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photo of Miguel Mera

Professor Miguel Mera

Vice-President (Research)

President's Office

Contact details

Address

Professor Miguel Mera A102 , College Building [A]
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

Personal links

About

Overview

Professor Miguel Mera is a composer of music for the moving image and a musicologist exploring the theory and practice of screen music and sound.

Miguel is widely published in music and moving image studies and his work includes three books, numerous refereed journal articles, chapters, conference proceedings, and other papers. He is the author of Mychael Danna's The Ice Storm (Scarecrow Press, 2007) and co-editor of European Film Music (Ashgate, 2006) and The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound (2017).

His composition work has been screened at film festivals and cinemas around the world. The film Little Ashes won the Schermi d’Amore Rose - Audience Prize for best film at the Verona Film Festival. Broken was a finalist in the Kodak Awards and won the Golden Camera Award at the Nashik International Film Festival, India. What Does Your Daddy Do? was nominated for a British Independent Film Award. Moth won the Best Film Award at the Splash Film Festival. Television composition projects include dramas and documentaries for BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, Discovery and History Channels, and Idents for Nickelodeon. The documentary Auschwitz: the Forgotten Evidence was shortlisted for a BAFTA and nominated for an Indie Award. Ian Hislop's Scouting For Boys - a documentary about Robert Baden-Powell and the history of the Scout movement - was shortlisted for a prestigious Grierson award.

Miguel serves on the editorial board of The Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, The Soundtrack, Music and the Moving Image, and The Journal of Film Music. He is a full voting member of BAFTA and a member of the AHRC peer-review college. He was a member of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) panel in 2014 and is a panellist for Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies in REF2021.

Research

Research interests

Composition for the moving image; Film, television and video game sound; Contemporary instrumental, electronic and digital music; Popular music; Collaborative processes in music creation.

Publications

Featured publications

  1. Mera, M., Sadoff, R. and Winters, B. (2017). The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-85534-2.

Publications by category

Books (2)

  • Mera, M. (2007). Mychael Danna's The Ice Storm. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Pr. ISBN 978-0-8108-5941-8.
  • Mera, M. and Burnand, D. (2006). European film music. Ashgate Pub Co. ISBN 978-0-7546-3659-5.

Chapters (20)

  • Mera, M. (2023). The Audiovisual Architecture of Musical Pauses, Punchlines, and Jablines: Paddington’s Punctuation. The Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-031-33421-4.
  • Mera, M. (2021). Listening-feeling-becoming: Cinema surveillance. The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening (pp. 407–426). ISBN 978-0-19-085361-7.
  • Mera, M. (2020). Music Maketh Man: Meritocracy in Kingsman: The Secret Service. In Peddie, I. (Ed.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music and Social Class (pp. 543–563). New York: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-5013-4536-4.
  • Sadoff, R. and Mera, M. (2017). Shaping the soundtrack? Hollywood preview audiences. The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound (pp. 291–304). ISBN 978-1-138-85534-2.
  • Mera, M., Sadoff, R. and Winters, B. (2017). Introduction: Framing screen music and sound. The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound (pp. 1–13). ISBN 978-1-138-85534-2.
  • Kassabian, A., Boschi, E., Buhler, J., Gorbman, C., Mera, M., Moseley, R. … Winters, B. (2017). Roundtable: Current perspectives on music, sound, and narrative in screen media. The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound (pp. 108–124). ISBN 978-1-138-85534-2.
  • Mera, M. (2016). Interview 2: Reality and Representation—An Interview with Dario Marianelli. The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media (pp. 139–150). Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-137-51679-4.
  • Mera, M. (2016). Materialising Film Music. In Cooke, M. and Ford, F. (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Film Music (pp. 157–172). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-09451-2.
  • (2016). Reinventing Question Time. In The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology (pp. 77–102). Routledge.
  • Mera, M. (2016). Towards 3-D sound: Spatial presence and the space vacuum. The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media: Integrated Soundtracks (pp. 91–111). ISBN 978-1-137-51679-4.
  • In Greene, L. and Kulezic-Wilson, D. (Eds.), (2016). The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media. In Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-137-51679-4.
  • Mera, M. (2015). Agitprop Rap? "Ill Manors" and the Impotent Indifference of Social Protest. In Miller, T. (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Global Popular Culture (pp. 268–281). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-64147-0.
  • Mera, M. (2013). Inglo(u)rious Basterdization: Tarantino and the War Movie Mashup. In Vernallis, C., Herzog,, A. and Richardson, J. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media (pp. 437–461). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-975764-0.
  • Mera, M. (2010). Reinventing question time. The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology (pp. 59–83). ISBN 978-0-7546-6476-5.
  • Mera, M. (2009). Reinventing Question Time. In Scott, D.B. (Ed.), The Ashgate research companion to popular musicology (pp. 59–83). Aldershot: Ashgate Pub Co. ISBN 978-0-7546-6476-5.
  • Mera, M. (2008). Scoring Moth: Beyond the Temp Track. In Cooper, D., Fox, C. and Sapiro, I. (Eds.), Cinemusic? (pp. 33–50). ISBN 978-1-84718-593-8.
  • Mera, M. (2005). ‘reap just what you sow’: Trainspotting’s perfect day. Pop Fiction: The Song in Cinema (pp. 85–98). ISBN 978-1-84150-078-2.
  • Mera, M. (2005). Reap Just What You Sow: Trainspotting's Perfect Day. In Lannin, S. and Caley, M. (Eds.), Pop fiction (pp. 86–97). Intellect Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84150-078-2.
  • In Mera, M., Sadoff, R. and Winters, B. (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound. In Routledge.
  • Mera, M. Listening–Feeling–Becoming. The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening (p. 426). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-085361-7.

Compositions (48)

  • Mera, M., Mathez, B. and Thatcher, T, (2015). Morriña. (Online Audiovisual Work)
  • Mera, M., Mathez, B. and Thatcher, T. (2014). Morriña. (Live Audiovisual Dance)
  • Mera, M. (2011). Children of 9/11. (Film Score)
  • Mera, M. (2011). Children of 9/11. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2010). It's a Serendipitous Thing. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2010). It's a Serendipitous Thing. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2010). Sense Less. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2010). Sense Less. (Film Score)
  • Mera, M. (2009). Holler. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2009). Little Ashes. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2009). Holler. (Film Score)
  • Mera, M. (2009). Little Ashes. (Film Score)
  • Mera, M. (2009). The Satanic Verses Affair. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2009). The Satanic Verses Affair. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2008). Bucco Blanco. (Film Score)
  • Mera, M. (2008). Bucco Blanco. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2007). Ian Hislop's 'Scouting For Boys'. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2007). Broken. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2007). Broken. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2007). Ian Hislop's 'Scouting For Boys'. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2006). Trent 2 Rent. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2006). What Does Your Daddy Do? (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2006). Chrysalis. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2006). Horizon: Waiting for a Heartbeat. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2006). Chrysalis. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2006). Horizon: Waiting for a Heartbeat. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2006). Trent 2 Rent. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2006). What Does Your Daddy Do? (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2005). Moth. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2005). Moth. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2004). Auschwitz: The Forgotten Evidence. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2004). The First World Cup Remembered. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2004). Auschwitz: The Forgotten Evidence. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2004). The First World Cup Remembered. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2003). The Goodbye Plane. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2003). The Goodbye Plane. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2002). Yellow Bird. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2002). Yellow Bird. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2001). Secrets of the Guillotine. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2001). Secrets of the Guillotine. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2000). The Last Few. (Film Score)
  • Mera, M. (2000). Sweet Smell of Roses. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2000). Sweet Smell of Roses. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (2000). The Last Few. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (1999). Last Best Friend. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (1999). 'Fugee Girl. (Film Score)
  • Mera, M. (1999). 'Fugee Girl. (Film score)
  • Mera, M. (1999). Last Best Friend. (Film score)

Conference papers and proceedings (5)

  • Mera, M. (2014). Outing the Score: Musical Narratives in Little Ashes. Music and the Moving Images 21 May 2014 – 23 Feb 2010, New York University.
  • Mera, M. (2013). Inglo(u)rious Basterdisation: Tarantino and the War Movie Mashup. nternational Institute for Popular Culture, Guest lecture, IIPC Debate Series. 14 November, University of Turku, Finland. Guest lecture, IIPC Debate Series..
  • Mera, M. (2011). Raiders of the Lost Archive. Sound Cases 29 September, British Library..
  • Mera, M. (2010). La banda sonora sale del armario: música, narración y proceso de colaboración en “Sin límites. V Simposio, La Creación Musical and la Banda Sonora 27 Apr 2010 – 29 Apr 2014, University of Salamanca.
  • Mera, M. (2010). Creative Collaboration and Film Composition. Audiovisual Research Conference 25-26 February, University of Helsinki..

Journal articles (18)

Professional activities

Media appearances (5)

  • The Sound of Outer Space - BBC Proms Plus. Broadcast on Radio 3 as part of the BBC Proms, Matthew Sweet talked to composers Anna Meredith and Miguel Mera about the ways in which film composers have met the challenge of capturing the sound of dark matter, comets and distant planets.
  • Music Matters. Radio 3. Discussing the work of legendary film composer Nino Rota
  • Sounds Classical - BBC Radio Ulster. Miguel was a special guest on BBC Radio Ulster's 'Sounds Classical' where he discussed the nominees in the Best Original Score category for the 2010 Academy Awards.
  • Simon May Show - BBC Radio 5 Live. Miguel was a guest on the Simon Mayo show on BBC Radio 5 Live and discussed the use of music in film with composer David Arnold, filmmaker Kenny Glennan and film critic Nigel Floyd.
  • Music Matters - BBC Radio 3. Miguel Mera joined Tom Service for a special edition of Radio 3’s flagship programme Music Matters which examined the hidden world of film music. Together, they explored some of the classic film soundtracks of all time and discussed how music works with image and what makes a truly great score.