Success lies in the Wild Wood for young composer
Harry Lightfoot, who lives in Leamington, has composed the music for a new documentary series for BBC4 called 'Tales From the Wildwood', looking at the issues affecting British woodlands and their management. MHLC-15-10-12 Documentary maker Oct71
FIRST step, the BBC - second: Hollywood. This is the hope of a Lillington music teacher, performer and composer who, at the age of 27, has worked his way up to a second major deal to create the music for a BBC documentary.
Harry Lightfoot, who works from his studio in Binswood Avenue, Leamington, has been composing for television for three years. But being selected as the sole composer for BBC4’s Tales From The Wild Wood - a six-part series about forestry management in the UK - will, he hopes, mean he has broken his way into the top end of an extremely competitive industry.
The Birmingham Conservatoire graduate, who also teaches saxophone and plays at gigs, last year worked on BBC2’s A Fisherman’s Apprentice with Monty Halls after being signed up by the Bristol-based Indus Films, which asked him to work on this project a few months ago.
He said: “I know as much about forestry management as the average person. The producers have been working on the show for two years, while I have had two months to get to grips with what it’s all about. We have to work together to find the right balance and atmosphere.
“It’s difficult trying to know exactly what they want as music is so subjective - what I think is happy, they could think is sad. You learn a lot from just being involved and communicating well.”
Mr Lightfoot, whose compositions are making up 60 per cent of the music in the series alongside library music, also plays and records it himself.
He said: “I do play a bit on the clarinet for this series, but most of it is done synthetically. The technology you can get these days is phenomenal.
“I do get writer’s block so even on my days off, I go to my studio to write a piece of music. You need that kind of discipline to get anywhere.
“My dream is to be writing the music for a Hollywood film or a massive-selling computer game. That’s the carrot on the end of the stick.”
Tales From the Wild Wood is directed and produced by Will Lorimer for Indus Films, which produced The Fisherman’s Apprentice with Monty Halls and Arctic with Bruce Parry. The first episode was aired last Wednesday and is available to view online on the BBC iPlayer, while the series continues every Wednesday on BBC4 at 8.30pm.
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Thursday 23 May 2013
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