There is so much repertoire to learn for Israel that I soon realized that if I didn't find an imaginative way to practice it, I was going to go insane from the monotony of note-learning. The idea for this video came to me as I was teaching myself how the harp part fit in with the orchestra part for the Ginastera harp concerto. I would listen to various recordings, read the orchestral score, and even practice playing along with the CD. It's such an awesome concerto, especially the seductive rhythms of the third movement. Drumming away on my knees, I found myself wanting to play all of it, not just the harp part!
In the back of my mind, I've been wanting to do a music video for a long time. I missed out on having a video camera as a toy when I was a kid, but my parents have one now, and I knew I would be home for a month this summer. I finally got serious and decided to seize the opportunity, so I brainstormed out some different ideas for what havoc I could wreak on the Israel repertoire with a video camera. This idea was the one that grabbed my attention and didn't let go. I hesitated for a little while as I realized what a huge amount of work I was signing myself up for, but it was too enticing. Once I got started I didn't want to stop.
The first step was to sketch out the arrangement, which I did while I was still in France (and finished up in the plane on the way to the States). Just to give you a glimpse, here's what the first page looked like:
The next step, once I was home, was to track down my battery of make-shift instruments. I combed the entire house, armed with a wooden spoon, banging on everything that looked like it had any vibrating properties whatsoever. (I learned that clear resonance is a property that really is unique to musical instruments!) Fortunately, both my brother and sister have played around with almost every classification of instrument over the years and our house is quite well equipped. We all played the piano as kids, my brother was an excellent violinist before he decided to major in physics, and my sister's hobby is collecting occarinas, all of which play an important role in this production.
I then combed the house again to find which room would make the best sound studio, and I settled on my parents' bedroom (lucky them!). Once I had lugged up the paint can, pots and pans, and all my other props, I set to work recording the audio. This was by far the hardest and longest part, lasting a solid two weeks. It was extremely tricky fitting all the pieces together. It would have been easier if I could have laid down one base track and then added everything else to that, but since there is no one instrument that plays continuously throughout the movement, my base track was a complex overlapping of various tracks which I had to build up and edit as I went.
The video was quick and easy by comparison. The whole thing was done in two or three days, in my bedroom. In a fit of passion and impatience, I pushed around furniture to clear out empty spaces, brought lamps from all around the house to get enough light, and started grabbing footage without waiting for anyone to help me set things up. I love the resources I have to work with at home, and all the space!
This easily ranks as one of the most fun things I've ever done. I learned a lot that I wouldn't have learned while playing the harp. (The violin is really really really hard! Occarinas are almost impossible to get in tune. And how on earth do percussionists play such fast notes?) I'm frustrated by it's lack of professionalism, by the few structural flaws that crept in: the accidental tempo change at the harp solo, the misinterpretation of "tamb" as tambourine in one instance when it actually meant "snare drum" - go figure, and the fact that I just wasn't brave enough to take a fast enough overall tempo. But I'm also really proud that I pulled it off, and thanks to my teacher's encouragement it is now available for anyone to see. Hope you enjoy!
5 comments:
I shall comment more later but first:
That video, I LOVE how you are totally rocking out on that harp! Not at ALL what I imagined. Loved loved it.
x
OMG! Your video is so cool! Great idea :)))). Toi toi toi in the competition!!!
Interesting: I didn't realize that your audio was recorded separately from your video.
Does that mean that for every single cut of the video, you had to painstakingly aling the audio and the video? And if they differed slightly you had to re-record one of them?
Also, what movie editing program do you use? I've used Windows Movie Maker but I'm not happy with its over-simplified interface.
I used Adobe Premiere Elements.
When I recorded the video, I was listening to the audio at the same time to make sure that they would line up. Lining up audio/video is not nearly as hard as lining up audio/audio. The video was honestly the easiest part.
Hi Elisabeth
your video is famous in Poland!
Look at the Polish portal for harpists
http://glissando.ning.com/
Harpo (Portal Glissando administrator)
Post a Comment