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Off-Site: Composers Challenge - Video Game


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I am doing a Composers Challenge for any interested parties on www.filmtracks.com .

 

Here is the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5564m_0la0

 

The clip that I have is from an award-winning video game called Dear Esther. Basically, Dear Esther is a game where you explore this uninhabited island, listening to the narration read out letters to his wife. You learn that the narrator lost his wife (Esther) in a car crash and he's trying to figure out why. The narrator maintains that the driver of the other car in the crash (Paul) was drunk when the accident occurred. But we do not know precisely what happened in the crash because the narrator freely admits to forgetting or mixing up various events and when they occur. You also get the sense that Esther's death has left a huge void in the narrator's life and he is mentally broken by it.

Other notes:
1) The writing on the side of the cliff recalls the Apostle Paul's journey to Damascus which is found in the Biblical Book of Acts, which adds to the theme of this clip.
2) References to the other characters such as the hermit, Jakobson, and Donnelly. The hermit was a legend of a person who came to the island to achieve some type of solace. Jakobson was the first non-legendary person to visit the island, he was a shepard who came to the island with the goal building a property to secure him a wife and children (it did not work and he died 2 years later). Donnelly was a writer who explored the island and wrote about its history, he later died of syphilis.
3) It is not clear if the island is an actual place or the island is in the mind of the narrator.

I believe that this is a good clip for a composers challenge because we have both dialogue and sound effects in one scene without the music (it is hard to find a scene where the music can be removed). There are many ways to interpret the clip musically (for example; the mystery/suspense of the climb because we do not know where we are going, the dramatic moment of how the narrator's story changes, and the final lasting monologue).

The contest runs from today (Feb 27th) to April 30th. I feel that giving two months to write five minutes of music is more than reasonable. After April 30th, voting on the various entries will start.

The prize for winning the contest will be announced at a later date.

Thank you for your attention and I hope everyone has fun.

 

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