Music Editing Advice

[Phil Douglas]

I have never edited a live music performance before and could use some advice.

I started editing with a 1 minute chunk of the 90 min or so show - I picked a part where there was a couple of nice focus pulls - though realized while editing that the first one only has the bassist for a fraction of a second before the slow pull to the drummer - (his bass is in focus more than he), and the second one was done really well, but it ends on a violin player who is not playing at the time :( - so i just cut out of it quickly.

Anyway my main conserns are:
1. on the locked-off wide master shots I do some zoom/pans in post - do they work or not?
2. crossfades - good or bad?
3. anything else i have overlooked/not considered?

The footage from the three cameras has not been matched yet (or color corrected at all) - it's a mix of canon and nikon, and I haven't yet dealt with the audio.

any feedback is appreciated

Jazz @ St. Regis 1 on Vimeo

[Paul R Johnson]

The moves, when they have a purpose work - as in they do something. A few just seem to move for no real purpose.

For me, mainly because I'm a musician, the bit that annoyed was the shallow DoF. When I watch music videos, I want to see them play, I want to see their fingers playing - a nice sharp head, but no body, and a fuzzy double bass in the background kind of agitates. I don't think non-musicians would be so critical. When I watch the long shot, it's a bit busy - there's a lot of people there, but the close ups with more than one instrument, I firmly believe need to be sharp. I feel it's a bit like shooting a magician doing a card trick where the symbols on the cards are soft and you can't see if it's a diamond or heart. It might be a nicely composed picture, but I have to see everything. Edit wise, apart from the few pointless moves, it worked for me - just the cameras!

Just me, maybe?

[John DuMontelle]

I have to agree.

If I want to watch something about musicians and music...I want to see them playing.

Not their heads nodding and their hands on instruments, unseen, out of frame.

Shallow depth of field can be nice but, for me to, this was frustrating to try and watch while I waited, sometimes in vain for what I wanted to see, come into focus..

[Phil Douglas]

Thanks for the replies - I began editing with that little piece because of those two close-ups, but you are absolutely correct that the content is more important than a pretty shot. (I am a musician as well - but the visual artist in me wanted to start with something that looked cool) Fortunately for the video, I think there are only one or two other shots in the whole show that are like that. It was extremely difficult to get individual close-ups with a decent composition with so many people being that close together on the stage, and when we did use longer focal lengths for tighter shots, (with our lenses wide open for the low light), we ended up with that shallow depth of field.

As for the movement - and I do agree with you that there should be a purpose behind movement - (I usually have all my shots pretty meticulously planned out before a shoot, but could not in this situation), but was hoping that the movement I did add in post kept the static shots a little more interesting - but I think I will have to play with it a little more.

I uploaded another minute or so, which is more typical of the footage from the rest of the show, (ie - no extreme C/U's)

Jazz @ St. Regis 2 on Vimeo