Mogul & the Prawn

News: a bit of an announcement

theprawn — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:49:02 +0000

19 Jan, 2012:

We are delighted to be able to say that the Mogul has a) accepted a place on the Women in Film & TV mentoring scheme and b) agreed a deal with Orion to publish her upcoming novel The Beauty of Murder.

Because of this, she’ll have less time for music, so we’ll be making some changes to the way we work.

You’ll still be able to hire both of us to compose for your feature, short film, or TV drama (availability permitting, of course)
The Prawn will handle all other commissions – either here or via tristaylor.com.

DO NOT PANIC. We are still here. Thank you so much for your support thus far!

For more on Alexandra’s writing please visit akbenedict.com.

Film: Shackled title sequence for crowdfunding drive

theprawn — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:26:50 +0000

Dec 6, 2011:

Off the back of 15 international festival screenings of her last film Habibti, director Nour Wazzi is now crowdfunding her next short, Shackled.

A psychological thriller, it’s co-produced by Shirine Best and Ellie Emptage through Panacea Productions and Traveller Films. They sent us a beautiful hand-drawn title sequence and an irresistible brief – sinister 1950s circus music.

Here’s the result – a score for two music boxes, soprano voice, violin, accordion, calliope, tuba and orchestral percussion:

And here’s the music:

Film: Shackled – Titles (Panacea Productions/Traveller Films) by A.K. Benedict/T. Taylor

Please visit the crowdfunding page for Shackled now! For a few dollars you can get an on-screen ‘Special Thanks’; for a few more you can get even better perks…

Film: Habibti gets special mentions in Cyprus and Montréal

theprawn — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:54:01 +0000

Oct 20, 2011:

Habibti has won the ‘Special Mention for a Leading Female Role’ award in Cyprus and got this special jury mention at the Montréal International Black Film Festival too:

“It’s impossible not to mention this film in which family, religion and opening oneself up to others are really put to the test through images that are as powerful as they are piercingly truthful. A powerhouse of a film.”

Huzza!

Plus it has added more screenings to the list – here’s an updated one:

Here’s our soundtrack:

Alexandra Benedict & Tris Taylor: Habibti OST

Alexandra Benedict & Tris Taylor: Habibti OST by A.K. Benedict/T. Taylor

Stuff: 7 Tips for Getting A Great Score

theprawn — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:52:58 +0000

Oct 11, 2011:

The Prawn has written an article for Directors Notes called ’7 Tips for Getting a Great Score for Your Film.’ It includes the phrases ‘sonic palette,’ ‘grunt work’ and ‘DO NOT PANIC.’

How can you resist? Head on over to Directors Notes to read it in full.

TV: Cookery School reruns are on now!

theprawn — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:52:49 +0000

Oct 4, 2011:

Channel 4 are re-running Cookery School – super early at 5am, so set the recorder if you fancy it.

We wrote all the music for it – here are some of the cues:

Cookery School – set

[Any problems listening? If so, try the set on Soundcloud.]

And our original blurb about it is here.

Commercial: new sonic logo for YAZOO

theprawn — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:33:49 +0000

Sep 21, 2011:

We’ve composed and produced a new sonic logo for YAZOO.

The brief was to encapsulate YAZOO’s “Milk. Shaken up.” brand in sound.

We designed a sonic palette that blends wobbly synths and fresh acoustic guitars with real live bottles of YAZOO being shaken up. Then we used that palette to compose quirky loops and shaky melodies.

Once we had the hooks in place, we cut it down to 3 seconds for the current YAZOO radio campaign:

YAZOO (3 seconds)

We also handled the voiceover search.

Client: FrieslandCampina
Agency: Mercieca

Film: Habibti festival screenings worldwide

theprawn — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:23:41 +0000

Sep 21, 2011:

Habibti has been selected for more film festivals since its world premiere at DIFF in December.

Its European premiere was in Paris in April, as an official selection of the 6th ÉCU European Indie-Film Festival.

Plus it’s been selected for:

the Arab Film Festival Australia, July 2011
the 32nd Durban International Film Festival, July 2011
the 24th Helsinki International Film Festival, September 2011
the 11th Beirut International Film Festival, October 2011 (official competition)
the Gold Lion Film Festival, October 2011 (official selection)

News soon from Montréal, Cyprus and Valladolid too.

Here’s our soundtrack:

Alexandra Benedict & Tris Taylor: Habibti OST

Alexandra Benedict & Tris Taylor: Habibti OST by A.K. Benedict/T. Taylor

Corporate: return of the Caravan theme

theprawn — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:01:35 +0000

Sep 20, 2011:

One of our first ever commissions was to compose music for a corporate film Toaster Productions was making for Caravan.

They liked it so much that we’ve soundtracked four subsequent Caravan films, the latest featuring Matt Cardle and Diversity. This re-record of the original piece has become their theme tune and features again in their latest film:

Corporate: Caravan – Fixed

Stuff: festival screenings for the Prawn’s solo music

theprawn — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:26:22 +0000

September 15, 2011:

The Prawn has an indie pop album coming out, as per our not-quite-so-recent newsletter; though, confusingly, it is not under his real name (which is obviously ~~The Prawn~~ Tris Taylor) but an alias (Benbo).

To further confuse matters, his track ‘I Don’t Have A Lot To Say’ isn’t even on the album, but nevertheless a chap called Tony Johnson has made a brilliant video for it and the point of telling you all this is that he just won Best Music Video at the Walthamstow International Film Festival for it.

Here is the video:

And here is an embarrassing photo of the Prawn gatecrashing Tony’s limelight. Tony has also already got it selected for the 10th Gadabout Film Festival in Bloomington, Indiana this October, plus it was just featured on Directors Notes.

Mogul & the Prawn met Tony on the Digital Horizons training programme in 2007/08, which was bloody great. It was for small creative companies with high growth potential and was put together by Gina Fegan, who used to be CEO of Screen South and now runs the D-Media Network.

HERE ENDETH THE RANDOM EXTRA INFORMATION. Should you wish to be exposed to more Benbo things, please visit World of Benbo.

Film: Makers feature doc to premiere at Soho Shorts

theprawn — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:51:41 +0000

28 July, 2011:

Makers, Amadin Ryan’s feature documentary about the UK indie film industry, premieres today at special screenings in the Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival.

One of our tracks has become the main theme, and two more are also featured:

Film: Makers – Jenny’s Exit
Film: Makers – Don’t Investigate
Film: Makers – Odd Ball

Mega thanks to Amadin, Shibe Alawiye and Julian Gaskell for wanting them in. Here is a photo of them with Joce Capper, MD of Rushes:

[view on Facebook]

Check out the shades!