During the winter of 2021, I embraced the opportunity to challenge myself by participating in The Indie Film Music contest. This contest involves scoring a short film and submitting it for feedback, with a panel of judges selecting their favourites.

As someone who has always been passionate about music and a dedicated enthusiast of film scoring, I found the premise of this contest particularly intriguing. The impact that music can have on visual storytelling has always fascinated me and I try to implement music in all my storyboards to further express tone and pace.

Initially, I entered the competition with the sole aim of receiving professional feedback. However, to my delight, my composition was given an 'Honourable Mention' award.

At the time of the competition, my wife and I had just welcomed our newborn son into the world, and I was juggling full-time work commitments, leaving me with limited time for writing. With her blessing, I took a few nights out of the week and I managed to piece together a piano composition with the intention of orchestrating it during the holiday break, though time did not permit.

Nevertheless, I was provided with amazing feedback from a Film Scoring professor at USC and I learned so much from this process. I am very pleased with the outcome of my composition and hopefully I will be able to participate in another one soon.