Updates...

Hello readers, thought it was time for an update..

So, the last few months has seen my work dragging me around the place like demonic possession. Sighs of relief met the final sentence of my dissertation last week, which allowed me to embrace the task of scoring for two exciting student animation films: more details on this in the coming weeks. Also recently, my track Latin Sweep was used in a promotional DVD by Northbrook College, promoting apprenticeship courses, which you can view under the visuals section of this website.

Two months remain of my final year at Northbrook College, and I'm looking forward to stepping out into the big world to pursue a career in composition for film and media. Already have a few projects lined up, including the continuation of my choose your own adventure project: Aenigma.

On a personal note, I recently saw a great horror film called Insidious, definitely worth checking out for all you horror buffs, and it has a truly chilling score to boot written by one of my (now) favourite horror composers, Joseph Bishara.

S.J.Hazell

Chooseco...

Hi all, cool bit of news to report here,

I was recently contacted by Kathleen, a marketing associate from the company Chooseco, who were the publishers for the original choose your own adventure novels. Kathleen had stumbled across my idea for a choose your own adventure musical whilst searching online and confirmed that it was the first she'd encountered of its kind. This was really kind of Kathleen and very encouraging to hear, big thanks to her for contacting me.

My current adventure, Aenigma, is on hold for the meantime as I'm currently working on various other projects and assignments at Unversity. The idea is that I will continue to write and produce music for this in the near and long term future, with the intention to create new adventures beyond Aenigma, for all my listeners.

S.J.Hazell

Credits

COMPOSER

Animations:

• Pixel Soldier (co-score with Alex Ball) (dir. Chris Landy)
• Goodperson & Shitboy: Shitboy Rents a Video - (dir. Kurtis Scott)
• Own Little World - (dir. Thomas Kelly)
• Delighterful - (dir. Billy Odell)
• Blanco - (dir. Raquel Felgueiras)
• Lost Sands (dir. Aaron Babla)

Charity:

• Project Moz - Pedro's Story - (dir. Thomas Kelly)

DVD:

• Northbrook College: Apprenticeship Courses Promo DVD - (dir. Stuart Kuhn)

Film:

• Trailer for 'The Haunting of Harry Payne' - (co-score with Alex Ball) - (EQ Films)
• Slowdown - (co-score with Alex Ball) - (dir. Rob Garwood)

Theatre:

• Killing Bill Gates - Comedy Drama - (co-score with Dan Weismayr) - (Mechanical Tiger Productions)

TV Compositions:

• Daily Mail Promo Commercial for UKTV - (M&C Saatchi)

Big News...

I am very proud to announce that earlier this week I landed my first professional commission for a Daily Mail promo ad!!!!! As a budding media composer, this is simply the best news I could wish to share with you all and it has made me even more determined to kick on from here and forge a career in music composition.

I would like to say a big thank you to Alex Ball, music supervisor at M&C Saatchi, for putting my music forward, to all the staff at Northbrook College for their guidance and advice over the last 2 and a half years and of course to my family and friends for their continued support.

Head on over to the visuals section of this website to check it out folks!

S.J.Hazell

Scores

Aenigma: A Choose Your Own Adventure Musical

Hey Everyone,

So, I have an exciting idea to share with you all...

For the last few months I have been busy planning and writing a choose your own adventure musical titled 'ANEIGMA', taking the programmatic approach of writing music to a text or story (a technique used by composers such as Berlioz and Strauss) to new extremes!

The concept of the choose your own adventure novel was first pioneered by American Novelist, Edward Packard, who wrote a series of these books from 1979-1998. Throughout each book, the reader is presented with a number of multiple choice events, which in turn alters the storyline one way or another.

Since that time, video games such as Vampire the Masquerade (PC) and Heavy Rain (PS3) have adopted this idea into interactive forms. Additionally, many youtube users have also used this concept for their videos on the net.

For my project I have written a storyboard, which I have used as the inspiration for my music (and vice versa) - think of it as a movie soundtrack without the movie!!!! I will be posting the first chapter: The Foreign Room in the subsequent post to this, along with the scene description - once you have decided which way you want to turn, ahead across to the next track as pointed out. Please note: this is still a work in progress and so the next few chapters will be posted as soon as they are completed.

The absolutely amazing artwork for this project has been created by my good friend Damian Schofield, big big thank you to him. I would also like to thank Nigel Rippon for creative guidance, Alex Ball on violin, Dan Weismayr on Bass and Ben Simmonds for advice on production.

Hold tight and enjoy!

S.J.Hazell

Coming soon: Aenigma

Which way will you choose?

Artwork by Damian Schofield.

New Year. New Compositions. New Projects...

Happy New Year Everyone! Hope you all had a great Xmas and New Year, mine was a very chilled and pleasant time.

Seems like a day and an age since I last posted any news so here goes... So I've been pretty damn busy these past few months; composing, recording, writing essays, scoring cartoons and the general tom foolery!

• Since the beginning of October, I have been busy planning and writing for a personal composition project, as part of one of my modules at University. I have managed to craft a relatively unexplored concept, which I won't give away just yet, but all will be revealed early February, where I will be posting all the tracks for you to listen to.... EXTREMELY EXCITED ABOUT THIS! Additionally, graphic novelist Damian Schofield, will also be providing his talent with the pencil in creating some artwork for the project, top man.

• Secondly, I am delighted to announce that I'll be scoring two animations around April/ May time for students at the Arts University College in Bournemouth. I must say I am extremely impressed with the people I've been working with and what's been produced so far in the early stages, so I can't wait to get started on the scores. Details about this will become clearer later in the year.

• Last but not least I assure you my short score for Kurtis Scott's Goodperson and Shitboy will be coming soon.. work has been a monumental juggle, so hectic, but I'm nearly there!

It's great to finally share this news with you and I'm very much looking forward to uploading the new material.

Thanks for listening everyone and as always keep checking back for updates, cheers.

S.J.H

Time Flies...

Hey all, it's been a while since I last posted anything but now seems like a good time to give you some updates!

Firstly, I hope you all had a great summer, mine flew by way too quickly for liking! Aside from the odd acoustic gig, things on the music front were reasonably quiet for me, but the biggest news was being asked to compose for another cartoon 'Good Person and Shitboy' by Kurtis Scott, who I previously teamed up with on the Holiday Bot cartoon. I'll be posting this up soon so keep checking for updates * reminder; must find a way to keep YOU updated!!!

Next week I start my 3rd and final year at Northbrook college, where I'm studying for a Ba(hons) degree in music composition for professional film/media. The course syllabus looks incredibly busy but amazing at the same time and I cannot wait to begin. Throughout the year I'll be adding my compositions to the site to share with all you good good people, so I promise more activity on here than in recent months!!

Until next chime,

S.J.Hazell

Consistency pays off...

Hey everyone, some good news to report. Last week I received the most consistent student prize at Northbrook College, at the end of year awards. This is something I'm very proud of and I hope to continue this work into my final year.

S.J.Hazell