3 posts tagged “audio”
NOW HEAR THIS!
A few weeks ago a good friend and fellow Star Trek enthusiast, Andy Tyrer, asked me if I would be interested in working with him on a new audio Star Trek production. We discussed the project at length and many hours later had hammered out in generalities what we wanted.
I took on the role of co-executive producer and began working with Andy on the pilot episode, characters and what we wanted this show’s vision to be. We are now ready to cast our 8 characters, the command crew of the new Trieste class, USS Montana.
We are looking for adult voices. This show is being produced by people with audio and film production experience. The writing, which has so far been a collaboration or singular effort of Andy and myself is also the work of experienced and dedicated scribes. To top it all off we the producers have the Star Trek enthusiasts at our core fuelling the whole enterprise!
Visit our site at WWW.CONTINUINGMISSION.COM
We are looking for 8 main cast members to fill the boots and voices of the crew of the USS Montana. Crew members include Captain Paul Edwards, Commander Darius Locke, Lt. Commander Thomas Plumber, Lt. Commander Jack Maguire, Doctor Kyle Wilson, Lt. Stephen Knight, The beautiful Lt. Numi Natusukov, and Helmsman Ensign William Palmer…
See www.continuingmission.com/crew.htm for details about each crew member!
We are looking for guest stars for every show, so even if you are not interested in becoming a series regular or you read for a part and we don’t choose you chances are you will be asked to come back in a guest starring role!
Email us at continuingmission@gmail.com
Be a part of the NEXT Star Trek series!
-Sebastian Prooth & Andy Tyrer
Due to the great reception that my previous commentary for Star Trek Insurrection received, I decided to continue on that pattern. This evening I recorded a full audio commentary for Star Trek First Contact. I hope that I bring something a little different to the table than the director or writer commentary available on the Special Edition DVD.
I heard on mistake as I was listening back to the file, I mention that Star Trek First Contact is ALMOST 10 years old, it is in more like almost 11 years old, oops. In order to make use of this commentary start it playing right as the Paramount logo appears, exactly at the beginning of the film. It is important to make sure it is in sync with the film as I reference things that are on screen that very second.
I hope you enjoy this commentary for Star Trek First Contact, if you are coming to read this because you heard me on the Treks in Sci Fi podcast, thanks for listening. Rick and I hope to work together on a commentary sometime! If you came here from my Memory-Alpha profile I hope you stick around and check out some of the other Star Trek related work I have here on the blog.
I have to admit that I am guilty of annoying people when they are trying to watch MTV. When I tell them what I think of the editing of the video that they are enjoying. I frequently say something like “You know, if that video were cut more on the beat it would work so much better.”
When I’m not bothering others I usually tap the beat out myself, and decide where I would cut it, if I were the editor. So I decided to write about this topic if for no other reason to simply help me organise my thoughts.
I genuinely believe most music videos that are being produced could profit from some better editing. For example, the artist could be walking along, but in perfect rhythm to the music. With the proper coverage and the director and artist paying close attention to the rhythm of the music this is the kind of raw material the video editors need to really work his or her magic.
Even less than perfect footage can be transformed into dynamic, visually charged material for the video that might have otherwise ended up on the “cutting room floor.”
The video above is brilliant example of both sides of the equation. It is one of my all time favourite songs, but it was not until yesterday that I saw the music video on YouTube. The song is happy, the beat is lively and the colours used in the video are vivid. Not only is the video’s cinematography exciting but the editing is, for the most part, quite good. There are several points in this video where the editing is not good and is not executed directly on time. You can not only tap your foot to the beat of the song and to the beat of the cuts the editor executed. The activities and movement of the characters in the video are enhanced by the precision editing making this a truly excellent peice.
There are a few cardinal rules that I use when editing video footage to music, including but limited to:
- Create Entertaining and Engaging Visuals
- Fast cutting, But not too fast that becomes distracting.
- Cut the video to music, not vice versa.
- The use “tap your foot” method I described above
Watch the music video above with a director’s eye and you will notice everything I am describing. Start tapping your foot on the first beat of the song and watch the visuals closely. In the first few cuts, watch the singer tapping the bar and the raising of the ketchup bottle, even the sweeping brush is going with the beat. The perfectly timed editing occurs throughout the song. Particularly note its use when the sink is spewing water towards the end, the action in the video is ON the beat.
To a music video editor, the concept of rhythmic editing should be the most obvious and important factor. But for those who “don’t get it”, there is still hope! I am no expert at producing music videos, but I have directed, produced and edited a few and I always try to follow the “rules of rhythm” when editing music videos.
I owe a lot of my understanding of rhythm and “editing on the beat” to my studies of the record spots produced by my friend Joe Klein. His tutelage has helped me grasp some of the fundamentals of editing audio and I was able to carry them over to my video editing endeavors. If you have a music video project that you are working on and have found this useful, feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment.
