ABOUT

The millennium year 2000 provided Ken with the opportunity to manage a young people’s participation project in five international locations on the 0 degrees meridian. Making Music on the Line. Part of the job was to document the year of activity with video and he learned how to use a HD video camera throughout that year. Furthermore, with budgets tight he learned how to edit the footage to create an educational resource.

In the following 20 years he has developed his skills, and created a number of films and ‘pop’ videos.

Also, in collaboration with Théâtre sans Frontières and Amber Films and Shoe Tree Arts he has composed for film, recording sound track music in his own studio.

Folkworks/Channel 4/ Oxfam

Making Music on the Line, Book and Video. 2000. Documentary video camera and edit. International children’s millennium participation project: Shetland, Northumberland, Gascony, Catalunya and Burkina Faso. Ten musicians, two from each region shared traditional songs, melodies, rhythms and dances then taught the selection to thousands of children. The band of ten toured the five regions towards the end of 2000 in a grand finale of performance and participation.

Also an extended archive film for the ten participating musicians and a short film summarising the project.

Théâtre sans Frontières

2001 Le Tour de France. Théâtre sans Frontières.   KP: Composer, video editor, actor. Duncan Cave: camera. An exploration of French culture and language for children. Musical theatre with songs and interactive film on stage filmed on location in France. National theatre tours 2002 and 2003. Re filmed for on line educational series of short films, 2015.

2007 Round the World in 80 Minutes. Théâtre sans Frontières.   KP: Composer, actor. An exploration of international Francophone culture and language in Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Quebec, Tunisia and Cameroon, for children. Musical theatre with songs and interactive film on stage filmed on location in the countries above. National theatre tours 2002 and 2003. Re filmed for on line educational series of short films, 2015.

2018 Hey Piggy Piggy. KP composed music with Richard Scott and edited the footage for this children’s film exploring fuel poverty issues. A new angle on the 3 Little Pigs story. Funded by the NEA.

In lockdown Ken edited TSF’s community video ‘An Uncertain World’ with the Queen’s Hall Adult Drama Group and played ‘cello to Janet Longbottom’s composed soundtrack. Reflections of Hexham women upon their lives of travel, youth & protest in contrast to the impassivity of Lockdown. Further work in 2020 included the editing of shadow puppetry to tell a merboy tale, ‘The Golden Conch Shell’ with TSF collaborating with Theatre l’envers (Quebec) and Luminous Tales.Funded with a Arts Council National Lottery Grant.

Footage: independent film

2009 Footage.  KP’s world tour self made film with original music. He performed all roles: camera operator, editor, composer and musician. A 30 minute film documenting feet in a round world trip to Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Easter Island, Tahiti, The Cook Islands, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, France, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Croatia.

Amber Films

From Us to Me 2016. KP composed the music for the soundtrack of this documentary. Individuals in Rostock (former E Germany) review an Amber Films documentary first shown on Channel 4, made about them in a fishing community in 1987 the Berlin Wall came down. in Laggin’ Behind, a film made with Ellie Hare of Amber in 2017 was staged with live choir and band at New Tyne Theatre exploring the history of how we heat our homes in interviews and archive footage.

4 Corners Music Projects

4 Cornes Music Network started out as partnership between Rich Scott and Ken Patterson in 2000 in contact with a network of world musicians who provided workshops, INSET, and performances in schools and communities in the North East of England. Documenting their work became important as time went on and many schools INSET videos were produced. In collaboration with The Sage Gateshead, Easington EAZ, Glendale Music Trust, Northern Arts, Creative Partnerships, North Tyneside and the local education authorities. The most recent films of projects include work in 2015 commemorating the Heaton Mining Disaster of 2015 with music by Rich, Andrew Scott, Johnny Handle and Ken. In 2018 the Nation Energy Action charity commissioned 4 Corners to create three participation projects: 1 Full of Energy, a suite of 7 songs about every, fuel poverty and ecological themes written and celebrated by primary children 2 Hey Piggy Piggy with TSF see above, and Laggin’ Behind with AMBER Films.

Schools’ Film-making

Ken has worked in primary schools creating pop videos (e.g. Priory School, Corbridge, Creative Partnerships), animations (Whitley Memorial Primary Bedlington, CPs) and in Farne Primary and North Fawdon Primary, Newcastle recording a soundscape of the Ouseburn from water-catchment marshy land to its mouth into the river Tyne. Children made their own films in pairs using iPads as well as appearing in Ken’s film. Funded and commissioned by Groundwork uk.

Shoe Tree Arts

4 Corner’s Under the Fields of Heaton project led to the formation of Shoe Tree Arts, a group of artists and historians who live in Heaton in the east end of Newcastle upon Tyne. After contributions to HEATON! a show written with the Great North Festival in mind in 2017 was followed by The Newcastle Corn Riots 1740 project in 2020. Plans for live shows were shelved with Covid and a number of films produced including Ken’s ‘Ballad of Geordie Barelycorn’ collaborating with a number of N. Eastern folk singers performing Ken’s lyric detailing the events and background of the Corn Riots and employing his film-making and animation skills using cracked wheat and pearl barley grains to create imagery.

Meze Mundo Streetband

In 2020 and 2021 Meze Mundo Streetband pioneered ‘pop video’ making with mobile phone footage. Collaborative composition and arrangements led to Ken presenting guide tracks to play to and ideas for video clips of individuals in their own homes. Each member e mailed the results and Ken edited them into a 2 – 3 minute format. It was a way for the band to remain creative and bonded in the months of potential isolation. 9 videos were produced in total.