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Editing of our rock video project (Deadly Sight by Nowhere Found) is coming along nicely. This is in great part thanks to Harry Goldhagen and Joe Siegel, who have generously loaned us an HD video editing setup. We’re cutting the video in Vegas, which is new to us, and learning all sorts of new things.

I thought I might post a few of the things I have learned, from an editor’s perspective, in connection with this project. If we ever do one again, we’ll want to remember these things. They might also be useful for anyone else who does a similar project.

These notes apply to our sort of project – a rock video with a crew of about 8 and 4-5 cameras.

1. If something happens to screw up continuity (hat falls off, strap breaks, etc.):
   

   The individual should stop playing and fix it, and then continue once it’s fixed. Everything else should continue as if nothing happened. This is not a performance – if you leave it, it screws up the entire take, whereas if you fix it, you only screw up a few seconds of footage.
   Musicians will probably need to be specifically instructed on this, as they are used to continuing no matter what while performing.

   If the individual doesn’t notice the continuity break, or doesn’t fix it, camera operators should stop shooting that person/angle. Look for something else interesting, because the broken continuity shot won’t be used anyway.

2. In the best case scenario, camera operators will know the parts of the song (ie: who does what, when) in advance. This will help prevent surprise “Oh, look, something interesting is happening over there now!” movements.
3. If you do a lot of takes of one song, with a lot of cameras, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify how they match up in post. Easy solution: before every take, have the drummer strike his snare before the song begins – he should do it in correspondence with the take count. (Take one: strike snare once. Take two: strike snare twice, etc.) This allows for easy identification of takes and syncing of footage.
   Or use a slate. But everyone hates those things.
4. Remind camera operators to set their audio levels low. Sound is important for syncing, so audio needs to be captured, but heavily clipped audio is almost worse than zero audio.

Champlain Motion Pictures is hosting a fundraiser at the end of March or in April. We are looking for bands that want to play for 30 minutes to an hour. We are not totally sure where we want to have this event yet but more than likely it will be in Burlington somewhere.

The fundraiser is for the upcoming feature production being shot this June. The movie is tentatively called “Fear Itself.” It stars Larry Holden (Batman Begins, Memento, and Insomnia) and it will be directed by Jayson Argento (Finding Providence). We intend to cast and crew this feature locally from Vermont mostely.

As part of this fundraiser you will be donating your time so the money earned from the event will go to the production cost of the movie. Your reward, besides helping a local dream come true, is that you will have secured a spot on the soundtrack of the feature and be seriously considered for a sound bite in the movie itself. We will also be recording the event with cameras and you can have a copy.

Please email us at contact@champlainpictures.com

P.S. have a way for us to hear your music online. (myspace or something like that.)

Cheers

Jayson