MSc Music and Sound for Film and Games

This course has proven to be a significant step in progressing myself and career in the industry. The support and dedication from the lecturers and my peers encouraged me to push the boundaries of my practice, delving deeper into sound design, composition and game audio. The guest lectures and collaboration between different courses also opened new areas of sound and media to explore and created valuable networking opportunities, including work shadowing at a game studio. For my final project I created a demo for an audio game with a focus on accessibility for visually impaired players. This module gave me the freedom to combine the course content with current game audio practices, whilst supported by a mentor from the industry.

Having spent many years as a musician, I had never considered myself as someone particularly interested in the art of sound design. I was much more attracted to the idea of composing for film, but this course certainly broadened my horizons. Not only did it push me in directions I had not previously considered, but I grew in confidence and determination throughout. Most importantly, I gained an invaluable understanding of the connection between image and sound and the role they can play with each other, particularly when exploring diegetic and non-diegetic sound in film. I am currently working for a post-production company and am composing music with a much more ‘sound design’ approach! 

Benjamin Giddings’ Website: https://benjamin-giddings.com/ 

This course has made me much more aware of how music/sound works within moving-image and non-linear games as a whole. As the course covers a wide variety of areas in the music industry, it brings an extensive range of talent from its attending students that influenced me greatly. I attempted things I had never done before, like sound design and working with middleware expanding my knowledge even further while sharpening the skills I already had. The support and feedback from all lecturers and special guests are brilliant. Since graduating, I am eager to work with more people on new projects.

Luke Starling’s Website: https://lukestarlingmusic.co.uk/ 

This course gave me a clear insight into the industry through discovering different audio processes and sound implementation within film, TV and games. This has helped to expand my knowledge of musical techniques and styles to add my own creativity to projects, whilst also developing new skills through practice in different mediums with the help of guest lecturers within the industry. I have learned a lot from my lecturers and classmates, bouncing off each other’s passion for sound design and soundtracks and by collaborating with animation and film students. Despite a year interrupted with Covid, both lecturers and students all managed to pull together and continued to make good progress. Since leaving I have been fortunate to have been commissioned for a series of advertisements for a well known retail chain.

Julia Jones’ Website: http://www.juliajonessound.co.uk/ 

My time spent in this course has been immeasurable in developing my creative and technical skills as well as the sonic side of composition. The various assignments presented a wide variety of opportunities to help me expand my abilities, supported by the knowledge and dedication from the lecturers and my fellow coursemates. For my final major project I redesigned four scenes from four of my favourite games with the goal of augmenting my showreel to help me land my first job in game audio, and it worked! I will be forever grateful to this MSc in helping me get my foot in the door of the industry.

Joe Cooney’s Website: https://www.joe-cooney.com/ 

The MSc Music & Sound for Film & Games course turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. The course helped me to develop a wide range of skills and guided me to put them into practice in a more industry-focused manner. I discovered just how endless the career possibilities are, and met some incredible like-minded people that will remain friends for life. The lecturers were inspiring, approachable, knowledgeable, and friendly; they opened my eyes to new techniques and approaches, and gave me the confidence to experiment and think outside the box. Thank you to everyone at UH that made this year one to remember!

Stephen Pryke’s Website: https://www.stephenprykemusicandsound.com 

The course gave me substantial insight into the sound design industry with the help of great professionals. It gave me the opportunity to showcase my work and create my portfolio. It was also valuable that the feedback is based on the industry standards and requirements, since the lecturers are professionals working in the music and sound design business. The assessments and feedback allowed me to discover my potential and uncover which aspects I needed to improve on. I was able to explore and learn different softwares and tools that took my work to the next level.

Felipe Aguiar’s Website: https://acbyfelipeaguiar.wixsite.com/felipe 

This course has proven to be a significant step in progressing myself and career in the industry. The support and dedication from the lecturers and my peers encouraged me to push the boundaries of my practice, delving deeper into sound design, composition and game audio. The guest lectures and collaboration between different courses also opened new areas of sound and media to explore and created valuable networking opportunities, including work shadowing at a game studio. For my final project I created a demo for an audio game with a focus on accessibility for visually impaired players. This module gave me the freedom to combine the course content with current game audio practices, whilst supported by a mentor from the industry.

Lean Team is short comedy film directed by Martin Elesheku. It was selected for performance at a film screening in London. This collaboration has been a tremendous learning experience of “real life” professional practice, and has led to further collaborative projects – currently scoring promotional videos for educational organisation Teen Talk.

Ashley Lovett’s Website: https://www.ashleighlovett.com/

The course gave me ample space to exploit my potential and develop a broader perspective on how to approach my work. I’m more aware of the global structure of a film and how to highlight its thematics. I have a more precise idea of what to create and for what reasons. I’ve learned a lot from my classmates as well, it was very insightful to spend time with people who share the same passion but differently. I’m grateful for this course which gave me the knowledge and the confidence to become professional in my passion. Since I’ve left the course, I’ve worked in the context of a film festival, I joined a game development team and I started working on a short film. All commercial projects. My work on Preview, an 8-episode web series commissioned by French TV, is expected to be released in early 2019.

Les Indices is an episode from a web series called Nonsérie made by Arthur Laloux, who is the director, script editor and main actor. The web series is top 10 french web series on SensCritique. We’ve won a few prizes at several web series festival.

Dorian Pachot-Giroux’s Website: http://nairodmusic.com/

The course inspired me to discover different and creative ways of creating soundtracks. It’s an eye-opener course that teaches you how to design soundtracks in ways you never imagined, combining sound design and music in order to produce the most unique compositions. Since graduation, I have worked on different projects with Indie Filmmakers, Video Game developers, Visual Effects Artists and Advertising Companies from all around the world. Including countries such as Australia, England, Germany, Nigeria, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Vietnam.

When Night Falls, a film about love, chance encounters and discovery, written & directed by Long Khuat, sound design & music by Andreina Gomez. Winner of the Best Short Film Award Flicks Fiesta Sea 2017.

Andreina Gomez’s Website: www.andreinacomposer.com/

This course should be a must-do for anyone hoping to go into sound design or musical composition for visuals. Not only will you be taught by excellent lecturers and professionals in their respective fields, but you will learn a huge range of techniques spanning across the visual arts (e.g. film, film art, linear and non-linear games). The help you get along the way is invaluable and nearing the end of the course will prepare you well for stepping foot into the industry. Since leaving I have been working on short films and getting commissioned for regular advertisement work.

Chris Thomas’ Website: https://chrisathomas4.wixsite.com/christhomas 

The MSc Music & Sound for Films and Games at the University of Hertfordshire has been for me the door to many possibilities, the gateway to a whole new sonic world, the path to self discovery. I have forged friendships and professional relationships via this course that will last my lifetime. As well as covering music, this course places a strong emphasis on the sound design aspect of the industry, and it is therefore the logical step for an aspiring Sound designer / Game Audio implementation specialist.

Wilson Yeung’s Website: https://www.wilsonyeungaudio.com/ 

The course really broadened my horizons and changed my understanding of the industry. I got to explore and develop new skills across sound and music, which really strengthened my professional prospects. The lectures were deeply engaging, and the knowledge shared among classmates provided me with some important cutting-edge conceptions on audio-visual relationships.

Deep Water is a psychological horror/thriller film of harassment and vengeance directed by Xiao Ni, Chapman University, California, USA. I provided the music and sound design. The film has been screened at a short-film festival in California. Right now I’m engaged in two projects: a short anime film, and a film about my hometown, for which I am planning to experiment with sound designs and music to reveal various aspects of the town history and locales.

Xuemin Wang’s Website: www.xwangmusic.com/

The course has given me a real appreciation of the blurring lines between music and sound design, and how best to utilise this principle in my own work. Best of all, it attracts like-minded (and amazingly talented) people, and fosters an incredible environment for collaboration. Hybrid Action is an album of hybrid electronic-orchestral production music created for my Major Project. This album is geared towards  current action TV series, each track conceived to underscore specific situations, such as car chases, fight scenes, or love affairs. The hybrid style of music has become common in TV series, and is often championed by many composers, such as Blake Neely, who scores a number of these types of shows. The tracks are designed to fit generically to any situation within the envisaged context, thus making the job of the sync director that much easier.

Hybrid Action is an album of hybrid electronic-orchestral production music created for my Major Project. This album is geared towards current action TV series, each track conceived to underscore specific situations, such as car chases, fight scenes, or love affairs. The hybrid style of music has become common in TV series, and is often championed by many composers, such as Blake Neely, who scores a number of these types of shows. The tracks are designed to fit generically to any situation within the envisaged context, thus making the job of the sync director that much easier.

Matt Payne’s Website: www.mattpaynemusic.co.uk/

The course has been invaluable to me in providing what I believe to be a crucial insight into how the industry operates. This is helped by the dedicated team of lecturers that cover a lot of ground in such a short space of time. For my Final Major Project I wrote, mixed and mastered an Asset Pack for the Unity Store that aims to provide a comprehensive collection of primarily thematic music for an RPG Adventure game. The pack is comprised of three different types of audio, combat themes, environmental themes, and stingers. The collection of combat themes in this pack provide the developer with an adaptive audio soundtrack, with interactive music changing in response to different in-game states. Currently, I am working on a follow-up concept album, a second asset pack, and I am also working with a local media group on a short film.

For my Final Major Project I wrote, mixed and mastered an Asset Pack for the Unity Store that aims to provide a comprehensive collection of primarily thematic music for an RPG Adventure game. The pack is comprised of three different types of audio, combat themes, environmental themes, and stingers. The collection of combat themes in this pack provide the developer with an adaptive audio soundtrack, with interactive music changing in response to different in-game states. Currently, I am working on a follow-up concept album, a second asset pack, and I am also working with a local media group on a short film.

Jack Harper’s Website: https://jharpercompositions

The course gave me so many opportunities to practice creating sound for a wide variety of visual media, as well as chances to academically research the subject and learn about the industry I want to be in, both historically and contemporarily. It was also invaluable to receive feedback on my work from peers and professionals with the same vested interest in music and sound design as myself.

Dan Capon’s Website: https://www.dcsoundtracks.com