I
have just embarked on an exciting run of workshops with Beat ThisCiC, running from January to April of 2012.
Beat
This (CIC) have been running a project called “iCreate” which has
taken groups of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and given them
a ten week project where they will create visual and audio content
with the aim of producing either a final recorded piece or a live
performance, (or both!). It's all about process and connecting
different artistic disciplines. So using photography, video clips and
artwork to be used later in VJ'ing alongside a finished recording or
performance. The groups have been developing their own pieces as
individuals and engaging in group decision making, combining their
output in the final instance as a collaborative piece.
 |
| one of the images produced by the students using NuVJ equipment, |
I
will be presenting the groups with the VJ'ing element of their
projects.
By
the time I come in they will have worked with other Beat This
practioners and developed and created some artwork, some video clips
and be close to finishing their music track.
Then
we will load all this up into the awesome machine known as “NuVJ”,
more on that another time.
Despite
having done hundreds of workshops, and having also perfomed live
visuals of one kind or another at hundreds of events, I have only
done one VJ workshop before, so these sessions have been a wonderful
learning experience for me too.
My
first sessions were at A.C.E. The Alternative Curriculum Education
centre, this is a place where pupils who have been excluded, or
partially excluded from secondary schools in Peterborough, go to
finish their education.
The
original idea was to develop all the elements to put on a final
performance, however with the group at ACE it was clear that this was
not the direction that they wanted to go, so after the first session
we decided to flip it to making a Music Video, which left us 4 hours
to produce a music video with them. Their experience of education and
adults was such that it was a struggle to get the students to engage
or be enthusiastic, but the idea of a video that could go up on
YouTube seemed to be something that grabbed their attention, so music
video it was.
They were a little bit shocked when we explained how
much a music video would cost to produce, at least the glossy chart
ones, and how much time and the number of people that would be involved in the
production. With our four hours of production time it was going to be
interesting to say the least! However, we would be using the NuVJ to generate imagery,
and we had already shot quite a number of videos previously when my
brother did a grafitti session with them, using fat chalk pens to tag
perspex and film this. So we had some pretty cool footage to work
with.
The
video is all but finished, and is now in what is known as
Post-Production, i.e. me, finishing the audio layer, and compressing
and saving ready to publish. Otherwise they managed to get something
finished, just about, in the timeframe.
I
have only worked at two of the schools in this project so far, so lots more sessions
still to do which is very exciting!
Watch
out for the final video and updates on more adventures with Beat This
CiC!
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