"Pietro is an excellent choice and an important partner for a complex project."
Marco Martini
Director & Producer
Claudio Re
Claudio Re
Claudio Re è un cortometraggio diretto da Marco Martini, ispirato ad Amleto e incentrato sul crollo psicologico di Re Claudio dopo aver commesso un omicidio per assicurarsi il trono.
La colonna sonora usa un linguaggio orchestrale ibrido e scuro, fondendo orchestrazione tradizionale e strumenti antichi per creare un'atmosfera tesa e senza tempo.
Composizione e mix, volutamente scuro e contenuto, sono stati pensati per valorizzare il bianco e nero del film, rafforzando il senso di colpa e la paranoia di Claudio e amplificando la paura di essere a sua volta ucciso. La musica agisce come una pressione interna, esponendo la frattura tra autorità pubblica e collasso interiore.
Claudio Re is a short film directed by Marco Martini, inspired by Hamlet and centered on the psychological unraveling of King Claudius after committing murder to secure his throne.
The score employs a dark hybrid orchestral language, blending traditional orchestration with ancient instruments to create a tense, timeless atmosphere.
Both composition and dark, restrained mix were shaped to emphasize the film's black-and-white imagery, reinforcing Claudius' guilt and paranoia and amplifying his fear of being killed in turn. The music acts as an internal pressure, exposing the fracture between his public authority and inner collapse.
Soundtrack
The Storm
My Crown, My Ambition, My Queen
What If A Man Can't Regret
The Spectre
King's Lament
My Sin Is Rotten
Case studies
Opening Titles, Glass Resonance and the Storm Theme (Main Titles)
Opening Titles, Glass Resonance and the Storm Theme (Main Titles)
Goal
Set the film's moral and political fracture from the first frame: a world that looks stable but vibrates with guilt and paranoia. Establish the storm theme as the engine of consequence, and frame Claudio as a man with real guilt but no repentance.
Result
The titles land with immediate tension and inevitability. The glass-like resonance reads as a crack in the world, and the storm theme feels like an advancing force rather than decorative atmosphere.
Final choice
B
Music in/out
00:00Opening titles begin. The bowed-glass resonance hits only on the title reveal.
01:12After a brief strings-and-brass crescendo, the storm theme detonates.
01:48End of opening titles cue.
Options tested
- A: Orchestra-only. Too period, lacked psychological edge.
- B: Modern orchestra + synth pressure with bowed-glass resonance, then storm theme introduced as a slow advance.
- C: Heavier synth dominance. Felt less cinematic and reduced the tragic weight.
My Sin is Rotten, The Crown Trap (Dialogue)
My Sin is Rotten, The Crown Trap (Dialogue)
Goal
Support Claudio's confession without granting him redemption. Keep the dialogue pristine while making the rottenness feel physical and inescapable: real guilt, no repentance.
Result
The monologue lands as self-awareness trapped in denial. The cue reads as inner corrosion rather than sadness.
Final choice
B
Options tested
- A: Only synth ambience. Too flat, lacked character identity.
- B: Piano motif + dark ambient contamination, then D minor theme reveal with historical colour and rotten brass tail.
- C: More orchestral emotion. Felt sympathetic and reduced the rot.
My Crown, My Ambition, My Queen, The Crown Trap (Dialogue)
My Crown, My Ambition, My Queen, The Crown Trap (Dialogue)
Goal
Support Claudio's confession without granting him redemption. Keep the noble veneer while corruption stays underneath.
Result
On the words 'my queen' the orchestration blooms: full orchestra, ancient instruments remain, deeper synth bed. The cue then undercuts that grandeur with dissonant chords and rotten brass.
Final choice
B
Options tested
- A: Only synth ambience. Too flat, lacked character identity.
- B: Piano motif + dark ambient contamination, then D minor theme reveal with historical colour (viola da gamba, monochord, hurdy gurdy) and rotten brass tail.
- C: More orchestral emotion. Felt sympathetic and reduced the rot.
No Shuffling Up There, The Spectre Wins (Vision Fight)
No Shuffling Up There, The Spectre Wins (Vision Fight)
Goal
Turn Claudio's guilt into a physical event: anxiety, fear, loss of control. Make the defeat inevitable.
Result
The kick becomes a heartbeat. It accelerates with anxiety and fear, then slows to a precise stop on the stab. The defeat reads as collapse.
Final choice
C
Options tested
- A: Dissonant braams only, no kick.
- B: Kick at a constant tempo, no slowdown and no stop.
- C: Braams plus benders plus a kick that accelerates, then slows to a stop on the stab.
What If A Man Can't Regret, The Prayer That Fails (Dialogue)
What If A Man Can't Regret, The Prayer That Fails (Dialogue)
Goal
Make repentance feel like an impossible invocation. Make judgment inevitable and fate perceptible in strikes, without catharsis.
Result
Judgment starts distant, then closes in and becomes internal. String ostinato as a prison. Ascending dissonant trombones as escalation without salvation. Hits as fate advancing.
Final choice
C
Options tested
- A: Distant drone + hit, no theme.
- B: String ostinato + ascending trombones, no theme.
- C: Drone + ostinato + trombones + theme entrance on sparse sampled violins + hit.