Northbrook College Alumni scores for newly released thriller ‘Empire of Lies’  

A former Music Production student has recently taken his first step into feature film scoring, composing the soundtrack for the newly released psychological thriller Empire of Lies.  

Alumni, Ryan Williams, worked on the film which centres around a mysterious young woman who comes to interview a paranoid man living in rural isolation and is forced to confront his part in his daughter’s murder.  

In order to celebrate release of the film, which debuted on Amazon Prime on 13 April, Ryan returned to the college to host a private screening of Empire of Lies, followed by a Q&A session with students.  

Joined by the film’s director, Matthew Hope, the pair answered questions covering everything from scoring techniques and the practical process of composing for film, to collaborating with a director and shaping music around narrative tension. 

For Ryan, the project marked a major milestone, moving from college-based assignments to working on a professionally released film. He explained how the unexpected opportunity came about, saying:    

“Towards the end of my time at Northbrook College, when I was about to leave…I had been in touch with a really old friend who I hadn’t talked to in years, who was doing some cinematography work and camera work, and he was on set for the film, and I said Does your director have music yet’?  

“He popped the question, and the director said no, and I sent him all the music I had made here at college, and he played it, and one of the tracks really resonated. The director then asked if he could use it, or if I just wanted to do the whole film.” 

When asked how he found composing the film, he added:  
“At the start, I was very nervous going into it. I felt I’d been chucked into the deep end with a really big responsibility straight after coming out of doing this for assignments.  

“The first thing I did was the first opening scene of the film, and it just felt natural to do it that way…and I sent it off, I was really nervous, and the first draft of the first scene that I’d ever sent to the director was immediately approved. And I thought, thank goodness, I can actually do this. 

“Overall, it was really challenging, but in a good way. In a way that I knew I could complete it in the end. Overall, it was a great experience for me.” 

Director Matthew Hope added: 
“It was a really great experience working with Ryan, because this is the first film he has done. He didn’t have any preconcepts of how things should be. So, he was very open to trying anything. He was very experimental and also a brilliant collaborator.” 

To learn more about the variety of music courses available at the college, please click here.