A Fire Within - Title Theme for my First Short-Film

[Updated - May, 2026]

A Fire Within - Main title from the 2026 short film "A Fire Within: A Railroader Movie". Find on YouTube starting on May 16th, 2026.

Welcome to A Fire Within, a project I started in February, 2025. This film follows the relationship between two friends, Sam and Andy. The main moral of the story is betrayal and hits at the idea that 'even your closest friends can betray you'. This main theme accompanies this tale and welcomes you to their world and acts as a basis for the rest of the soundtrack.

The soundtrack for "A Fire Within: A Railroader Movie" will be released to all streaming services starting on May 16th!

Creating the score:
Set into a large binary form, this work is in E-minor and is one of my most emotional works. It is very personal to me, as the whole story mirrors a small part of my life. I felt inspired by the soundtrack from the 2010 movie, "Unstoppable" and with Barber's Adagio for Strings. It was my goal to capture melancholic emotions and an overcast/ gray atmosphere. If you would like to know more about the score, go to the "About" section on page 4!
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Program Note:

A Fire Within is the main theme from the short film "A Fire Within: A Railroader". Published on YouTube in 2026, this indie film is an an original story written by Mason Kistler detailing betrayal between two friends. Based on the composer's own experience with relationships between friends, partners, and colleagues, this title theme acts as a reflection of those turbulent times from his perspective. In context of the film, this work acts as vehicle to display various leitmotifs and acts as the foundation for the entire soundtrack. This story established itself as the first short-film made solely in the video game Railroader, which was released in December, 2023. Join the orchestra as they bring you in towards this cinematic universe and listen as they ignite the Fire Within.

[DO NOT REPLICATE]

A Fire Within_MainTheme.pdf

Hi again @MK_Piano!

A passionate and emotional piece fitting for the theme of betrayal.  I tried to find the YT video on your channel that goes with this music but couldn't find it.  Perhaps I would understand the music better if I could watch that?  Thanks for sharing, great job, and by all means, post the video link in this thread!

3 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi again @MK_Piano!

A passionate and emotional piece fitting for the theme of betrayal.  I tried to find the YT video on your channel that goes with this music but couldn't find it.  Perhaps I would understand the music better if I could watch that?  Thanks for sharing, great job, and by all means, post the video link in this thread!

 

The video is not out yet as the short-film is still in production. It is the first installment of the soundtrack I am making. I was planning ahead in the about section for the day I post the entire Soundtrack and publish the scores.

However, you can hear it partially in this 60-second teaser I made on YT last year. It was an earlier draft and is not what I published here:

Edited January 16Jan 16 by MK_Piano

Hi @MK_Piano!

I think the choice of E minor is really fits for this betrayal/fighting theme. Your music here makes me think of the film music of Kieślowski’s Dobles Lives of Veroniques, the score written by Zbgniew Preisner:

Thx for sharing!

Henry

UPDATE:

New score and description for this project!

Having read the program notes page, I think you capture the atmosphere of some of the themes (ie. betrayal, turbulence) you mentioned. It would be interesting to hear the rest of the soundtrack to see how the themes/motifs you have here develop. Though, I gotta be honest...film scores lately have a very generic sound to them and this (for me anyways) falls in that category.

Some things musical things from the score I noticed:

The way these harmonics are notated is confusing. I'm saying that as a string player. Some 2nd violinists might think you want an open E string, which I'm pretty sure you don't want. If these are actual sounding pitches, the 1st violinist would have an easier time understanding these notations (one is a natural harmonic, the other is an artificial....don't really have a preference):

The 2nd violin note (if that is the sounding pitch) is impossible to play as a harmonic on a violin. As I said, players would probably play an open E string.

The viola one looks alright, it'll be a natural harmonic on the G string.

Saw this in the score a couple of times. Wondering if you could move the pp before the barline to avoid those awkward looking measures with rests.

3. Overall, there seems to be over-reliance on doublings between instrument groups. E to the end is the prime example. I think most of the wind/brass instruments can drop out at 47 for a quieter ending. Also that section felt a little...static? Could use some more rhythmic drive (maybe bring back the bass guitar/cello figure from the beginning?) or just some counterpoint.

Thanks for the comments, as I am unfortunately out doing some errands, I’ll reply back or update this comment to answer your points mentioned.