Update on The 8th School of Sound - an International Symposium :: April 15 - 18, 2009 :: Southbank Centre, London.

Four days of masterclasses featuring sessions on Film Sound Design, Documentary Sound, Composing & Songwriting, Experimental Productions, Radio and Sound Art, and the Neurology of Hearing. Go to 2009 Symposium for details about speakers and their presentations.

First held in 1998, the School of Sound has become a major forum on the creative use of sound with image, presenting a stimulating and provocative series of master classes by practitioners, artists and academics. Directors, sound designers, composers, editors and theorists working at the highest levels of film, the arts and media show us the soundtrack from unexpected perspectives. They reveal the methods, theories and creative thinking that lie behind the most effective uses of sound and music. If you work in film, television, commercials, radio or multimedia - this event will convince you of the extraordinary potential of the soundtrack.

We have devised a programme that is as useful for the director, screenwriter or artist as it is for the sound designer and composer. Sound in storytelling, sonic environments, human sound perception - the topics range from the practical to the aesthetic to the abstract during these intense four-day meetings.

The April programme highlights the use of sound in documentary, animation and feature productions. It covers both narrative and experimental work, investigating the connections between sound, music and images. But, key to each presentation is an awareness of the subtle process of listening.

In its previous editions, the SOS has attracted delegates from over 25 countries. Join us for our eighth event in 2009. At the SOS you will not learn about hardware or software. But we can introduce you to the ideas of creators working at the cutting edge of sound production and inspire you to say, “I never thought of working that way.”

List of speakers:

CHRIS BRODERICK :Poet, screenwriter, novella writer and vocalist with Medway Delta urban folk band, The Singing Loins

ROGER CRITTENDEN: Drama editor, former Head of the MA programme at the NFTS and author of Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing

DANIEL DESHAYS: Sound Recordist, Sound Director and Music Producer for film, radio, dance and theatre

STEPHEN DEUTSCH:”A (Very) Short History of Music for Filmmakers” - tracing the relationship between music and the audience

MICHAEL GRIGSBY: Documentary Soundtracks with British documentary filmmaker who began with the 1950s Free Cinema movement, continued at Granada TV and continues today (Before the Monsoon, The Time of Our Lives, Rehearsals)

GIDEON KOPPEL: Filmmaker, artist and lecturer whose work spans installation, commercials and documentary (Sleep Furiously)

KIM LONGINOTTO: Documentary filmmaker (Divorce Iranian Style, The Day I Will Never Forget, Sisters In Law)

MIKE FIGGIS: Director, documentarist, experimental filmmaker, installation artist, composer, musician, actor and producer - Figgis’s audacity, flair, and inventiveness remind us just how exciting films can be.

PAT JACKSON: Features Sound Designer (Jarhead, The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley) and Film Editor

STEVE MUNRO: Toronto Sound Designer responsible for sound post on many of the finest Canadian features of the last three decades

TIM GRIFFITHS: Professor of Cognitive Neurology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne - “The Neurology of the Soundtrack”

DAVID McALPINE: Professor of Auditory Neuroscience and Director of the Ear Institute at University
College London, in conversation with PETER HOWELL, sound designer, composer and member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

PIERS PLOWRIGHT: Radio features producer

NITIN SAWHNEY: “Cross-Platform Songwriting, Composition, Performance and Production”

PHIL SOLOMON:Avant-garde filmmaker, video and installation artist

AKIO SUZUKI: The inimitable Japanese sound artist whose performances and installations explore the process of listening; in conversation with musician, writer and sound curator, DAVID TOOP

HILDEGARD WESTERKAMP: Composer, radio artist and sound ecologist

Registrations now being accepted. Limited student places remaining. For information about the programme, fees and registering: www.schoolofsound.co.uk, sos@schoolofsound.co.uk, +44 (0)20 7724 6616.