Thumbs Up Sailing Yacht Delivery made a short film on a GoPro of one of their voyages on a yacht going from Titchsmarsh in Essex to Sardinia. It was 25 days at sea and their film sure showed all the different aspects to long sea and ocean passages. We were asked to create an original soundtrack to the film including the ident at the very beginning.

The shot of them leaving harbour in Ramsgate had a very eerie almost Hitchcock feel to it, so I wanted to emphasize the darkness of this with the dull chime to evoke the sound of a ship’s bell you’d hear in fog along with a ominous organ. It was interesting fitting sounds in with the sound effects for example of the winches. We were given a completely soundless video so we were responsible for every sound effect that you hear also.

I wanted to create a ‘chilled’ vibe to the relaxed scenes that introduced us to the sailors. The kind of music you see on surf films with a slightly stoner, funky vibe. Flute is one of my own personal instruments and I can’t resist a bit of funk flute! We used the sub effect with a filter when the shots went underwater to make the music sound like you were hearing it under water also.

For ‘The Sailing’ section, a lot of the scenery was pretty epic – big reefs in the sails, big seas, so we went for a Pink Floyd esque guitar through tonnes of fx and organ to give a sense of vastness, enormity of the ocean. it wouldn’t be amiss to hear passages of Moby Dick being read out by Shakespearian actors during this segment!!

I love the dolphins! I wanted to create something playful to go along with them, so used a line on the strings but pizzicato, keeping it short and cheeky. Bringing in more lines as more dolphins join and dropping back down to the single line when only one dolphin is left etc. I created all the sound effects of the dolphins jumping in and out of the water too.

Finally, the last segment is of ‘The Scenery’ and we wanted to go with a slightly Mediterranean vibe. Not too happy not too sad, just something reflective and beautiful. We used a picked ukulele and a cello which is an odd combination but worked out very nicely I think.

I was really pleased with the end result of this and Thumbs Up were very pleased indeed. It’s amazing the kind of film you can create with just a GoPro while you’re working but I think they did a great job and as keen sailors ourselves, this was a project we particularly enjoyed doing. 🙂