SCORE RELIEF 2024

THE FILM SCORING COMPETITION WITH A HEART

SCORE RELIEF IS OUR FREE-TO-ENTER FILM SCORING COMPETITION, RUNNING ALONGSIDE OUR CHARITY FUNDRAISER FOR ARTS-RELATED CHARITY IN PLACE OF WAR.

THIS YEAR’S CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED FOR ENTRIES AND THE JUDGES ARE GOING THROUGH THE SCORES.  Stay tuned to our YouTube channel for news.

You can still download the fantastic WING IT! animation, created by Blender Foundation, from our library, free of charge for members, and  use it for practice and in your portfolio.

Hundreds of composers from around the world submitted their re-scores, to be in with a chance of having their score performed and recorded, including HD video, by Northern Film Orchestra at the award-winning Stoller Hall in Manchester.  See an example of this superb prize, from a previous Score Relief, here.  You can see many of this year’s fantastic entries, and the animation itself, here.

OUR FUNDRAISER

Score Relief raises money for charity through our voluntary fundraiser campaign.  Please donate here if you can, as each dollar/pound helps A LOT!  The fundraiser remains open until Feb 18th.

We are proud to support In Place of War, a global organisation that uses creativity in places of conflict as a tool for positive change.  They enable grassroots change-makers in music, theatre and across the arts to transform a culture of violence and suffering into hope, opportunity and freedom.  You can find more details about their work, and where the money from Score Relief goes, on our YouTube channel.

COMPETITION DETAILS (now closed for entries)

Score Relief 2024 is an orchestral scoring contest.  The main prize is a performance by NFO.  To help you, a spotting sheet is included in the download.  This will also be used as part of the judging criteria.  However you don’t need to be an orchestration expert (see below) and you can still enter, without an orchestral re-score.

TYPES OF ENTRY WE ACCEPT

The entry should be a re-scored version of the Wing It animation, submitted here.  Hybrid scores and other types of score are accepted.  We understand that not all composers want to, or are able to, compose for orchestra and we encourage you to enter anyway, for the experience, regardless of your musical style or expertise.  You will learn so much just by taking part, not to mention the benefits of interacting with our community of composers of different levels of experience.  Finally you will have a chance to pick up a great prize in our prizedraw at the end of the contest!

How easily your score can be ‘translated’ to a performance by NFO will undoubtedly factor into the judges’ assessment.  But by all means, you can enter ‘just for fun’, for practice/experience, for coursework purposes or simply to support Score Relief!  By taking part, you are sure to learn something and to have something great to share at the end of it, as well as to enjoy sharing your contribution with the community and listening to other interpretations of the provided animation.

We will be providing tips, tricks, masterclasses and more to help you along the way, during January.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay tuned on all those pointers.

EXPERTISE REQUIRED

Score Relief, and The Cue Tube generally, are created to help you grow.  We are very much dedicated to supporting composers at the start of their journey, as well as the experienced ones.  So don’t be afraid or intimidated.  Even if you have no formal composition training or experience, if you have great creative ideas, this competition is for you!  If your music is chosen as the winner, we have an awesome, friendly team on hand to help ‘convert’ the winning music to an orchestral performance, if required.

OUR PRIZES

For Score Relief 2024 we will have one Overall Winner and four Runner Up winners.  Each will receive a special laurel for use on social media, showreels etc.  The main prizes will be as follows:

  • OVERALL WINNER

A performance and recording, both visual and aural, of the winning re-score by Northern Film Orchestra at Stoller Hall.  The winning composer will be able to attend the session in Manchester if they are able to come.  Remote sessions are possible.

  • RUNNERS UP

Each of four runners-up will win one of our ‘session’ prizes, enabling the composer to work with real musicians on a piece of music of their choice.  The runners up will not be ranked in any order and the allocation of these prizes will be randomised for fairness and excitement!  The sessions with NFO can be ANY piece of music but will be scheduled for early April, so composers will need to be ready to use the session then.  Sessions provided as prizes are:

    • A string section recording by FAMES-PROJECT of N. Macedonia
    • A 3-minute string quartet recording by Northern Film Orchestra
    • A 3-minute string quartet recording by Northern Film Orchestra
    • Mystery session TBA during the contest!

In addition, numerous prizes have been awarded by the following and a prizedraw will be held live on YouTube at the end of the contest, giving every participant a great chance to win!

  • Orchestral Tools
  • Roland
  • Westwood Instruments
  • Fingerprint Audio Production
  • Bunker Samples
  • Mike Ladouceur
  • Carlos Rafael Rivera
  • Dimitri Scarlato
  • ThinkSpace Education
  • Fracture Sounds
  • SE Electronics

OUR JUDGES AND THE JUDGING PROCESS

Judging will take place through February 2024.  We will carry out judging in two broad stages.  The first ‘shortlisting’ phase will be carried out by a panel of well-qualified volunteer judges, who will select the shortlisted 100-or-so entries to be passed to our final judges.  The ‘final’ judging phase will be carried out by our expert judges and will be an iterative process to ensure that each shortlisted entry is given as much opportunity as possible to be selected.

Our final selection jury is made up of experts from across the film industry including composers, educators, animators, producers and directors, to make the contest as realistic, useful and exciting as possible for our community.  Judge information is included in the download pack and information will be updated here soon.

OUR PARTNERS

We’re grateful for your support and also that of our principle partners in bringing Score Relief to life.  In particular Zach Heyde, who is providing a discount for Cue Tube members for his amazing Composing Career Bootcamp.  More details here soon and on our YouTube channel of how to access that benefit.

KEY DATES

  • 24th December 2023 – Score Relief 2024 opens for entries.  Download the full entry pack here.
  • 31st January 2024 – Score Relief 2024 closes for entries.  Submit your entry here.
  • 28th February 2024 – judging completed.  Winner announcement in early March 2024.
  • Early April 2024 – Northern Film Orchestra sessions takes place.

RULES OF ENTRY

In order to be considered by our judges, you will need to comply with the following:

  • The entry will need to be completely original music owned by the entrant (collaborations are allowed)
  • The entry will need to be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo with the hashtag #scorerelief2024 in the title/description and made accessible (i.e. not a private video)
  • The original sound of the animation should not be doctored or edited in any way
  • The original credits should not be removed from your entry
  • Prepend a slide at the beginning of the film clearly stating that this is a re-score. For example: “Wing It rescore by [your name]”
  • Include an attribution statement in the video description on YouTube/Vimeo as follows:
"(CC) Blender Foundation - studio.blender.org"
"Original Dialogues © Blender Foundation - studio.blender.org"
"Original Sound Effects © Blender Foundation - studio.blender.org"
  • The entry form here will need to be completed
  • The entry should be submitted by January 31st 2024 (22:00 GMT) at the very latest
  • The decision of all judges is final
  • It is not a requirement to donate to our fundraiser in order to enter the competition but any support you can provide, including spreading the word, is much appreciated!

If you’d like to support The Cue Tube and help us to create more amazing content and opportunities for composers and sound designers, there are two great ways!

One-off donations via PayPal: http://paypal.me/thecuetube

Regular donations via Patreon: https://patreon.com/thecuetube

Alternatively, consider becoming a member (gives 100% discount off library assets at the tier you select): https://thecuetube.com/memberships Thank you to all our supporters and members