As part of the experience at the SaM Summer School, everyone has a chance to experience a taster session with the four tutor groups other than your primary one. In the film group, I had 25 minutes to write a short piece for solo cello to accompany a film showing a dramatic scene of a man hanging off the edge of an ice cliff with another man repeatedly stomping on the ice. Ultimately, the attacker gets pushed off of the cliff and the dangling man is rescued! Whilst the time I had was short, the exercise did encourage me to think about how I might approach this area of composition which was completely new to me. We had our pieces recorded in a professional environment and got to keep the recording of the film along with our music! I then had some great feedback at the end of the session which completed a very valuable learning process. I learnt that it’s important to challenge yourself by moving outside of your comfort zone, even if it’s for less than an hour at a time.