Music and movies, a unique collaboration

Music and movies, a unique collaboration for Whitireia students with the New Zealand Film Archive

During October and November, second year Bachelor of Applied Arts (Music) students of Whitireia Community Polytechnic will perform their original score to a seventy minute collection of New Zealand silent films from the 1920’s. Their soundtracks will accompany the collection on an extensive tour of New Zealand and, possibly, abroad.

This opportunity arises from a unique and recent partnership with the New Zealand Film Archive that will see active collaboration on a number of projects. Whitireia students will produce music for multimedia projects, with Film Archive staff providing film editing and stakeholder consultation at a non-commercial rate. The recorded soundtracks will be lodged with the Film Archive.

Underlying the collaboration is the concept of ‘live cinema’, where students create music for string quartet and their own instrument of choice to perform with a film. Students have had experience already in composing and performing live music for film using The Science of Sleep (a film by quirky French director Michel Gondry), which screened at Whitireia in August. The live music/film combination proved extremely popular and additional performances were held to satisfy the overwhelming public demand for more.

For this particular collection, students will write scores to accompany four films: Three Attempts to Get to Lake Sumner, Bottled Health, Hapuka Fishing, and Mutton-Birding. A fifth score is for the centrepiece, a 1927 film fragment called The Romance of Hinemoa.

Students will perform their work in the Film Archive’s Cinemarette on the corner of Ghuznee and Taranaki streets in Wellington City. Performances are scheduled for Friday 31 October at 7 pm (black tie); Saturday 01 November at 5 pm (invited friends and whânau); and Saturday 01 November at 7:30 pm (public screening as part of the Archive’s public programme).

Proud Supporters of the NZ delegation to the 10th Festival of Pacific Art, 2008. www.whitireia.ac.nz

Music and movies, a unique collaboration for Whitireia students with the New Zealand Film Archive

During October and November, second year Bachelor of Applied Arts (Music) students of Whitireia Community Polytechnic will perform their original score to a seventy minute collection of New Zealand silent films from the 1920’s. Their soundtracks will accompany the collection on an extensive tour of New Zealand and, possibly, abroad.

This opportunity arises from a unique and recent partnership with the New Zealand Film Archive that will see active collaboration on a number of projects. Whitireia students will produce music for multimedia projects, with Film Archive staff providing film editing and stakeholder consultation at a non-commercial rate. The recorded soundtracks will be lodged with the Film Archive.

Underlying the collaboration is the concept of ‘live cinema’, where students create music for string quartet and their own instrument of choice to perform with a film. Students have had experience already in composing and performing live music for film using The Science of Sleep (a film by quirky French director Michel Gondry), which screened at Whitireia in August. The live music/film combination proved extremely popular and additional performances were held to satisfy the overwhelming public demand for more.

For this particular collection, students will write scores to accompany four films: Three Attempts to Get to Lake Sumner, Bottled Health, Hapuka Fishing, and Mutton-Birding. A fifth score is for the centrepiece, a 1927 film fragment called The Romance of Hinemoa.

Students will perform their work in the Film Archive’s Cinemarette on the corner of Ghuznee and Taranaki streets in Wellington City. Performances are scheduled for Friday 31 October at 7 pm (black tie); Saturday 01 November at 5 pm (invited friends and whânau); and Saturday 01 November at 7:30 pm (public screening as part of the Archive’s public programme).

ENDS

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