Delivered by Lisa Bannon
In 2023, we are supporting Lisa Bannon’s “Silent Movies” project through our Connecting People and Places Fund’s Collaborative Commissions 2023, co-funded by City of London as part of our Foundations Programme.
“Silent Movies” project will facilitate three Year 6 classes from Marion Richardson and Mowlem Primary Schools to create silent movies.
These commissions will unlock further understanding on how creativity can be used to deliver arts, education, employment programming that provides creative learning opportunities, employment and leadership roles, training and fusion skills development.
They also share a commitment to developing equity in their project’s design and delivery, supporting underrepresented people’s ideas and visibility.
The silent movie project is an opportunity for pupils from diverse and marginalised backgrounds to gain insight into the creative process and experience a wide variety of roles in making short silent films.
Three Year 6 classes (90 pupils) from Marion Richardson and Molwem primary schools in Tower Hamlets will watch a variety of silent movies, learning about the history of the genre and will anlayse how music motifs and ‘spotting effects’ are used to form character traits, create humour and add meaning to silent images.
Pupils will learn in small groups to co-create their own stories, storyboarding, 1-minute silent films, to be re-enacted by their peers, filmed on ipads, and accompanied by a soundtrack devised by their team mates on garageband and iMovie.
Students will be able to make connections to local history, learning about Charlie Chaplin who performed in the Paragon theatre now the Genesis cinema where pupils’ films will be screened to a community audience.
The Covid pandemic has had a detrimental effect on pupils learning, behaviour and wellbeing. The silent movie project has been designed to promote and strengthen social skills, working in small groups where every child will have a role, learning how to problem solve collectively, collaborate, be respectful, innovate and work as a team. The project will highlight the importance of honing these ‘soft skills’ to meet the challenges of the changing world of work.
Although pupils in Year 6 are still young at 11 years of age, the project aims to inspire and motivate children to continue creating more stories, to feel more confident to experiment with their own ideas to create new content for themselves. To understand that there is a myriad of possibilities of careers in the creative industry and that life skills are key to realising their goals and ambitions.
For more information, contact lisamaygravelle@hotmail.com.