Fiction – Alastair McNamara

A couple’s relationship is at a cross roads - as Fred attempts to break up with Holly, she thinks he’s about to propose. But will an impromptu chess game finally force the truth to come out?

I was eager for the music to help the comedy of the short come through, but found it much more effective to achieve this with sarcasm, scoring the film like a grand, almost Shakespearean tragedy, mocking the characters' inflated egos and protagonist syndromes, whilst also emphasising the absurdity of the chess game.

Festivals

Bolton International Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

Indie-Clips Short Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

St Andrews Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

Birmingham Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

Oxford International Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

Dorking Film Festival 2022 - Audience Award, Winner

SHORT To The Point 2022 - Official Selection

New York Comedy Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

The Gogs Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

New York City Short Comedy Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

Wales International Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

Borrega Strings Film Festival 2022 - Official Selection

Crystal Palace International Film Festival 2023 - Official Selection

Cambria Film Festival 2023 - Official Selection

The holiday of a lifetime! Or a final attempt to save a failing marriage. Bill and Deb struggle to see eye to eye, as their last ditch camping trip takes a sinister turn. The Clearing is a surreal, poetic, animated short about ego, jealousy and the stories we tell ourselves.

Finding a musical language for The Clearing was a real exploration with Director Dan Hope, beginning with references from 70s prog rock, the kind of music Bill might listen to in the van, through to sounds one might associate with the campfire and life in the forest, and into a completely strange musical world that matched Bill's delusions. I was also keen to pursue a theme which represented Bill throwing off his denial and facing the truth as it was, and keen ears can hear the Dies Irae on recorder in these moments in the film. Fundamentally the music had to guide the audience through the various layers of reality that the film traversed, as well as helping shape the arc of Bill and Deb's relationship over the short, from ominousness, to last chances and eventually something totally unexpected.

Upon returning to her home town for a funeral, a young woman reconnects with the friends she left behind.

Octopus is a film about grieving, not just for a lost friend but for the person one used to be or the life one could have had if things had been different. Director Ella Glendining and I were keen then for the score to reflect this, and so voices and organs were used in textural, nontraditional ways to reflect the funereal backbone of the film whilst being able to take the audience out of the chapel and into the minds of the characters and their loss.

Dragged Up is a comedy drama about family, identity and drag that follows a shy and awkward teenager who secretly uses her drag king persona to find the inner confidence she needs to show her family who she truly is.

Dragged Up was a wonderful reminder that simplicity is beautiful and less is often much much more. I collaborated with close friend and composer Joseph Stevenson to create a sound that matched the earnestness and intimacy as well as the humour and joy of the film, restricting ourselves to a stripped back, palette - mostly two guitars, ukulele and bass. This simplicity was beautifully offset by the gutsy raucous source music written by the brilliant Athena Varosio before Joe and I were brought on board and shaping our cues to prepare and follow from her thumping tracks was a joy.

1980. A bright young photographer is pushed to the edge by his teacher’s seductive philosophies and unorthodox methods, all in the name of great Art. Because everyone knows trauma is the essence of all the greatest art...

Whilst MUSE is a period piece, I was eager that the score to stay true to the ideas that drove the story, rather than letting 80s sounds define the music. George's blooming from student to artist is felt both thematically and in the use of instrumentation - solo violins grow gradually to a string quartet and eventually a full string orchestra.

Ringo is a bold, provocative, satirical musical short about the relationship between a racist, homophobic, right-wing father and his vegan, lesbian, left-wing daughter. Terry and George argue over Christmas lunch and this spirals out of control to tragic consequences.

I am so grateful to have been able to write music and lyrics for this project and being involved from the conception of the story and writing the text through to the orchestration and the final mix. Mining the tropes of Musical Theatre history to instantly bring out the attitudes of the characters was something we had a lot of fun with in development - letting the saccharine new age optimism of 70s musicals speak to George's newfound utopian politics and the dumpy, cheeky-chappy qualities of the 50s, Mary Poppins/Chitty Chitty Bang Bang renderings of cockneys speak to Terry's backwards facing, good-old-days outlook.

Composer for Film, TV and Games

The Fool's Mate

Credits

.

Festivals

The Clearing

Festivals

Credits

.

Octopus

Festivals

Credits

.

Dragged Up

Festivals

Credits

.

MUSE

Festivals

Credits

.

Ringo!

Credits

.