Born and raised in Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk, England, Alex Redfern has been dazzling international audiences over the last few years with his incredible talent as a composer for film and television. Redfern realized his passion for both music and film early on in his youth, but at the time he never imagined that the two mediums would someday intertwine and provide him with the successful career he enjoys today.
After receiving his B.A. from the UK’s Leeds College of Music, Redfern went on to obtain a Masters of Music in Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games at the renowned Berklee College of Music. During his time at Berklee College of Music, Redfern was recognized for his extraordinary abilities as a composer and was the recipient of the prestigious Friends of Leeds College of Music Prize in Music Production, an award that is given to the top student in the course.
Redfern’s most recent film projects as a composer include Happy Face, Tumbleweed: A True Story, and the film Sisterhood of The Red Garter 3D, which is scheduled for release next year. In addition to working as a composer, Redfern has also played a critical role in the music department of the films The Curse of The Un-kissable Kid, Larsons Field, Penguin Trek, Holy Land, Varanasi and Disney’s upcoming film Cinderella.
Redfern displayed his ability to seamlessly blend and heighten the energy of each scene and the overall film with his fantastical musical creations in Marc Juvé’s film Happy Face.
“It is an adventure film, Marc chose me to score the film after I did a demo to one of the scenes,” explained Alex Redfern. “It is a great Spielberg-esque film with an orchestral score, which I got to record in Spain.”
A Spanish film, Happy Face follows an innocent and awkward young boy named Lucas who is promised acceptance into the cool kids group if he can retrieve a certain hidden treasure from a frightening old man’s eerie mansion. Redfern ingeniously created the film’s musical composition in a way that builds an incredible parallel story alongside the visual aspects of the film. The composer used subtle sounds to build the audience’s anticipation and curiosity as Lucas scours the house, sounds which, upon the fateful moment of the treasure’s discovery, culminate in a magnificent crescendo as if to say “Eureka!”
“The fantastical music in Happy Face played a huge part in the movie. The protagonist is searching for the fabled treasure so I tried to make that theme magical. I used celesta, a type of keyboard that uses metal instead of strings to create a light and mysterious sound, as well as the flute, harp and shimmering strings, which resulted in a mystical sound and shows the elation of the protagonist when he finds the treasure,” said Redfern.
Happy Face was produced by ESCAC Films, the production company responsible for the films Knifed, Dinosaurio, which received the Nova Autoria Award at the 2013 Catalonian International Film Festival, Los Inocentes, Timothy, Mano a Mano, as well as many others.
To find out more about Alex Redfern’s work, and to listen to some of his original compositions you can check out his website: www.alexredfernmusic.com or go to his Soundcloud Page: www.soundcloud.com/alexnmt and check out the trailer for Happy Face below!
Happy Face · trailer from Marc Juvé on Vimeo.