International Creative Soundtrack Studies : partenariat stratégique pour le développement d’un programme conjoint européen pour la composition de musique pour l’audiovisuel Erasmus Project

Project Title

International Creative Soundtrack Studies : partenariat stratégique pour le développement d’un programme conjoint européen pour la composition de musique pour l’audiovisuel

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

ICSS (International Creative Soundtrack Studies) is a strategic partnership with the aim to develop an international programme in music composition for the audio-visual named InMICS (International Master in Composition for Screen).
The partnership is composed of 4 higher artistic education institutions with a great expertise in teaching music composition for the audio-visual and of 4 professional partners active in the fields of cinema and audio-visual arts and showing a particular interest in musical creation: Lyon CNSMD, coordinator, and Aubagne International Film Festival (France), KASK & Conservatorium/School of Arts Gent and Film Fest Gent (Belgium), Conservatorio di Musica G.B. Martini and Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna (Italy), Faculty of Music/University of Montreal and Permission Inc specialised in copyright clearance. (Canada).
In addition to the development of the curriculum, a study was written and published. It consisted of a mapping process to provide an overview of curricula dedicated to composition for screen offered in Europe and North America. The analysis was based on identifying the existing of those curricula with the institutions specialised in audiovisual studies. Another objective was to determine current characteristics of the professional sector in terms of artistic, technological and economical aspects linked to music creation for screen.
This study relied on the feedback of various representatives of the sector: teachers and students in composition for screen, sound design and audiovisual studies, and professionals involved in the large range of the audiovisual production area. Partners developed questionnaires and did a series of interviews.This study has been very useful to the partnership as it gave precise keys of understanding on the challenges and needs of the professional area in order to build a curriculum which corresponds to the sector specificities.
The innovative aspect of ICSS is both powered by objectives and its structure relying on a right balance between the involvement of academic institutions and professional structures, profiting from the participation of KASK & Conservatorium/School of Arts Gent, educating both musicians and filmmakers and the association of 2 North American partners bringing their enriching expertise and their specific network to the project.
The InMICS curriculum, ready to be integrated to an international academic offer, is unique in its field since it concentrates its training on the pooling of expertise and specific teaching methods of the 4 educational partners, on the cooperation between composers and audiovisual artists and on the immersion of students within an international network of professionals. InMICS brings together the academic and the professional world in order to enhance the employment opportunities of its graduate students.
The singularity and innovative peculiarity of this educational offer lies in the very specific structure of the curriculum awarded by a double diploma. According to his/her profile and background and his/her professional project, each student will be take part in an individualised two-year programme, taking advantage of a double specialisation in two different institutions but also of courses delivered simultaneously to the entire group of students by the 4 institutions through e-learning courses or visio-conference.
The quality of the international programme InMICS relies on the expertise of the partnership members and on the leading international figures of field that have been associated to the project. The diversity the stakeholders, their expertise, their background, their activity and their skills enlarged the perspectives in terms of geographical coverage, aesthetics and working habits. During the 3 years of this cooperation, the partnership conceived pedagogical and artistic pilot activities, supervised by professional experts, in order to experiment pedagogical contents and methods and to precisely and knowingly confirm choices and decisions taken during the development of the InMICS programme.
The communication and dissemination activities have been key aspects of the process. The partnership has promoted the work done and hopes that it will launch new initiatives via the use of dedicated tools: website, Facebook page, newsletters, flyers, banners and videos. On top of that, partner festivals, known for their large audience and international dimension, participated in the large outreach of the dissemination events: a large panel of students, teachers and professionals, in order to recruit the best possible candidates at an international level and to exchange good practices.
One coupled and sustainable effect of the activities and results of the project is to strengthen the cooperation between the academic and the professional fields, the promotion of this specific sector of the artistic creation, still under-represented in the academic area, and the incentive to create new pedagogical offers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 446850,4 Eur

Project Coordinator

Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon & Country: FR

Project Partners

• HOGESCHOOL GENT
• Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna
• Conservatorio di Musica G.B.Martini
• INSTITUT LUMIERE
• Services de libération de droits d’auteur Permission Inc.
• INTERNATIONAAL FILMFESTIVAL VAN VLAANDEREN VZW
• ALCIME ASSOCIATION