Category: Women in composing

Edgewise

Posted on by Katie Seaton in animation, Methodology, Psychology, Scoring, Short films, Sociology, Sound design, Technique, Women in composing
My first attempt at making my own animation!

I love animation. I loved the drawn stop-motion animation Rosie Wyllie used in our Inscape films. I also can’t draw! So what can I do with a whiteboard and my very limited abilities as an artist?

The images for Edgewise came at the end of 2020 and far, far too many video calls – during which I became very accustomed to and very depleted by being talked over by other people.

There are fascinating things about exploring a new creative medium. There’s the freedom: “I can suck all I like at this and it doesn’t matter at all!” And there’s the discovery: “my hands have developed their own brain and are bypassing my plans as I go!”

The soundtrack was created by studying recordings and then imitating the speech of very confident or aggressive speakers, then mapping the speech patterns to midi. I used VariAudio in Cubase to do this second part, and it worked well. I mapped it onto a pretty basic and waffly-sounding patch and built the rest of the music around that.

Hope you enjoy!

International Women’s Day on Resonance FM 2021

Posted on by Katie Seaton in animation, Radio, Scoring, Short films, Sound design, Women in composing

For International Women’s Day, Jude Cowan Montague made a special edition of ‘The News Agents,’ sharing music by some long term members of the Women Composers Collective.

With pieces by Arhynn Descy, Kristen Baum Composer, Rosemary Duxbury composer, Jude Cowan Montague and me.

It included performances by cellists Jeness, playing Arhynn’s piece, and Emma Butterworth, also of the WCC, who played the cello on the score to ‘Roots’, my featured music.

Roots will be released this month, and I’m very excited! The picture accompanying this post is from the film.

Listen here!

https://www.mixcloud.com/…/the-news-agents-women…/

11th Hour Audio Challenge 2020!

Posted on by Katie Seaton in Audio Drama, Scoring, Sound design, Women in composing

Tomorrow is Audio Drama Day, and, as for the last 2 years, I’ve been taking part in the 11th Hour Challenge. The challenge is to produce a piece of creepy audio drama for the day (and Hallowe’en) between October 1st and 28th, working in collaboration with new people and different companies.


This time, though, instead of just acting as composer for a team, I have been the composer for two teams AND organised a production myself!


‘Customs’ has been a brillliant opportunity for me to bring together some of my favourite creatives – Chris Burnside, Fiona Thraille, Lowri Ann Davies, Hannah Preisinger, Kessi Riliniki, April Sumner – and also to meet and work for the first time with Rachel Pulliam and Joe Bence. I’m so delighted with how well it has come out… not that it’s surprising, given the people involved.


‘Customs’ is kicking the day off on the 11th Hour feed It will come out at 11am EST/3pm GMT.


It was also great to work with Rachel on her production, ‘Reminisce With Me’ and write in one of my favourite genres for sheer fun points: period big band. The theme music in this story is crucial for the plot, and I can’t wait to hear the whole thing.

‘Reminisce With Me’ will be released at 4pm EST/8pm GMT.


Finally, I got to write some moody rock for Faith McQuinn’s unsettling ’70s hitchhiking drama, ‘Highway Chile’. It was great to work with Faith and her equally talented sound designer Josh Suhy, to inject all the thick, uneasy atmosphere into this piece. I also got to sing possibly my favourite song by Faure, Au Bord de l’Eau, amazingly, at the request of the director!


‘Highway Chile’ will be released at 3pm EST/7pm GMT.

Join us tomorrow and help us celebrate Audio Drama Day!

Releases start at 11 am EST on:Spreaker – https://www.spreaker.com/show/11th-hour-audio-productions

Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/playlist…

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/11thhouraudio

PLAYLIST

11:00 – Customs

12:00 – Down the Basement

13:00 – Upstairs Upstairs

14:00 – Another Bad Night

15:00 – Highway Chile

16:00 – Reminisce with Me

17:00 – A Haunting Beyond the Lake

18:00 – The Dead and the Undead

19:00 – The Audiophile

My episode on How I Make Music

Posted on by Katie Seaton in Analysis, Audio Drama, Radio, Scoring, Sound design, Technique, Women in composing

Many thanks to John Bartmann for putting this podcast together and shining a light on the work of those those of us writing music for audio fiction.

#076 The Hidden People – Katharine Seaton – Shaylee Meets Black Annis

https://pod.link/1460793686

How I Make Music podcast

Posted on by Katie Seaton in Analysis, Audio Drama, Scoring, Sound design, Women in composing

This is coming up this Wednesday!

I talk in depth about scoring and some wacky sound design techniques that feed into it.

Host John Bartmann works very hard to produce this fascinating series that shines light on what we audio drama composers do.

Roots!

Posted on by Katie Seaton in animation, Scoring, Short films, Sound design, Women in composing

Inscape Animations have made a trailer for the new film, Roots, a story of human connection and migration through time and distance.

Roots trailer

And we have started a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/inscapeanimations

This is the very beginning of our journey as a production company.

We would love for you to join us on that journey. There will be a £1 per month tier coming very soon, as well as more in-depth discussion about Roots and the extensive research that our writer, Catherine, undertook over two years, to produce her remarkable poem-script.

I will also be posting some content that delves into Suspended.

‘Alphabet’ at the HEAR Now Festival

Posted on by Katie Seaton in Audio Drama, Scoring, Women in composing

I was delighted to learn that Leslie McMurtry’s sensitive, well-researched audio fiction piece Alphabet has been awarded gold tier status at the HEAR Now festival of audio fiction and arts in Kansas City.

As well as scoring it, I worked closely with Leslie on the production of this historical piece, told from the point of view of a woman, one of the early settlers of America, observing the lead-up to independence as it intrudes on her personal journey. It was a great project to be on, quiet, atmospheric, understated, and beautifully read (having put some research in to the accent) by Sarah Golding.

Here is a link to the piece itself:

Alphabet, written by Leslie McMurtry, read by Sarah Golding, with music by Katharine Seaton.

The HEAR Now festival:

https://www.hearnowfestival.org/?fbclid=IwAR30goa2n-fheDaKuuapiPgNhN-SuzhhdaUSuL8Zeemm8MzSVthom9r3lMs

Season 2 of The Hidden People

Posted on by Katie Seaton in Audio Drama, Scoring, Sound design, Women in composing

The Hidden People returns for season 2. Who survived the collapse of the tower? And who might be found in the rubble? Those left standing embark on a magical quest to save the life of a friend.

Without wishing to spoil anything, I had much fun putting my traditional music first degree to use in the real world, with all that formal harmony, counterpoint and orchestration study helping me bring to life a great, colourful script by Chris Burnside, and a super performance by those who led the cast this week.

And an owl – I did an owl.

We made a new version of the theme song, too! I hope you like it.

https://daytonwritersmovement.podbean.com/e/initiative-1589124888/

Suspended at the Draw Art Fair

Posted on by Katie Seaton in animation, Scoring, Short films, Sound design, Video Art, Women in composing

We were very excited to learn that Suspended had won one of three Draw/Camberwell prizes and was to be exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery as part of the Draw Art Fair. Unfortunately, this had to be cancelled because of the pandemic, and is taking place on Instagram instead.

Here’s a link to the post showing Suspended