ATI 2005 day 1

Day 1 of the Apple Teacher Institute 2005.

This is my third attendance at the ATI having been in 2003 & 4. It is a four day residential course/workshop/seminar on digital media and the curriculum.

The teaching for day 1 begins after lunch with the usual preliminaries and then a keynote lecture by Neil Brand an actor and film composer.

We were taken on a journey through film and sound examining the relationship between score and visuals and prompting us to think about how sound can be used to reinforce the visuals or to run counter to the visuals (Vertigo, Mississippi Burning, an early film about four people in a Berlin Park). Neil used film to demonstrate the points he was making asking us to work through the "spotting" process. At various points he would stop the film and ask us what we though the film or music were trying to convey and what we thought would happen next.

We examined the titles for "Speed"; Neil showed us how, although the titles (descending through a lift shaft) had little to do with the overall film the soundtrack subconsciously took us through the entirety of the film somewhat like and overture.

In the case of "Vertigo" when Jimmy Stuart was following the wife, the score was constructed to allay our sense of foreboding so that we felt the same sense of shock and surprise as Jimmy Stuart when the wife throws herself into the river.

The penultimate piece was purely an exercise in spotting - could we see the important scenes and pivotal moments in a few minutes of footage. What messages did the visuals convey and how did they maintain our interest?

The final piece looked at how music can be used to soften the impact of violence or disturbing scenes. In "Mississippi Burning" Alan Parker uses music over the scene of the black church-goers being beaten by the Klan members to initially soften the impact of the images. The soundtrack is at odds with the images and it isn't until the music stops dead that the whole horror of the scene rushes in at us.

Neil asked us to watch for this "trick" - in the hands of a director of Alan Parker's integrity it is a powerful storytelling tool, but it could also be used by a more unscrupulous director to manipulate the audience. An interesting observation was how much music is being used in news programmes...

The remainder of the day was spent learning to use Garageband and Soundtrack to create music for film. The session was organised as a seminar/workshop. It began with a taught session that covered the mechanics of the software. We were then left to work individually or in groups to create a soundtrack for a pre-recorded piece of footage with support from the tutor. This gave us time to reflect upon the task and produce a creative piece of work using the available tools.

We also had chance to discuss with others and to learn from each other. Much of the learning that went on was peer based with those with more experience of the software enabling others to achieve the results that they wanted.

The day culminated in the evening with a showcase of the students work for the day. Which gave everyone the chance to see their own work and to evaluate it in the context of others work. This evaluation session is a key factor in creative endeavours - not only is it the pay off for the hours of hard, sometimes frustrating, work, but it is also a learning opportunity. How did others approach the task? What did I do that was good? What was not as good? How would I do things differently next time? What have I learned? It really is a reflective process and fits very well with models of learning such as Kolb.