Fabio Magnifico and me were again invited to participate in the International Autumn Academy this year in Oerlinghausen in the position of leaders of the video workshop for one week. We also had a meeting room which suited our needs very well – the chapel.

Poland and Germany became a huge step closer to each other after this week.

This was my third participation in the International Academy in a row. The topic was “Mood Indigo” after the famous jazz song »Mood Indigo« of Duke Ellington. But in our videogroup we had the topic “game over”. The workshop-groups consists of mostly students from poland, austria and germany. For more information about the academy in general and the specific workshops please refer to my former articles about the International Autumn Academy 2005 and International Spring Academy 2006.

Pictures of the production of one of the short movies called »Blind Date«.

This time everything was different in the video workshop. Instead of only one approx. 5 minutes movie we had two short movies and one making of video in the end. What has been also new was the participation of some students from my bachelor studies called »media informatics and design«. This fitted extremely well into the group of mainly students from the »department of fine arts and music« at the university of Bielefeld.

Most parts of the music for the two short movie was done by Felipe Vila São Marcos.

Last but not least we present the the making of Mood Indigo 2006 for everybody to enjoy. The final movies “Blind Date” and “The Last Supper” will be shown at the UniVideoMagazin 2007 on February the 9th at the Ringlokschuppen. I want to add that I am very sorry that I left a day earlier because I got ill. Because of my health condition I forgot to say good bye to all the nice people. I enjoyed my stay with you all and it was great fun. I hope we will meet again in Scheersberg?!

This time I have to write this weblog article in English because I think that some people from the academy may find this text through google and because of that it wouldn’t be a good idea to exclude these people just by sticking to german language. Fabio Magnifico and me in position of his assistant went for one week to the »Internationale Herbstakademie 2005«. It took place in the St. Hedwigshaus in Oerlinghausen/Germany which is being organized by Prof. Dr. Klaus-Ove Kahrmann from the »Kunst und Musik«-department of the University in Bielefeld. Many students from the university of bielefeld, all around germany and poland came there to work together in the workshops.

The presentation of the »wood engraving« workshop.

The task of fabio and me was to give an introduction into producing a digital short movie on a dvd with the correct positioning of light, use of stylistic elements and camera angles and perspectives using dv cameras and the whole adobe suite with Premiere, After Effects, Encore and Photoshop.

I hope everyone learned something from this week – I also did.

But this workshop was only one of many that took place in that week as there were also a ›wood engraving‹, a ›photography‹ and ›experimental sound‹ group. Each group had really interesting and inspiring results. For me this was a completely new application of creative power and especially the experimental sound was something I had never experienced in the past.

The final product including a making of and a dia photoshow of the film shooting.

Beside the really hard work which was necessary to keep track of the time limit of one week it was a wonderfull time I will sure miss. Due to the fact that nearly everyone at the »Kunst und Musik«-department is able to play an instrument like piano or guitar and is able to sing much better than myself we had always some music in the evening. I normally don’t get in touch with live music and so it was marvelous to hear songs like Alan Silvestri’s »Forrest Gump – Feather Theme« which was also used for the Du bist Deutschland-Campaign, »Hit The Road Jack« and many other songs performed by people who are extremely talented singers.

Professionals at work at 3 o’clock at night.

Even the movie we made was entirely produced without using commercial music. All vocals and melodies has been sung by the students and played on a midi-keyboard. That was amazing and totally new way for me to listen to music. And I liked the funny games we played. Special greetings fly out to Don Juan. =)

Fabio con Castore e Polluce

Apart from party in the evening and at night after the job was done I really enjoyed the time there. At first I was a bit afraid because of the language barrier and how different we will try to solve the problems together. I expected a totally different way of thinking – and it was true. But in my opinion it worked like a charm and we can be proud of what we have produced together. I enjoyed every minute of this great time we spend together and I would do it again anytime as soon as possible.

Trailer: Emilia

The food was delicious. I loved the kitchen.

Perhaps we all meet again next time of Mr. Kahrmann and in the end Fabio let me help. I hope to meet you in February in the Ringlokschuppen when the film will shown to a wide audience. Perhaps we have a chance to… Anyway, as I promised I uploaded all the pictures I took to flickr. I someone does not want to appear here please let me know. Till next time. Hope to see you soon.

Something that is different from videogames. =)

And last but not least I would like to thank Christian that he brought along the beer, vine and berentzen with a preparation time of only one hour. We had fun until 4 o’clock in the morning.

Emilia