Published on 06/09/17

By MICHAEL MCCARTHY

 

Embracing Digital with another MTW commission…

Published on 06/09/17

By MICHAEL MCCARTHY

As we rapidly approach our 30th birthday we are finding that new techniques of communication and audience engagement are evolving ever more rapidly. So it is with great excitement that we can now share with you  our new MTW Trailer – not a piece of marketing material for a current or future production, but a brief enticement into the world of Music Theatre Wales. So here it is:

 

The process of making this trailer has been typical of all our work: Creative, Collaborative and Challenging.

The collaboration has been with The Space - an amazing digital organisation founded by the BBC and Arts Council England aimed at enhancing the profile, capacity and innovation of the arts in digital media and building interest among potential audiences.

The creativity started by working with a producer suggested by The Space on the creation of the visual trailer. We aimed to make something that will demonstrate the kind of work we deliver live on stage in a sharp, brief and impactful way. Just think of all those brilliant BBC trailers we see on TV, with the “2” jumping around, and introductions to the coming drama series etc. We started by choosing some of our best production photos on to which Louis Hudson (http://louishudson.co.uk) did some clever After Effects work. The next stage was to work out what music to put with the visuals, and this is where we decided to turn this into a music theatre event by commissioning a composer already known to us, to create a new digital score for the trailer. This was a complicated commission – to make something that didn’t simply illustrate the visuals but responded to them and added to them, demonstrating how music is such a fundamental element in all our work.

The challenge as ever is not only to ourselves but also to you. All our work should be characterised by pushing at boundaries, by exploration and innovation, and motivated by curiosity, and this needs to apply to our new digital identity too.

The score for the MTW trailer has been created by John Hardy. He is a multi-BAFTA Cymru Award winning film and TV composer, Head of Composition and Contemporary Music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, a stage performer in his own right, AND a composer of two operas for MTW: Flowers and The Roswell Incident. Thank you John!