My mission for this module were to continue to push my practice forward in interesting directions. Last year I experimented with developing video installation work that evolved from wanting to divert from my generally formulaic broadcast TV background into a more creative practice. My aim was to continue with this my only anchor being the desire to still keep narrative and character at the centre of my work but to really push the boundaries of these.
My full aims and objectives for the unit are all outlined below and my aim was to create a body of work, which address these. At the start I had grand plans and far too many ideas for the time consuming constraints of moving image work and a tight deadline. This led me to focus in a two main areas whilst keeping the other ideas for pieces on a back burner.
LINK TO SLIDE-SHARE PRESENTATION
My main idea and central focus was an installation piece “Amen Brother” exploring appropriation, interpretation, sampling and post-modern aspects of art but with a focus on music and sampling. At its core will be the Amen Break by the 60’s funk band The Winston’s. It is a six second, 4-bar drum solo performed by drummer "G. C." Coleman which has been sampled 2400 times to date. I wanted to highlight this unsung hero and tell his story and the impact his 6 seconds of genius in the world of music.
AMEN BROTHER FINAL from Jon Saward on Vimeo.
The second idea is for a documentary entitled “Anonymous” dictated by style first and then marrying this with a subject. This provided the opportunity to explore a wide range of techniques both visual and aural. I love the subversive idea of the documentary subject being anonymous and deconstructing the notions of documentary modes and formats. I thought subjects such as whistle blowers, criminals or those too shy to appear in front of camera could be potentially interesting subjects. The aim was to develop this in the background and almost use it to experiment with all of the above creating a portfolio of tests and trial pieces.
1: Investigate Factual Film-making Form, Fictional and Avant-Garde Film Hybrids
The Amen Brother piece I do consider to be a largely successful hybrid of all of the above. It is factual based and uses documentary techniques but deconstructs them to serve the content. It has graphical expository elements (the text) and the documentary staple of re-enactments. It also uses archive “fair usage” clips of the bands who have used the song, and also a spine and structure. However it also draws on fictional storytelling techniques with the enigmatic narrative structure leading the audience combined with a cinematic style. Finally the layering of imagery with GC Coleman’s silhouette containing the music video clips, although tied into and serving the concept and narrative, does reflect avant-garde and experimental film aesthetics.
My tests and experiments with a variety of styles and techniques for the Anonymous piece also led to developments in this area by increasing my skill set and technical ability. Investigating a variety of fictional works and title sequences for storytelling as well as style was also hugely advantageous. The main break through, was my research into experimental and avant-garde art and film. This not only inspired me, but also deepened my understanding, appreciation and contextual understanding of movements, pieces and artists working in these areas. I allowed me to draw upon such movements as appropriation and post-modernism, the work of artists such as Christian Marclay and Oskar Fischingger and techniques such as animation, visual effects and sound design in my own work to name but a few.
2: Explore Documentary Style and Create More Visually and Aurally Creative Films
I do feel I managed to experiment with poetic and performative documentary modes and style in my completed Amen piece and the Anonymous tests. I researched extensively a huge variety of styles, techniques and practitioners from film, photography, animation, title sequences, and sound design for Film and TV, galleries and on-line work. I then used these to develop my skill set creating animations, roto-scoped work, double exposure video, sophisticated green screen work and hugely progressed my understanding of sound. I also invested time and effort into learning Adobe After Effects, which opened many windows of creative opportunity.
However this was a real journey and I found it hard to marry style with content throughout but especially with Amen Brother. Breaking away from a collection of visual and aural elements and streamlining these to the bare creatively interesting essentials was something I really struggled with. However all of the Anonymous experiments did bare fruit as utilizing the techniques I had developed here in the Amen piece was a real revelation.
In the end the style had to serve the content and in Amen I feel I really achieved this and got really close to realizing this goal by stripping the components to their essentials. GC Coleman’s story and genius captured using his chromo-keyed silhouette as a stage for the music videos contextualizing the artists who had used his drum solo. This really worked both conceptually and visually, the music videos radiate but contained within him as without his drum solo they would not exist. The piece intrinsically links style and content working in perfect, (synchronized) harmony to deliver the message.
3: Push Possibilities of Character Based Factual Storytelling and Representation
The representation issue is something I am fascinated with in factual film and Werner Hetzogs “ecstatic truth” ideal that a deeper truth can be attained in the arts through “vision, style, and craft.” If nothing can be 100% truthfully represented why strive for it and why not instead explore the grey area in-between? I have continued to do this in my work developing different techniques and styles to tell the story rather that the usual GV’s and talking heads of much factual work.
My research and tests developed for Anonymous explore techniques that can be used the poetic mode of documentary. The Amen Brother piece takes artistic license with the re-enactment footage of and the creation of his character and the narrative. The subjective ideology of the piece celebrating GC Coleman combined the idea of appropriation and the appropriators being appropriated by the piece is my invention. However the truth is still in there even if it is my own “ecstatic truth” of the story.
The main points I learnt regarding construction, storytelling and creating an ideology were to keep it simple. Early on in the Amen piece I was simply trying too hard to do too much. Too many elements, ideas, ideologies, themes and messages were clouding the central concept of finally recognizing and celebrating GC Coleman. In all of this the core elements that I hold dear, narrative and character, simply got lost! Style, too many elements and the ideologies engulfing the piece. Only by going through this painful process though did I realize that clarity of message, less is more and focus on the preferred reading of the piece was what was needed. This and the reinstating of structure, a narrative and character which made the piece live and give it an emotional beating heart, as opposed to a preaching and confused message to the audience.
4: Utilize New Documentary Formats, Exhibition and Distribution
The Amen Brother piece has made real in-roads into fulfilling my aims and objectives that I set out joining the course a year ago in terms of format, mode, style and creativity, combining all the elements I wanted to experiment with. The finished piece in my opinion is a factual based gallery installation first and foremost and this is how it was presented to an audience. It evolved from a three screen installation to one screen but in the presentation of this I added the layers of representation through an old projection screen representing GC Coleman and digital projector representing the bands and technology used to appropriate his work. This mimics the work itself, GC Coleman’s silhouette a stage for the music video clips and the projection screen representing him a stage for the digital story being projected. Moving forward I have considered the possibilities of creating a performance piece with a live drummer. Also extending it to a whole room installation with additional projectors screening kinetic typography of the names of all 2400 songs that have sampled the Amen Break in the space complementing the piece created here. However I feel the piece has a much wider appeal and accessibility too.
Inspired by the young people I teach and their engagement with some of the more accessible and creative documentaries I have screened them I feel that they are and audience under-catered for or engaged in factual works. I feel this subliminally may have influenced me, and shaped Amen Brother. The subject matter, techniques and use of music video are of obvious appeal and the micro-doc length, (under five minutes) is great for the Youtube generation. I feel that it could exist very comfortably on-line or even as a viral and reach new audiences this way.
I also feel it is something that could be successful at documentary festivals or even find a broadcast audience. I am aware of a groundswell of experimental factual works and it is certainly worth exploring exhibition in this area too.
Moving Forward into the Future
My first aim is to promote Amen Brother and to try and get it to a wider audiences as outlined above. It is also the direction that I wish to continue to continue to explore as I feel this piece has come exceptionally close to being the interesting, stylistic, creative, factual pieces I want to be making. It also upheld in my opinion the Reithian values I was striving for of not only educating and informing but also entertaining.
The greatest revelation during the module though was how far and easy it was to stray from my own ideologies and interests. I am a filmmaker first and foremost with narrative and character followed by style the areas I love, but these too often got lost and needed finding again. Straying into fine art installation work was never my intention or an area I embrace as my natural home even though my work does blur these distinctions somewhat. I have been all too often been creating work with too much of an eye on what I feel the MA course wants rather than what the areas I want. To this end I want to also explore moving forward with fictional works and to return to character and narrative. This may be short films, or using the course to work on an animated, educational fictional piece I have been developing.
However to contradict this on the back burner I have also been working on a couple of other ideas that I want to explore further. One is a site-specific, multi screened, interactive documentary installation called Cinematique. This will involve a multitude of screens set up in a cinema each one a mini documentary talking head that the audience can go around and pick and choose which contributors they want to hear from. Also I have tentatively been looking into VR styles, formats and technologies and how to utilize these in my work.
Friday, 20 January 2017
Thursday, 19 January 2017
AMEN: EXHIBITION
The final piece was ready for exhibition and dissemination by an audience. It was 16:9 ratio and I was fairly happy with the results. I would have liked a few more days to really fine tune it but it was 95% where I wanted it to be and I was really happy with the result and on a few test screenings it went down well.
AMEN BROTHER FINAL from Jon Saward on Vimeo.
I felt that the piece I had created was certainly in my mind an installation. It certainly had undercurrents of a mini avant-garde documentary that could sit on TV or possible on-line content or viral but I wanted to set it up for my tutors to watch it as an installation.
I booked out the black space at the university to screen it as I wanted a clear dark with no distractions from the work itself. Following this I then set about getting all of the technology together I would ned to make this happen. After the hassle and time consuming set up of the 3 screens I thought that this would be much simpler. I get together all of the kit that I would need and tested it to make sure it all worked although not in the actual black space due to time and hassle getting it all over there but i had basic measurements and knew it would all fit.
My first consideration was what to screen it on. Initially when the piece was evolving I wanted it big, huge on a screen and dominating a room and the audience both visually and aurally. However considering the piece I wanted it to be more intimate as the final film I had made was more characterful a representation of GC Coleman and getting this small insignificant figure at the end of the story the recognition he deserved. To this end I wanted a screening that would reflect him and celebrate him but not shout at the audience. I toyed withe the idea of a simple white screen hung in the space floating but this seemed too clinical and whilst it served my last 3 screen piece well just did not feel right. I wanted age, integrity and even the old being used to hold the modern exactly as in the Amen Break his old drum solo being given a modern interpretation through sampling technology to reinvigorate it and link the two.
The simple answer seemed to be to obtain an old home movie screen this being the old and the modern being the digital projector. I spent some time chasing around and sourcing one that I thought would work. I thought this idea worked really well and the old screen (as well as taking a projection excellently) had an older character. It also had the ability to be adjusted to various ratios and I could get it set to the 16:9 of my final piece.
As it sat there on it's tripod base and a little knocked about almost had a character of it's own and take on some of the character a to represent GC Coleman. The digital projector representing the new and the interpretation of the drum solo BUT as with the imagery of the music videos inside GC Coleman, the screen similarly held the digital images. the one complaint was that whilst I loved the screen as a means of exhibition and dissemination I would have loved it to be a little larger. It was just a little too small, and truth be told a little too low. However the concept of the old screen and new digital projector I loved. The set up in the black space of projector and screen is demonstrated below. The only added bit of kit I needed was a laptop to play the film through. This worked pretty well but a dodgy lead from the Mac to the VGA lead which managed to break in between testing and the final exhibition made things a little trickier than they should have been.
The projector was the best digital one that I could find although not an HD one that I would have liked. However it was fairly quiet had a pretty new bulb and plenty of lumens to project a clean image.
In order to get the piece looking slick I brought in some black speaker stands one for the projector to sit on and look professional and the other for the speakers to sit on. It was the usual awkward job of getting the image to project right and the very untechnical pieces of paper for minor adjustments to get the image level and filling the screen.
As far the sound went this was obviously also hugely important so I went for two good powerful speakers rather than smaller tinnier sounding ones. These were angled to either side of the screen for maximum effect on the audience. I did not want these to appear in shot so firstly I put them on a black speaker stand (see above) the same as the digital projector and hid them behind the projector screen. These were then connected to the Mac by a long sound lead.
The final screening went pretty well the sound was clean and the volume strong but not overpowering and I was pretty happy with the result. A bigger screen size would be the only thing that I would change as this would have put the piece at eye level and made it a stronger presence over the audience in the space.
AMEN BROTHER FINAL from Jon Saward on Vimeo.
I felt that the piece I had created was certainly in my mind an installation. It certainly had undercurrents of a mini avant-garde documentary that could sit on TV or possible on-line content or viral but I wanted to set it up for my tutors to watch it as an installation.
I booked out the black space at the university to screen it as I wanted a clear dark with no distractions from the work itself. Following this I then set about getting all of the technology together I would ned to make this happen. After the hassle and time consuming set up of the 3 screens I thought that this would be much simpler. I get together all of the kit that I would need and tested it to make sure it all worked although not in the actual black space due to time and hassle getting it all over there but i had basic measurements and knew it would all fit.
My first consideration was what to screen it on. Initially when the piece was evolving I wanted it big, huge on a screen and dominating a room and the audience both visually and aurally. However considering the piece I wanted it to be more intimate as the final film I had made was more characterful a representation of GC Coleman and getting this small insignificant figure at the end of the story the recognition he deserved. To this end I wanted a screening that would reflect him and celebrate him but not shout at the audience. I toyed withe the idea of a simple white screen hung in the space floating but this seemed too clinical and whilst it served my last 3 screen piece well just did not feel right. I wanted age, integrity and even the old being used to hold the modern exactly as in the Amen Break his old drum solo being given a modern interpretation through sampling technology to reinvigorate it and link the two.
The simple answer seemed to be to obtain an old home movie screen this being the old and the modern being the digital projector. I spent some time chasing around and sourcing one that I thought would work. I thought this idea worked really well and the old screen (as well as taking a projection excellently) had an older character. It also had the ability to be adjusted to various ratios and I could get it set to the 16:9 of my final piece.
As it sat there on it's tripod base and a little knocked about almost had a character of it's own and take on some of the character a to represent GC Coleman. The digital projector representing the new and the interpretation of the drum solo BUT as with the imagery of the music videos inside GC Coleman, the screen similarly held the digital images. the one complaint was that whilst I loved the screen as a means of exhibition and dissemination I would have loved it to be a little larger. It was just a little too small, and truth be told a little too low. However the concept of the old screen and new digital projector I loved. The set up in the black space of projector and screen is demonstrated below. The only added bit of kit I needed was a laptop to play the film through. This worked pretty well but a dodgy lead from the Mac to the VGA lead which managed to break in between testing and the final exhibition made things a little trickier than they should have been.
The projector was the best digital one that I could find although not an HD one that I would have liked. However it was fairly quiet had a pretty new bulb and plenty of lumens to project a clean image.
In order to get the piece looking slick I brought in some black speaker stands one for the projector to sit on and look professional and the other for the speakers to sit on. It was the usual awkward job of getting the image to project right and the very untechnical pieces of paper for minor adjustments to get the image level and filling the screen.
As far the sound went this was obviously also hugely important so I went for two good powerful speakers rather than smaller tinnier sounding ones. These were angled to either side of the screen for maximum effect on the audience. I did not want these to appear in shot so firstly I put them on a black speaker stand (see above) the same as the digital projector and hid them behind the projector screen. These were then connected to the Mac by a long sound lead.
The final screening went pretty well the sound was clean and the volume strong but not overpowering and I was pretty happy with the result. A bigger screen size would be the only thing that I would change as this would have put the piece at eye level and made it a stronger presence over the audience in the space.
Tuesday, 17 January 2017
AMEN: FINAL PIECE, POLISH & NAMING IT!
It had got to the stage where I had a working version of the piece but there were still snags that needing sorting out to give it a polish and tidy it up ready for submission.
VISUAL TWEAKS
There were some instances where the music video in order to fit within the silhouette of the drummer did not quite work and some of the drummer (his head) was not covered by the music video on the layer underneath. This was solved by overlaying the drummer image again and masking just the head but then feathering the neck where it started to cover the music video footage blurring the two together. The opacity was also altered to create a fluid joining of the two elements as illustrated below.
BACKGROUND OF THE PIECE
I had to decide on a back-ground to go behind the drummer. This looked great on a transparent background but as soon as I started putting backgrounds onto it, did make it look a a little tacky and not have the gravitas and class I wanted the piece to have. I had done research but stupidly not done too much testing of this and first tests were a little disappointing. I tested a great variety of background. patterns, mottled, record sleeve spines, flat colours, mottled effects and tones. The images behind it be they patterns, photographs however distorted simply added too much confusion and detracted from the clean lines and simplicity of image and message I had striven to create for the piece.
After many trials I drew on the research I had undertaken into Blue Note Jazz album covers. These have been appropriated many times see the originals and the copies below. Black was too dark but a deep blue as illustrated on some of these covers worked really well. The colour also added a blue tone to the drummers head again reflecting this Blue Note influence. This gave it a sense of period, history and integrity even though the Amen Beak is not jazz. However the flat colour was till too clean and flat so I added vignetting of back to the corners to add a little texture and to draw focus into the middle of the screen.
ON SCREEN EXPOSITION GRAPHICS
The narrative and character exposition on-screen graphics was the final element and one that I greatly struggled with for three reasons. Firstly I did not want it to be on screen for too long. This was because I needed it to be on-screen for only about 6 seconds or for the reprises throughout of the Amen break which was just over this. Secondly and leading on from point one it needed to be brief, clear and concise but also to conjure up some emotion, character and narrative without being too prosaic or contrived. Lastly the font needed to be simple (no kinetic typography here).
The final on-screen graphics (which I had double checked for grammar) read like this. The final two screens of exposition came on after the music had ended so as to draw attention to them and add gravitas to the story and the sad conclusion.
1: In the Spring of 1969, drummer G. C. Coleman recorded a freestyle, impromptu six second drum solo.
2: The song, AMEN BROTHER, was an insignificant B-side for the US soul-funk band, The Winstons.
3: In the mid 1980s the drum solo began to be sampled and was christened the AMEN BREAK.
4: To date, the AMEN BREAK has been sampled over 2400 times, inspiring a multitude of usicians in a variety of genres!
5: G.C. Coleman was never aware of the impact of his 6 seconds of drumming genius. He received no royalties, no recognition, no acclaim…
6: He died in 2006, a homeless and destitute drug addict…
7: amen brother
FONT FOR EXPOSITION
Again a huge variety tried and tester here. Impact, Helvetica, Tahoma to name but a few. I wanted it to be able to be read clearly, quickly and not be script or too extravagant. I did not want it to draw attention to itself and it had to feel in keeping with the piece. In the end I went for courier after not liking the idea of a serif font initially. I was won over by the simplicity, typewriter feel giving it credibility and typewriter as well as an age and history to carry the message with no frills and an honesty.
Interestingly the font which was designed by Howard Kettler was nearly released with the name "Messenger." After giving it some thought, Kettler said, "A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability." All of these are elements I wanted for the piece and the font has.
TITLE OF THE FINISHED PIECE & PLACEMENT
This was areal struggle. The aim for the tests was to try and feature 24 examples of appropriation of the break so 1% of the 2400 breaks and therefore it would be named 1% Amen. However for this version i only featured 16 examples and this would have made it 0.666 Amen. I toyed with the idea of this for a while as the number of the beast and the word amen were an interesting juxtaposition but then thought it would add another layer of ideology, context and meaning and possible miss and cloud the actual message so put this to one side.
The Amen Break works but is a little flat. I liked the idea of not having a title at the start and as it would be screened on a loop it did not mater too much but wanted it at the end as a reveal. After I had created all of the other titles and watched the piece see above the aim was originally for the last title/exposition on screen to be the the sixth screen of type "He died in 2006, a homeless and destitute drug addict…".
However this simply seemed to not end correct on a real low and not pay testament to him or the achievements of the break. As we all know at the end of a prayer you say amen, which also means "so be it" and with the name of the song being Amen Brother it seemed fitting to work in these areas. Amen as it was the end, amen for so be it commenting on how he never got his acclaim and they are the breaks and Amen brother for the song and also as a eulogy for GC Coleman and his passing to wish him well.
VISUAL TWEAKS
There were some instances where the music video in order to fit within the silhouette of the drummer did not quite work and some of the drummer (his head) was not covered by the music video on the layer underneath. This was solved by overlaying the drummer image again and masking just the head but then feathering the neck where it started to cover the music video footage blurring the two together. The opacity was also altered to create a fluid joining of the two elements as illustrated below.
BACKGROUND OF THE PIECE
I had to decide on a back-ground to go behind the drummer. This looked great on a transparent background but as soon as I started putting backgrounds onto it, did make it look a a little tacky and not have the gravitas and class I wanted the piece to have. I had done research but stupidly not done too much testing of this and first tests were a little disappointing. I tested a great variety of background. patterns, mottled, record sleeve spines, flat colours, mottled effects and tones. The images behind it be they patterns, photographs however distorted simply added too much confusion and detracted from the clean lines and simplicity of image and message I had striven to create for the piece.
After many trials I drew on the research I had undertaken into Blue Note Jazz album covers. These have been appropriated many times see the originals and the copies below. Black was too dark but a deep blue as illustrated on some of these covers worked really well. The colour also added a blue tone to the drummers head again reflecting this Blue Note influence. This gave it a sense of period, history and integrity even though the Amen Beak is not jazz. However the flat colour was till too clean and flat so I added vignetting of back to the corners to add a little texture and to draw focus into the middle of the screen.
ON SCREEN EXPOSITION GRAPHICS
The narrative and character exposition on-screen graphics was the final element and one that I greatly struggled with for three reasons. Firstly I did not want it to be on screen for too long. This was because I needed it to be on-screen for only about 6 seconds or for the reprises throughout of the Amen break which was just over this. Secondly and leading on from point one it needed to be brief, clear and concise but also to conjure up some emotion, character and narrative without being too prosaic or contrived. Lastly the font needed to be simple (no kinetic typography here).
The final on-screen graphics (which I had double checked for grammar) read like this. The final two screens of exposition came on after the music had ended so as to draw attention to them and add gravitas to the story and the sad conclusion.
1: In the Spring of 1969, drummer G. C. Coleman recorded a freestyle, impromptu six second drum solo.
2: The song, AMEN BROTHER, was an insignificant B-side for the US soul-funk band, The Winstons.
3: In the mid 1980s the drum solo began to be sampled and was christened the AMEN BREAK.
4: To date, the AMEN BREAK has been sampled over 2400 times, inspiring a multitude of usicians in a variety of genres!
5: G.C. Coleman was never aware of the impact of his 6 seconds of drumming genius. He received no royalties, no recognition, no acclaim…
6: He died in 2006, a homeless and destitute drug addict…
7: amen brother
FONT FOR EXPOSITION
Again a huge variety tried and tester here. Impact, Helvetica, Tahoma to name but a few. I wanted it to be able to be read clearly, quickly and not be script or too extravagant. I did not want it to draw attention to itself and it had to feel in keeping with the piece. In the end I went for courier after not liking the idea of a serif font initially. I was won over by the simplicity, typewriter feel giving it credibility and typewriter as well as an age and history to carry the message with no frills and an honesty.
Interestingly the font which was designed by Howard Kettler was nearly released with the name "Messenger." After giving it some thought, Kettler said, "A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability." All of these are elements I wanted for the piece and the font has.
TITLE OF THE FINISHED PIECE & PLACEMENT
This was areal struggle. The aim for the tests was to try and feature 24 examples of appropriation of the break so 1% of the 2400 breaks and therefore it would be named 1% Amen. However for this version i only featured 16 examples and this would have made it 0.666 Amen. I toyed with the idea of this for a while as the number of the beast and the word amen were an interesting juxtaposition but then thought it would add another layer of ideology, context and meaning and possible miss and cloud the actual message so put this to one side.
The Amen Break works but is a little flat. I liked the idea of not having a title at the start and as it would be screened on a loop it did not mater too much but wanted it at the end as a reveal. After I had created all of the other titles and watched the piece see above the aim was originally for the last title/exposition on screen to be the the sixth screen of type "He died in 2006, a homeless and destitute drug addict…".
However this simply seemed to not end correct on a real low and not pay testament to him or the achievements of the break. As we all know at the end of a prayer you say amen, which also means "so be it" and with the name of the song being Amen Brother it seemed fitting to work in these areas. Amen as it was the end, amen for so be it commenting on how he never got his acclaim and they are the breaks and Amen brother for the song and also as a eulogy for GC Coleman and his passing to wish him well.
Sunday, 15 January 2017
AMEN: POST PRODUCTION 2 (AFTER EFFECTS)
The assets (music, music video and drummer footage) had all been created as tracks in Premiere Pro to be in synch then exported and taken into After Effects. As mentioned in the last post the aim was to ease and synching the music video track could go in as a bottom layer in the timeline as the master to keep in synch with. Then the drummer layer would go over the top. These layers could then each be duplicated for ever song knowing that you could then crop only the elements that you needed for each track (drummer and music video) and they would be in synch. these could then be manipulated in After Effects and the effects and keying done.
So following on from this the process was.
1: Get the music video layer and drummer layer into After Effects composition and timeline. make sure these were in time by starting them both at 00:00:00 in the timeline. As they were synched in premiere Pro they will be exactly in time. Checking the audio made sure of this.
2: Shrink the whole tracks down to just the song you were using. This was done through the cut from one music video to the next and the drummer shot changing too. This way you would only be working on one track at a time.
3: Key out the green on the drummer shot. This was done using the Keylight feature and fine tuning the key to get a nice screen matte around the drummer. Some shots here were a nightmare. The fundamental basic of chromakey are if you are using a green screen to not have any green on the subject. This is nearly impossible on a drum kit due to all of the reflective surfaces, if a matte un-shiny drum kit exists I needed one! The reflective surfaces cannot do anything but reflect some of the green. Some shots were easy some very difficult BUT overall got pretty close on the awkward ones by lots of fine tuning. On some there was the need to paint in the offending areas on the Screen Matte by hand to make sure they worked.
4: Apply the key. With the music video layer underneath the drummer layer if you select the music video and Track Matte this makes the music video layer go within the outline and shape of the drummer playing the drums.
5: Re-position, slightly re-scale and tweak the drummer and video layers to make for the best composition and the elements. It is no good having an Oasis music video and not placing it so you could best see the band members performing. This could be really fiddly in places as in one music video clip I sometimes needed to re-position the footage every different shot in the music video to get this looking good.
6: In order to put the drummer back over the footage and his silhouette created by the music video visuals another layer was needed. From looking at tutorials there were lots of possible techniques to do this and I tested a few. However the most effective was to duplicate the drummer layer putting it on the top of the other two. then by putting on a tint effects to make it black and white, adjust the curves to get a more contrasted image. This also gave it a retro feel and captured the late 1960's era. Next using the composition window to view all of the layers change the opacity of this top layer to reveal the drummer silhouette filled with the music video. This needed fine tuning so that there was a good balance between the drummer B/W overlay and the image underneath.
This process worked well but was hugely time consuming taking over a couple of days to get it mastered, but now a basic version of the techniques and full piece was done.
So following on from this the process was.
1: Get the music video layer and drummer layer into After Effects composition and timeline. make sure these were in time by starting them both at 00:00:00 in the timeline. As they were synched in premiere Pro they will be exactly in time. Checking the audio made sure of this.
2: Shrink the whole tracks down to just the song you were using. This was done through the cut from one music video to the next and the drummer shot changing too. This way you would only be working on one track at a time.
3: Key out the green on the drummer shot. This was done using the Keylight feature and fine tuning the key to get a nice screen matte around the drummer. Some shots here were a nightmare. The fundamental basic of chromakey are if you are using a green screen to not have any green on the subject. This is nearly impossible on a drum kit due to all of the reflective surfaces, if a matte un-shiny drum kit exists I needed one! The reflective surfaces cannot do anything but reflect some of the green. Some shots were easy some very difficult BUT overall got pretty close on the awkward ones by lots of fine tuning. On some there was the need to paint in the offending areas on the Screen Matte by hand to make sure they worked.
4: Apply the key. With the music video layer underneath the drummer layer if you select the music video and Track Matte this makes the music video layer go within the outline and shape of the drummer playing the drums.
5: Re-position, slightly re-scale and tweak the drummer and video layers to make for the best composition and the elements. It is no good having an Oasis music video and not placing it so you could best see the band members performing. This could be really fiddly in places as in one music video clip I sometimes needed to re-position the footage every different shot in the music video to get this looking good.
6: In order to put the drummer back over the footage and his silhouette created by the music video visuals another layer was needed. From looking at tutorials there were lots of possible techniques to do this and I tested a few. However the most effective was to duplicate the drummer layer putting it on the top of the other two. then by putting on a tint effects to make it black and white, adjust the curves to get a more contrasted image. This also gave it a retro feel and captured the late 1960's era. Next using the composition window to view all of the layers change the opacity of this top layer to reveal the drummer silhouette filled with the music video. This needed fine tuning so that there was a good balance between the drummer B/W overlay and the image underneath.
This process worked well but was hugely time consuming taking over a couple of days to get it mastered, but now a basic version of the techniques and full piece was done.
AMEN: FINAL POST-PRODUCTION 1 (PREMIERE PRO)
Following on from the shoot I decided that I would have to plan the workflow of the project to meet the deadline. There were countless tricky elements to the project and I would need to manage not only my time but get a grip on the "process" I was going to use to create the piece. I have been developing my skill level with Adobe After Effects and realise the complexity of the software. It is incredibly powerful BUT you MUST have a plan heading into it as there are lots of elements that I am going to have to bring together as there will be lots of layers, techniques and effects needed both audio and visual and synching all of the elements would also be important. To this end this was my workflow plan which was developed through trial and error from earlier versions of the Amen Piece and from the tests on the final process I was using..
1: Edit the music videos together. This is for both audio and visual. The audio is the flow of the place and obviously this needs to work seamlessly. The visuals from these need to be in synch. This would be done in Premiere Pro. This was learnt from earlier versions of Amen and trial and error here to develop this as the first priority.
2:Editing video in After Effects for timings is a nightmare from tests as rendering is constant and getting timings is tricky. So the next step is to create a second visual track of the drumming footage synching it to the first track created especially the audio. The issue here is timing the drummer studio shoot footage to the drum beats of the songs. The BPM of the original Amen Break is 136. However all of the tracks by the artists vary hugely from over 140 BPM to about 90 BPM. SO in order for the drum footage of 136 BPM to work with the drum beat on a music video that was 90 BPM I would have to slow it down. I found the easiest way to do this was to follow the drums of the first bar of the Amen Brother drums using the wave-form and select these. Then find a bar of the Amen drums in the song that had used them and do the same. Putting these into the timeline it gave the options to manipulate the incoming clip to make it the same length as the clip in the timeline. This got close and slowed the clip down or sped it up as necessary so the drummer, drummed in time with the clip. It was very awkward and trial and error but did get there in the end. Again this is a techniqued developed through trial and error on earlier versions of this piece
3: Make sure consider music video to be placed under the to be chroma-keyed track would work well with the drummer footage that would go over the top. 4:3 ratio music video footage would work best with a drummer shot composition that would be sympathetic to this ratio. I did this by putting the drummer footage over the top of the music video footage and the making it partially transparent to see how it would work. See example below. This way of doing things (4-7 below also) evolved from my test piece getting to grips with the process with the Bowie and Oasis clip.
4: Similar to the above but on the screens that need type on the screen to make sure that the shot composition was such to allow room for this. For this I made a crib sheet to try and organise this. It was also useful for point 5 below.
5: Again similar to the two above but this time to make sure that the shots were varied and interesting and that a MS did not follow a MS.
6: These tracks could then be exported as a track that had the music and all of the music video clips on it. Also another track that had the drummer footage on it. These needed to be exactly the same length and both absolutely in synch.
7: Import these into After Effects. The aim was that for ease and synching the music video track could go in as a bottom layer in the timeline as the master to keep in synch with. Then the drummer layer would go over the top. These layers could then each be duplicated for ever song knowing that you could then crop only the elements that you needed for each track (drummer and music video) and they would be in synch. these could then be manipulated in After Effects and the effects and keying done.
1: Edit the music videos together. This is for both audio and visual. The audio is the flow of the place and obviously this needs to work seamlessly. The visuals from these need to be in synch. This would be done in Premiere Pro. This was learnt from earlier versions of Amen and trial and error here to develop this as the first priority.
2:Editing video in After Effects for timings is a nightmare from tests as rendering is constant and getting timings is tricky. So the next step is to create a second visual track of the drumming footage synching it to the first track created especially the audio. The issue here is timing the drummer studio shoot footage to the drum beats of the songs. The BPM of the original Amen Break is 136. However all of the tracks by the artists vary hugely from over 140 BPM to about 90 BPM. SO in order for the drum footage of 136 BPM to work with the drum beat on a music video that was 90 BPM I would have to slow it down. I found the easiest way to do this was to follow the drums of the first bar of the Amen Brother drums using the wave-form and select these. Then find a bar of the Amen drums in the song that had used them and do the same. Putting these into the timeline it gave the options to manipulate the incoming clip to make it the same length as the clip in the timeline. This got close and slowed the clip down or sped it up as necessary so the drummer, drummed in time with the clip. It was very awkward and trial and error but did get there in the end. Again this is a techniqued developed through trial and error on earlier versions of this piece
3: Make sure consider music video to be placed under the to be chroma-keyed track would work well with the drummer footage that would go over the top. 4:3 ratio music video footage would work best with a drummer shot composition that would be sympathetic to this ratio. I did this by putting the drummer footage over the top of the music video footage and the making it partially transparent to see how it would work. See example below. This way of doing things (4-7 below also) evolved from my test piece getting to grips with the process with the Bowie and Oasis clip.
4: Similar to the above but on the screens that need type on the screen to make sure that the shot composition was such to allow room for this. For this I made a crib sheet to try and organise this. It was also useful for point 5 below.
5: Again similar to the two above but this time to make sure that the shots were varied and interesting and that a MS did not follow a MS.
6: These tracks could then be exported as a track that had the music and all of the music video clips on it. Also another track that had the drummer footage on it. These needed to be exactly the same length and both absolutely in synch.
7: Import these into After Effects. The aim was that for ease and synching the music video track could go in as a bottom layer in the timeline as the master to keep in synch with. Then the drummer layer would go over the top. These layers could then each be duplicated for ever song knowing that you could then crop only the elements that you needed for each track (drummer and music video) and they would be in synch. these could then be manipulated in After Effects and the effects and keying done.
Thursday, 12 January 2017
AMEN: POST-PRODUCTION TESTS
Before starting post production I did some tests with the footage to see what would be the best way of doing things before I launched myself into it. I had tested all of the techniques independently but not with all of the elements I had created through to a final version and composition so I decided to do this and learn the lesson. I spent an afternoon playing around with the following areas that I had concerns over and came to some conclusions moving forward.
Slow-mo & Speed
Worked OK but effect was limited as not true slow-mo just doubling, or trebling to create a staggered version of the action not a flowing. The idea of doing ALL slow-mo throughout was to make it easier to synch the drum tempos of all of the tracks BUT it just did not look right (see below). The emphasis of getting the drummers tempo matching the tracks being played made the footage work and was absolutely necessary. This could be adjusted in PremierePro and sometimes meant it was a little slow-mo but at others times the footage needed to be sped up.
AMEN DRUMMER SLO MO TESTS from Jon Saward on Vimeo.
Layouts & Composition
I played around with a few ideas and mocked some up in After Effects but even though I liked trying a few elements on the screen and did try to include the album covers and musical notes playing it was simply too much. I had already decided to scale it down to only the most basic elements. 1: Silhouette of drummer. 2 music video footage playing within the silhouette. 3: The exposition type on the screen. Everything else simply clutters and confused the message.
Processes & Editing Work-flow
I needed to work out the quickest, simplest and most effective way of editing, compositing and creating the piece using Premiere Pro and After Effects. I did try to do it all in After effects but whilst great for compositing and motion graphics is a bit of a blunt instrument as far as editing video went especially synching to sound. To this end I decided to edit the audio, drummer footage AND the music video tracks in Premiere Pro as this was the simplest way and I am really happy in this software. Then I exported these as three individual tracks of exactly the same length to enable easy synching in After Effects as long as I got this bang on in Premiere. Then in After effects I could chop up these tracks, synching them to the master track and do the compositing.
Slow-mo & Speed
Worked OK but effect was limited as not true slow-mo just doubling, or trebling to create a staggered version of the action not a flowing. The idea of doing ALL slow-mo throughout was to make it easier to synch the drum tempos of all of the tracks BUT it just did not look right (see below). The emphasis of getting the drummers tempo matching the tracks being played made the footage work and was absolutely necessary. This could be adjusted in PremierePro and sometimes meant it was a little slow-mo but at others times the footage needed to be sped up.
AMEN DRUMMER SLO MO TESTS from Jon Saward on Vimeo.
Layouts & Composition
I played around with a few ideas and mocked some up in After Effects but even though I liked trying a few elements on the screen and did try to include the album covers and musical notes playing it was simply too much. I had already decided to scale it down to only the most basic elements. 1: Silhouette of drummer. 2 music video footage playing within the silhouette. 3: The exposition type on the screen. Everything else simply clutters and confused the message.
Processes & Editing Work-flow
I needed to work out the quickest, simplest and most effective way of editing, compositing and creating the piece using Premiere Pro and After Effects. I did try to do it all in After effects but whilst great for compositing and motion graphics is a bit of a blunt instrument as far as editing video went especially synching to sound. To this end I decided to edit the audio, drummer footage AND the music video tracks in Premiere Pro as this was the simplest way and I am really happy in this software. Then I exported these as three individual tracks of exactly the same length to enable easy synching in After Effects as long as I got this bang on in Premiere. Then in After effects I could chop up these tracks, synching them to the master track and do the compositing.
Tuesday, 10 January 2017
AMEN: STUDIO SHOOT
The studio shoot went pretty well. I had the talent from 5:00-7:00 and luckily I found the time to research, storyboard and plan the shoot to maximise the time that I had with the drummer. I used the TV studio at the college I teach at as it was free and had the space, green-screen and lighting rig that I needed. I set up the studio for his arrival at 5:00 by getting the green screen ready, lighting it, installing the drum kit and also making sure the light was good on this too. A minor issue was tracking down a drum kit as the one I had been allocated by our music department was a deep green! This would obviously have been problematic trying to chromakey the green out in post production.
Once the talent arrived I was ready. as well as setting up the studio ready I made sure I had the Amen Break available to play on a lap top as a refresher for the drummer. Also a metronome on the same laptop to keep him in time. The drummer had been briefed on what to wear to try and capture a flavour of the era. Suit trousers, waist-coat, shirt, tie and shoes. I brought a couple of shirts too just in case but we went for his mid-tone shirt and tie which were very in keeping with the era I was trying to capture. He did forget shoes though which put minor limitations on some of the shots and discounted one.
The shoot went pretty well and the planning proved to be a necessity as time was tight. The drummer was fantastic and did actually bare a close resemblance to G.C. Coleman the original drummer so was an excellent choice. He was also really helpful and up for it and a joy to direct. As far as setting up the shots went I filmed him straight on from a variety of shot sizes and angles. Then moved him ninety degrees and did another variety of shots. Lastly moved him around another ninety degrees and filmed him from behind and did the same again. This was to always keep the green in the background top key out.
In total I managed to get 24 shots. I need 16 for each of the the 16 different songs that have used the break and another 5 for the title screens and Amen Break reprises throughout the piece so I will have just enough. There is also the potential to flip shots in the software later to increase the options. I shot on a Canon T3i Rebel HD DSLR camera with a standard 18-55mm lens and a 14mm wide angle lens. I did do some tests with a 50mm 1.8 lens to give a shallow depth of field but decided against it as I did not think it would work
Issues and things I would consider for next time.
Once the talent arrived I was ready. as well as setting up the studio ready I made sure I had the Amen Break available to play on a lap top as a refresher for the drummer. Also a metronome on the same laptop to keep him in time. The drummer had been briefed on what to wear to try and capture a flavour of the era. Suit trousers, waist-coat, shirt, tie and shoes. I brought a couple of shirts too just in case but we went for his mid-tone shirt and tie which were very in keeping with the era I was trying to capture. He did forget shoes though which put minor limitations on some of the shots and discounted one.
The shoot went pretty well and the planning proved to be a necessity as time was tight. The drummer was fantastic and did actually bare a close resemblance to G.C. Coleman the original drummer so was an excellent choice. He was also really helpful and up for it and a joy to direct. As far as setting up the shots went I filmed him straight on from a variety of shot sizes and angles. Then moved him ninety degrees and did another variety of shots. Lastly moved him around another ninety degrees and filmed him from behind and did the same again. This was to always keep the green in the background top key out.
In total I managed to get 24 shots. I need 16 for each of the the 16 different songs that have used the break and another 5 for the title screens and Amen Break reprises throughout the piece so I will have just enough. There is also the potential to flip shots in the software later to increase the options. I shot on a Canon T3i Rebel HD DSLR camera with a standard 18-55mm lens and a 14mm wide angle lens. I did do some tests with a 50mm 1.8 lens to give a shallow depth of field but decided against it as I did not think it would work
Issues and things I would consider for next time.
- Consider shooting some ready for Slo-mo. More research as could have researched more. Should be OK though.
- Even more footage for safety and possibly longer bits of footage.
- Studio with a bigger green screen. The size of the green in the studio did limit options a little.
- Be careful with keying. The drums have a lot of reflective surfaces that were on occasion picking up the green. post-prod will tell. I did pour light onto the subject to eliminate some of the green but impossible to avoid it all the time. Matt stands and matt cymbals would be a possbility but none available where I work.
- An extra set of hands as being lighting, camera, director and producer/production assistant was a little bit stressful. This would have allowed more focus to the job in hand.
- Looking back at the rushes a few ECU shots of drums hitting cymbals of drums, hands and sticks and his face may have been good. But nit picking here really.
- Little more variety of composition to make sure i had the shots I needed to put text on the screen alongside the visual too.
- Make sure he brought shoes and also possibly take out the ear studs for period authenticity which I missed during the shoot.
Sunday, 8 January 2017
AMEN: PRE-PRODUCTION FOR SHOOT
After deciding the way forward for the Amen piece I needed to turn around a shoot really quickly to give me time in post-production to do all of the complex editing, After Effects, and visual effects work. Also I was going to have to shoot using the TV studio where I work so would only have a time slot after lessons were finished so 2-3 hours maximum so being organised and prepared was key.
The first thing I needed for the shoot was a drummer. I did have one on hold from my previous idea but he unfortunately was white a heavily tattooed and not the right build. To work with the new idea I needed someone who actually looked like G.C. Coleman who was black, average build with a pencil moustache. I asked everyone who I knew, hit the phones and got lucky. A friend of a friend (Jason) was available and an excellent drummer and also lived in Ipswich which was where the studio I was going to use was.
Mise-en-scene wise there was nothing to worry about location wise for the shoot as it was all going to be green screened and then chroma-keyed afterwards. I did do some research into what the best drum kit would be. There were three options at college and I thought a dark drum kit would be best to contrast against the key. Other options were a light wood effect one which could also work well and was plan B or a shiny silver mini kit which was far too small. I did some measurements and camera tests for what would fit in the green screen available which whilst a fair size was not huge. The silver kit would fit with space to spare but looked too small and weird and the green screen just about took a full sized drum kit.
I also liaised with the drummer about costume as I was after a period late 60's feel to re-create the era for the re-enactment. Going from a photo of the Winston's (above) and G.C. Coleman (middle back) and from research into the era a suit, waistcoat and tie were my desired look. This also had a Motown era type feel which I felt would work well and add a touch of old fashioned credibility to contrast with the music videos. A period tie was also necessary to cap this off this look. I asked Jason (the drummer) to bring a white shirt and a mid-tone one to see which worked best as I know white can flare in the cameras sometimes.
For other preparation for the shoot on Tuesday I undertook some research into interesting photos of drummers. This was to help me consider camera placement, composition, angle, height and shot sizes.
From this research and taking on board my ideas I then started to storyboard the shoot. From my planning to use 16 music video clips alongside 5 for the titles/screen graphics I knew I would need at least 21. However I wanted some spares too just in case but also realised that I would be able to flip some shots so if I shot a composition with the drummer profiled screen right I could flip this to screen left in post as an alternative. The other area for consideration was the compositions where I would also have room on the screen for the text that would provide the narrative so I made sure that there were at least 7 shots that I could use for this.
The first thing I needed for the shoot was a drummer. I did have one on hold from my previous idea but he unfortunately was white a heavily tattooed and not the right build. To work with the new idea I needed someone who actually looked like G.C. Coleman who was black, average build with a pencil moustache. I asked everyone who I knew, hit the phones and got lucky. A friend of a friend (Jason) was available and an excellent drummer and also lived in Ipswich which was where the studio I was going to use was.
Mise-en-scene wise there was nothing to worry about location wise for the shoot as it was all going to be green screened and then chroma-keyed afterwards. I did do some research into what the best drum kit would be. There were three options at college and I thought a dark drum kit would be best to contrast against the key. Other options were a light wood effect one which could also work well and was plan B or a shiny silver mini kit which was far too small. I did some measurements and camera tests for what would fit in the green screen available which whilst a fair size was not huge. The silver kit would fit with space to spare but looked too small and weird and the green screen just about took a full sized drum kit.
I also liaised with the drummer about costume as I was after a period late 60's feel to re-create the era for the re-enactment. Going from a photo of the Winston's (above) and G.C. Coleman (middle back) and from research into the era a suit, waistcoat and tie were my desired look. This also had a Motown era type feel which I felt would work well and add a touch of old fashioned credibility to contrast with the music videos. A period tie was also necessary to cap this off this look. I asked Jason (the drummer) to bring a white shirt and a mid-tone one to see which worked best as I know white can flare in the cameras sometimes.
For other preparation for the shoot on Tuesday I undertook some research into interesting photos of drummers. This was to help me consider camera placement, composition, angle, height and shot sizes.
Due to the nature of how I was planning to edit the footage with moving images underneath I decided against camera movement as I felt this would be too much. With moving music video images underneath and the drummer moving whilst playing I felt that this would be too much for the audience to take on so I opted for static shots.
From this research and taking on board my ideas I then started to storyboard the shoot. From my planning to use 16 music video clips alongside 5 for the titles/screen graphics I knew I would need at least 21. However I wanted some spares too just in case but also realised that I would be able to flip some shots so if I shot a composition with the drummer profiled screen right I could flip this to screen left in post as an alternative. The other area for consideration was the compositions where I would also have room on the screen for the text that would provide the narrative so I made sure that there were at least 7 shots that I could use for this.
Friday, 6 January 2017
AMEN: EXPOSITION OF THE AMEN BROTHER BREAK
Following advice for the crit and the last split screen tests I have decided to try and make the message of the Amen Break piece clearer and add some background, context and exposition to help out the audience understand the piece. My main reticence to this was that I did not want it to be too obvious as I want to try and have the revelation of the piece where the penny drops aurally by listening to the tracks and picking out the same drum beat. However my thinking has changed a little and I do think I can use this device and still get the revelation but it will be a visual one through text or a VO alongside the aural one from the music from the artists.
My aim is to create a narrative and drip feeding the audience information intermittently throughout the piece I can build a story bringing facts to their attention but only once they have all been revealed or for cleverer audiences most of them will these frame the piece for them. There will be revelation from this but also an aural revelation when they HEAR the drum beats in the songs and manage to forge a link between them all.
I am going to try out both a voice over and the text on screen. I favour the latter as feel the VO will conflict too much with the audio and feel the type could be used creatively perhaps with some kinetic typography as long as it is clear and readable and not too fast. The use of both is obviously a tried and trusted documentary technique and by clever use of it will forge another link to blurring the boundaries between documentary, installation and the avant-garde. One of my other objectives in my mission statement was to still put narrative, character and storytelling at the forefront of my work. I feel that the use of the script/exposition I am doing just that. I aim to re-visit the actual Amen break at intervals throughout the piece to reinforce it and to allow for constant comparisons between it and the other music that sampled. This is also to keep giving the audience clues. It is during these re-visits to the actual break that in my opinion will be a natural home for the VO or text exposition.
For my tests of the piece I have been using 9 tracks and music videos for the film. My original intentions were to use 10% of the 2400 tracks that have used the Amen Break. Realising the impossibility of this logistically in the timescale I then aimed for 1% that being 24. However at this late stage and for this test piece I think 16 is realisable in the timescale. I do not want too much text/VO so I am trying to keep it to 5 pieces. These will build to create the narrative, clues to what the piece is all about and also to develop the character of G.C Coleman. I am looking to work the narrative/spine of the piece like this following narrative structure theory of Todov and Labov..
Rough Script First Draft
My aim is to create a narrative and drip feeding the audience information intermittently throughout the piece I can build a story bringing facts to their attention but only once they have all been revealed or for cleverer audiences most of them will these frame the piece for them. There will be revelation from this but also an aural revelation when they HEAR the drum beats in the songs and manage to forge a link between them all.
I am going to try out both a voice over and the text on screen. I favour the latter as feel the VO will conflict too much with the audio and feel the type could be used creatively perhaps with some kinetic typography as long as it is clear and readable and not too fast. The use of both is obviously a tried and trusted documentary technique and by clever use of it will forge another link to blurring the boundaries between documentary, installation and the avant-garde. One of my other objectives in my mission statement was to still put narrative, character and storytelling at the forefront of my work. I feel that the use of the script/exposition I am doing just that. I aim to re-visit the actual Amen break at intervals throughout the piece to reinforce it and to allow for constant comparisons between it and the other music that sampled. This is also to keep giving the audience clues. It is during these re-visits to the actual break that in my opinion will be a natural home for the VO or text exposition.
For my tests of the piece I have been using 9 tracks and music videos for the film. My original intentions were to use 10% of the 2400 tracks that have used the Amen Break. Realising the impossibility of this logistically in the timescale I then aimed for 1% that being 24. However at this late stage and for this test piece I think 16 is realisable in the timescale. I do not want too much text/VO so I am trying to keep it to 5 pieces. These will build to create the narrative, clues to what the piece is all about and also to develop the character of G.C Coleman. I am looking to work the narrative/spine of the piece like this following narrative structure theory of Todov and Labov..
- Intro to G.C. Coleman and his drum solo.
- 4 clips from tracks that have used the Amen Break
- Contextualise the song and the break
- 4 clips from tracks that have used the Amen Break
- The start of sampling of the Amen Break
- 4 clips from tracks that have used the Amen Break
- The far reaching impact of the Amen Break
- 4 clips from tracks that have used the Amen Break
- G.C Coleman's death, obscurity and sad end.
Rough Script First Draft
- In the Spring of 1969 a drummer from a band called the Winston's played a freestyle 6 second drum solo simply to extend a song.
- The drummer was a man called GC Coleman and the song it was from was an insignificant B side called Amen Brother.
- The drum solo became known as the "Amen Break" in the mid 1980's and began to be sampled in Hip Hop records.
- The "Amen Break" has now been sampled over 2400 times inspiring a huge variety of artists from a multitude of genres.
- GC Coleman never received royalties or acclaim for his 6 seconds of creative genius and died a homeless drug addict, homeless and destitute in 2006.
I am going to work on this and aim to try a shorter 4 statement version and to also tighten it to as few words as possible but this is the basic first version.
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
AMEN BREAK: BLUE NOTE JAZZ COVERS
Whilst trying to get to grips with a clean style that could contain all of the elements that I wanted to I remembered the artwork and album covers of the Blue Note jazz label that I was a fan off. These exuded cool, class, style and had excellent layout and colour. All of the attributes that I wanted for my piece. I am obviously aware of that the Winstons were not a jazz band but I felt that they were in the ballpark and sought out some of these covers that I loved to see what inspiration, colours, layout, composition, use of imagery and typography I may be able to glean from them.
The examples below are all of appropriation of Blue Note album covers. It shows what a timeless quality they have but how they hark back to the "Birth of Cool" era.
The examples below are all of appropriation of Blue Note album covers. It shows what a timeless quality they have but how they hark back to the "Birth of Cool" era.
One of the covers I loved was Sonny Rollins Volume 2. The strong central image of a grainy Rollins bathed in a blue light the sax very prominent in the foreground. the typography too slicing through the photo in a bold, clean, blue Helvetica type font.
Another and of a similar vein is John Coltrane's, Blue Train. Again hugely similar to the above the grainy image and the cool blue of the image radiating class. I am not so keen on the font this time but the image is hugely powerful and a contemplative Coltrane holding your gaze. I am really drawn to the blue in both of these covers and it is something that I will test out in my Amen piece.
Lee Morgan's Lee-Way is certainly different in terms of colour being a bolder but still stark cover of bright orange. The typography is clean and bold and very in your face which I love. However it is the off centre image of Lee squeezed into a rectangular leaning box that is the most exciting. He appears to be trying to escape it with his playing. I love the idea of the image of the player confined and the graphical quality of this and it is something I will experiment with in my own compositions.
Lastly Thelonious Monk's Volume 2 is again a variation on a theme of Lee-Way above. The bold red and again interesting typographic spacing. Again the typeface is bold and unmissable but the image of Monk smaller. I love the way that even though he is in a rectangle at the top the colour (red) washes through this and makes him seem bigger and integral to the overall cover almost small but spilling over into it dues to this. A technique that again i may look to exploit in my Amen piece.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)