Full review and feedback from students will follow
Students studying the BTEC National Diploma in Music Technology at Strode College produce a performance each year that challenges their creativity and develops their technical skills in the use of music software and hardware. This year they performed a live soundtrack to a 68 minute silent film.
The project started in February when the film was first introduced to the students. We cut the film into sections and started to allocate these sections to student groups and individuals. The students then created musical ideas through a series of workshops and jam sessions. These sessions soon turned into regular rehearsal sessions where the students set up their equipment in the same way they would need to do so in the theatre orchestra pit. The performance used a combination of composed musical ideas, rough arrangements and group improvisation to the visual images. The students used a wide range of music technology including decks, laptops and samplers
The project was a great success. We created a product that has a wide interest to fans of music, silent film and music technology. We previewed the film at St Dunstans School to around 200 pupils and also screened a short preview on the morning of the show for a group of music pupils from Crispin School. The schools really liked this project as it combined music with film which is something they are studying for GCSE and beginning to develop for the new diplomas
We had great feedback from the audience and spoke to the audience afterwards including someone who had travelled from Bristol to see it and a person who saw the 5.30 and came back for the second screening. I also spoke to someone who was interested to know if we would be performing this at the Glastonbury festival. This may be a possible development in future years.
