DMEX Cross-media Exchange for North West Freelancers

I’m very pleased to announce I am working on a new project with The White Room, a progressive new creative and digital consultancy based in Manchester where we’ll be giving 20 North West TV and media freelancers a unique opportunity to work on a paid 20 day work placement, workshop and mentoring programme to help them working in digital production and cross-platform environments.  Exciting stuff – the North West are definitely ahead of the pack here in skills for the digital age.  Here’s the blurb:

The White Room have been commissioned by Northwest Vision & Media to run a cross-media exchange programme, commencing in October 2008. This is your chance to get involved.

Northwest Vision & Media, the regional screen agency, are committed to developing the skills of its digital and creative workforce to compete in the increasingly digital media age where cross-platform and 360 degree commissioning, digital marketing strategies and online video are blurring the lines between the skills needed to produce ‘old’ and ‘new’ media.

DMeX Cross Sector Exchange is a new pilot programme, which will lead the North West in a pioneering approach to work placement training, linking the wisdom and skills of traditional media producers and placing them in digital production environments, with the opportunity to get paid to work on live briefs for cutting edge projects, along with high level master classes and mentoring from leading digital industry pioneers.

If you’re intrigued by Twitter, Linked In with many social networks and have heard about and now want to experience Second Life, commercial blogging, vlogging, virals, digital distribution and production skills – DMeX will help you with the knowledge and real-world experience to go digital.

This programme is designed for broadcast or film media production professionals (TV, radio, film or corporate video) with at least 3 years production experience and the equivalent job title of assistant producer or producer, assistant director, script writer/editor, vision mixers, animators, camera or crew.

The programme takes place from November 2008 to March 2009 in a flexible delivery period, in response to opportunities to deliver live client projects and allowing for a range of types of learning to fit in around your other work commitments.

We are recruiting 20 media professionals for this pilot programme.  They will undertake a paid (BECTU and PACT equivalent rates for a 37.5 hour week) placement within companies whose core business is producing digital content. The White Room are currently recruiting for this project which runs from November 08 to March 09.

If you are interested in getting a placement, please call or email Susi O’Neill on 07981 222799 or send your C.V and covering letter to susi@thewhiteroomcec.com to register your interest.

For further information on the programme, email dmex@visionandmedia.co.uk

What do I get?

• A training diagnostic planning session to identify your development needs in working in digital environments Opportunity to learn skills vital to producing media in digital age
• A paid 4 week work placement at a NW digital business working on a live brief.
• Individual training and development plan.
• Attendance at 3 master class seminars with leading digital industry pioneers to offer handson experience and Q&A on topics including Digital Commissioning, Pitching, IP and Collaboration.
• Access to an individual mentor with senior experience in digital environments.
• Access to the on-line DMeX learning resource Access to all training and resources with encouragement and support to record your placement and training through blogging and video diaries.
• Opportunity to participate in a virtual worlds collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University MA Creative Writing tutors to produce a digital short with Moviestorm or in Second Life.
• Become part of a network of Freelancers and leading Digital Companies in the NW The support of dedicated programme co-ordinators to ensure you have ongoing benefits from the programme.

How do I get it?

Call me – Susi O’Neill on 07981 222799 or send your C.V and covering letter to susi@thewhiteroomcec.com to register your interest.

About Northwest Vision and Media

Northwest Vision and Media works on behalf of the TV, film, radio, digital and games industries in the North-west to grow a world-class media economy within the region. We provide strategic leadership, help to build businesses, develop skills and talent, encourage and invest in production and inspire audiences. Find out more at www.visionandmedia.co.uk
Northwest Vision and Media is funded by the UK Film Council, the Northwest Regional Development Agency,
European Funds, Skillset, local, city and council authorities across the region.

Appearance with Jean-Jacques Perrey at AV Festival, Gateshead, 1st March

Here’s a bit of background on an event relating to what I could laughingly describe as one of my hobbies – making electronic music and radio and audio production. (But let’s be realistic here, as a creative independent, how much of your life is really hobby time? Do you count hobby as the bit you don’t get paid for, or even don’t strife for the same standards or dedication as professional work? That’s a bigger discussion!)

I’m very excited to be heading off on Saturday 1st March to the AV Festival in Gateshead (that’s Newcastle to the rest of the world), an international audio-visual art fest, to a day called Radiophonia, exploring the history of the genre made famous by the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Delia Derbyshire, Dr Who etc).

As well as a rare talk by Workshop Chief Dick Mills, my good friend and mentor Jean-Jacques Perrey will be giving an illustrated lecture, and no doubt telling many amazing stories of his invention of sampling (two decades before the sampler!) using tape-splicing technique adopted from musique concrete, and his friendship with Savador Dali, Walt Disney, Serge Gainsbourg, Edith Piaf, Jean Cocteau and many more!

To top it off, Jean-Jacques will perform with his American collaborator on current recordings, Dana Countryman, in an evening show, supported by two old familiar names from my Brummie days, Broadcast (DJ set) and Brian Duffy, a NESTA fellow of Modified Toy Orchestra fame.

And if that wasn’t enough to be my gig of the year – I have the great pleasure to be introducing Jean-Jacques’s afternoon lecture! It really is a huge honour for me. I first became aware of Jean-Jacques’s crazy, happy electronic music in 1998 while I was writing my university music dissertation ‘Space Age Music And The Moog‘, which looked at the history of electronic music in relation to Bob Moog and Jean-Jacques Perrey, and how analogue synthesis and lounge music had been reinvented by modern generation, including the Birmingham Lofi scene (Pram, Plone, Broadcast). In fact, this may be the first time Broadcast and Jean-Jacques have come together since my naive academic scribblings!

Then, I didn’t even know Jean-Jacques was alive as he was living in relative obscurity in France in the 1990s. I knew Bob Moog was around, but it wasn’t until years later in 2004 when myself and Bruce Woolley produced the Switched On Radio series for London’s Resonance FM that everything came full circle.

The series, celebrating the 125th anniversary of electricity, explored the history of electronic music and two of the shows we produced were in conversation with Jean-Jacques Perrey and in conversation with Bob Moog.

I made an epic trip to Switzerland one icy January in 2004 to record a six hour interview with Jean-Jacques. He is one of the most generous, insightful and genius people I have ever known. Not only did Jean-Jacques, along with Gershon Kingsley, have a heavy hand in transforming the sounds and production methods of popular music in the 1960s and 70s, but his humour and wisdom, from theories of embedding sounds of dolphins as a cure for insomnia, and creating ‘happy crazy loops’ of sound to bring a spirit of happiness into the world (we need it now more than ever), to countless amazing anecdotes incorporating some of the most important creative figures of the 20th century. Check out the interview.

I was almost as enamoured with my two meetings with Bob Moog in 2004 (read my short tribute to Bob Moog). Who would have know when we did the show about him in 2004 that this would be one of the last substantial audio inteviews of his life. I’m revisiting the inteview today as part of an academic piece I’m doing (the original tape was lost for some time, I’m going to make the full interview transcript available online very shortly – watch this space). It’s amazing also the insight and clarity Bob had of his legacy and the humility with which he viewed his place in musical history. At the end of the interview I ask if he has plans to retire. He says: “I haven’t thought that far ahead”. 15 months later, he died from a brain tumour.

They say never meet your idols, for you are sure to be disappointed. I disagree. Sure, I’ve met many idols (mainly from my teens) who have in later real life disappointed, but as an artist, or as a creative business, you need to be nourished and encouragement throughout your life in order to carry on. It’s so sad that Moog was almost bankrupt in the 80s, and Jean-Jacques was virtually ignored on return to his native France. Now they have reinvented their music and instruments with new, younger audiences. It’s so important to tell people to carry on, and what you like about what they do. Also as an artist, you need to have a mentor and feel a connection with historic legacy and to learn from the triumphs and failures of those before you. I’m so priviledged to have had, and to still have, two of the greatest 20th century musical figures as my real-life mentors and inspiration.

Hope some of you can make it on Saturday. If you’re there, come and say Hi.