Task 1: Three Minute Song Production (70%)

Task 2: 1000 Word Write-Up (30%)

For this project, I created a cinematic horror track for a movie, TV show or video game. When in the planning phase, I found three songs for inspiration and certain aspects of them I wished to incorporate into my track. The first was Jay Ragdale, “Eld”, Self-published, 2025. What struck me about this song was its unsettling nature. The tribal drums with their steady beat made it seem like something was approaching slowly. The high strings being played in and out of key also added to the disturbing nature of the song. The rising dread of Anna Von Hausswolf, “Ugly and Vengeful”, Dead Magic, Pomperipossa Records, 2018 also inspired me. I wanted to use its deep, guttural drones and high strings with reverb (that sounded like screams) to build up dread throughout the track. Finally, I was mainly inspired by SIE Sound Team, “Omen”, Bloodborne OST, 2015 due to its gothic horror instrumentation, tone and build up. My plan for the structure was simply a slow, tense build up to a big, orchestral finishing section 

I started with a kick drum 3rd party sample that I cut up into a single then double beat (mimicking the “something’s creeping forward” aspect of “Eld”). Then I gathered sounds from various VST instruments; I found various synths that sounded eerie for horror ambience as well as violins, cellos and choirs. (inspired by “Omen”). For the beginning of the song, I made use of the synths such as a synth drone with the sound of birds in the background (at a certain pitch the birds sounded like crows which adds to the gothic atmosphere due to their associations with death). I also found a “whiny” violin that, when pitch shifted a semi tone down with reverb, while other instruments played the root note, sounded very unsettling. This is due to our minds viewing out of tune notes as disorderly, therefore using such notes in music can sound disturbing. Zoe Sones, Premium Beat, 2022 said, “Dissonance refers to a lack of harmony in music. Dissonance in music will make your audience feel uneasy and it helps to create tension and a sense of motion in compositions.” She then goes on to say that intervals between 2 notes that don’t sound pleasant next to each other elevate discomfort. I utilised this in my chords and melodies by making use of flat 5th and 2nd notes, which are from the Diminished scale and Phrygian mode respectively. I made the song in C sharp Harmonic Minor – a minor key characterised by a sharp 7th note. The minor key makes it melancholic and the sharp 7 is irregular for the key.

I made use of a consistent deep cello groan throughout – “The slow and low development gives a dark ambient texture, which contributes to building tension”, says Zoe Sones, Premium Beat, 2022 about low drones. And as for the orchestral finish, I had violins and cellos playing 5th and 3rd harmonies to each other (standard for orchestral pieces). The cellos played lingering notes while the violins would hop around arpeggiated melodies to create a feeling of “rushing” and movement while the cellos would retain the lingering dread. 

For the intro, I recorded myself exhaling once into a Shure sm58 microphone, then used the sound in a sampler to slow it down and deepen it to a certain octave to make it sound like the “ghost breath” trope in horror trailer music – a horror ambience effect to disturb the listener. As the sound of a breath in one’s ear alerts them as one must be in their personal space for them to hear such a quiet thing. 

For the build up, I recorded myself with the same shure sm58 singing a chorus of lyrics I put into google translate to turn into Irish Gaelic (the Irish Celts were a traditional pagan religion, which was demonised by Christianity and labelled “witchcraft”). The lyrics are: 

“Look there in the shadows. Do you see him? He’s there, look. Can you still see him? Well, he sees you.”

“Feach ansin sna scathanna. An bhfeiceann tu e? Ta se ann feach, an bhfeiceann tu fos e? Bhuel, feiceann se thu”.

I sang this like a Gregorian chant, which were old religious chants of Bible passages monks would sing in the Roman Catholic Church according to Mohn, E, EBSCO, 2022. I chose this because old religious chants sound demonic if used with eerie soundscapes due to the association with paganism and “mockeries of God”. I then added the reverb plugin “Shimmer” which allows pitch modulation. So I used this to make it sound like a low demonic voice was speaking below the main one to further the demonic aspects.

When it comes to the commercial potential of this track, I can establish a social media presence on Tiktok and Instagram via posting updates, fan interactions, trending content and my music, which would promote this track and others to the public. I can then release my music such as this assignment’s track onto streaming platforms. According to VIRPP, the payouts you can get per stream on each platform are: 

Tidal: ~$0.01284 or £0.00949

Apple Music: ~$0.008 or £0.00591

Amazon Music: ~$0.00402 or £0.00297

Spotify: ~$0.00318 or £0.00235

YouTube Music: ~$0.002 or £0.00148

Pandora: ~$0.00133 or £0.00098

Deezer: ~$0.0011 or £0.00081

This track and others would appeal to horror fans, movie fans and most likely writers/authors who want to listen to something that can get them into a certain atmosphere of inspiration. So with well promoted music, I would stand to gain some kind of income albeit non-consistent and quite small. However, Indie filmmakers would more likely than not want a soundtrack for their films. So Filmmakers who want this kind of music for their film might ask if they could use this track or another like it. ASCAP (2026) says to do this they would have to acquire a Synchronisation License (the right to put music along with a visual image) and a Master Use License (the right to reproduce a specific recording of a song in your film) as well as pay the composer an up front fee. However, the composer can choose to retain some rights so as to still get paid royalties. And if the film is popular, then more people will stream the song(s) (paying me more) and I, as the composer, would be further promoted by the success of the film. Which could then lead other filmmakers to hire me to make them an original soundtrack.