Music for Moving Image
I can create music and foley sound to suite a variety of visual styles. Here is a selection of my previous work.
Dr. XYZ (XYZ Projects, 2023)
Music composition, sound design, mixing, mastering
As part of BFI Network’s and AHRC’s NHS Untold Stories inniative 2023
https://xyzarchive.com/xyz-care
the XYZ Care Network presents a public healthcare service announcement.
Dr. XYZ is an exercise in queering the healthcare information film.
Collaborating with Birmingham’s trans+ community, the film weaves ethnographic
healthcare accounts with moments of drag-satire re-enactment to depict a
collective vision of the UK’s healthcare system. The participants, appearing in the
film as themselves, share some the pains, joys, exhaustions and optimisms this
community has felt trying to seek gender affirming care. Meanwhile, the narrative
follows our presenter, Dr. XYZ (played by drag artist, Don One); the collective voice of care
as they guide Dr. Mess (played by drag artist, Wet Mess) a clown-like gatekeeper
of essential care through a series of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ of essential care
practices. Dr. XYZ previewed at BFI Southbank in November 2023
and will be available on BFI Player in 2024.
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-dr-xyz-a-medical-drag-transthology-2023-online
Website, Press, Programme, Press, Programme, BFI Player
Dorothy Towers (Sean Burns, 2022)
Music composition, sound design, audio recording, mixing, mastering, live score
Dorothy Towers is the story of the legendary Clydesdale and Cleveland Towers, two residential blocks in the centre of Birmingham, UK. Completed in 1971 as a social housing development and located adjacent to Birmingham’s Gay Village, the towers’ proximity to the community means they have long been a haven for LGBTQ+ people.
https://seanfrancisburns.com/Dorothy-Towers-1
The 31-minute, 16mm film opens a space to reflect on the complex relationship between architecture, community and memory. It features testimonials from current and past residents and explores ideas of queer kinship and inheritance alongside experiences of HIV in the 1980s and ’90s. Dorothy Towers frames the buildings in a continuum of history that extends back to the city’s postwar redevelopment via its nightclubs and modernist underpasses.
A live score, composed and performed by Sean Burns and Leo Francisco, accompanied the film’s initial screening at Vivid Projects, Birmingham, alongside a new installation produced by local practice Intervention Architecture. Owain Harrison’s accompanying text, A Cornucopia of Experience, merges the factual history of Dorothy Towers – the colloquial name bestowed on the buildings by local LGBTQ+ communities, owing to the number of queer people living there – with a fictional narrative based on first-hand testimonials.
Dorothy Towers first screened at Vivid Projects, Birmingham, in September 2022. It appeared at Auto Italia, London, in June; Edinburgh Art Festival in August; TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway; and the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, Sussex, in November 2023.
Dorothy Towers Playlist was a film series programmed by Sean Burns for the Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham, May 2023, and the film appeared in the BFI Flare, London, programme.
Dorothy Towers was supported by Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
https://seanfrancisburns.com/Dorothy-Towers-1
Website, Press, Radio, Press, Press, Press, Programme, Programme, Press, Programme, Programme, Press, Programme, Programme, Programme
THIS IS NOT AN OFFICE (Robert Fox, 2017)
Music composition, sound design, mixing
Video link: https://youtu.be/kYQkYhZiVW4
Jimmy Edgar – Dreams Come True (Robert Fox, 2016)
Sound design, mixing
Video link: https://youtu.be/WZi4XyyF7g0
Locoemotive Lounge (Robert Fox, 2016)
Music composition, sound design, audio recording, mixing, mastering
You can contact me via email to hire me for any of the following roles. I have over 15 years of experience in music production and can help deliver a project that is both slick and innovative. I never make anything boring!
DJing
I am currently playing under the name DJ Superstar DJ and I am party of the collectives Selextorhood, Energy Flow and Saffron. I have played at Supernomal festival, Come Bye festival, Basket of Light festival, National Theatre, Fierce Festival, SHOUT festival, 2022 Commonwealth Games, WORM (Rotterdam), MONO (Glasgow) and what feels like a million other parties over the years.
Live Performance
I am an expert at bringing electronic and live instruments together in a performance setting. I can create performance systems based around Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, Native Instruments Maschine and analogue hardware. I’ve used technologies such as Ableton Link and MIDI to keep everything in sync.
Production/Songwriting
I have produced music for a variety of artists in numerous styles. My main focus is electronic genres such as house, techno and hip hop. I am interested in the intersection between underground music and the pop mainstream and can help you take your sound to the next level.