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As a provider of educational opportunities
for students, The Pacific Northwest Film Scoring
Program does not offer services for professional
productions, filmmakers or composers. Student musicians
who perform on the scores do so for the educational
experience of working in a recording studio environment. |
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Beijing Film Academy
CULTURAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM |
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The Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program
is pleased to announce a new pilot program of cultural exchange
with The Beijing Film Academy, the leading institute of film
studies in the People’s Republic of China.
According to the founder of the Seattle-based program, two
time Emmy Award winning composer / arranger / conductor Hummie
Mann, students in The Beijing Film Academy are being invited
to submit their films to the program in the United States,
where student composers under Mann’s tutelage will compose
and record the original musical scores to accompany them.
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Under Mann’s leadership, the primary emphasis of
The Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program has been to teach
both theory and methods for writing dramatic music for motion
pictures, television programs, and other video productions
to those interested in learning the art of film scoring.
A secondary result of the program, however, has been to provide
up-and-coming filmmakers with the invaluable experience of
seeing original scores written to support and enhance their
work. These scores represent the student composers’
final projects in the last of the film scoring program’s
three courses. |
Hummie Mann, right, addresses students
at the Beijing Film Academy with the help of a translator. |
Up until now, however, all the student film
submissions have come from institutions in the United States.
The idea for this cooperative program with China occurred
to Mann in 2001 during his first cultural exchange visit to
the People’s Republic, after he and five other American
artists were invited by the China Workers' Center for International
Exchange (CWCIE) in Beijing. As a member of that delegation,
Mann recognized that young filmmakers in China, as well as
the students in his program, would benefit from the opportunity
to work with each other and that through the use of the internet,
it would be possible to have dialogues with young filmmakers
thousands of miles away.
In China, the educational opportunities for film composers
are much more limited than in the United States, and it hoped
that this new program will provide a unique collaborative
experience to both young Chinese filmmakers and American composers.
At the same time, film scoring students in the United States
will stretch their creative and cultural limits, as some films
may require them to investigate musical styles they might
not otherwise have encountered. Not all the student films
from China will require scores featuring traditional Chinese
instruments, Mann points out, but some scores may be incomplete
without them.
The program will provide a number of other challenges for
Mann and his film scoring students, such as having to determine
the best style of music for films with Chinese dialogue but
no accompanying English subtitles, but Mann isn’t worried
about that. “Many films can tell a story even if you
do not understand the language. We are also working out logistics
to have translators available to help as needed.”
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Hummie Mann, standing second from right,
with Beijing Film Academy students and faculty, and other
delegation members.
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Asked if other cultural exchanges are in store
for The Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program, Mann could
only speculate.
“Until last year, all our students were local, from
the Seattle area. But since the creation of the web site to
support the program, we’ve received inquiries from potential
students around the world – Brazil and Israel, for example."
"They’re interested in coming to Seattle for a
year, just to go through the program. I can only imagine where
it might go from there.” |
In September of 2002, Mann lead a second delegation to China,
where they visited, in addition to The Beijing Film Academy,
additional locations in Tianjin, Xi’an, Suzhou, Zhouzhuang
and Shanghai. He spoke as a guest lecturer at The Shanghai
Conservatory of Music, The Beijing Film Academy, The Central
Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and The Xi'an Conservatory
of Music. In addition, he met with Directors and Producers
whle touring the Beijing and Xi'an Film Studios.
The Beijing Film Academy, founded in 1950, has fostered over
4,000 film professionals, including renowned directors Chen
Kaige (Farewell My Concubine, Temptress Moon, The Emperor
and the Assassin) and Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern,
The Story of Qiu Ju, Not One Less). More information about
The Beijing Film Academy is available on its web site at http://www.bfa.edu.cn.
Founded in 1997, The Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program
provides training to composers, music composition students,
and others interested in the art of modern film composition.
Prospective film scoring students and student filmmakers can
learn more about The Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program
on its web site at http://www.pnwfilmmusic.com,
or by contacting program director Hummie
Mann by e-mail.
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