‘Far Away’ film – Almost There Scene

See the post €˜Far Away€™ film (below) for more information on the actual film itself, the plot and things like that. This post is about the music in Alex’s last part of the journey. It’s the final push after 3 hard days of overcoming problems whilst travelling across mountains, forests and the countryside.

‘Almost There Scene’ is my favourite of all the pieces I composed in this film. James (the Director) asked me to create something like the soundtrack of ‘Lord of the Rings’ when the fellowship are travelling over mountains and through forests etc. He tried to mimic this in his filming and asked the music to do the same. However I don’t have access to a full orchestra, plus I wanted the piece to sound coherent with the rest of the music in the film. All the other pieces use mainly MIDI data combined with a classical guitar, so I wanted to reflect this. I deliberately did the opposite of what James asked me to do. I  used electric-suonding synth sounds so that in the distance shots the music creates the feeling of emptiness, which in my opinion reflects hope – Alex hasn’t quite reached his destination yet, but this empty feeling shows that he realises he’s not too far away – he’s almost there. As soon as he reaches the crop field the main motif comes in but it is heard much slower than previously to emphasise the moment. The electric guitars and ambient background come to life when Alex sees his destination and runs towards it. This is the magical moment which then fades away when he reaches it. This is the piece that made me feel very much for Alex and I spent a long time making sure the timings were right so the music fitted in with the right moments on screen. I mixed in stereo so for best effect of the music listen through headphones.

All Music by Oliver Daniel Nicholls 2015