Client: Music Generation Summer 2021
In April 2021, still in lockdown, I was approached by the music education charity Music Generation about devising a digital campaign to show how the organisation had kept music alive for children and young people during a difficult time.
The resulting campaign was launched in May, called Playing Through The Pandemic.
While video was a natural choice for telling such a story, Covid-19 restrictions were in force, so all video content had to be produced remotely, without shooting new footage.
Taking inspiration from Reeling in the Years, the Playing Through the Pandemic main video was a compilation of over a hundred videos produced by Music Generations hubs all over Ireland. From many, many hours of footage, I shaped a story in the edit that showed how children, young people, and music teachers faced the pandemic with resilience and creativity, all with the help of Music Generation staff and teachers.
Of course the music was essential to telling this story, so the soundtrack for the video was comprised of five original songs composed by children and young people since March 2020, remixed to tell the story of the past year.
The final video, presented as a tribute and thank you to all involved with Music Generation over the past 15 months, earned over 9,000 views on social media, with hundreds of shares and retweets.
The second video produced as part of the campaign focused on one teenager’s experience of the pandemic. By retelling a recent song-writing workshop, 16 year-old Isobel explained how music, and Music Generation, helped her cope through lockdowns.
Several other short videos were produced for social media. These were used to spotlight different Music Generation programmes and hubs, by allowing children and young people to share what Music Generation meant to them.