Score4all Songwriting competition

 

Congratulations to Elliot Harrison Beese -Winner of the Score4All Songwriting competition 2013 sponsored by Songbay

Well Done to runner up Tom Benson

Special commendation to finalists Peter Stokoe and Josh Sercombe

The Competition Was organised by a team of  music degree students from Gateshead College. As part of their BA (Hons) course in music,  the team devised an on-line music writing competition for songwriters. Participants were required to compose a piece of original music to accompany a short promotional video for a local company-‘The Outdoor Fitness Company’ (http://www.outdoorfitnesscompany.co.uk/)

We were so impressed by the idea that we offered financial and promotional support to the event. The competition also received generous assistance from Three Motion Digital Motion Media (http://threemotion.co.uk/) who supplied the promotional video for the competition, assisted by their Creative Director, Neil Wood Mitchell .

 

 Winner Elliot Harrison Beese (second from left) with members of the Score4all-team

 The Video

Here’s the video used for the competition with music ( ‘Fun Rock’ )  composed by the winner Elliot Harrison Beese:

 

The Finalist’s Songs:

Fun Rock  by Elliot Harrison Beese

Feel The Burn by Tom Benson

Showered and shaved mono by Josh Sercombe

My Gruff  by Peter Stokoe

The Winning Entry

The winning entry is “Fun rock” submitted by Elliot Harrison Beese. Elliot is a third year music student from Gateshead College studying for his BA hons. Elliot, who is 20, comes from Hampshire. He has been playing guitar for six years now and has written several other compositions. After finishing his degree, Elliot wants to live in London to pursue his freelance career in composition for Media. Elliot’s musical influences are Composers like Hans Zimmer, John Williams and Howard Shore.As well as receiving the £100 prize money, Elliot has also won one year’s free subscription to Songbay.

 

The Runner Up

The runner up entry is “Feel the burn” submitted by Tom Benson. Tom, 46, comes from Durham and is a student teacher also from Gateshead College. Tom has been playing guitar for 29 years and has written many other compositions. Tom’s musical influences are extremely varied and include classical, Progressive, Psychadelic and popular music from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Tom has also won a year’s free subscription to Songbay.

 

Three Motion Digital Motion Media Adjudication Report

The eventual winner was chosen by Neil Wood Mitchell of Three Motion Digital Media. Here’s a copy of his adjudication report:

“Well I’ve had a good listen and changed my mind a couple times. They’re all very good – however there can only be one winner.. So just a bit of feedback first:

 Feel the burn. A close contender for winner. Great pace, powerful start and good energy throughout. Liked the variation and the crazy high notes. Only thoughts would be that there’s probably too much high wailing guitar for this particular business / client. This might put the audience off a little

 Fun Rock. Great interpretation of the brief. Understood the product / service. Great summer vibe and feel good rhythm. Built a little too slowly for my liking – but enjoyed the drums and upbeat pace once it got going

 Showered and shaved. Technically very good, thought the pace was great and would be suitable for many corporates. Nice variation in beat also. Felt a little detached and removed from the video at times.

 My gruff. My personal favourite once it got going (again, a little too long to get going). Enjoyed the breaks and the drums towards the end. A couple more breaks might be favourable to add even more tempo. Thought the guitar was kind of infectious too.

 Overall very hard to choose. I thought they were all of the same production quality – although some felt like they would be better for a different purpose or video.

 My winner for this particular brief is Fun Rock. I thought it demonstrated the best interpretation of ODFC. It’s supposed to be fun – but high energy and this is how the track felt. Didn’t take itself too seriously and kept my interest.”

 

Songbay’s Adjudication Report

After  watching the advert, we felt the music needed to reflect key aspects of the video’s text, i.e.,

• “The results you want are outside your comfort zone”
• “Get fit outside, feel good inside”

 

Feel The burn

“Strong rock melody

Perhaps a little too heavy too soon, needs time to build in order to compliment text and scene?

 (lack of outdoor musical references, nature?? )

Real drums would have strengthened the piece

 

Showed and shaved

Intricate musically-Complicated time signatures/syncopated pushes were very interesting ,  

Perhaps a little too busy?

Lack of a principal melodic theme,  had a tendency to ramble which might be poor from a marketing perspective?

 

Fun rock

 Really Like the upbeat positive feel, works extremely well as a general back drop to the text and scene! this is a contender!

Structure repeats itself x2 why? needs to be new musical information at all times in an advertisement, unless there is a real reason for this not to happen?

 

 My Gruff

This is our winner!

Feel good heart warming opening vibe

u2’y type guitars and drums very strong, has the right emotional feel and pace”

 

 

Final Thoughts

Choosing a winner was not a simple task,  music advert placement is not an exact science, but as this competition revealed, well structured songs that are relevant to context will often be shortlisted for advert placement by company executives. We were most impressed by the submissions we heard and  have given all the finalists free professional accounts at Songbay. We  hope  they will be able to profit from our service and wish them the very best with their song writing careers.

Gary Cubberley

Songbayteam