Sam Ande
Music & Sound for Audio-Visual Media
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About
- WelcomeI'm a London based Music Composer and Sound Designer for audio-visual media.I will soon be graduating from Ravensbourne, in June 2013, where I study BA (Hons) Music Production for Media.Follow my recent projects & creative musings, hear my compositions, productions & recordings & connect with me via the icons to the left.If you have any enquiries you can email me via the contact form.
Background Photo by MaxiuB used under the CC by 2.0 license.
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Posts
- Ride.io Ident Collaboration with Sound Designer Martin Todd
Ride It Out is a website for UK mountain biking enthusiasts.
I love collaborating with other creative people & this time it was no different. Martin Todd is on the Sound Design course at Ravensbourne & i’ve worked with him previously on a short film, so when he showed me this ident I was keen to collaborate again.
We met briefly so that I could view a final cut of the ident & so he could explain what Ride It Out wanted for the visual. He showed me other versions of the ident with his sound design so I had a good idea of when to place the music & I was given the adjectives, ambient & uplifting as ideas as to the sound they wanted.
I experimented with using different synths to create the layers of different textures that I wanted & I used panning to make the music follow the visual explosion that occurs during the ident. I sent my music through to Martin who then compiled the final edit which he send me back a copy of for feedback. I was happy with what we came up with so he sent it straight through to the Ride It Out team. You can view our ident collaboration here:
Portfolio submission 1. Ride It Out ident version 1. from Martin Todd on Vimeo.
- Scoring for 'Replay' Written & Directed by Rebecca Yavari
‘Replay’ is a time-bending short directed by Rebecca Yavari, a student at Ravensbourne.
I was pleased to undergo another Ravensbourne cross-course collaboration for ‘Replay’. I was given the script before my meeting with the director, Rebecca, & was able to make notes in preparation. Upon meeting we watched a near-complete cut of her short with location sound & but no temp tracks.
For this project I was given more of a free reign to experiment sonically which I really enjoyed & I set to work writing the main thematic idea. The short involves time repeating itself so I decided to use the Lydian mode which has been noted by some to have a dream-like quality. Similarly to my creative process in scoring ‘The Dropzone’ thematic material I brought together a foundational idea that I built upon throughout the piece as I repeated it, taking in to consideration the narrative arc of the entire short. Here’s a sneak leak of the theme:
After completing the thematic ideas, I managed to knock out the rest of the cues pretty quickly & sent off the score to Rebecca for feedback. She was very happy with the score & I reviewed it again after a good nights sleep. I then made a few minor changes, bringing in a synth earlier as an extra hit point & lowering the octave of a violin part that didn’t seem to fit in the previous, higher register.
I was particularly pleased with this final score that Rebecca has used, needing only 1 revision, & I’m looking forward to seeing the final visuals, sound design, music & all. - Scoring for 'The Dropzone'
‘The Dropzone’ is a zombie ‘Film Noir’ short directed by Andrew Williams, a student at Ravensbourne. It will be premiered at the university’s annual degree show, Ravensbourne2012, from the 13th to the 14th of June 2012.
I began scoring for ‘The Dropzone’ by watching the short again, after my meeting with Andrew, the director, & having my own spotting session using markers in my DAW to highlight key points based upon the discussion I had with Andrew.
I then began to try out different musical ideas for the theme which I wanted to be piano based with quite a lot of reverb to sound more atmospheric. I decided on using lower octaves in the theme to make it more dark & moody & very soon had the skeleton idea of the theme. After developing the theme, ensuring that it evolved throughout the piece, as it repeats throughout the short, I sent my thematic ideas through to Andrew for feedback. Andrew was really happy with the theme variations I sent him & they are only modified ever so slightly from the version I initially sent him. Here’s a sneak leak of the theme:
After having established the main thematic cues I then went on to the more subtle cues. As could be expected Andrew decided not to use all the music cues but opted in a few scenes for sound, without music. His comments during the project were invaluable & although the score went under 3 or 4 revisions I saw this as a good thing as he was so clear on his vision for the soundtrack & through his feedback the score really benefited from the developments.
I really enjoyed working on ‘The Dropzone’, this project made me truly value good feedback & I hope to work with Andrew again in the near future. - Spotting 'The Dropzone' with Director Andrew Williams
‘The Dropzone’ is a zombie ‘Film Noir’ short directed by Andrew Williams, a student at Ravensbourne. It will be premiered at the university’s annual degree show, Ravensbourne2012, from the 13th to the 14th of June 2012.
I was glad to collaborate with a fellow student on this project & got involved early meeting with the director to view the script & talk about his initial thoughts regarding the music score. I read the script over at home in my own time & noted my own ideas down, particularly suggestions for possible hit points & a rough structure outline for the main theme.
I then met with Andrew again to ‘spot’ a rough cut of the film, which included location sound, discussing the ideas from the notes I had made on the script. He was very specific on what he wanted which was really helpful & although there were no temp tracks for the short he gave me a number of soundtrack examples that gave me a good idea of the sound he wanted for the film.
A good spotting session is so important both for the director & composer to be on the same page or problems can occur later down the line because of previous miscommunication. All in all, I was very happy with the meeting & well prepared to get cracking on a dark & moody score.
- Conversations with Screen Composers: Rachel Portman OBE
Conversations with Screen Composers is a new series of three events at The Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room where three music composers are interviewed each on a different night by host Tommy Pearson of Red Ted Productions. Wednesday the 9th of May’s event featured Rachel Portman OBE discussing her work on films such as Emma & Chocolat.
The evening started with introducing Rachel & talking through some of her influences, her main being Ravel & Bach. Rachel spoke of how at an early age she knew that she wanted to compose and so she began doing so for student films & theatrical performances. Her first break was at 21 after handing a cassette of her music to the film director Alan Parker who then recommended her to the producer David Putnam. David then had Rachel re-score the soundtrack to the film “Experience Preferred But Not Essential”.
After learning more about how Rachel started out we then got to look through some of her work & how she went about composing for it with interesting comments on her interactions with various directors. My highlight was seeing her work on a clip from “Never Let Me Go” where she showed us the footage she received, a piano theme she created & then the fully formed composition. It was really insightful as we were able to understand how she developed the composition from the initial ideas created whilst experimenting on her piano.
Her advice to aspiring young composers was to get involved in a lot of student projects composing for film & theatre to gain experience & I’m glad that I’ve already started to do so with a few more exciting projects coming up soon. If you’ve got a project that needs music, or you know of someone that does, I would love to get involved in that too, do visit my webpage at http://SamAndeMusic.com & send me an email via the contact form.
- RPO Film Music Gala @ The Royal Albert Hall
As soon as I saw that the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were playing recent & classic film scores at The Royal Albert Hall I was sold, I had to get my ticket, even if I would be standing the whole night.
So on the 5th of May I hopped on the tube, got off too early at Knightsbridge, walked longer than I would have liked & then finally arrived outside the Royal Albert Hall.
After another long walk upstairs to The Gallery, the highest point of spectating at the Royal Albert Hall, I had an amazing view of the entire auditorium featuring the biggest organ I’d ever seen. Unfortunately “The unauthorised use of cameras, audio and video equipment is not permitted.” But, if you haven’t been already, you can have a look at the pictures on the Royal Albert’s website of the inspiring interior.
The show kicked off to Mission Impossible’s famous theme where a full orchestra was supplemented by a drumkit & keyboard to perform an excellent rendition of such an iconic score. They went on to play a number of other great film scores, my highlights being the “Gladiator” score & “Harry Potter” theme which was, simply magical, pardon the pun.
They also played a lot of music from classic World War II films like “The Great Escape” & “633 Squadron” perhaps to encourage a spirit of patriotism with the Olympic Games being just around the corner.
It was a great evening of entertainment & I would recommend it to anyone. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra return to The Royal Albert Hall on the 19th of October 2012 for another film music themed night celebrating the 80th birthday of the great film composer, John Williams.They will be playing a number of Williams’ famous film scores including “Indian Jones”, “Star Wars”, “Harry Potter” & more, you can get your tickets for the event via The Royal Albert Hall’s website.
Hearing other composer’s work is such a great inspiration to me & hope to have my own scores played by great orchestras like the Royal Philharmonic one day, if you’d like to hear some of my compositions, productions & recordings click here.
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Tracks
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Videos
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Tweets
- RT @SpikedMedia: Lots of feedback on our latest collaborative installation at #MusicTechFest with @dosed_uk #interactive #TempoRubato http:…
- RT @26chars: Our degree show is in 26 days! Don’t forget to book your free tickets @thedegreeshow. http://t.co/mwR8e0Ujo6May 17, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- RT @AdomasW: @SamAndeUK loves his @pebble watch @AdomasW here's what the notifications look like, the watch vibrates as well. http://t.co/I…
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Info
- Summary
I currently study Music Production for Media BA (Hons) at Ravensbourne (www.rave.ac.uk) and am graduating this summer, in June 2013. During my studies I received regular tuition from award winning composer Aleah Morrison (Zelig Sound). I am also tutored by John Brough, who has worked at top recording studios, including Abbey Road, and Steve Alexander, best known for his international drumming career, who is a film trailer composer.
I have a good knowledge of several Digital Audio Workstations including Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic and a broad range of VSTs including orchestral sample libraries such as East West; audio mixing and monitoring equipment.
I also have extensive hands-on experience in audio recording, with the Euphonix System 5 console (now Avid System 5-B) as well as a number of analogue consoles; production and composition through involvement in a number of projects in addition to my degree work. Currently these include several short films & a Nollywood feature film.
To hear some of the music I have composed, produced or recorded please visit my website at:
Education-
2010 - 2013Ravensbourne College of Design and CommunicationBA (Hons) in Music Production for Media
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2010 - 2010Newham Academy of MusicABRSM in Grade 5 Music Theory
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2008 - 2010Newham Sixth Form CollegeBNA Music (Composing), AS level Extended Project in Music Production, 2 other A-levels & 3 AS levels
Activities: Assisted at live music gigs by the Sixth Form at Stratford Circus a local performing arts venue, was part of the Gifted & Talented scheme & leadership of the Christian Union.
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Interests:Soundtrack Music, Technology, Theology, Creative Writing
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