindset and way of thinking is just as important as the technical skills as it will show what is the appropriate way to mentally approach, to many, a daunting task that is film scoring. No matter how motivated or inspired a person can be, it is a tough industry to be part of and the program is not afraid to announce that to its students. The paper will also go through an in-depth look into the compositional process in relation to the London recordings at AIR studios, and my personal approach to having a successful project overall due to the habits that I have developed across the entire academic year.
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Light Years: Composing A Dreamy, Nostalgic Soundscape
Mica Nafshun-Bone
2022Light Years is a project that showcases all the new skills I have gained from Berklee Valencia’s Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games Program. As my craft continues to develop, it is imperative that I take advantage of these new compositional techniques that my professors were gracious enough to teach me. One of the most valuable lessons they taught me was the importance of truly capturing the mood of the film’s trajectory through our own soundtracks. I sought to achieve this motive when scoring Light Years, where I was challenged to experiment with using certain instrument groups, like the brass section, to add texture and warmth to the piece despite their brazen, bombastic tonalities. This dreamlike quality to the music played an important role, especially because I dealt with an animation short film. My thesis discusses my entire process for this project, including my sources of inspiration and my experience recording at the legendary AIR Studios.
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Follow
Niamh O’Meara
2022My culminating experience is a three minute orchestral piece inspired by the book, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy. It includes a reflective paper piecing together the narrative behind the music, uncovering the right theme and harmony to do it justice, exploring the colors of the orchestra and finally detailing how the final piece came to be. The piece incorporates the essential themes presented in the book, namely, fear, love and hope, and is an ode to following your instincts and forging your own path.
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From Student to Professional
Beau Schaepman
2022The power of improvement is in many cases a process of flow in a subconscious mindset. Humanity learns by experiencing new scenarios in a practical environment and by shared wisdom provided by experts in (master)classes, books, internet, and other theoretical sources. But to truly master the craft of a profession, it takes dedication, awareness and control. In this paper, I will describe the whole process from being a starting Berklee SFTV1- Student to a fully prepared professional Film, Television and/or Videogame composer. With as cherry on the cake the final result of the music I have made for the game ‘The White Raven’, which is recorded in the AIR Studios in London. I am going to share my experiences, thoughts and feelings based on the successes and failures of this year. Information about acquisition, networking, inspiration, music composition, music preparation, conducting, recording and post- production are included in this paper. Primarily the information written in this paper could be useful for aspiring (starting) musicians, who would like to know more about what it takes to be a composer for Film, Television and/or Videogames.
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MC Fox
Nimrod Schwartz
2022In this academic work, I will examine and go through the composition progress of my Culminating Experience Project, MC Fox. This project is a musical piece I composed for a full orchestra for a short animation movie called “MC Fox”, created by the Israeli animator Tamir Zehavi. This short is my first credit as a film composer and the first film that I wasn’t re-scored. I will start my work by examining the exposition of the piece, and then I will analyze the different parts of the piece one by one in the following order. In each part of the score, I will share the themes I composed to this animation short and discuss how I used them during the movie. I will also share my orchestrating progress and the way I used the different instruments of the orchestra and the different sections of it. In addition, I will touch on issues such as the style I chose to compose, the way I divided the short into different sections, and how I synced the music to the picture. I want to thank my Directed Studies Professor Sergio Jiménez Lacima for guiding me through this proses.
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Noble Heart: Composition for a Fairytale
Alicia Sevilla Redondo
2022This project describes the creative process, the technical development, the search for resources and the human growth that have culminated in my first composition for orchestra, inspired by a fairytale. I have attempted to describe through music the most intimate and human emotions of the characters, making visible what is invisible to the simple eye. For this I have put into practice everything I have learned throughout this intense and fruitful course, which has led me to create an orchestral work and experience recording it live with the most expert musicians in one of the best studios, Air Studios in London. At the same time, I can recognise the importance of the support, the help and the accompaniment that my family, teachers and close friends have given to me in this culminating experience. I am excited to imagine that this is just the seed of a very enriching professional future, because I want to continue growing to share my best professional work and my passion to the world.
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The Next-to-Last Time I Was Shot out of a Cannon Short story by: Etgar Keret
Aviram Spies
2022In this reflective paper I will attempt to summarize my experiences here at Berklee, both in general and most importantly in relation to our final project. I’ll be looking into my journey, trying to explain my personal, musical and composition choices I’ve made towards writing this piece. Though this project might feel similar to our previous tasks here at Berklee, this one was far different and challenging than everything we’ve done, and certainly one of the most interesting and more challenging projects I was lucky enough to work on. Throughout my time here in Berklee I got to learn so much more than I can fathom. Beyond the much needed technical skills, and theoretical knowledge, I’ve learned mostly how to develop my own musical language. Learning through trial and error, with each and every time I try to dip my toes in freshwater, looking at new horizons and connecting my new experiences with the past. I’ve learned to look at stories and narratives in new and refreshing ways while trying to constantly make the musical and emotional connections.
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Barcelona: A Composing Journey
Aida Ten
2022The main focus of this project is the process of composing for a 3-minute film. It describes pre-production, production and recording in London, and post-production. My goal was to record very different musical genres that I can use as my portfolio in the future. I started this project looking for an original video to write the music for, and ended up recording it with a videographer so I could write the music I liked, and I could use all the instrumentation we had available. The project led me to a review of every part of the process and make every detail my own. Even though I could be better in some areas, I feel like I am ready to work in the professional world at any of these stages.
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Superhero for Mayor
Alexander Wiederock
2022The goal of this Culminating Experience project was to write a 3-minute piece of music for a video or script to serve as the exemplification and reflection of everything I learned during my year in the Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games Master’s program at Berklee Valencia. To achieve this goal, I wrote an original score for the animated short film, "Superhero for Mayor", in collaboration with its creator, Hank Farr. To accompany the theme and tone of the video, the music incorporates elements of the military topic, and recalls the scores of classic superhero films, such as those of John Williams. The process of completing this project included the composition of the original music, orchestration, score and part preparation, conducting during the recording session with a 51-piece orchestra at AIR Studios in London, editing and mixing the recorded music, and finally, the placement of individual cues from the final mix at their sync points in the animation. The experience I gained through the creation of "Superhero for Mayor", particularly with the opportunity to score for an unfamiliar genre and the challenges it brought about, will definitely benefit the completion of any future projects to come.