A collection of film score works composed by Stephen O'Connell. While he spans many different genres and styles, and often has a multi-genre approach to composition that sees many cross overs within the pieces themselves, the hallmark of his works are typically simple, but dramatic melodies in vast soundscapes, always creating tension and drama through subtlety and finesse.

Stephen O’Connell | Film Scores

Original film score and sound design for Andrew Huang's Spacetime trailer. Available from his website or through The Cue Tube.

Spacetime Title Sequence for Andrew Huang's Mission (2021)

My entry to the #jonmeyerscoringcompetition, using only his Prototype Instruments as sounds for this composition. 

The aim was to bring about a haunting yet nostalgic feeling, with a feeling of endless space yet the warmth of familiarity hugging you. Through a combination of reversed and warped sounds as well as many unique pad textures, the final feeling is ominous yet familiar.

Frozen Echoes - Jon Meyer Scoring Contest (2021)

Happy Birthday The Cue Tube! What a wonderful way to celebrate! 

My entry to The Cue Tube's birthday contest #cuetubebirthdaycontest. Working from a spotting sheet, I've put my own hybrid orchestration style into play, picking up my guitar once again to create driving leads with impactful synth moments.

Tears Of Steel (2021)

A mystical and celtic-inspired atmospheric piece, blending the lines between traditional folk music, classical orchestration and modern synthesised sounds. Using the new Albion Solstice library as inspiration, the piece creates the sound of the Carpathian Mountains, building an emotional journey through the mist, to match the amazing drone footage captured by Archie from The Cue Tube.

Carpathians (2021)

A classic superhero theme meets an atmospheric hybrid orchestration. My entry to the Spitfire Audio DC Stargirl Scoring Competition 2021. Thanks to the wonderful people at Spitfire Audio, as well as the DC Comic group and Pinar Toprak, for making this competition possible.

Check out the film score video here: https://youtu.be/ozE4efVy1QU

DC Stargirl - Spitfire Audio Scoring Competition (2021)

An adventurous and quirky animation, Fetch: A Very Short Film has a wonderfully crafted, heart-warming, simple story. While the overall feel was one of simplicity and wonder, adventure and danger lurked nearby, so scoring this short was challenge in balancing the small, sweet theme with the bigger, epic sounds of the middle chase scenes. It was a pleasure to take part in the Composer’s Choice Contest, good luck to everyone who has entered!

YouTube: https://youtu.be/C7kNGzEFXSw

Fetch (2021) - Composer's Choice Contest

Director: Shannon Brimelow
DOP: Travis Hodgkinson
Sound/Score: Stephen O'Connell

An original short film, Out of Sight is a classic story with a twist. Opening on a chase, it seems that two children are hurriedly trying to escape the formidable guards, but is all as it seems?

This is the first cue, a dramatic and epic soundtrack to a tense chase scene of cat and mouse.

Out Of Sight (2021) - Short Film

My entry to the #HeavyocitySDRescore. Thank you so much to everyone at Heavyocity who has contributed to the competition and to the genius minds behind the Symphonic Destruction sample library. A truely awesome library. 

Composer's Notes: 

An awesome excuse to demonstrate my love of Heavyocity instruments! The majority of what is heard is supplied by Heavyocity sample libraries. The amazing orchestral librarys, Novo, Forzo and Vento, provide the base of the whole composition, with Symphonic Destruction adding the gritty textures and Braams, and Damage offering the massive hits! There is even a little feature from Mosaic Keys in there (the Mosaic range is awesome too!). With a little bit of my guitar playing and a couple of other layers from other libraries, it produced a huge sound! I hope you enjoy.

Annihilation (2021)

My entry to the Berlin International Film Score Competition, a piece inspired by the changes in the story, from arid desert planet to a beautiful oasis. The changes can be felt in the music and it reflects both the wonder and the sadness in the story.

Genesis - Berlin International Film Score Competition (2022)

AWARD - 3rd Place Prize

This is Stephen O’Connell’s submission to the incredible #scorerelief2022 film score competition, hosted by The Cue Tube. Thank you to The Cue Tube team for providing not one, but two different films to score! It’ is the competition with a heart, so make sure you visit the fundraiser page to support In Place of War and the incredible work they do! 

WATCH THE VIDEO: 
SUPPORT THE CHARITY: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/scorerelief2022 

A note from the composer: 

This was an incredible challenge and a great way to branch out, away from hybrid orchestration and into a more textural score landscape. Not one to do things by halves, I committed to the brief’s enthusiasm for music that bordered on sound design, where melody takes a back seat. I let the dialogue’s natural three phrases guide my storyline and tried to focus on creating a mood, guiding your feeling towards the script as we move through the clip. 

While I’ll doubt it will wind awards for its technical finesse, lyrical nature or complexity, I believe it conjures the atmosphere needed, allowing the dialogue to shine through and land its important message on the audience. My score is merely there to enhance that journey and I utilised harmonic shifts and dynamic swells to create the tension and vibe needed to support that message. With a focus on pointillistic orchestration, it builds a melody from fragments of instruments in the background, but lets the swells and textures take hold and dominate the soundscape.

I Catch You - Score Relief 2022 Film Score Competition (2022)

This is my submission to the Vocalise 3 Rescore Competition by Heavyocity. You can check out the video here: https://youtu.be/m72BlFCKtU4

Breath of Life (2022)

Entered as part of the 2022 Spitfire Audio Scoring Competition. Check out the full submission here: https://youtu.be/46c_osKKzaY

Bridgerton - Spitfire Audio Scoring Competition (2022)

Signals is a short film clip provided by Heavyocity for their Foundations Competition. This piece was made entirely with their free Foundations instruments, bar the percussion line.

Signals (2023)

A film score for the Composer of the Year 2023 Contest by Sonuscore.

The Wild Woods (2023)

Originally scored to film, this piece was submitted to Spitfire Audio's Westworld Scoring Competition. The piece aimed to support the action-orientated feel of the visuals, aligning with the film clip's overall darker mood, to create something dramatic and tense. The score was composed on a bedrock of orchestral instruments that have been interwoven with electronic layers and metallic percussion to give an industrial and suspenseful collage. Blending in risers and hits for impact, the piece can stand alone as an example of action scoring or be presented with the original clip, showing its timed impact points and thematic ideas.

Check out the video at: https://youtu.be/7CiBV4pscRk

Written and recorded in 2020.

"Unfreeze Motor Functions" - Spitfire Audio's Westworld Scoring Competition (2020)

Written to "top and tail" a short-story student film project, "The Library", this piece contains the initial entrance "swell" and is proceeded by the outro music covering the final camera shot and the credits. Designed to be minimal and contemplative, the use of modern string patches from Novo and the brass dynamic swells from Forzo really helped to create a subtle and gentle mood, while the delayed and ambient piano created a sense of space and air, a place to breathe and think.

Written and recorded in 2018.

The Library - Intro And Outro Movements (2018)

Score Relief 2021, hosted by The Cue Tube, provided me with an open slate when scoring to the short animation from Blender Foundation, titled Spring. With such a focus on the dramatic journey this young woman has to go through to drag her land out of winter and into spring, it gave me a chance to explore a more textural score, with a slightly dark and mysterious edge. With all creative decisions entirely down to me, I chose to embody the wonder and mystical nature of the ritual and go down a different path than others may have travelled with their scores.

The Edge of Winter

The Edge Of Winter - Score Relief (2021)

The Score the World contest offered the chance to score to an Academy Award winning film, the Son of Saul. Rather than choosing a typical approach, a strings-based orchestral score that would have fit the genre of the film, I decided to try and find a different tone that could shape the story. I landed on an ethereal synth-based soundscape that captured the interaction between the two main characters, creating the same tension and emotion as an orchestral score but with electronic and tape sampled sounds.

Stephen O’Connell | Film Scores

Stephen O'Connell | Composer