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As we draw near to the end of 2019 I am pleased to post a blog on the completion and release of Mary's Dowry Productions latest film "England: The Dowry of Mary".
England: The Dowry of Mary DVD
It took the better part of 2019 to come together but we managed to get it done and available here. The music is really interesting, drawing up older tracks from films, new tracks from my album VALLEYS as well as a lot of brand new music I wrote to picture. This film is already going well across the world and we have sent out several copies. We also have it available via ON DEMAND instant video as of this week too. To find out more about this latest film visit www.marysdowryproductions.org
I have been taking a break since completing my last music score "John Henry Newman: Fullness of Truth" which is now available both on DVD or via Instant Download at our website here www.marysdowryproductions.org
Please take a moment to view the trailer for this film here:
The film has so far met with great reviews with one review as follows:
"I thought the well- delivered narration was well written,
informative
and insightful, while the Music, though never intrusive, was
appropriate
and prayerful, a great help in meditating on the saint’s life
of service to
the Church in England, which your film portrayed so
effectively.
The beauty of the pictorial and photographic images were just
as I’ve
come to expect from your productions, striking as
always.
I think all concerned should be thankful for the
film,
and pray that it inspires many souls, as it intends to." R.I.
We had a film launch on 'the big screen' at our local parish on 13th October to coincide with the canonization of Newman and there was a good turnout with people from all over. Next on the agenda will be "England: The Dowry of Mary" which I am currently editing narration for before writing some nice English music tracks to be used in the film.
We filmed for a beautiful film on St. Francis de Sales in March 2018. It came about because a friend of ours is the image of this saint and after a while we asked if he would be willing to portray for us and he said yes! It was very exciting and after a long time coming we managed to capture various scenes of St. Francis de Sales' life on film.
Above shows our friend portraying St. Francis de Sales and below St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal who also features in this film.
Unfortunately, on the same day we filmed for St. Gemma Galgani, Our Lady and the Visionaries of Knock and St. Alban Roe. We managed to quickly produce the first two films and also have two film launches at the barn next to our parish church, both of which were well attended. I fell in love with our film on Our Lady of Knock, having visited Knock when I was about 14 but never fully being able to grasp the full story. Our film shows the whole story as well as the surrounding context in which it happened. Both of these films left us feeling exhausted and we were unable to produce more and there were several other delays pushing St. Francis de Sales for 15 months!
Our Lady of Knock DVD
Earlier this year we decided that we would really put our minds to it and complete this film. What was needed was fresh scenery which plays a vital role in our films so we went out twice to Patching Woods nearby us and got some lovely panoramic shots of woodlands, trees, nature. We went out again to Clapham Woods and filmed some beautiful bluebells, pathways.
Having everything we needed we were able to edit the film together after recording the narration. Finally the film was complete and ready for the music score. I felt a little rusty as I had had quite a break from writing but I dove right in and spent a week writing the score. At the time we were watching UNBREAKABLE with Bruce Willis. I do not listen to music very much at all but we research media and have areas of film that we enjoy. I am very much influenced by film scores which is why Mary's Dowry Productions films have an "Epic" atmosphere as the score I write for them can be cinematic, emotional and moving.
In the film there are a lot of strings leading and piano. The overall mood is intense, emotional and really captures the growth and journey of the character. I was aware that the background mood of this film, moving and emotional influenced my writing of the score for St. Francis de Sales and there are some moving segments, particularly with St. Jane de Chantal's own journey and their last conversation together. I was very pleased with the score at this part of the film.
In my previous post I said that just when I completed the score my computer died, I had not backed up the score after 18 minutes of music so was traumatized for the whole weekend. Fortunately the guy in the shop managed to find all my music and back it up, the hard drive had not failed but I had to re-load everything once again in order to mix down the final score and complete the film - MORE DELAYS!.
Eventually after 2 more weeks of delays the film was complete and we released it on DVD. It is now available worldwide from our online shop and I hope it is shared with many people, it's a very moving and informative film with many important aspects of the spiritual life said by both saints.
2018 has been a hectic year for us. Over the years with Mary's Dowry Productions we have tried to produce as many films as possible on the lives of the saints by incorporating as much history and film footage as possible on a filming day. This has left us with a lot of ongoing catch-up work so we seem to always have several productions outstanding. 2018 has been quite bad for this because we filmed for Saint John Bosco, Dominic Savio,
Screenshot from Dominic Savio FILM
Screenshot from Dominic Savio FILM
Mary Mazzarello, Jacinta Marto in January 2017, this gave us four productions to put together.
Screenshot from Jacinta of Fatima DVD FILM
We also filmed for Bartolo Longo, Claude de la Colombiere, Margaret Mary and Thomas Garnet in March 2017, this gave us 8.
Screenshot from Bartolo Longo Film
Screenshot from Bartolo Longo Film
We discovered an old ruined barn in Ferring that would be great for a backdrop so we slipped in Saint Mechtilde of Magdeburg and the Souls in Purgatory shortly after this. This gave us 9 productions.
Discovery of an old barn in Ferring as backdrop for St. Mechtilde
We get so excited about every single production. From a music perspective I know that once I start writing a score, the theme and atmosphere develops and is the theme for that production. Therefore each saint, each DVD has it's own atmosphere. We can see the potential of this so we're keen to get them released fast.
It's ever such a lot of work however and having 9 films all filmed for with amazing visuals is quite a pressure. 2018 therefore has been about catching up with these, one by one. The only way to handle the workload was literally to take one at a time and not allow ourselves to get too excited about all of them.
However instead of putting together ALL the films we filmed for in 2017 above, we had several intense extra filming days at the end of 2017 for Saint Faustina and Saint Padre Pio.
Screenshot from Faustina and the Divine Mercy DVD
Screenshot from Padre Pio: Pray, Hope and Don't Worry DVD
We released these films but this got us really behind so the beginning of 2018 saw us working on Saint Margaret Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, filmed for in March 2017, we also had outstanding, Dominic Savio and Mary Mazzarello from Janary 2018 - a year earlier.
Padre Pio DVD, New in 2017
Saint Faustina DVD NEW for 2017
Working on Margaret Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus was a new experience and a great start to 2018 for music. The whole theme of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is extremely important and moving. We used the words of Jesus narrated by Mike Pailthorpe who narrates for us so beautifully. He did the same in Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa DVD back in 2010.
Listen here to the words of Jesus taken from Margaret Mary Film:
We released Saint Margaret Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the beginning of 2018 and felt we were catching up, but we still had Dominic Savio and Mary Mazzarello from January 2017.
Saint Margaret Mary DVD
With the release of Saint Margaret Mary DVD we went straight on to working on the beautiful film Saint Dominic Savio which seemed to take several months to do. I was very moved by this because although we have been working on popular saints and saints outside of England, we love the English Martyrs and Saint Dominic Savio is linked to England because of his vision of England. It's incredible how each saint that we work on is linked to each other and to Mary's Dowry.
Saint Dominic Savio DVD
Saint Dominic Savio film took months and was a lot of work. It left us however with just Saint Mary Mazzarello to complete the January 2017 filming day. We went on to Saint Claude de la Colombiere however as there was much interest in him with St. Margaret Mary DVD being met with such a good reception. Again, Saint Claude is linked to England, he actually came to England and met with Saint John Wall in prison, one of the forty martyrs.
Screenshot from Saint Claude DVD
When I work on a score, I find myself very moved as I get into the production and it's when I really meet and connect with a saint. This was again the case with Saint Claude de la Colombiere. The profundity of his visit to England, bringing the Sacred Heart devotion to this country was incredible. How this production fits in with all our work on the English Martyrs is brilliant.
We released Saint Claude de la Colombiere and the Sacred Heart in England DVD and it's available along with all others from https://www.marysdowryproductions.org/
Also this year, we worked on A Simple Soul: Saint Mary Mazzarello. She is the founder of the Salesian Sisters and having worked on Saint Don Bosco and Saint Dominic Savio films it was great to see a different side of this. The production is called "A Simple Soul". She is a great saint and although lesser known, her life is very insightful and inspiring and I'm very pleased we worked on this film.
A Simple Soul: St. Mary Mazzarello DVD
It was celebration time with the release of Saint Mary Mazzarello because this marked the completion of films shot for in January 2017.
There was a bit of a break after this production as we were not at our goal yet nor have I mentioned that during this process, we had another filming day in March 2018 adding four more to our list which set us back again. I shall continue this roundup for 2018 in my next post. 2017 and 2018 really has been quite dominated by Salesians and the Sacred Heart saints and they are great!
Please visit our website for all DVDs and new releases here:
Since October 2007 it has been my privilege to work on several DVD films about the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales as well as creating full original music scores for each production. It all began 11 years ago this month when Mary's Dowry Productions had its first filming day over in Arundel, West Sussex.
We wanted to incorporate the beautiful scenery of West Sussex as well as the magnificent Arundel Castle and Cathedral into this production.
Filming before Arundel Castle
What made this production great, being our first DVD, was discovering the life of Saint Philip Howard, the Earl of Arundel. We had lived near Arundel our whole lives and attended the Cathedral for many events but did not know much about Saint Philip Howard.
These first days of filming were interesting, we spent many weeks travelling back and forth to Arundel for different shots and different locations.
Getting to grips with the new equipment
Mary's Dowry Productions had only been established for a few weeks and getting to grips with the new equipment was a learning curve but we went from strength to strength and our production on St. Philip Howard was completed and launched on the 'small screen' (we had not yet gotten our large screen and launch equipment) and we were touched by this English Martyrs' life and witness.
Saint Philip of Arundel DVD
This production was revisited in 2010 with a whole new music score and upgraded footage but both the early version and the new one were met with very positive feedback.
Having always been drawn to ancient sounds like the recorder and frame drum, viola da gamba, fidule and lute, I found that writing a music score for a film set in the Elizabethan era enabled me to use these lovely instrument and create an authentic Elizabethan sound. I'd not long left college and one valuable lesson I had learned was the creation of my own original unique sound so I applied this concept to the St. Philip Howard film score and made it my own.
After Saint Philip of Arundel was released and making it's way around the world and diocese, 2008 saw us begin a year long project on Saint Edmund Campion, another English Martyr.
Saint Edmund Campion
Philip Howard was the first English Martyr we had encountered and it led us to discover that there are in fact 40 of them! For 11 years we have wanted to produce a DVD for each of these great saints. We are not there yet but many years of work and effort have seen several produced. We paid particular interest to the martyrs who were completely unknown like Saint Polydore Plasden. This month I hope to write several blogs on the processes of producing films and writing music scores on several of these martyrs. My next blog will focus on Saint Edmund Campion and our year long work to produce Saint Edmund Campion: A Hero Returns DVD.
Last week I composed the music score for Mary's Dowry Productions 81st DVD film "Saint Dominic Savio". We filmed for this lovely production back in January 2017 and it has been a bit of a nightmare to get it done. All of a sudden I found myself in the position to write the music and knew we were just a few days away from having a new production which is always exciting. To begin, I decided to keep to my usual instruments, not try anything too fancy and to keep the mood refreshing and uplifting. I gave myself plenty of time and not too much repetition; I kept creating new themes and moods as the film developed.
Saint Dominic Savio is an inspiring film about a young boy who made a decision to become a saint when he was very small and stuck to it, choosing his friends wisely and being faithful to prayer and the Sacraments of the Church. In this film we look at his early life and his meeting of St. John Bosco who tells him he looks like good material to be made into a saint.
The music score I wrote blends harps, guitars, baroque guitars, piano, strings and voices (my usual base of sounds), with a few modern subtle beats detailing the early story of Dominic's life. Dominic was saintly, for example he called St. John Bosco in the night to the home of a dying man in need of a priest. This reminded me of the mystery of St. John Bosco's dreams when we produced 'Don Bosco' DVD last year and I used some soundscapes called Enki and Forest Gathering to build a dreamlike mood as St. Dominic leads the way. I also used a Medieval Tenor Victimae Paschali whenever the film visits the Oratory of St. John Bosco, creating an atmosphere of holiness and prayer. This really aided in creating the right setting as the sounds of chanting in Latin created the sound of a religious environment.
Later in the film St. Dominic Savio has a vision of England. We see the Pope holding a flaming torch and we visit England and the English Martyrs. I loved writing to this section, I used an old instrument which I used a lot in our English Martyrs films, Koblikzek, which sounds like a recorder but very ancient. Further on in this section on the Faith in England, I bought in very subtle distant bagpipes. The sound was both English, Celtic and rich in the Faith and I felt the usual zeal for bringing England back to the One True Faith and I was surprised that this was so relevant and apt to this film. This music score has given me an opportunity to use a lot of instruments that I have used in the past but have not used for a little while. It has meditative sections which are very moving and inspiring as St. Dominic's wisdom is presented. The entire film and score filled me with inspiration for the Faith, zeal for England and a rich desire to try better to strive to be a saint.
Saint Dominic Savio is available worldwide on Region Free DVD Format from our website www.marysdowryproductions.org To hear some of the music you can view a trailer for the film here: SAVIO TRAILER
It's been a couple of weeks since I completed the music score for our new film on 'Jacinta Marto' of Fatima. I've been having a break from writing, but at the same time am keen to complete my 'Holy Spirit of Serenity' music CD album. This will be number six in the SPIRIT music series and I've been working on it for a good few months now. The other volumes in this series did not take very long to write but we seem to have a lot of projects on the go currently which is slowing things down.
The Holy Spirit Music Series
The official launch of Jacinta Marto went really well. We launched a feature trailer for our upcoming film on Saint Don Bosco on the night too.
Music from 'Holy Spirit of Peace' album was used in this trailer as the score has not yet been written and the albums proved popular on the night. People seem to be craving music to create a calm and positive background atmosphere. Music that will both uplift and relax. Music that inspires, is unpredictable, but easy to listen to. The SPIRIT music series does this.
It's been a busy month with the Jacinta of Fatima film launch and also the showing of St. Julian of Norwich film for Holy Week. We currently have a backlog of about 10 productions, all of which I am looking forward to writing the music scores for as they are all different. Currently I am most looking forward to writing for St. Aiden of Lindisfarne, my favourites are the Saxon Saints. Next in production should be St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy.
MUSIC SOUNDTRACKS
As regards music albums. I have been asked to make the soundtracks from the
Calm Your Spirit With Music Film Soundtracks Series
films more available. This means re-opening old scores and re-working them. It's a lot of work, but well worth it. Each soundtrack has it's own major themes and unique atmosphere. They are also all very different to each other as we have covered so many styles and eras. I currently have four soundtracks available on CD: St. Margaret Ward, St. Etheldreda, St. Cuthman and St. Joan of Arc. I plan to work backwards if I can from the most recent productions.
INSTRUMENTAL FUSION ALBUMS
I am still trying to find the time and inspiration to complete both 'Holy Spirit of Serenity' and 'Valleys' which both are proving a lot of work. Both albums are very different from each other - The Holy Spirit series being serene, calming and background instrumental easy listening tracks. Valleys from my Instrumental Fusion series is a lot more creative and free, drawing upon many instruments and cultures and pushing my own creativity and style. So far Valleys is very exciting with some really original new tracks. I will update on it's progress as and when. For now, do check out my Instrumental Fusion series if you can, they are my favourite pieces that I have written freely over a couple of decades and are truly unique.
