JOÃO LUÍS
Music Composer for Film & Games
*some awards/selections for productions João has worked on
BIO
"Love for storytelling is an understatement. I deeply care about finding the right music to help a story grab an audience's attention and carry them through an emotional journey while making them forget the outside world for a brief moment. That is my goal."
João is a versatile, eclectic, melody-oriented music composer and graduate of Berklee College of Music, currently residing in Belfast, who aims to tailor his music to each project so that the music becomes synonymous with it.
He has worked on a number of projects in a range of media. Some of his earlier project highlights include "The Third Attempt”, a dramatic short movie that has 17 international film selections, and "Raising Sleeping Stones", the world's first ebook novel with its own original score.
Documentaries include "Madeira Film Experience”, currently in its sixth year running, and ”Recovery", an impactful short documentary which recounts the story of 3 sexual assault survivors and which went on to win several awards and nominations at various film festivals.
Most recently, João has written most of the soundtrack for the steam game Nocturne: Prelude; wrote music for the Ad "Christmas and New Year's Eve at Madeira Islands" which has received more than 700 000 views on YouTube, and was a composer/arranger on the Vivaldi Metal Project, which features a number of world-famous musicians, including Mistheria (Bruce Dickinson, Roy Z Ramirez); Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Sons Of Apollo); Mike Terrana (Yngwie Malmsteen, Tarja Turunen); Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth) and many more.
Today, João has been working full-time, non-exclusively, for Pracy Studios, composing, directing and implementing all of the music for the "Nocturne" (coming 2024).
CREDITS
FILM
RECOVERY
REN CANGA & SIOFRA QUINNGATES
2018
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"Short Awards Winner" at Dublin Feminist Film Festival 2018
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"Audience Winner" at Bleeding Pig Festival
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"Winner Award of Recognition" by IndieFEST Film Awards
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Nominated for Best Documentary at Night of the Short Film Festival 2018
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
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Official selection by "Directed by Women" = NYC Shorts of all Sorts 2018
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Official selection at London Short Series Festival 2018
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Official selection at The Richard Harris Interntional Film Festival
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Official selection at Kerry Film Festival
MADEIRA FILM EXPERIENCE
NUNO SERRÃO
2015
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TripAdvisor's "Traveler's Choice 2020"
THE THIRD ATTEMPT
NUNO SERRÃO
2013
OFFICAL SELECTIONS
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Cannes Court Métrage 2014
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Short Film Corner (Cannes), 2014
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Casa das Mudas 2013
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NY Portuguese Short Film Festival (New York, USA) 2014
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NY Portuguese Short Film Festival (Lisbon, Portugal) 2014
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NY Portuguese Short Film Festival 2014
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NYPSFF Tour (New Bedford, USA) 2014
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V Mikro Festival, 2014
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NYPSFF Tour (San Francisco Bay Model, USA), 2014
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XIII St.Petersburg International Festival BEGINNING 2014
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NYPSFF Tour (São Paulo, Brazil) 2014
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NYPSFF Tour (Australia) 2014
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5th Siliguri International Short Film 2014
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NYPSFF Tour (Angola) 2014
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NYPSFF Tour (South Africa) 2014
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NYPSFF Tour (Polónia) 2014
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NYPSFF Tour (England) 2014
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Kanyakumari International Film Festival 2015
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Bilas Film Fest 2015
MACHINERIE
ALEXANDRE ERUTHE
2011
SUNRISE
(RESCORE)
SHELDON MIROWITZ
2010
ORCHESTRATOR
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Performed live at a sold-out Coolidge Corner Theatre, Boston, MA
ADS & PROMO VIDEOS
STAY HOME - MADEIRA
HENRIQUE SERUCA
2020
HOTEL LES SUITES
HENRIQUE SERUCA
2020
A TASTE OF MADEIRA
HENRIQUE SERUCA
2020
URBANISTAS SHOWREEL
NUNO SERRÃO
2018
GAMES
THE GREAT ATTRACTOR
(GAMEJAM)
PRACY STUDIOS
2021
FUSION GUARDS
TRAILERS & TRAINING SEQUENCES
JANEIOUS
2020
TRAILERS:
IA MECH WAR - SPIDERBOSS
IA MECH WAR - TRAILER A
NOCTURNE: PRELUDE
PRACY STUDIOS
2019
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97% positive reviews on Steam
SONS OF SOL
TRAILER
RETRONEO GAMES
2017
RAISING SLEEPING STONES
PRATT BENNET
2014
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108% funding on Kickstarter
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First Ebook containing it’s own original soundtrack.
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4,8 starts at amazon.com
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4,4 starts goodreads.com
OTHER
MIXTAPE 01
CINECAVE
2021
VIVALDI METAL PROJECT
MISTHERIA
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Album that features world-renowned metal musicians (such as Mistheria (Bruce Dickinson, Roy Z Ramirez); Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Sons Of Apollo); Mike Terrana (Yngwie Malmsteen, Tarja Turunen); Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth) and many more.
PHOENIX
TRAILER
JOÃO LUÍS
2020
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Trailer launch for Phoenix project. In this revival, the launch track, currently in production, will count with the participation of the orchestrator of Horizon Zero Dawn and Devin Townsend's drummer as well as Bryan Adams sound engineer.
THE ISLANDER PROJECT
JOÃO LUÍS
2017
LIGHTS OF NIGHTMARES EP
JOÃO LUÍS
2012
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Won “Best New Band of the Year” 2012 by online magazine, Sound/Zone
TESTIMONIALS
Sheldon Mirowitz
3-time Emmy nominee composer
"As a composer, João really got the movie and the role of music in the story telling, and that is actually rare, especially among the better composers. But most importantly, throughout the experience he made himself present to the emotional truth of the film, and he responded to it honestly. By putting himself into the music that he wrote, he elevated the score considerably."
Benjamin Pracy
Video-game Director of "Nocturne: Prelude"
"João Luís has composed all of the combat music for my RPG Rhythm Game called Nocturne. The music he has created is absolutely fantastic. He took the time to review the story, characters and creatures of the game to create music that really matched its' atmosphere and style.When providing feedback, João was patient, professional and able to translate my feedback into the music.He went above and beyond my expectations."
Nuno Serrão
Photographer, Filmmaker and Creative Director
I recently worked with João. His dedication and evident passion for composition, along with his effortless director-composer dialogue, made this the first of many opportunities we will have to work together.I will always recommend someone who works with his level of professionalism and quality.
Henrique Seruca
Photographer and Director of Advertising
"It really has been a pleasure working with this great composer! A great listener who manages to understand the feeling that we want to transmit and is capable of adapting and delivering!
You know you're working with great people when you start considering them your friend!"
Ren Canga
Producer & Cinematogropher
"João is an excellent composer, we had his work feature on our award-winning short film. The topic was incredibly sensitive and we wanted music that went with it perfectly and that's what he delivered. The emotion conveyed through the music exceeded what we expected, we were beyond delighted with the quality and his passion towards getting the feel of the music precise.
The end result is what we feel made the film successful and we're grateful we got to work with him."
Mistheria
Keyboardist, Composer, Producer
(Bruce Dickinson, Vivaldi Metal Project)
"I discovered João while working on the second album of my Vivaldi Metal Project. I listened to some of his previous works and recognised his amazing musical talent, then I got his arrangement and orchestration works and was extremely impressed by the skill with which he managed to create musical structures and beauty.By expertly combining knowledge, passion and elegance with extreme attention to details, João delivers real sound gems."
Michael Frankenberger
Composer, Founder & CEO of CineCave, Forbes 30 under 30
"João created an incredible album for our Library 'CineCave'. The quality, the writing pace and also the workflow how he collaborated with us was great and I am looking forward to working with him on more projects in the future."
Pratt Bennet
Author of Raising Sleeping Stones
João collaborated with me on an extremely challenging project- creating the first complete score for a novel, Raising Sleeping Stones, which involved creating over 100 cues and 2 hours of music -and he far exceeded my expectations in every regard. He listened and delivered whatever I asked for, but also added ideas, sounds, and themes I never would have come up with. The result is a score that is rich, complex, layered, and much better than I could have imagined.He's fast, responsible, a good collaborator, always on deadline, and imaginative.
GALLERY
TALKS & PANELS
João enjoys communicating and sharing his experience about a world that can seem insular and about which not much is known by a wider audience.
He has been invited to provide talks and has participated as a panelist on several occasions regarding what goes on behind the scenes in film/game music and about the life of a professional music composer.
Below is a list of those places:
- Conservatório Escola das Artes da Madeira
- Escola da Apel, Madeira
- Westminster University, London
- RUA RED Arts Center, Dublin
- Dublin Conference Center, Dublin