Recent video for shot for WEMA (West of England Music Alliance) promoting their music therapy and wellbeing sessions in Somerset and South Gloucester.
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I’d only heard about music therapy in passing before we decided to produce a video for WEMA (West of England Music Education).
I pulled up to Wickselm Learning Centre amid ferocious rain on one November Tuesday morning. A large stately home restored into a Children’s Learning Centre in South Gloucester. The centre offers alternative learning experiences for children outside of mainstream education.
On meeting Heather Walters, the music therapist, I saw the natural light through tall bay windows and ample space was perfect for a minimal shoot – an A-cam on sticks and B-cam on a gimbal, with zero lighting kit to keep my presence unobtrusive. Low light sensitivity on a the Sony cameras a life saver for high frame rate shooting.
The session itself was raw and reactive. Heather the music therapist attempted to communicate to Lottie through music where words would otherwise fail. Finding a connection through call and response of sounds. On the cello, piano, steel thumb drum. There was no emphasis on technical proficiency in the session. But on an abstract dialogue where tensions and trauma try be assuaged.
We hope the video can be a chance to inform and encourage more people to try and feel the benefits of music therapy. Along with helping it to be adopted in more mainstream settings. 🎶