Mike Roberts
MUSIC FOR FILM & TELEVISION
I compose, arrange and produce music for film, television and new media. Commissions include BBC television series, animated series, TV commercials and scored-to-picture sequences and songs for Hollywood movies and British films.
I also write, arrange and produce music and songs for other artists, and am responsible for several high profile releases including gold-selling, international hits.
Other music-related projects that I’ve overseen include an award-winning performance doc screened on Sky’s Artsworld, The Barbican Centre’s first series of podcasts, and interactive new media commissions for Barclays and Accenture.
For details of other recent broadcast work together with examples of music cues
please click ‘Productions’ in the menu bar above.
In this series of three sixty-minute films Evan Davis takes the long view on the subject of global finance - from Marco Polo’s Venice to the hedge funds of Mayfair, the now-defunct monoliths of Wall Street and the latest economic crisis.
The City Uncovered, with Evan Davis - BBC2/BBC1, 2009 (3 x 60 minutes)
As each film had a different theme and director I had to create cues in an unusually wide variety of styles. At the same time I needed to write music that could be used across the series so as to lend homogeneity and emphasise the recurring idea of interconnectedness. Constantly changing events in the financial world also meant that pictures couldn’t be locked until the eleventh hour, so I was composing-to-picture right down to the wire.
Music cues from ‘The City Uncovered’...
‘Rocket Science’ - introduction, pre-title & sting
‘Ground Zero’ - there’s money in chaos
‘Barrio Latino’ - dance of the commodities traders
‘Leeson’s Singapore’ (edit) - the gambler’s addiction to risk
‘Mayfair’ - hedge fund man
THE LATEST...
‘The Secret Peacemaker’ nominated for RTS award
This fascinating and dramatic documentary has been nominated for ‘Best Current Affairs Film’ in the forthcoming Royal Television Society Awards.
To hear a selection of music cues click ‘Productions’ in the menu bar above.
To view/hear the opening sequence click ‘Clips’.
January 2009
February 2009
(featured in ‘Clips’)
The brief included having to write individual musical caricatures of Britain’s best known TV chefs to accompany chapter-heading cartoon animations.
Here’s a clip featuring ‘SuperJamie’ Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Antony Worrall Thompson and Gordon Ramsay...
The Rise of the Superchef - BBC2, 2009 (60 minutes)
A light-hearted look at the inexorable rise of TV chefs and the industry that surrounds them, including insights into how they are discovered, managed and branded.
March 2009
‘The Gunmen Who Never Went Away’ - BBC1, 2009 (30 minutes)
When two soldiers and a policeman were recently murdered in Northern Ireland it highlighted that for some people the war never ended and that for their victims the violence never stopped. This Panorama investigation examines the resurgent terrorist threat.
‘Mountains’
As the subject matter was extremely sensitive my music had to add drama without being in any way sensationalist and, on no account, could it have the effect of glamourising the violence. There had to be an element of threat, as well as pathos, and a detached persistence to match that of the investigative journalist. The only ‘Irishness’ within the music was the use of high, non-vibrato drones on the violin.
‘Horsemen’
‘Benediction’
Music cues from ‘The Gunmen Who Never Went Away’...
The film can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer...
April 2009
‘Slumdogs and Millionaires’ - BBC1, 2009 (30 minutes)
Ben Anderson goes undercover in the millionaire’s playground of Dubai to investigate the desperate working conditions behind the construction of its celebrity-endorsed luxury developments.
The opening sequence spoofs the main titles from the Dallas TV series, featuring a split-screen montage of Dubai and its associated celebrities. In order to add authenticity I rearranged and recorded Jerrold Immel’s well known theme as if it were performed by a local arabic TV orchestra of the 1980s.
The film can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer...
‘Dubai via Dallas’ - arrangement of the Dallas theme (J. Immel)
August 2009
‘Birds of Prey’ - TV commercial & online trailer (30”/90”)
Birds of Prey is the latest in the IL2 Sturmovick series of incredibly lifelike WWII arial combat games for all the main consoles and online gaming.
The brief:
Cinematic, sweeping and pacey with ‘industrial’ and ‘grunge’ elements. The idea being to create something heroic and in keeping with the thrills and spills of a mechanical age but translated for a 21st century, young/male, target audience.
‘Birds of Prey’ - UK 90” online trailer
The online trailer can be viewed at...
