23/09/19

I sat in the recital room and Mr Ramm talked about the whole qualification. He talked about the
different forms of presentation and talked about past projects as examples. I then left the room and
went and thought about what I could do for my project. I researched possible ideas for the EPQ and
came up with two possibilities: trumpet recital, composing for a film. In the end I decided to do the
film composition. I feel I could do better in the EPQ with the film composition. There is more
research I can do about film composing than the trumpet recital.

30/09/19
I have begun a practice film project called Big Buck Bunny. This is not what I will present as my final
EPQ. I am going to do this to demonstrate different possibilities of ideas I could take from different
composers. Throughout the score I will demonstrate influences of different film composers such as
John Williams and Hans Zimmer. I am expecting for this to take a long time, but I should finish during
October half term.

14/10/19
I have been working on Big Buck Bunny and I am about halfway through the film. During this
time I have been listening to lots of different film scores and taking ideas from them. I have
mainly listened to John Williams, Hans Zimmer, John Powell and Alan Silvestri. All of these
have influenced the score so far and will continue to throughout the project.
4/11/19
I have finished Big Buck Bunny. The score is littered with influences from lots of different
film composer and has given me an opportunity to test out the software I will be using to
compose the score for the film that will make up my EPQ. I am going to write up my
research on different film composers and show where the influences of those composers
are in my score for Big Buck Bunny and I will assess what I could possibly add to my final
score that I will present as my EPQ.
11/11/19
I began to write up the list of film music cues I have been listening too and I finished my
research on different film composers and their influences. I am also going to speak to Mr
Faulkner who is going to help me in preparation for writing the final film score project. I will
also finish writing up the list of film music cues I have been listening to.
18/11/19
I have finished the list of film music cues I have listened to. I have not yet spoken to Mr
Faulkner but am planning to within the next week.
2/12/19
I have spoken to Mr Faulkner and we are going to talk at some point in the next few weeks
about the film composition. I need to speak to Mr Batten as he knows a film composer who
may be useful in helping me with my project. I am also going to continue listening to
different film cues for research
6/1/20
Me and Mr Faulkner met, and we spoke about film composition. We looked at possible
styles I could compose in and whether we would be using samples or sound libraries. He
advised using samples as they are more realistic however we concluded that using sound
libraries would fit my composition style better.
20/1/20
Me and Mr Faulkner again met, and I showed him Big Buck Bunny. He said it was very good
and could easily be the composition I present as my EPQ. We began to speak about the
influences on the score and link to compositions by other film composers.
27/1/20
Me and Mr Faulkner again met, and continued the document on influences on the score for
Big Buck Bunny linking it to film composers such as John Williams and Hans Zimmer and
classical composers such as Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. We also looked at the themes of the
film and how my score linked to these themes through instrumentation. We began to write
out my process for how I composed the film. I need to speak to Mr Ramm and Mr Faulkner
and work out who will be my supervisor.
10/2/20
Mr Faulkner is now my supervisor and so we began to work more closely on the project. We
continued the document on influences, especially that of John Williams, Tchaikovsky and
Stravinsky, and also spoke about past projects done and possibilities for this project.
9/3/20
Due to busy times and recent events I have not met with Mr Faulkner for a while, however I
have continued to look at the influences document and have managed to find YouTube
videos to act as sources for my research for writing the score to Big Buck Bunny. These
include scores of John Williams, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.6, and various music by Chopin
and Liszt.
23/3/20
Again, due to recent events I have not met with Mr Faulkner, however I have continued with
the influences document, beginning to write about my process for writing the music for Big
Buck Bunny. This has included the early spotting sessions and the process of finding themes
for individual characters in the film.
5/4/20
I have been continuing to write about my process for writing the music for Big Buck Bunny
and have contacted Mr Faulkner to make sure this is the correct thing to be doing, which it
is. I have gone on to write about the influences on the form of my score including the sonata
form influences on the score with an exposition, development and recapitulation.
22/4/20
I have realised that writing up my process is taking much longer than I thought. However,
Mr Faulkner says it will take a while but is very important to get down the complete process.
So I will continue to write it up. Continuing with the sonata form influence I have been
finding extracts from the score to demonstrate the exposition, development and
recapitulation form.
15/5/20
I met up with Mr Faulkner virtually and we discussed my project. He said I needed to include
much of the literature I had been reading as this will help to solidify my research areas and
analysis of film cues. I went away and did this and collected together three books I had been
using, Gordon Jacob’s Orchestral Technique: A Manual for Students and The Composer and
His Art and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s Principles of Orchestration.
25/5/20
I have been continuing with my writing up of the process of my composition. I have been
continuing to loo through my score to find examples of the influences of different
composers to go alongside my aural analysis of certain film scores.