Thursday 11 June 2009

Download recording / MP3 of the performance

The live performances were recorded by Dave Perry http://www.daveperryaudio.com/

The audio is now avaliable as one big long MP3 album on the Lastfm website

http://www.last.fm/label/StrodeCollege

Contact me if you have trouble finding or downloading this MP3 file

Review of the show - 10th June 2009

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.

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Videos of Sound Checks - St Dunstans



SOUND CHECKS - poor sound quality due to my camera -
St Dunstans School - Glastonbury - drama studio - Wednesday June 3rd - 1.30pm
Performance of the first 15 minutes of the silent film/music project

St Dunstans School - Preview Performance















Students studying the BTEC National Diploma in Music Technology at Strode College produce a large scale performance each year that challenges their creativity and develops their technical skills in the use of music software and hardware. This year they are performing a live soundtrack to a 68 minute silent film.


As part of the preparation for the Strode Theatre screenings on the 10th of June, we have organised some previews of the show at St Dunstans and another one for Crispin School pupils.

This performance at St Dunstans School gave our students an opportunity to try out the first 15 minutes of their performance in front of an audience.
A large audience in fact, probably around 200 pupils packed into the drama studio to watch. John, Shane, David, Adam, Pete and Ralph used a range of equipment including laptop computers, sound systems, samplers and record decks. Ralph Clarke-Norman was a particular hit with the pupils and gave a short demonstration of DJ techniques before the performance. John improvised some very nice vocals lines but we did miss our singers Tegan Viner and Millie Ayton.
The vocal loops and vocal effects through the Koass Pad sounded great and David handled the Sound System mix very well. This was a very professional performance by our students. Attendance by pupils was excellent and feedback from staff was very positive. A number of pupils asked questions and came to the front to take leaflets and talk to our students.