A graduate who composed the music for the short film
Stutterer is celebrating after the production
won an Oscar.
Nico Casal, who completed his Music (Composing for Moving Images) MA in 2013, saw the film named
Best Short Film at the
2016 Academy Awards in Hollywood.
The film explores the challenging experiences of a young man with a severe speech impediment.
Nico
posted a video on Twitter of his team's reaction to the Oscar win at the award ceremony, simply adding, "YES!!!!".
Before
the ceremony, he said: “I’ll never forget the moment we found out the
film had made the Oscars shortlist – the six of us in front of a big
screen, seeing Ang Lee and Guillermo del Toro announcing the nominees in
LA.
“They read the five shorts and ours was the fifth.
Everything changed in a couple of seconds. We started to jump, cry and
laugh. And my legs were shaking for a few days. It’s still hard to
believe now!”
The City
alumnus explained he composed
his score to communicate the thoughts of the film's protagonist, which
they could not express through speech.
“It was both a long and
difficult process and very challenging and rewarding,” he said. “The
story is about a guy with a stutter so the music has to express what he
can't say with words.
“The music has to make you feel what he is
feeling, but in a very subtle way. Instrumentation-wise, I use piano
and strings mixed with electronic pads, supporting the technology side
of the story.
“The
phone and social media are very important within the story so I tried
to experiment with the dial tone or the sound Facebook makes when you
get a message, for instance, and include them in the soundtrack.”
Nico (right) said the Masters course he completed at City helped him to learn about the music industry and develop his skills.
“Studying
at City helped me a lot to improve my composition and technical
skills,” he said, “It was very useful to understand how the industry and
the ‘real world’ work and I learned from both my teachers and my
classmates.
“The environment was very creative and collaborative – completely recommendable. I miss my days at City!”
The
awards that Stutterer has already won include: the Best Foreign Film
prize from the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival; the
Special Jury Award at Savannah Film Festival; Best International Short
Film at Kerry Film Festival; and the Best Drama award at Aesthetica
Short Film Festival.
Dr Miguel Mera (right), Head of the
Department of Music at City, described the graduate's score as "beautiful".
"A
thoroughly deserved win for a great film," he said. "Nico's score makes
a significant and unique contribution to its success."
He
added: “While studying for an MA at City Nico developed and extended his
flair for melodic writing and his instincts for subtle and precise
dramatic scoring. I'm glad to see that his hard work is paying off."
