This month, the first academic year of the International Master in Composition for Screen (InMICS) will officially commence. This brand-new international master’s degree is dedicated to students wishing to work as composers for audiovisual media and will also include a challenging training programme: the InMICS Composers Lab, developed with the support of the Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union. This in-depth training programme will consist of several masterclasses, workshops and networking opportunities, taking place at Film Fest Gent, Festival International du Film d’Aubagne and the Krakow Film Music Festival.
The idea for the creation of the InMICS Composers Lab grew out of a previous collaboration between four higher educational institutions: Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon (France); School of Arts (Ghent, Belgium); Conservatorio di Musica Giovanni Battista Martini (Bologna, Italy); Faculté de musique de l’Université de Montréal (Canada) and several professional partners who successfully created the InMICS Master’s programme, starting in September 2018. Throughout this previous partnership, all partners involved identified and analysed specific challenges and needs for young screen composers and observed that artistic excellence is not sufficient to forge an international career as composer for audio-visual projects working at an international level.
In order to fully respond to the challenges that the new generation of screen composers will face, the festival partners decided to back the academic InMICS master’s programme with the InMICS Composers Lab, an intensive series of masterclasses, workshops and training sessions, given by internationally acclaimed professionals.
The InMICS Composers Lab programme is built around 5 main topics, handled and recurring at the three festivals (Film Fest Gent, Festival International du Film d’Aubagne & the Krakow Film Music Festival) throughout the two-year master’s programme:
- First steps into the industry
- Artistic collaboration between composers, director, sound designer and editor
- Recording music for audio-visual projects
- Innovation: composing for new visual media and/or how new technologies (can) influence your composition
- The Industry today
Next to learning about these topics, students will participate in several networking opportunities with different cultural actors within the film (music) industry: from emerging to established composers, filmmakers and producers, agents, publicists, orchestrators and many more. This way the InMICS students will start building their network as early onwards as possible.
The intensive InMICS Composers Lab will be launched during the upcoming 45th edition of Film Fest Gent (9-19 Oct 2018). Over the course of five days, students will attend an entire series of events, from short film screenings to matchmaking sessions with filmmakers, attending the Film Fest Gent film music concerts and even a live film music scoring session at Galaxy Studios in Mol.
Following three events are also open to the public:
On 16 October, the Film Music & Sound Seminar, taking place at Vooruit, focuses on the artistic collaboration between filmmaker, composer and sound designer. Both known for their collaboration with the Coen Brothers, worldwide acclaimed composer Carter Burwell and Oscar-winning sound designer Skip Lievsay (‘Gravity’) will discuss the important relationship between music and sound design during the filmmaking process.
The WSAwards Industry Day, organised on 17 October, is a platform where both young and experienced international film (music) professionals can meet to discuss projects, debate, or learn more about a wide range of industry topics such as:
– a panel discussion about ‘The Reality of Rejected Scores’
– a showcase by Spitfire Audio
– a panel on ‘The Craft of Music Supervision‘ in association with the UK & European Guild of Music Supervisors with music supervisors Amelia Hartley(Peaky Blinders & Black Mirror), Catherine Grieves(You Were Never Really Here; London Spy; Les Misérables) and Lucy Bright (Assassin’s Creed; Marjorie Prime), moderated by Air Edel‘s Maggie Rodford
– a masterclass on ‘Scoring for New (interactive) Media’ (with amongst others video game composers Joe Henson & Alexis Smith (Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey) and Brian D’Oliveira (Far Cry Primal & Shadow of the Tomb Raider) moderated by François-Xavier Dupas from the Montreal University
– an overview of all professions within the ‘scoring-for-screen’ industry presented by Lucy Bright publisher at Music Sales‘
– an introduction to ‘Immersive Sound’ by Rudy Van Duppen, CEO at Auro Technologies
– a masterclass on PR & publicity by Chandler Poling from White Bear PR
– a masterclass on orchestration and ‘how to create your personal sound ID’ by composer Florencia di Concilio
– a panel on the ‘work flow’ between filmmaker, composer and editor with Alain Dessauvage (editor Girl & Bullhead) and others, moderated by composer Christian Henson
The project will be concluded on 18 October with a masterclass on Sound Supervision, led by Val Kuklowsky, known for Independence Day and hit success Game of Thrones. Val Kuklowsky will discuss differences in workflow between American and European sound teams and will highlight the Oscar-winning Hungarian film Son of Saul by László Nemesas one of the most groundbreaking European productions in the field of sound.
For more information:
www.inmics.org
www.filmfestival.be/music
www.worldsoundtrackawards.com
