What Media Skills Have Headlands Students Been Learning for Musicport 2010 Media Coverage?

[Mike Leigh Cooper]

The media skills that Headlands students have been considering with Mike Leigh Cooper, who has been their media trainer this year are:

• Camera usage: tripod, surface, sound levels, brightness, colour
  
• Camera techniques: perspective, angles, building a sequences
  
• Interview techniques: where, what, why, how, who?
  
• Editing: shot lists, paper edits, using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, exporting for the web

The above short set of skills were discussed at the start of our first of two media days where the students referenced learning materials from their media trainer before getting stuck in with newly bought media equipment at Headlands School.
The group was split up into 4, each with their own camera and tripod, and each group was given 45 minutes to produce their own take on interviews about "What is Musicport". Each group mixed up the following roles, and then had to find a designated editor who had 60 minutes to edit the piece:

• Director
  
• Camera operator
• Interviewer
• Interviewee

An example of a groups edit is here:

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So What Now?

The purpose of the first test interviews was to establish a team, and test the limitations of the camera, the editing software and provide the teams with a realistic understanding of what they may or may not be able to achieve on Friday the 22nd October when they will be interviewing and filming participants of the NCEM / Music4u workshops with SAMAY, as well as gathering footage of the Musicport festival itself.


For a taste of the Musicport festival, watch the following video.