Voice Recital ideas...

jrazz wrote on 3/21/2007, 7:20 AM

I filmed a voice recital last night for a guy looking to graduate from university. He sang a few in German, a few in Italian, and a few in English. It was a two cam shot, one stationary and one manned.

My question is to any who have filmed this type of thing before- how do you make this interesting? It went on for about 45 minutes and I even saw the professor who was supposed to be grading him, playing tetris on his pda. There were only two kind of upbeat songs at the end that were negro spirituals.

Any ideas?

j razz

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 3/21/2007, 7:30 AM

he wants to go in to theature or something similar?

If so, then someone who wants him won't care if it's a "boring" or "upbeat" song he sung, they'll want ti know if he can sing. So I'd divide the DVD up in to different styles of music with a "play all" button.

The professor should be fired too.

Tech Diver wrote on 3/21/2007, 8:12 AM

Who is the target audience? If this is to be used as a part of a "portfolio" to get a job, then it can be straight forward with slow cross-fades between the stationary and mobile cameras. If this is meant to be entertaining to a general audience, you can have small vignettes (with very soft blended edges) gently fade in and out depicting scenes that reflect the lyrics of the songs. For example, a Negro spiritual can show some 19th century photographs of the oppressed lives of slaves, etc.

These vignettes could be located on either side of the performer, or the vignette could be a background that takes up the entire screen and the perform could be overlaid with an oppacity of 50% or so.

jrazz wrote on 3/21/2007, 8:40 AM

Thanks for the ideas. He is wanting to use this for his portfolio plus his family is wanting multiple copies of "their little singer boy" :)

j razz

Per1 wrote on 3/21/2007, 9:03 AM

It does not sound like American Idol 20xx so I'd skip video and just send audio. Being close to the music industry you'd never get anyone to put in a DVD, nor spend time watching it. They might put in a CD and listen to it on the office or in the car... I get many CDs, I perhaps spend 2-3 minutes on each - they are mostly crap. I'd never would take the time to watch a DVD.
If it's a classical singer and he's good looks does not matter! It's liek one said - it's the quality of the voice.

jrazz wrote on 3/21/2007, 9:32 AM

The only problem with just making a cd is that I was paid for the video.

This is not a big production thing and was a last minute idea for him and that is when I got the call... 'hey, I am giving my senior recital tonight... can you come and film it?"

I do like the idea of incorporating the pictures from the historical era in which the song arose. Again, thanks for the ideas... basically I am just looking to make it more interesting than just cuting from close to medium shots, etc.

j razz

mark-woollard wrote on 3/21/2007, 9:38 AM

If shot in HD and outputting to SD, you could do some "camera moves" in post without losing resolution.

rs170a wrote on 3/21/2007, 10:23 AM

The only problem with just making a cd is that I was paid for the video.

So give him both.
It's pretty easy to burn a CD once you have everything set up for a DVD.

Mike

Catwell wrote on 3/21/2007, 12:01 PM

I have done lots of student recitals. Usually they are looking for documentation of the recital. I usually use two cameras and cut back and forth as seems best. I do not change the order of the concert. I try to add in some PIP sections to make it more interesting and I change camera zoom and pan. Before changing we look at the other camera and wait for it to be still so we are not moving together. This make for cleaner cuts.

I always record separate sound to improve the quality as sound is the most important part of the recital.

I have not done a lot of vocal recitals as I do mostly strings.

Good luck and focus on the sound.

jrazz wrote on 3/21/2007, 1:20 PM

It's pretty easy to burn a CD once you have everything set up for a DVD.

It is, but this is not what he paid me for. The school recorded a CD and gave a copy to both myself and him at the end of the recital. I used two shotgun mics and a lapel to capture sound plus I was able to land the CD from the soundbooth recording.

Thanks you all for the ideas.

j razz

dsf wrote on 3/21/2007, 3:30 PM

Do a short version, 5-10 min, of how you would do it if your only purpose was to make the recital look interesting. You use your judgment. Maybe use PIP to show which menu button to press if viewer wanted to see the complete version of that song.

Then the long version consists of the whole thing. If the audience is his family, I don't think they'll care if this part appears "dull" to an uninterested viewer: they just want to see their boy and won't really appreciate your creative efforts here.

PeterWright wrote on 3/21/2007, 6:55 PM

I did the same thing for a soprano graduate before Christmas. Like yours, songs and arias in many languages ...

I used two HDV cams - one locked off, then used cuts or dissolves from one to the other at strategic moments, allowing the music to guide me, and I sometimes used the ability to zoom in without losing resolution for an SD DVD.

The recital program was carefully worked out to include a set range of material for assessment purposes, so whether I found it boring or not, those to whom the DVD has been sent would appreciate it far more than I, and it was extremely well received.

birdcat wrote on 3/22/2007, 6:10 AM

Hi Jeremy -

How about getting some interesting RF video and cutting that in, adjusting the opacity and putting the singer in front of some related stuff (sotck and animation) - I've been frequenting Digital Juice's website a lot lately and they have some really good stuff for reasonable prices (espiecally if you do their Deal of the Day offers).

Good luck

Bruce

dsf wrote on 3/22/2007, 10:31 PM

i think you guys that are pros are making a mistake. You're not seeing it the way the non-pros who have commissioned it. They just want to see their guy singing. I think you are trying to make it more interesting, more creative, more appealing to people who are in your same business, not to your client. Maybe the professor was playing tetris when they guy was singing but i bet his family wasn't. And i know how to use Vegas and i can do artsy-fartsy stuff too, but that's what they want to see in the final production. No, i'm not a pro; the people for whom the video was made just want to see their kids. That's my experience. Steady camera, good exposure, close up on their kid(s), the most basics of the basics; put some crowd shots of peolple clapping for transitions maybe but i wouldnt go much beyond that. They don't even seemt to appreciate having shots of themselves (i.e, the parents, etc.) That's 100% my experience, limited as it is.