Rec Change Competition (Entry by Ace Vaptsarov) (Top 10 Winner)

This my entry to the Rec Change Competition! Thank you so much "Rec Change", Anze Rozman, Ian Arber, and Lucas Vidal for putting this contest together, and for recognizing my entry! It was a real joy to compose music for this scene, and be part of a great humanitarian cause!

I did some research about the Yucatan state and was pleased to find some great resources about the traditional music, the kind of instruments the native population used, and the significant role that music used to play in people's lives. Wooden instruments and ones made out of natural resources were prevalent, and I was especially intrigued to find out that the ocarina was used quite widely in Mayan music and Mesoamerica as a whole. The wooden flute was believed to represent fertility in the ancient Mayan culture, so I used that to carry a lot of the melodies, representing a prayer for fertility and abundance, and Jacinto's fight to regain his family's land and maintain the traditional practice of milpa.

I got inspired and used a natural palette that signifies the location and invokes this subtext, including ocarina, wooden flute, various small percussion, and the cuatro. These instruments blended nicely with a chamber string group, harp, and celeste.

I found the idea of cultural heritage and tradition really fascinating and central to both the film's story and the Maya community's consciousness. I had the idea to have ocarina howls echoing during the supernatural moments, as a motif signifying both the ancestors' spirit of cultivation, but also their "cry" for justice against the cruelty and desecration of their lands.

Big thanks to the filmmakers, who created a film on this important topic, and graciously offered a clip from it for us to score! Here's the team behind the production:

Director: Pepe Perruccio

Producer: Jorge Novelo
Script: Pepe Perruccio, Roberto Cardozo
DOP: Jerry Rojas
Original SFX and Music: Aarón González, Marte Araiza
Art Department: Camila Balzaretti
Gaffer: Rodolfo Hernandez de Anda
Montage: Pepe Perruccio
Actors: Daniel Díaz Canul, Marcelino Burgos, Olga Tamay Canul, Medardo Mukul, Aurelio Gómez, Víctor Canul Uicab.

I hope you enjoy my piece! It was a really fun creative challenge to work on this clip!

AV