Client: Venlo Films
Project Title: Riff Raff

Objective:
This project focused on composing an orchestral score for the comedy short film Riff Raff. The goal was to create a bold, cinematic and characterful score that would heighten the film’s humour and capture the mischief of its maverick football manager. The music was designed to give the story a sense of scale and energy, while complementing its playful and irreverent tone.

Music Composition Approach:
From the outset, a sense of orchestral grandeur and bombast was central to the musical direction. Drawing inspiration from classic cinematic fanfares and the orchestral writing of composers such as John Williams and Michael Giacchino, the score embraced bold brass, sweeping strings, energetic percussion and memorable thematic material to give the film a larger-than-life character.

The music was written to closely follow the film’s comic timing and narrative beats. Fanfare-like gestures and exaggerated orchestral accents were used to emphasise moments of mischief and comedy, while more expansive passages helped build momentum and give the manager’s antics a heightened cinematic quality.

A central musical theme was developed to reflect the protagonist’s confident and unpredictable personality. This material was adapted throughout the score, allowing the music to shift between playful, mischievous moments and more triumphant, bombastic statements while maintaining a consistent musical identity.

The score was deliberately cinematic in its approach, treating the football manager’s world with a sense of grandeur that contrasts with the everyday situations unfolding on screen. This heightened perspective helped reinforce the comedy, allowing relatively small moments to feel suitably dramatic and entertaining.

Opening Credits Music:
The opening credits featured a bold orchestral statement designed to immediately establish the film’s tone and introduce its larger-than-life musical identity. A strong fanfare-led theme, supported by energetic orchestration and rhythmic momentum, sets up the comedy with a sense of cinematic anticipation and scale.

Tone and Style:
The score was playful, bombastic, cinematic and mischievous—drawing on the language of classic orchestral film scoring and fanfare while incorporating a contemporary comedic sensibility. The result was a larger-than-life orchestral sound that reflects the eccentricity and energy of the film’s central character.

Technical Delivery:

• Delivered in stereo format for online, festival, and film distribution.
• Mixed for clarity, impact, and dynamic range, with emphasis on orchestral detail, brass presence, and cinematic scale.