Curso Internacional Orff Schulwerk São Paolo 8-12 Janeiro 2018
Presentación de Lunes: Ejemplos de cine
Out of Movies, Music!
- Movement Accompaniment
- Elemental Composition: Moving pictures can suggest Rhythm, Pitch, Timbre, Dynamic, Tempo, Form
- Timbre as career: The Foley Artist
Project: Lumiere and Company
Watch 50 second silent film made on the Lumiere camera* Create soundtrack for film.
*Lumiere and Company Sarah Moon (and various directors) Wellspring Video 1995. CDU 122836
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fomzTv49c0
is one example (below) or look for "Lumiere and Company"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fomzTv49c0
is one example (below) or look for "Lumiere and Company"
One variation of this exercise is to limit the soundtrack to vocal sounds. For this, a great inspiration is the British Honda Choir ad below:
These days, the early films of the Lumiere Brothers and George Melies are all easily available on YouTube. The one below is famous for having caused a panic in the theater as 19th century viewers were convinced that the train was really coming at them.
Project: Flip Books at an Exhibition
- Small group each choose a flip book*
- Create performance (with movement, drama) inspired by book
- Create, perform and record composition inspired by movement performance (and featuring some melodic element of "Promenade Theme")
- Take digital pictures of each page of flip book, then put into iMovie for editing and synching with sound recording
* I look for flipbooks at all museum gift shops and I now have a collection of almost 100 of them! One very nice series is from the French graphic artist Jean Vincent Senac (http://jeanvincentsenac.com/) and you can order them online. Another US manufacturer is Fliptomania (fliptomania.com)
Trick Video: Playing with Time and Space
- Fast and Slow
- Forwards and Backwards
- Playing with Space: Green Screen (see Ecce Gratum Greenscreen above)
References: My initial inspiration for trick video work came from a practical idea book, referenced below
Tricky Video: The Complete Guide to Movie Making Magic (Klutz publications) IBSN: 159174623X
Screenplay for a Fast/Slow Film:
Post production: speed up the film so that the lento movers look normal speed. Now the andante walkers are super presto!
Workshop participants: If you would like to see the video we made of this, please send me a request at jharding@sfschool.org and I'll make the film available to you- James
- Group of people mill around in the space, moving continuously but andante
- Two soloists enter the frame moving super lento towards each other, embrace, and then go off the frame together
Post production: speed up the film so that the lento movers look normal speed. Now the andante walkers are super presto!
Workshop participants: If you would like to see the video we made of this, please send me a request at jharding@sfschool.org and I'll make the film available to you- James
Screenplay for a Forwards/Backwards Film:
Post-production: Reverse the footage, either in editing software (like iMovie) or using an app, like REVERSE
Workshop participants: If you would like to see and download the backwards videos we made, please send me a request at jharding@sfschool.org and I'll make the films available to you- James
- Actor walks on frame backwards, holding bouquet of mallets
- Actor looks at mallets and smiles with satisfaction
- Actor takes one mallet, looks at it with wonder, then tosses it to the ground, leaving hand extended for a moment.
- Actor repeats step 4 with all mallets in turn
- Actor looks at mess on the floor with disgust.
- Actor walks off the frame backwards.
Post-production: Reverse the footage, either in editing software (like iMovie) or using an app, like REVERSE
Workshop participants: If you would like to see and download the backwards videos we made, please send me a request at jharding@sfschool.org and I'll make the films available to you- James
Artistic example of Backwards Film effect: South African artist William Kentridge
Out of Music, Movies!
- Making less elemental music more elemental
- Deep understanding of form
- Involving the visual intelligence of children
Animation accompanying composition projects
Full Fathom Five: This was a composition and animation project with 8th Graders. Students composed a melody and setting for the Shakespeare song "Full Fathom Five" from "The Tempest." Other children animated images of faces transforming into sea creatures. Medium: Dry-Erase marker on white board. Technique: using document projector on faces of students, sketching them with dry-erase on the white board, then animating from there.
Stravinsky Petrouchka: Sofia arranged the famous theme from Petrouchka for Orff-Ensemble. Students composed modal episodes in class. Students animated episodes using a magnetic figure- both a recognizable "Rondo Theme" movement sequence and then episodes with figure dressed up
Movies accompanying musical arrangements of composed pieces from classical repertoire
Animation with Shadow
Music: Manuel de Falla "Ritual Fire Dance" from El Amor Brujo (arrangement by James Harding).
This film was created in two steps. Animation of fire backgrounds was done using colored paper and transparencies on a light-board. These backgrounds were projected onto a shadow screen, and students danced in front of the shadow backgrounds.
The performance was done with students playing live accompanied by the projection. Performed at the American Orff Schulwerk Association National Conference in San Diego California, Fall 2015.
This film was created in two steps. Animation of fire backgrounds was done using colored paper and transparencies on a light-board. These backgrounds were projected onto a shadow screen, and students danced in front of the shadow backgrounds.
The performance was done with students playing live accompanied by the projection. Performed at the American Orff Schulwerk Association National Conference in San Diego California, Fall 2015.