VIDEO: Film score pair scoops award

7:55am Friday 11th January 2008

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A prestigious award is music to the ears for two Preston composers.

Jode Steele and David Wainwright (pictured) hit the high notes recently as they were crowned Britain's most exciting young creative talents of the year at Channel 4's 4music' awards in December.

The duo, who graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in 2003 both with BA (Hons) in New Music and Media, are still based in Preston and are now running their own company, Verbal Vigilante Music.

From the studio in North Cliff Street, Preston, Jode, and David, both 26, produce musical scores to accompany films and animations, including Death By Scrabble an animation which featured at the Bradford Animation Festival and independent WWII feature film, Between the Lines.

Jode said: "We were at the same school in York and used to busk to make a bit of extra money.

"But it wasn't until we'd started our degree at UCLan that our business idea of writing music to pictures began to develop.

"The course was very diverse musically and exposed us to different ways of composing. It was an invaluable learning curve and definitely influenced our writing style.

"While at university we were asked to score the music to a theatre production. We loved it and the rest is history."

Spanning the whole of the creative industries from film makers to fashion designers, the awards were judged by an expert panel from Channel 4 and independent production companies.

David said: "When we found out we had been shortlisted we were surprised and delighted to be in the running.

"We had our fingers crossed for a couple of weeks and were jumping around the studio when we heard the news that we'd won.

"It's great to be recognised by an organisation like Channel 4. It's a very competitive industry and the award will help open doors for us."

The two graduates set up Verbal Vigilante Music in 2005 and have been steadily growing and developing their client base through networking, pitching for commissions and via word of mouth.

Jode said: "In terms of achievements, winning this award is right up there, but completing our first feature film score earlier this year has been the highlight in terms of work projects."