A Multi-Media Summer

Bethany Stenning, 4th Year BA Music (with Year Abroad) student reports on her varied summer activities.

During the summer I was asked to fly out to Dublin to take part in a short film. I was living in Dublin for the second half of my year abroad (I spent the first half in Paris), and whilst I was there I performed frequently at various pubs/cafes etc. During The Circle Sessions open mic, I met a filmography student who took my details and said he would potentially be in contact with me in the future for an opportunity. He emailed me during the summer and 4 days later I flew out to take part in his film!

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Arriving in Dublin. Have guitar, will travel…

The film is still in production so there is no video to share yet, but the film takes place in an open mic/pub gig setting so there are many different artists performing – who in essence tell the story on the behalf of the characters who rarely talk. The concept of the music/comedian/poets telling the story of two people was a really interesting concept and puts a nice twist on the relationship between music and films. The music is the story, instead of being an accompaniment or an accentuation of emotion. It was a fun project to be a part of and I look forward to the finished result! 

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Body painting for “Tin Foil Men” video

For the majority of this summer I have been working in Cornwall, whilst working on my second album which will be out in the next few months. I worked on a few videos for the album, and one can be seen here for one of the tracks on the album called ‘Tin Foil Men’.

I also worked at Glastonbury at the start of summer. I paint the bins and murals for the festival with an art team – I have attached an example of a Van Gogh Bin I painted this year for the festival. The music was epic this year with James Blake, Sigur Ros, and loads of mad bands!

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Glastonbury bin painting

Bethany.