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Imogen's LetterPosted: 10th August, 2010 Hello you! As some of you know already, I’m doing a big gig at the Royal Albert Hall this November 5th. When I was a kid I dreamed of premiering my first orchestral score there and this year I am going to make it happen. The ‘opening act’ will be yours truly, conducting a piece I’ll have written with a dream team orchestra of friends and fans (will tell you about that later), accompanying a nature film projected on a screen, which hopefully you are going to inspire and bring to life! The footage will all come from you and we will piece it all together into a magical film. The concert will be recorded and then I will mix the results in to make an official recorded soundtrack for the film. Why a nature film? When I was invited to visit Tanzania a few years back by Leander Ward when he was filming his flamingo film The Crimson Wing, a huge positive shift took hold of me. In stopping to watch and listen to nature at work, rest and play, I felt truly connected and in the moment for the first time I can remember and I’m forever grateful for the experience. Here I am there in a little short clip filmed by Leander accompanied by my piece ‘cumulus’. So, to make this all happen I’ve partnered with sustainability entrepreneur and creative director, Thomas Ermacora. We’re putting together a team to edit your footage to 5 movements I’ll be composing for the film. Amounting to half an hour hopefully. So… what’s around you? We want to see it. Get your cameras out! Perhaps you have clips already sitting on your hard drive that are beautiful but are just gathering digital dust, or maybe film gathering a layer of the real stuff in the attic. They need a home too! It could be a sunrise from your bedroom window, underwater deep sea diving, a flower in a pavement crack, mist over mountains, reeds in rivers, a rare wild cat, rolling desert dunes, the northern lights, a sycamore seed helicoptering down or a cotton wool cloud. We want everyone to explore the colours, lights, shades, rhythms and patterns of nature. Moments that fill us with wonder. No pets or people please!!! This is about what goes on around us, regardless. I’ll be sending in a few too and have already started to look around and film clips. So please send in your captured gems and show me along with the rest of us humans why you love this earth we are so fortunate to enjoy. As you send them in, I’m going to be watching and composing, while the editing team will be reviewing, assembling and making the most of your footage they can. I want the audience to walk out during the interval literally bursting with a fresh love and empathy for our planet. The plan is then for our film to tour the globe virtually and physically. In cinemas and homes, on laptops and phones, for everyone to enjoy. We need all the footage in by Midnight EST on September 26th that is to be included in the Royal Albert Hall performance. The Royal Albert Hall event will be streamed so everyone gets to see the film and hear the live orchestral score at the same time on the 5th November. We’ll credit everyone who’s footage we use of course. Beyond that, we’re going to keep the project open for people to upload more footage for a hopeful commercial release later on in the year. If the film does get released commercially, for every second of footage we use of yours, you’ll get £15 plus an invitation to a private screening with the official recorded soundtrack at an event we’ll host most likely start of the new year. Important! Whatever material you send in to us needs to be your own and you have to happy with giving it to us so we can share it with the world. We don’t want any nasty surprises at the last minute! To get started we have created YouTube and Vimeo groups for you to post your footage, but we will need you to upload your footage to another destination later one, should we want to use your material, so make sure your YouTube/Vimeo account email notifications are turned on! It goes without saying but please send in as high a quality footage as possible and between 5-60 seconds per clip. 720p HD footage would be best and if you have good lenses its always best for nature footage. Plus, as I have discovered, footage shot without my tripod is very shaky, so please use tripods when possible! Please check back for info as we’ll be updating the new page with progress. S’gonna be great! Now I’d better get on with writing the score! Immi xxx |
