Sound and Vision: BIMM Institute X UCA
We’re delighted to announce a new collaboration between UCA and BIMM Institute, seeing the worlds of film and music come together to create something spectacular. These real-world experiences give our students the chance to collaborate creatively on exciting projects in other areas of the creative industries, establishing important connections and developing their talent.
We constantly work directly with the creative industries to further each one of our students’ employability. We collaborate with the creative industries through hosting WRKiT: our online careers event that provides final year and alumni students with tangible prospects and options.
Earlier this year, we hosted our third WRKiT. The event included the Talent Match ‘Sound & Sync’ talk with guest Dean Humphreys: a re-recording mixer, sound designer, sound editor, and company owner for over 230 movies. Dean came to us to connect film and music students from UCA and BIMM Institute for one-of-a-kind collaborations.
BIMM Talent Match X UCA
BIMM Talent Match, our in-house job matching service, hosted a Zoom networking event with over 100 students from BIMM and UCA. They came together to pitch their ideas for films, scores and to state which director and composer partnerships they felt most closely matched their vision. As a result, 11 short films were matched with eight different composers from BIMM Institute London, Brighton and Dublin – with plans afoot for many more to come.
“It’s been so rewarding to see the professionalism and enthusiasm of students from both UCA and BIMM.”
– Mel Thornton, BIMM Institute’s Head of Careers and Employability
Mel Thornton, Head of Careers and Employability, said: “Dean Humphreys extended the invitation to our students to ‘write a score that will both support and enhance the emotional narrative’ and I’m delighted that so many of our students and alumni chose to take on this exciting challenge.
“It’s been so rewarding to see the professionalism and enthusiasm of students from both UCA and BIMM. They’ve clearly all loved the experience. There is so much potential here for many more collaborations, and I look forward to seeing the finished films”.
Dean Humphreys added: “The 11 UCA directors are delighted at the positive impact the score has had for their films and how collaborative and adaptable the BIMM composers have been”.
The BIMM composers have received glowing reviews from the UCA Directors. Finn Mulford, Director of Hikikomori, said: “Working with Tommy Dowse, our composer from BIMM Institute, was a hugely enjoyable collaborative experience. The score he provided us not only suited but elevated the finished work.”
Love-Pit Potion by Matias Raassina and David Hamilton
One example of these unique collaborations is Love-Pit Potion, a film directed by UCA’s Matias Raassina with David Hamilton from BIMM Institute Dublin as composer. Take a look at a snippet of their finished creation below:
We spoke to Matias and David to find out more about their collaboration.
“Working with David was a real creative pleasure, in all senses”, says Matias. “Alongside his musical talents, he’s open to honest and direct feedback. In some cases, David was eager to challenge my feedback and ideas, which is an important trait in working towards a common goal.”
Matias added that he’s keen to collaborate with the composer more in the future: “I’m eager to work with David again and have full confidence that he’s able to deliver, despite how far genres and ideas are stretched.”
“Working with Matias was a very creative and enjoyable experience.”
– David Hamilton, BIMM Institute Dublin.
The feeling is also mutual from David, who says he found working with Matias “a very creative and enjoyable experience.” Like Matias, David also appreciated the way they worked together and established a working relationship: “Matias knew a lot about how music can really influence and accentuate a scene. I particularly liked that Matias was open to challenge and critique sketches and demos that I sent him, which I thought was quite a refreshing trait.
“I would highly recommend working with Matias in any creative collaboration, and I hope to work with him again in the future.”
We can’t wait to see the finished productions and look forward to future UCA collaborations. You can discover more about our incredible career and employability opportunities at BIMM or go more in-depth about how we work directly with the creative industries.