Charlie Flint is a true maestro. His musicality is second to none, and the extraordinary breadth of his cinematic knowledge shines through in every composition. His passion for film scoring is unmistakable, bringing depth, emotion and a genuine sense of storytelling to everything he writes. Charlie doesn't just compose music for film; he understands the very soul of cinema.
Ealing Studios, London
An understated confidence, an instinctive creativity, and a rare understanding of both story and emotion.
I think it’s well established that most directors like to work to a temp track when creating a film, and that rarely can you budget for the music you’ve fallen in love with along the way.
I, on the other hand, had an entire theme in my mind. But it wasn’t somebody else’s music; it was a style, a rhythm, a romance in the chord progressions, performed on ivory. And it was something I wasn’t prepared to compromise on.
The closest reference points were perhaps Chopin or Thomas Newman (certainly, that was the brief I was forced to write when asked to provide examples of similar styles). But this wasn’t about imitation or plagiarism. Quite the opposite. I was looking for something completely organic, full of love, loss and emotion. And I wanted 90% of the score to be performed as solo piano.
Finding the right composer and performer was therefore a simple yes-or-no decision. There were no maybes. They either had it or they didn’t.
The answer was Charlie Flint.
There’s something about Charlie you’ll love when you work with him. An understated confidence, an instinctive creativity, and a rare understanding of both story and emotion. He writes as elegantly from a script or synopsis as he does from a single scene.
For The (First) Last Screenplay, we blended different approaches to the scoring process. Charlie pitched ideas early on, taking my brief and amplifying it tenfold. We then worked more closely to picture, particularly on the darker, more sinister textures of organic strings and pads. Finally, he went away and wrote what I can only describe as the film’s musical signature: a set of four beautiful solo classical piano pieces that somehow captured the essence of the entire film.
When he sent me his voice note (he loves a voice note), it came with the usual: “Mate, any changes, let me know.”
I simply replied, “None. It’s perfect.”
Charlie has exceptional talent, but you don’t need me to tell you that. You can hear it in the way he plays.
