A former globally renowned thrash metal performer and music writer/producer/manager, now Coleg Llandrillo music technology tutor has wound back the clock showing off his talents at a recent international film music competition.

Ffranc Williams, who is based at the college’s Denbigh campus, attained a top 30 place out of 222 international film composers at the Oticons International Film Music competition.

Composers from all over the world were eligible to participate in the competition which is run by Oticons - a long established film music composers’ agency with a multinational pool of internationally acclaimed film scoring artists.

Ffranc said: “I was delighted to come in the top 30 out of hundreds of the world’s top film score composers. We all had to compose, from briefs to tight parameters, using specific instruments, work from scripts and orchestrate scores.

"I got some incredible guidance and feedback and learned a great deal.”

The composers had three assignments to fulfil: assignment one required the participants to compose a great melody, one that a filmmaker would consider a main theme.

The second task was to compose epic, powerful, grandiose, heroic music, without the use of any percussions, brass, woodwinds or choir, but only with strings.

The final assignment centred around the composition of the original score of a script's key scene from a real in-development feature film production.

After meeting several renowned composers at the competition, Williams is now in contact with Paul Farrer (‘Weakest Link’ television music writer), due to their shared views on both education and the music industry.

As a writer/producer/manager, he has had a pop/dance single peak at number 17 in the American billboard charts.

Williams has worked at the Hit Factory in London, had deals with Warner, BMG/Sony, Strictly Rhythm and EMI and has had several music publishing deals in Europe.

He has mixed tracks for dance legends Fragma, Charlotte Church, Kelly Lorenna (N-Trance), and has been promoted through the biggest club network in Europe alongside Kosheen and Ian Van Dahl.

Previously, as a performer and writer, he toured the UK in the 1990s, playing with thrash metal bands such as Agnostic Front, Napalm Death, Xentrix and Fear Factory.