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Assignment Guidelines
SHR6E032F~002 Portfolio and video evidence
1. Project Overview
For this assignment, I worked on a short film about Kate Nicholas documenting her life and her battles with breast cancer.
This short documentary serves to:
– Offer solace to individuals going through the same battles that Kate Nicholas had
– Showcase my production style
– Push my skills to new areas of music production
– Get the track to be released for sync music and other educational streaming platforms
When working on the project, I was primarily collaborating with Alex Pope who was the director for the documentary. Alex initially reached out to me to ask if I could do the music for the film, so I took him up on that offer. Alex made this documentary as it was one of his assignments for his 2nd year of university. After the documentary was, we hoped to release it to educational distributors, streaming platforms and film festivals to bring the film to the general public, educating the masses.
In more detail, these are the people that were responsible for making the project come together:
– Myself (Sound Designer)
I’m a 3rd year music production student at university with an interest in sound design. Over the course of the last five years I have released 14 tracks to Soundcloud, consisting of computer-based compositions and ambient works, with a special interest in composing ambient music.
– Alex Pope (Director)
Alex Pope is a 3rd year film and media studies student at the University of Stoke On Trent, who had a grandad with cancer; so making the documentary relates to him on a deep level.
– Kate Nicholas (Interviewee)
A Christian author, broadcaster, and preacher who wrote two books about her personal experiences with the cancer diagnoses.
2. Panopto Video – Final Product (10-12 Minutes)
Upload your video to Panopto and then embed it in the block below
3. Chronological Monthly Diary
October
On October the 16th I reached out to Alex to ask if he wanted to collaborate with me for this assignment (see screenshot 1). We agreed to collaborate together, where he told me an overview of what the documentary was about (see screenshot 2).
After mutually agreeing to collaborate together, we discussed that my submission had to be 10-12 minutes long, so I made sure that he knew to make the documentary within this length duration. This was discussed as he said he had to submit an 8-10 minute long assignment, so we figured that if he adds in closing credits then it would be between the range of 10 – 12 mins for my assignment (see screenshot 3).
November
Alex sent me the production file for the documentary, which allowed me to get a good idea of how to best compose the music. He sent me this because I asked him to give me an idea of what he wanted for the track, which featured in the production file (see screenshot 4).
On the 20th of November, I made the first piano demo recording in studio 104 at Leeds Conservatoire. Afterwards, I mixed the recordings I made on that day and sent it over to Alex for early review on the next day (21st November) (see screenshot 6).
December
Alex sent over the initial interview edit to give me a good picture of how long I need to compose the music for. He later sent me the final version which I could finally start adding music to (see screenshot 5).
With this, I recorded some additional piano demos, and made a start on sorting the recordings I had made into different sections of the documentary, which each one would relate to a different emotion from the various recordings.
January
In January, I continued to collate and organise the recordings into the relevant sections of the documentary, and made sure that crossfades were applied to the start and end of each clip to have seamless transitions, so that the different recordings flow into each other in a more natural way.
February & March
In addition to last month, I finished off adding cross fades and made a start on mixing the recordings, utilising precise automation. When using this, I aimed to give priority to the voiceover, with the piano being subtly at the back of the mix. (see screenshot 7).
April
I finished off and finalised all the automation, finished mixing the project and made the final file to be sent over to Alex. When I was finished with everything, I eventually sent the file which he was happy with. (see screenshot 8)
May
Both myself and Alex Pope submitted our individual documentaries for our assignments. Alex was pleased with my work, so he discussed if I could produce any more music for him and his films in the near future, which I agreed to. (see screenshot 9)
4. Evidence of Planning/Process
Communication (see screenshots 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 & 9)
The main mode of communication between myself and Alex was using the messaging app of Discord (see various screenshots). No meetings were set up between ourselves for this project, as we just messaged each other mutually. Overall, we had good communication between ourselves for the project, as either me or Alex would respond within 1 – 2 days of sending messages to each other.
On top of this, myself and Alex already knew each other before working on this project, which made communication flow easier. For example, in the hypothetical event that Alex may not respond to my message within a few days, I could then ask one of his other friends that I know and ask them to get him to respond to my private messages that he needs to look at.
In regards to communication with Kate Nicholas, I had no direct communication with her. Alex was the one who had direct contact with her, as there was no need for me to directly be in communication with her, because I could have done it through Alex anyway.
Alex’s Production File
In November 2025, Alex sent me a 13-page production file to give me a better understanding of what the documentary would be about in more detail. This documented what the different sections were going to be like, secondary research into the topic, Alex’s visions and goals for the documentary, plus a lot of other useful details that was helpful for me when initially composing the track.
Budget & Time
On my end, I did not spend any direct money on this project as I did not need to spend any money on travel costs.
When I spoke to the director about their costs that they spent, they told me that they did not spend any money on equipment, production, interview time, (apart from travel) which was £75 for the coach.
5. Reference Material/Inspiration
According to research on Breast cancer metastasis and drug resistance; breast cancer is the leading cancer in women, seeing around 11,500 deaths in the UK each year alone (Ahmad A, 2019). With the documentary being themed on this very sensitive topic, I aimed to compose a piece of music that is slow paced and calm, that blends into the background well and won’t be too distracting from the main voiceover.
One of my inspirations was the educational documentary of Blue Planet. In regards to how the documentary was mixed, the main voiceover is prioritised as the most prominent thing in the mix, with accompanying background music being quiet to not take away that much attention from the voiceover. As explained by Kent Gibson in the documentary magazine, having the voiceover as the first priority with the background music as secondary priority is an industry standard method of mixing documentaries (Gibson, 2024).
Another inspiration behind making the music for the Kate Nicholas documentary was an account of someone on Youtube who had breast cancer themselves. This 24 minute long YouTube video features light and uplifting music that consists of mainly piano, as well as soft guitars and strings. This type of gentle music can be used to highlight the courage, strength and will to live of those affected, rather than framing the disease solely as a tragedy (Gibson, 2024).
This inspired me to record piano for the documentary as it is a softer and more subtle sounding instrument, reflecting the sensitive themes relating to Kate Nicholas. Like with the youtube documentary attached below, I also tried to get my backing track to have a similar, slow-paced tempo.
6. Use of Technology
Recording
When recording for the track, I had several sessions within the conservatoire’s studios, utilising studio 104 & capturing piano. These recording sessions roughly lasted from 3 – 4 hours long.
In these sessions, I always used a spaced pair of C414s to capture a high quality stereo image of the piano (see screenshot 10). I used two C414 XLIIs as they have a more bright sounding frequency response, which is typically more recommended for piano recordings (Sound Technology, 2026).
Editing
When editing, I used the Digital Audio Workstation of Logic Pro on my own laptop at home.
After recording about 10 – 20 piano demos I made a start on organising each recording into different emotions that each demo portrays, relating to the various emotional themes represented in the documentary. I then had to join the different demos together with seamless cross fades between the clips that I recorded.
Mixing
When the recordings that I had made were spliced together in a seamless way, I made a start on automating the various parts of the backing track so that the piano did not get in the way of the main voiceover in certain places of the film. (see screenshot 11)
When I initially received the voiceover, the audio was panned hard left, meaning I had to apply a Direction Mixer to make the audio mono and in the centre. If I did nothing, I could have confused the listener and took away focus from Kate Nicholas’s speaking because her voice is abruptly panned and thus would be too distracting. (see screenshot 12)
In terms of EQ, when I received the audio from Alex I could hear a buzz in the background which was quite audible. I used EQ to fix this, as I pin-pointed the specific problematic frequency and took that out with EQ as much as possible without affecting Kate Nicholas’s voice too much. (see screenshot 13)
I had one final session in the conservatoires mixing room of 116c to listen to the mix with proper speakers so I could master the track to its best potential.
7. Evaluation
Overall, I delivered a 10 minute backing track and met the required deadlines for this documentary to be a success.
First of all, I never previously thought about creating music to the moving image, so I have broadened my skills in these areas and have become a more versatile music producer because of this. In addition, this documentary serves as a good example to both educate people about what it is like going through breast cancer, and offers solace to individuals who are going through a similar situation. The music that I composed for this film is quiet and does not take away attention from the main voiceover, with it only getting more louder in the other sections of the film where there are clips where there is no talking, showcasing her doing different activities outside of the interview.
One of the things that I learnt from creating the music for this documentary, is that I needed to be proactive all the time to get work done sooner rather than later. This year, I got a lot of the work done well ahead of the exact deadlines that I set for myself to complete certain tasks by, which decreased my stress and made me more confident about finishing the project to a high standard. I also learnt that good communication is key for a good project, as without good communication progress can derail and team morale can be damaged. When I was in communication with Alex Pope over discord, we regularly talked to each other and the messages that we would send each other would usually be replied to within 1 – 2 days time.
In future I would hope the documentary could be released onto streaming platforms like Youtube. There are also more educational streaming platforms like PBS, Curiosity Stream, and The Travel Channel which the documentary may have more success on. Furthermore, the documentary could be shown at BAFTA qualifying film festivals local to the UK. Finally, the short film can be distributed to educational institutions and online sources, utilising one of the various distributors called: Bullfrog Films, Women Make Movies, New Day Films, or Documentary Educational Resources (DER) (Google, 2026).
After working on this documentary, I now feel confident in producing tracks for short documentaries, and I would be happy to challenge myself to work on a longer project that could be between 10 – 30 mins long. In addition, Alex asked if I wanted to compose some music for for his final assignment for the next academic year, which would be another film around 15 mins long. I said that I would be up to doing that, meaning that doing the Kate Nicholas film has lead to new opportunities for further work and collaboration, refining my skills in composition for documentaries.
In conclusion, I have learnt a lot of useful new skills from doing this project; which are transferable to new projects that may arise in the future that are related to composing music to the moving image. Throughout the process of composing and researching into the film, I have deepened my own understanding of the people who live with breast cancer as part of their regular, day-to-day lives. Working on this documentary has served to educate me about the topic in my own personal life as well as the educating potential viewers of the realities of living with breast cancer too.
8. Bibliography
Alex Pope Production File, 2025 – Alex Pope’s Bio
Ahmad, A., 2019. Breast cancer statistics: recent trends. Breast cancer metastasis and drug resistance: challenges and progress, pp.1-7. Accessed 26/11/2025
Gibson, K. (2024). It’s All in the Mix: The Secret of Sound Design, Part 2. [online] International Documentary Association. Available at: https://www.documentary.org/feature/its-all-mix-secret-sound-design-part-2 [Accessed 23 May 2026].
Sound Technology. (2026). Our Guide to the AKG C414, 314, and 214 Professional Microphones. [online] Available at: https://www.soundtech.co.uk/musicians-blog/our-guide-to-the-akg-c414-314-and-214-professional-microphones.html#cookieSettings [Accessed 21 May 2026].
Appendices
