Practitioner brief: Film Editor for schools project

We are seeking a film editor to create four short films aimed at students aged 11-14 who are studying the British Empire and/or the 1947 Partition of India.

Background

We’re part of the British Library’s exciting national project Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH).

This project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, will save and make available to the public almost half a million rare and unique recordings that are threatened by physical degradation or stored on formats that can no longer be accessed.

To accomplish this huge task, 10 sound preservation centres have been set up across the UK. Each centre will digitise and catalogue sound collections from their region. Bristol Archives is home to the centre for South West England, and a dedicated team is working on the preservation of 5,000 recordings from across our region.

Alongside the preservation and digitisation project, our Formal Learning team is running a programme for local teachers and students. There are two strands to this: one for primary schools and one for secondary schools.

The secondary school strand will engage 11-14 year old students with sound recordings relating to the 1947 Partition of India. Originally we planned to deliver in-person workshops to teachers and students on-site at Bristol Archives. However, due to COVID-19 we now intend to create an online resource using the same material.

Related schools offer and practitioner brief

We are seeking a film editor to help create four short films of approximately 8-10 minutes each. These will use selected sound clips, commentary provided by a journalist with expertise in the history of Indian Partition, some short video clips and still images of and from Bristol Archives, music, and some short animation elements. These will be provided by us.

The films will provide an engaging visual for 11-14 years olds. We expect the work will take place and be complete by the end of January 2021. The final films must be in a compatible format for YouTube and Vimeo.

We are looking to recruit an editor with experience of working with this kind of material (sound clips, footage, animation, etc) to produce films for young people. We particularly welcome expressions of interest from people in the early stages of their career and of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage or background.

Key outputs

• Four engaging short films (approximately 8-10 minutes each) that can be shared on digital platforms. These will be designed specifically for students aged 11-14 who are studying the British Empire and/or the 1947 Partition of India.
• The film should be edited in such a way as to take into account the nature of Indian Partition and the resonance it still has for many people living today.
• The visual elements should hold the viewer’s interest, while not eclipsing the audio content.

Timeline

The timeline for this project is as follows:

• 27 November: applications close
• w/c 30 November: all applicants contacted
• Early December: all key milestones and initial outline agreed
• Early December: editor provided with raw material (journalist narrative, sound clips etc)
• Mid-January: deadline for first edit
• Late January: final edit delivered

Important information

• As we are aiming to support local creative professionals this commission is only open to people living within the West of England Combined Authority (Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset).
• The fee for this commission is £2,500 (inclusive of VAT) to be paid in two instalments (one of 20% at the outset of the project, and 80% upon completion of the project). The fee includes an initial planning meeting, reasonable travel and expenses, and one round of edits. In the event that a further edit is required, an additional fee of £150 will be made for each additional round of edits required.
• Copyright and licensing will be agreed by both parties in a formal agreement.

Submission

Please submit an expression of interest to Lucy Fulton – [email protected] – by Friday 27 November. Your submission should include:

• An introduction to you, including: name, postcode, preferred pronoun and how you heard about this opportunity (up to 200 words)
• A short statement (maximum 200 words) outlining your suitability for this work, including any knowledge of, or interest in, Indian Partition, and why you would like to undertake this project
• Up to three examples of previous work
• A completed equality and diversity form

__

Unlocking Our Sound Heritage is a national project led by the British Library and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Find out more about the project.