Sanctuary, the summer artist residency at Lighthouse Poole, is fuelled by passion and creativity, both of which were in bountiful supply as musicians, actors and video crew from SEND4, the Dorset supported employment and job coaching agency, took over the Sherling Studio for two days as part of its Media Summer Programme.
Having written and recorded a music track they were using their Sanctuary residency to make Practice Makes Puppets, a promotional video featuring a band performance… with puppets!
But the job involved so much more according to SEND4 Media Lead, Joe Dale.
“All these students today, they’ve gone against something that they’ve been told that they can’t do, or they’re told that they’re going to find difficult,” he explained. “I’m opening up a world of media to them and essentially giving them their first job, their first credit on a real-world production.
“The thing is with the industry is that you’re only as good as your last job, so this gives them a credit and is the evidence that they work in the industry, they’ve put what they’ve learned into practice.”
SEND4 works with those who have special educational needs, disabilities, mental health issues and who have experienced long term unemployment to achieve their full potential in the workforce by providing individualised job coaching and support services.
For the young people Joe works with that could be demonstrating to them a range of jobs such as a foley artist, or sound effects artist, or a props master, someone that makes all the things on set, that they may not have heard about. Jobs for which passion, enthusiasm and creativity hold greater currency than formal qualifications.
“All this wonderful stuff, these are jobs that are never explained to young people, ever. Weirdly, some of my own neuro-spicy, as we like to call it, actually helps me with my job. It’s a calling that means that I get to not feel bad about the thing that most people felt held back by.”
Joe, who has directed the video, ran a successful multimedia studio in Bournemouth making corporate videos before selling up to SEND4 and joining their team in January. He’s now passing on his considerable knowledge and expertise to the next generation of media professionals.
“They planned each visual, they planned how each puppet would interact with each musician, and they made the track themselves, so the ownership is absolute. The video is being made to proper industry standards with a schedule, budget, a breakdown of how everything’s going to roll out. How’s the camera kit getting there, how are the musicians getting there, how are we looking after our talent? All these different things that you have to think about in this media spectrum, but it’s never explained to you that it’s a job role that you could do.
“A couple of the guys are great producers – and they didn’t even know what a producer does until they started doing it. SEND4 will promote this as if it was a job done for a client and the young people I’m working with will be able to add this to their CVs.
“The puppeteers have learned the real stuff of why they come away sweaty and in pain – it’s hard work. One told me they’ll never look at a puppet show the same again!”
Without the provision of Sanctuary at Lighthouse, the project would have been quite different.
“I was looking at hiring a nightclub, but it would have changed what we were able to do, and it would have changed the narrative. Lighthouse immediately recognised the SEND element and offered to accommodate and support our project – nobody else said that; so, I’m very happy in terms of marketing Lighthouse as a supporter of the SEND community.”
(NC)
Photos courtesy of SEND4
