Action Contest - The Knight and The Princess

Contests for Composers Action Music Contest
1

Creative Vision:
The Knight and the Princess describes the tragedy of a captured princess and the liberation by the brave knight.

It was a cold november morning in the medieval forests of [place a county of your choice] when the brave knight received the bad news of his princess beeing kidnapped.
He immediately calls his men and they ride off to free the princess. They ride as fast as they can and finally reach the castle in which she is desperately waiting for help. The brave knights make their way as they jump&run through “8 biting dogs :)” but they notice that they are trapped.

They are also captured and the brave knight is knocked out. In his dreams he can see the beautiful maid and wakes up.

A very bloody battle flared up until they reached the tower and finally open it to free the princess. Sitting in the dark corner of the tower, she can hardly believe her luck. As for her rescue she marries the brave knight immediately.

Main Instruments:
DAW:

  • Reaper 6

Libraries:

  • Spitfire Epic Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Percussion
  • Spitfire Discover, Labs
  • Soundiron Olympus Elements Choir

Composition Details (Tempo, Key etc):

  • Tempo is 100
  • Key is Eb Major

Project Targets

  • EQing and Mixing
  • Different Ostinato Patterns
  • Panning
  • 3+ Variations every 8 Bars
  • Harmonic Variations (building Tension)

Dear All,
first of all, thank you for your time to listen to my track.
A big Thanks goes to Mike for his incredible work in this community and the host of these beautiful contests.
I am very proud to be a part of this community.

My track is dedicated to all victims of covid-19. As in these hard times I wish I can put a smile on your face for at least the next 5:15 minutes.

God bless you all,

Sincerely yours,
Michael

… and here is - as promised - the video version of it. Have fun.

4 Likes
2

Sounds really epic, and I could see it working very effectively with the images you are seeing in your head.

Believe I would call that C minor, even though Eb major and C minor are both 3 flats.

1 Like
3

Thank you so much for your Feedback Everett, i am currently working on a video with some pictures. How did you like the “8 biting” dogs?

4

The 8-bit stuff is weird, but would really depend on the visuals and whether you had already, in this hypothetical film, established that sound as part of your overall musical ensemble.

That was kind of my reaction to the winner of the Westworld competition too. I didn’t really like the 8-bit intrusion, but IF he had carefully laid the groundwork for that as part of the sonic milieu of the film, I might have been able to enjoy it without being pulled out of the scene.

Same here. And your 8-bit stuff isn’t nearly as intrusive.

I usually don’t like questioning instrument choices where I can’t really tell what the context would be. I assume you had a reason for it.

1 Like
5

Of course it has nothing to do with the rest of the piece it was just a slight innuendo to the mentioned contest. :slight_smile: But i am really happy you enjoyed it, and that the small story fits the piece.
Thank you again for your feedback and your time to listen.

6

Hi,

Ok I like the track a lot, the part I enjoyed the most is between 2:28 (great horns playing, very epic and heroic! Great!) untill we hear the blades, which distracted me from the music honnestly, but I understand the concept. With video images of course it would be better as we could associate both together.

Toward the end, with the long sustained strings, I would add a nice ostinato to add drama and buildup toward the end to create that epicness in a crescendo.

Here is a not perfect example but kind of like this energy buildup when Daniel James switches tempo in this amazing song (my favorite epic song ever🙂):

1 Like
7

Thank you so much for your feedback, Jonathan.

Of course the 2 parts with the 8 biting dogs, and the blades… it was a kind of a joke, to have some fun while composing and to cheer up this contest.

With the ostinato to the end, you are so absolutely right. Tbh, i just haven’t had the idea to do that, and thats so easy to do :frowning: I am a bit sad, that i just do not have such ideas at the right moment… but i feel, that they do come more with time.

Thanks again, for your time to listen,
Michael

1 Like
8

Yeah the 8 bit was nice and funny, and in the context of Westworld I totally get it. It was flowing in a good way actualy so not at all distractive like on the winner’s track.

For the ostinato, sometimes we have lots of ideas and sometimes less but don’t kick yourself, it is cool to have this community to interact and give each other tips and idea of different visions.

Best,

1 Like
9

A great job and mixing! Listening with headphones was like “watching” a movie with the sound effects. Nice!

1 Like
10

Thank you so much Anna,
a small youtube video with some pictures will follow soon.
Background was that i have just read the book “the reel world” in which jeff rona explains how to score to pictures, so i decided to make a track like this.
Very glad you enjoyed it,
Sincerely yours,
Michael

1 Like
11

Michael - some nice thought went into this imaginary epic tale. Not sure I understand the 8-bit sounds in the context of everything. Maybe with a visual it would work. Appreciate that you are dedicating it to all the victims of Covid.

Brandon

1 Like
12

Thank you Brandon for your honest feedback.
That 8 bit was just for fun. I thought it would cheer everything up a bit. (or eight :slight_smile: ) Tbh. it should be some innuendo the the ww-contest - but as @VSHDEL said in the other thread - its enough by now! Life goes on. The cue is already written, that these bars could be removed easily. I will render it again after the contest is over. Video is ongoing, the time is missing somehow a bit (or 8) at the evening hours.
Thanks for the time to listen and stay healthy,
Michael

2 Likes
13

I thought the piece worked really well, I thought the swordplay was genius and with footage would come alive!

2 Likes
14

Hey,
i just uploaded the video,
Have fun “watching” it again :wink:
Cheers,
Michael

1 Like
15

Hey Micheal, Cool video, lots of great images in there! Helps to better imagine the sense or purpose of the music. I will try to make some myself too in future projects.

You found those in Pixabay or in some video stock company?

I am a photographer / filmmaker and I will try to film those kinds of images with music in mind from now on.

Could even sell some. I have just been approached by a german tv production team to buy my drone footage from an amazing place in my province of Québec, Canada called Les Îles de la Madeleine. It is an archipelagos of 7 or 8 islands.

I was on a trip there and it was amazing. Lots of amazing cliffs that would fit with some medieval / action music.
I used stock music at the time because I did not composed mine yet but I may redo it with my own now as a project. I only added the SFX and created the intro music using sounds I had at that time.

I love to have this possibility to create images AND music now. Very compatible hobby / job / carreer. Too much fun, but takes lots of time with familly…

Here it is just in case you want to see the images:

16

Definitely a great intro. Absolutely fantastic choir sounds! I think the atmosphere is great here. Then the 8 bit part came quite unexpected to me, but I have read your posts above and I understand your explanation. The composition is great and I very much enjoyed the woodwinds in the slot section!

1 Like
17

Hey Jonathan,

yeah, these pictures were already in my head while composing, so I looked the whole net for royalty-free videos. Over the last week i had some favourites in pixaby, but as i wanted to download then, i realized, that they vanished, and only 36 (!) videos left yesterday :confused: Well… today 12,857 Free videos appeared again… strange…
So i used MixKit instead. Their videos are also free to use for non commercial purposes.

Your video is so amazing, what Drone do you use, and what music is that? I also love the filtered pictures at the end. The Resolution of the drone’s camera is 4k - right?
In Fact Drones are so cool, I have a small (2k) one too, but there are so many laws in Germany, which prohibit flying at lots of places. The most amazing pictures, are - as you have already shown - Mountains, Rivers, Seas, or Islands/Coasts - absolutely fantastic stuff. Underlay them with some nice Epic Music and your videos will be stunning.

In my case, the music was already finished and i had to sync the video with the music, so its the opposite of the “usual” scoring way. Well i scored the music with the pictures :smiley:

If you have both, I think the hardest thing is to decide, how long will your takes be, so that the music fits the video. What if you have a brillian cue with 2 minutes lenght, but your videotake only has 1:45 :slight_smile: The creative approach starts here, and that can me very hard sometimes to take a decision.

And yes, it takes a lot of time too. Besides a 50h per week job and a family i am very happy to have my workflow tuned, so i can get at least a bit “abletobeheard” music done.

Again, i love stunning Drone videos, maybe we can do a small project together for fun :slight_smile:

See you soon,
Michael

18

Thank you so much Theu,
thats a big honor for me that you like it!
Sincerely yours,
Michael

19

Hi Micheal,

I use a DJI Mavic Pro. I love aerial images but those where taken just before laws got stronger against drones. So I was legal but now I must take a pilot lesson to continue to fly it legaly… So I stoped except whenI am in a really remote location.

Thanks for your kind words and the comment on the pictures at the end. The music used is from Audio Jungle.

The video editing course I took from Hollywood top editors teached me exactly to edit to the music so it is nice to expreriment both sides of this. I must practice more this art too… love video editing.

The length of a film clip is usually not longer than 4-5 seconds so you can keep it dynamic. But there are always exceptions like the movie 1917 which was shot on a continuous take. Incredible exploit! Check it out if you have not.

In the course they also teach how to shorten or lengthen an audio track. Very clever. It is a trailer editing course so lots of fun.

My homework for it is on my You Tube channel here:

So much fun! The clips where included with lots of different audio SFX and drones, impacts, etc.

Yes I would be interested to collaborate one day.

Cheers!:slightly_smiling_face:

20

I really enjoyed the movie. The constantly changing theme kept the interest going.
Well Done.

2 Likes