Founded in 2009 by the world-renowned filmmaker Hou Hsiao Hsien, the Golden Horse Film Academy is held annually in Taipei.

Emerging talents from Mandarin-speaking regions are invited to take part and be mentored by distinguished directors. Teamed up with other successful entrants, they are given one month to shoot and produce a short film for screening at the Golden Horse Film Festival.

Films vary from 13 to 36 mins in length and are drama shorts, but not limited to any particular genre.

We worked with upcoming young directors, scriptwriters and cinematographers to produce a natural-sounding, professional score.

These soundtracks were written in a very short timeframe, following a series of meetings (all in Chinese!) with the production crew.

Conveying ideas, opinions and suggestions of changes or improvement using constructive criticism and an awareness of technical limitations was important.

Guided by our music supervisor and the students with their mentor, the project was steered in the right direction.

On a personal level, these projects taught me a huge amount about the importance of establishing the filmakers’ stylistic requirements from the outset, the relevance and intention of reference music and being economic within time restraints.

Seeing the process of movie making from the director and film crews’ perspective was some invaluable experience. It was also really interesting to see how much (or little in some cases) they valued the musical elements of a film.

As a film composer, as you work through different projects, you realise the need to filter out some of those preconceptions of the score and allow yourself to be guided by the visions of the director. That’s the beauty of collaboration!