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Earlier this month, Futureworks held our second Women in the Creative Industries event in celebration of International Women’s day 2023.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we invited a group of students from Parrenthorn High School to spend a day with us, exploring the creative industries. They took part in workshops focusing on animation, games and audio.
Starting off the day, the students were tasked with creating a concept for a new children’s animation, including characters, setting, narratives, and even the theme tune. In two small groups they came up with some really cool ideas, which they then presented to each other.
They also explored the basics of games design, planning a level based on or for their favourite game. Next, they were guided through the storyboarding process, sound-tracking and were advised on accessible elements to include (subtitles, text to speech etc.).
We then moved into the world of post-production sound. The students were shown just how important post-production is when it comes to creating a scene, especially when filming conditions aren’t ideal. They were then given a brief and asked to create a short audio design.
The brief: “A girl is walking home in the dark through the city. She’s got her headphones in and music playing but she feels like there’s something not right. She stops the music as she’s approaching an underpass. There’s something up ahead… and it’s feasting.”
Three volunteers then entered our Foley studio, where they got to work creating the sound for the scene. This included footsteps, heavy breathing, and ‘feasting’ sounds created by using everyday groceries like celery, peanuts and oranges. They were peeled, shredded and twisted into a microphone to create the sound of the monster our character had come across. It was such a fun session and the end result was brilliant. The design the pupils created will be edited and sent to them so they have a copy for themselves.
The day was a great success! We had some lovely feedback from the students too.
“All the activities made the learning fun”, “I enjoyed the range of activities and that everyone was able to get involved” and importantly “it gives pupils choices on what the future could be” – which is exactly what we’re aiming for with this event.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day was #EmbraceEquity.
“Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #EmbraceEquity.”
This year’s theme really resonates with us and the goal of our Women in the Creative Industries event. Unfortunately, the creative industries are quite male-dominated, so it’s important to us at Futureworks that we counter that fact by continuously pushing for more equality within the industry.
One way in which we try to do this is by hosting events like Women in the Creative Industries. The goal is to show that creative careers are open to everybody, that they’re a viable option for young women to pursue and be very successful.
The sessions were very lively and fun, allowing for a lot of creativity and learning.
We had a fantastic day! We hope that the students came away feeling inspired and proud of the new skills they’d been able to learn and put into practice.
