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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Trails of Memory
Bobby Alarcon
2024This project is designed to combine the schools of film theory and musical composition to produce a high caliber score to be recorded with a full orchestra in the prestigious Air Studios in London, UK. My chosen scene to score from the TV series Sacred Lies, is thoroughly dissected from multiple perspectives to understand how to apply compositional techniques to visual concepts such as cinematography and editing. I then document the complex process of realizing the score: composing the thematic material, syncing to picture, producing a professional mockup, orchestrating, recording in London, and mixing the final project. The goal of this thesis is to utilize what I have learned via my documented experiences with this project to offer a roadmap which can be used by anyone to approach scoring for nearly any dramatic project. It is my hope that this project offers a fresh perspective and passion for storytelling to any artist who should encounter it.
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Lo que siembras
Marina Alcantud
2024The purpose of this Cultminating Experience is to analyze my own composition, orchestration and arrangement of Lo que siembras (What you sow) recorded at Air Studios (London). We are based on a revisionist, documentary and experiential methodology that lead us to investigate how has the process lead us to this final sound, melody and orchestration, based on the compositional tools and strategies that I’ve achieved this year with this Master.
The main objective of this thesis paper is to reveal the relationship between music and emotions, demonstrating this connection with the exact motifs that appear throughout the piece what represents each one of them. As soon as we hear sound, there is an emotional response that emerges instintively and with this project we aproach this emotional field in order to know how to use this emotional responses through music in our benefit to express stories, characters and emotions.
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Proportion
Osher Alon
2024This piece of music has been made as a culmination of my education at Berklee College of Music. In this project, I developed, researched, and delved into the ability of music to move between different emotional states. Furthermore, I was interested in the way music can convey a human message while deeply connecting to the values of humane morality and its activation. I was intrigued by how different elements in music can produce a magnetic state that will activate an emotional reaction in the listener through memories and feelings he experienced in the past, thus awakening these feelings in him again. Regardless of origin, past experiences, or character, it amazes me how music, in collaboration with a story or other media art, can evoke the same sense of identification in every human being.
This project is to ascertain my fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Music in Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games at Berklee College of Music Valencia Campus. It relates to the journey to my final recording project with a 50+ piece orchestra at AIR Studios in London, England.
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Rescoring the animation: “DAS MÜESLI”
Alexandre Alves Lunardelli
2024This thesis narrates the journey behind all stages of my Culminating Experience project in the Master of Scoring for Films, Games, and TV at Berklee Valencia. It focuses on the challenges of reading the narrative arc of a picture, conceptualizing the music, and writing and orchestrating it. The development of a digital mock-up, as well as the post-production stages, are also discussed in the later chapters. The music written will be analyzed in sections with score excerpts for better clarity, where I will discuss references, melody, harmony, and orchestration in depth. The results of this journey are insightful as I explore the intelligent use of instruments in an orchestral context, assessing what is effective in film scoring and what is not.
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Casa Llamada Tierra
Alvaro Berlanga
2024This project aims to provide an analytical discussion about creating my culminating experience project for the Scoring for Film, TV, and Video Games program: the music for the short video “Casa Llamada Tierra.”
This reflection includes the process of finding the project, analysing the video, and conducting research for musical and orchestration ideas. Furthermore, I detail the complete creative process, which encompasses composition, development of leitmotifs, orchestration, preparation of the Cubase session, and creation of the final mock-up. I also describe the recording and final submission preparation, including music preparation (score and parts) and the Pro Tools session.
The goal of this paper is to provide insights and inspiration for students and film composers. By sharing my experience, I hope to offer valuable ideas about the process of writing music for films and their narratives, as well as various types of media.
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Wrapped
Sarah Cameron
2024This paper aims to demonstrate the inspiration, purpose, and development of my score for the animated short film "Wrapped". I will communicate my compositional process, influences, approach to the mock-up, preparation for the recording, and postproduction.
I will explore each element essential for effectively combining music with visual media and the significance and impact it has on a given picture. Through this, I intend to share my process and attitude towards the craft.
"Wrapped" is an animation depicting the gradual and dramatic decline of the world through a timelapse. The filmmakers Roman Kälin, Falko Paeper, and Florian Wittmann describe their work as follows:
“The deterioration of one is the foundation of another's life. The world, with its never-ending interplay of eating and being eaten, takes on new dimensions when the unexpected forces of nature clash with the existing structures of our civilization. What was meant for eternity, melts away in seconds. The only constant is change.”
"Wrapped" is a dramatic and meaningful animation that offers a thought-provoking message - ‘time is of the essence’. Given the current global climate of extreme turbulence and change, this seemed like an entirely appropriate topic for my Culminating Experience project.
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Unleashing the Magic
Chun Yan Joanne Chan
2024This thesis presents a rescore project for the animation trailer of the Nintendo Switch game "Epic Mickey." The game, renowned for its blend of magical, dark, fantasy and thrilling elements, follows Mickey on a captivating journey through the Wasteland, where he wields paint and thinner to alter his surroundings. The score underscores the game's dramatic narrative, filled with emotional highs and lows. I aim to enhance the trailer's emotional and atmospheric impact. The rescore accentuates the magical moments and the underlying darkness that characterize the game's aesthetic. By carefully selecting and synchronizing musical pieces with visual elements, my score amplifies the dramatic arcs and emotional depth, providing a more immersive and engaging experience for the audience. This project demonstrates the significant role of music in shaping the narrative and emotional reception of visual media.
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Eggplant: Musical Story-Telling Through Motivic Cells
Joao Vitor Costa Dias
2024This project describes the creative approach of writing music for a short film and using musical development to enhance story-telling. This composition was to be a culmination of my studies in media scoring and the most significant piece in my portfolio. I started by carefully choosing a film that would contain a great variety of mood changes and then proceeded to dissect the emotional needs of the scene. Then, a pre-compositional process began with reference gathering, synchronization of musical tempo to picture, and the writing of themes that would serve as compositional seeds. Lastly, I heavily manipulated the themes to fit the previously established moods. Throughout the process, I learned intensely about reading the scene and using music development devices as tools for complementing visual media. I wish this project inspires others to trust their compositional individuality and to strive to create music that, while still serving a bigger story, is rich in its intricacies.
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Green Boots
Finlay Crowther
2024For many years Green Boots was one of the great mysteries of Mount Everest. The title refers to the once unidentified body of the climber, now thought to be Tsewang Paljor, whose body rested in a cave near the top of Everest and was identified only by his bright green Koflach boots. His body remained in this cave for many years, as it was too difficult to remove at this altitude. All climbers who wanted to reach the summit would have to pass through Green Boots’ Cave, which served as a reminder of the perils of mountaineering and reaching this formidable summit. The story captures many of the themes and ideas that I wanted to explore with an orchestra, mystery, suspense, adventure and the great beyond. Ideas that I will aim to expand upon further in this paper.
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An Orchestral Rescore of Charge
David Dudeney
2024The piece of music I have written for my Culminating Experience (CE) is a rescore of the short animation, ‘Charge’, which is an animation created by the animation studio, Blender. The synopsis is, ‘In an energy-scarce dystopia, an old destitute man breaks into a battery factory but soon finds himself confronted by a deadly security droid and no way out.’
I chose this animation as I really wanted to challenge myself as a composer. Charge has a variety of moods and is full of difficult sync points, so the whole piece took a lot of work and preparation to get right.
The aim of this paper is to document the entire journey of my composition for Charge, in an attempt to be of useful reference for related projects in the future and to provide sufficient justification for choosing the animation to represent my skills as a composer.
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Summon the Elector Counts
Enrico Fallea
2024The composition, orchestration, and recording of my symphonic work, "Summon the Elector Counts," which I wrote for a video game trailer, are the subject of this paper. With the help of my orchestration experience and the precious tools at Berklee College of Music, I was able to move through the many phases of composition, sound design, mock-up production, and final recording at the renowned London Air Studios. Working with skilled colleagues, carefully preparing parts and scores, and going through the difficult stages of mixing and mastering the finished recording were all part of the process. This project's conclusion demonstrates how to combine cutting-edge technology with classical orchestration methods to create a composition that is demanding on players and moving on listeners.
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Animal Crackers: My Story of Music, Social Media, and a Circus
Alex Fink
2024In this paper, I discuss my musical background leading up to Berklee. What was it exactly that got me into music? How did I end up in Valencia, Spain? My introduction is quite long, and I find this necessary to fully understand the motivations that led me to this moment. As the paper continues, I talk about the entire process of my Culminating Experience recording project. From where I found my clip to the analysis and post-production of the piece, I delve into every aspect of my project. This is the bulk of the paper, 5 chapters organizing my thoughts into a somewhat chronological order.
The first chapter explains not only how I found the Animal Crackers clip to rescore, but why I resonate with this project so much. Continuing from this, the second chapter lays out my entire working process. Some parts of my method are quite straightforward, others not so much. In chapter 3, I analyze my composition. I use some examples to show orchestration, melodic content, and more to understand how my piece is structured and why it works. After this, the fourth chapter details my experience at AIR Studios - Lyndhurst Hall. I’m incredibly grateful to have had this opportunity. The final chapter before the conclusion describes the after from the recording session. I mainly cover the mixing and mastering of my composition. As my writing comes to an end, I reflect on my project, my time at Berklee, and my musical journey as a whole.
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Jordan Equim and the Golden Relic (The Magic of Inspiration in Film Music)
Max Fink
2024After having had the irreplaceable opportunity to record a 3-minute cue at AIR Studios Lyndhurst, my eyes and ears have been launched deeper into the world of scoring music to visual media. Reflecting upon the experience has truly brought my musical education to a culminating point, and my perspective on the industry has been forever altered by this life-changing experience. The first step in my journey to completing this recording project was to channel my influences. Landing on the career and music of John Williams was inevitable for me, so my next move was to decide a particular soundtrack of his that sparked my imagination the most. Mr. Williams’ cues to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone hold a special place in my heart, so I was moved to create an original piece of music in that light, as well as to create an original fantasy short story and video for the music to be scored to. With my inspiration and materials locked in, my next step on the path to AIR Studios was to compose the music itself. Once the music was finished, I found that my influences were shown on my sleeve, and that an analysis of my cue would be able to relate to Mr. Williams’ extensive catalogue. When it came time to record the music in London, I was as ready as my life depended on it. My inspirations were on my mind throughout the entire recording process, and I felt overjoyed and honored to have stood on that special podium in that beautiful studio. Afterwards, I was tasked with mixing and mastering the score, and I found that to be quite a rewarding process in consideration of my prior experiences. My story and vision of how this music came together is one that I will never forget, and my devotion to film music composition will be forever inspired by this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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An Analysis of the Rescore Ghost of Tsushima Video Game Trailer
Aolin Huang
2024This paper is an analysis of my rescored music for the trailer of the video game Ghost of Tsushima. The essay is divided into sections according to the structure of the composition, based on the story timeline. The analysis mainly focuses on the background story of each section, and how my music is composed for depicting the plots and express the emotions.
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The Last Battle
Can Huang
2024The Culminating Experience project by Liz Huang includes a three-minute cue named The Last Battle, re-scored for a sci-fi animated film The Ocean Maker, by Lucas Martell, plus and a comprehensive analysis of the compositional specifics. The author’s rescored cue takes place in the last three minutes of the movie clip. It is composed entirely for full orchestra, with only acoustic instruments. The final production is performed by the orchestra of Air Studio in London, recorded by Jake Jackson and his assistants.
The reflection essay is organised into three main aspects, which are, respectively: form; tonality; orchestration, and most importantly, how these musical aspects relate to the drama. The analysis is presented in chronological manner, based on the story timeline and the corresponding musical forms.
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We'll Die as Brothers - Film Music as a Cultural Eye Opener
Noga Kedem
2024My CE project was for me the best introduction of me as a composer and a creative person. I really wanted to find a way to express myself, to create something individual and special, that only I would do. My preferred style throughout the year revealed itself as heavy deep music. I did have one change of mind, after thinking I’ll write a heavy loud and angry piece, all ways led to drama. Another thing I cared about and did was talking about a meaningful social or emotional subject – something that should be spoken, that should be more exposed, from a moral point of view. It’s a big part of my engine as a writer. I also cared a lot about the connections I created along the way while finding the video, because I think that the original piece is a masterpiece and I would love to work with anyone from that team in the future. I hope I did my best using all the skills I learned so fast over the year and reached a climax where my artistic ideas can come true through my skills and abilities.
In many ways, I was culturally and artistically educated through TV series and film. As I grew up in Israel, in a cultural world led from far away, in English, by people from different cultures and countries then mine – by European countries and the United States, I was looking for my way as a musician, an artist. I mostly found it in series and films. I found stories about the places that my favorite songs came from, people speaking the language of those songs. But mostly, I found my role models and answers in there as stories about society and relationships. I was also a woman in a feminism-wise-wings-spreading world and was coming out of the closet looking for answers about my Sexuality. I watched, for example - the very first Avatar movie, 90210, Grey’s Anatomy with the amazing sync work by Alexandra Patsavas, Enigma, the boy in the striped pajamas, Game of Thrones, and later on - sex education and big mouth (And more...). All had a message about society and people that I needed to hear. Many of my friends felt the same, we were creating our music and also noticing how powerful it can be. I noticed that the music was always the part that made me cry, laugh, understand, connect. I think it effects most people like that.
The strongest moments in my opinion are the ones where the music brings to the picture a part of the content that’s not obvious from the picture itself and tells us something new about the story, even convincing us. Contrasted music in TV and film has an eye-opening effect and ability, strong enough to send important messages that can’t be seen in the actual picture of a film without it.
In my piece for our final recordings project, I chose a scene that has a strong human message, and I tried amplifying it and making it come alive through my music. There are numerous examples of scenes in all kinds of films and TV series when the inner message is too big to be said in words, and although it is told within the story itself, the moment of conclusion and complexity in many cases couldn't have been transferred through without another layer of “voice” representing another hidden side of the story, contrasting it to amplify it, or suggesting all sides of the story all together at the same time - and that’s music.
In this paper I would like to analyze my music for the scene I’ve chosen as an eye-opener for social cultural and inner-emotional issues.
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I Want to be a Sea Creature
Sarah King
2024In this paper I detail my experience composing, orchestrating, conducting, and producing a live orchestral recording at London’s AIR Studios for an independent, live action short film. I begin with context about my musical background and how I ended up at Berklee Valencia. I then discuss the process of finding the film, titled This Sea for short, and working with the director to figure out the film’s musical needs. I detail my compositional process, including the composers I drew inspiration from, the way I transformed my simple ideas into an orchestrated score, the experience of conducting the recording session in London, my process of editing the session in post-production, and the feelings of self doubt I had to overcome along the way.
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Ad Lumen
Nikola Lekić
2024My CE is a recording of my music at Air Studios in London. I chose a short video (3 minutes long) that shows us an abstract creation of the world through the lens of Native American mythology. The name of the video is "Trail of Light".
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Culminating Experience: Frozen Planet II
Shaocheng Man
2024This paper describes the culminating experience of Berklee Valencia SFTV master's degree. Giving a deep and detailed analysis of the whole process of creating a rescore for Frozen Planet II, the introduction of the first episode. Disccusing from an introduction of the background and context, the reasons for choosing this specific clip and what could be learned from the project.
The main body of the paper is the compositional process, focusing on how the music is written and designed. From an academic, harmonic, orchestration, and idea development point of view, to eventually deconstruct the score, into pieces of smaller ideas. Using pictures of specific measures, then, understanding every step of the decision-making.
The paper's last section briefly explains the recording and post-production process, including score checking and preparing, recording in London Air Studios, and mixing and mastering in Berklee Valencia Campus.
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The Trail of the Light
Shiva Mohammadi Beilankouhi
2024The Trail of the Light is a project focused on composing a musical piece to enhance the impact of a selected short animation. Utilising the Theme and Variations method, I created a composition that seamlessly aligns with the animation’s visuals. The resulting music fits well with the animation, representing a significant milestone in my musical journey. A notable aspect of this project was recording at AIR Studios, an experience that exposed me to world-class recording quality. This project contributed greatly to my growth both as a composer and as an individual. It improved my ability to communicate effectively with visual media and collaborate with others at every stage, from composition to recording. This experience has better equipped me for future projects involving visual and musical integration.
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Shadows On The Stone
Job Navarrete
2024The paper shows a personal evolution. The culmination of a year full of hard work, several sleepless nights, and constant learning in this new vision that the Master in Scoring for Film, Television and Videogames has offered me. I have really achieved what I wanted, which was to take the skills I had on the first day of class to the extreme, and successfully overcome each of the challenges that I set for myself in each of the subjects.
The purpose of this project was to create a 3-minute piece of music that reflected my essence as a composer, as well as my musical influences. Without a doubt, I have seen reflected in this piece the references that have led me here, and undoubtedly, they will guide me towards my next step, whatever it may be.
I consider having recorded and completed my academic year at AIR Studios not as a first step, but as a great leap towards the professional world in the audiovisual industry.
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Interpreting Emotions in Film Music
Yan To Ng
2024As a film composer, my role extends beyond merely creating unique music; it involves deeply resonating with the audience. Music composition for film significantly differs from standalone music composition, as it primarily serves the narrative. Film music is meticulously crafted to enhance the story, conveying emotions and ideas to viewers. It's not about creating good music in isolation but about integrating music with the story to evoke emotions and support the narrative arc. My passion for film music stems from its unparalleled ability to evoke emotions—a quality inherent in music’s abstract, interpretative nature. Despite its subjectivity, I strive to convey specific emotions through my compositions. Understanding the director’s vision and translating their adjectives into music is crucial. By doing so, I ensure that the musical elements align with and enhance the cinematic experience. Through studying films and film music, I’ve identified various musical techniques and idioms that effectively convey specific situations and emotions. The semiotic meaning of music, though sometimes seen as a limitation, is a powerful storytelling tool that can make audiences laugh, cry, and feel deeply connected to the narrative. By leveraging these techniques, I can create a musical landscape that not only complements but also elevates the visual and emotional storytelling of a film.
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Long Lived
Nicholas Rozzell
2024This paper presents the culminating project for the Master’s of Music in Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games program at Berklee College of Music. The project involved creating an original piece of visual media and composing music to accompany it. The author undertook the task both creating the animation and scoring it, and in doing so enhanced their skills in various software tools for both animation and music.
The project began with developing the story, taking inspiration from other sources of media. Storyboarding the story ensured a coherent narrative structure, and recording the narration allowed for precise timing adjustments in both the storyboard and script. Creating the video involved using a combination of 3D animation software (Blender) and generative artificial intelligence text-to-Image generation (DALL-E). The music composition process started with listening to references and ended with a mockup/demo of the orchestral score ensuring effective orchestration and compelling music before recording the music with live musicians at Air Studios. The music was then mixed with narration, and sound effects also prepared by the author. This project showcases the author’s musical and technical skills and highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in media production.
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HOLE
Christopher Scott
2024HOLE: A Long Time Coming, is a plunging dive into the marrying of orchestral textures with experimental animation as seen through the collaboration of composer Chris Scott and director Ayden Lamb . This paper will be conducted in a somewhat chronological order covering a multitude of topics on the journey to the completion of HOLE. Scott and Lamb's relationship history, history of collaboration and relationship as creators will be touched upon followed by the first steps in creating the framework for HOLE. The writing process, from first note to instrument choices, will be examined with cross references to the various inspirations used ie. The scores for ALIEN and ALIENS. Finally the recording itself as well as the post production process will be discussed and various highs/lows will be highlighted.
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Catharsis
Olivier Soudin
2024The purpose of my project was to use the skills I acquired during my time at Berklee Valencia to compose, record, and mix orchestral music to an original short animation entitled Catharsis. I wanted a collaborative experience working with a director to bring their vision for the music of the film to life. This required, not only having to get my mockups approved by the director but also needing to conduct and record my compositions with orchestras. For this film, I used my final Budapest recording, my AIR Studios recording, and a solo cello that I will record in the Ann Kreis Scoring Stage at Berklee Valencia. To achieve this, I had to conduct a spotting session with the director and take detailed notes of what he was expecting from the music for his film. I later had to present him with a mockup of my compositions, make some adjustments, and then prepare my score and parts for the recording session. This paper describes my process of closely working with a director. I hope this will help any future film composers understand what are the steps required to write, record, and mix a score while working in collaboration with a director for their film.