User:MWBellMusic/sandbox

Michael W. Bell (born Michael William Bell, 1 July 1988, Bromley, Kent) is a British film music composer, ambient sound designer and record producer. He has composed music and designed sound for films, trailers, documentaries, animations, online videos and company brandings for various filmmakers and music supervisors worldwide; alongside his film work, Mike has also produced records for rock, metal and hip-hop artists. He is an avid video blogger via his YouTube channel where he enjoys documenting his work and processes and connecting with likeminded people from all over the world.

Early life
As a child, Mike would spend hours listening to music of many genres with his parents regularly finding him routing through their record collection looking for new music to explore. He notes that his first memorable experience with film and music was watching Disney’s Fantasia.

When his father purchased a Yamaha home cinema sound system in around 1995, Mike was sold experiencing surround sound in his home for the very first time and being transported from the front room straight into the environment of the picture. Although unaware at the time, his experience with surround sound, love of music and watching movies with his Dad would create an interest for music and sound within film later in life.

As a teenager, Mike discovered Heavy Metal and began playing the electric guitar; after a few years with the band, he chose to study Music Production with the aim of becoming a live and studio sound engineer. Ultimately, he stumbled upon music composition for film during one of his assignments which started his own musical journey as a composer. For his third year at University, he enrolled on a Music Composition for Professional Media course at the University of Brighton which allowed him to continue developing compositional ideas.

After graduating in 2013, Mike relocated to Surrey where he began to grow his music production company and studio, Aurora Eclipse Productions. Three of Mike early cinematic compositions, "Dolour", "Bewailing Under The Eastern Skies" and "Maritime Discoveries" were released by AEP shortly after.

Work as a film composer
In 2011, Mike scored his first short film, "Francis", it was the first time he had composed music with an orchestra in mind and he fell in love with the whole process

During 2014, Mike connected with a handful of filmmakers and completed the scores for the short films "Local Girl", "Survival", and "Jogger" as well as a short documentary film entitled "Night Owls". These projects were perfect to get him started and very important in terms of practising and establishing effective workflows for film scoring.

In 2015, Mike found myself mostly scoring trailers, idents and showreels for a number of production companies to promote their upcoming and "in production" projects. Working extensively with Silver Lining Pictures, he scored the trailers for "Cutting Room" (in collaboration with Emily Jackson), "Spirit Hunters", and "Blanket" as well as composing the music for two successful YouTube documentaries, "Mad Frankie Fraser: His Last Interview" and "Legends: The Kray Twins Story". For Clouded Sight Pictures, he completed their "Coming Soon Ident" for their upcoming feature film Dream Finder and designed the sound for the Silver Hound Films "Ident".

In 2016, Mike released his first album "Awakening, the Early Scores", a compilation of film music cues composed for early projects which made it to picture. This was a way to mark the end of an era as he began to become more established in the art of writing music for film. To celebrate the Silver Lining Pictures produced Frankie Fraser documentary surpassing 100,000 views on YouTube, Aurora Eclipse Productions also released the "Lurking In The Delta Waves" EP; a 13 minute dark ambient soundscape composed for the film. This was quickly followed by the release of "The Raging of the Falcons", a short action packed cue composed for fun!

More recently, he completed the score for the Louis W. Frost directed short drama, "Blanket" which was subsiquently nominated for Best Score at the Views of the World Film and Music Festival.

Work as a music producer
He got off to a good start by producing “Hatriotism”, a single by the then Brighton-based metal band Demental;

Much to my enjoyment, I also had the chance to work with a band again in a studio context and produced "Tales of the Unaffected", the six track debut EP from London-based baroque-pop band, Black Noire.

Angel Film Award
Monaco International Film Festival
 * Won: Best Original Music 2010: 'First Darkness'

Gold Medal for Excellence in Music
Park City Film Music Festival
 * Won: Gold Medal for Excellence in Music for a Documentary Film 2011 for the film 'Evolution: The Grand Experiment Episode 1'

Personal life
Mike currently resides and works in Epsom, Surrey.