This music video became more of an art piece as the edit progressed.
Karen Marie Marmer, an early music colleague, approached me to shoot and edit a very specific film of her playing a solo piece.
With a 5 hour shoot, I had time to gather about 16 angles of her playing and some introductory footage of her wandering the deserted allies of the site, before moving to the location of a local bookstore to shoot the top and tail of the film.
Wandering around Catania (Wiki), big video camera under my arm, it's a point and shoot bonanza.
Point the camera at pretty much anything and it's going to be gorgeous if the camera is set right (which takes a bit of doing with the AF100 as the menu is as deep as a coal mine.
I walk past this guy every day
The footage will serve as 'Broll' for the documentary on my wife and her opera singing tales of emotion and drama.
This morning at the opera house, I kept rolling as the director lost his marbles and launched into an Italian tirade of "Catzo this" and "catzato that" at the chorus who sat defiantly on stage, answering
back at will.... all very dramatic, ending with tears from the director. (Gold).
My wife is searching for shoes to wear tonight. We're leaving in 15 minutes to spend a mystery New Year's Eve with ... well I met three of them this afternoon at the Bellini Opera House:
an Albanian Concert Pianist, a Cuban Baritone and a Mezzo from Armenia. I think it will be another evening of 3 languages
The Baritone showed me around the center today. Catania has the most amazing market, and so cheap.
Such a culture shock going from Belgium to Sicily. People are different here, louder, warmer more fun.
But it did take an hour in the mobile phone shop to buy a sim card....
Food is going to be great tonight. I think we are going to a restaurant in the country side...
LionBrand is America's oldest manufacturer of craft yarn. It was founded in 1878!!
They found their way to me through word of mouth (always the best form of advertising), and we've had a huge year for video production.
The marketing people at LionBrand understand the value of video, using it to inform their customers and promote their products in a truthful and compelling way, then following through with instructional videos that help everyone get the most out of the products they've bought.
As the introductory video for the Martha Stewart Crafts Lion Brand Yarn Knit & Weave Loom Kit nears the 70,000 views mark, the instructional videos are becoming popular.
Here's the series: Videos by New York Video Service
Beware: Deep Diving can cause some head shrinking.
I've always plunged thoughtlessly into water. No concerns, no fears (except for the 12 months following JAWS). There were always fins, masks and snorkels around when I grew up. Swimming goggles (pic)and Marco Polo. An underwater visit with the dolphins in Israel (see video) back in the 90s led to interest in SCUBA.
It didn't take long before I was pushing along a video camera, making friends with turtles, swimming with sharks (video) and meeting a new community of special people who love to take their adventures under the surface.
I've realized over the last few years that a surprisingly high percentage of people are actually certified to dive. Often when I'm talking to new people, and they ask me what I do, they admit to having once been scuba divers themselves "I'm certified but I haven't dove in 5 years"...
Anyway, for all of you lapsed scuba divers, I have put together a site to inspire, remind and inform.
Start on the Scuba video page.
Taking an afternoon break from editing, I curled up with a cup of tea and a camera manual.
My goodness this AF100 camera's menus are deep. The control over the flavors of the image you want to record is quite wonderful. The camera's already been put to work, filming Rini, pre-opera preparations at home...
I've scored a ticket for tonight's Cendrillon performance, which is three hours long (shorter than Carmen) so hopefully the left over jet-lag will keep me on my toes as I'm 6 hours ahead.
After the show 2 nights ago, I joined Rini and her manager with the maestro and a couple of colleagues, one still in her spangly lashes (see photo below). A fascinating bunch. Quite an honor to be around, as I sat there quietly trying to keep up with the 4 languages being tossed around like a small baby.
I'd been in the wings briefly at the final curtain, amazed as always at the very specific energy that happens backstage. Most of the cast are on every night, so they are quite exhausted with a week to go.
Rini, with lots to sing, is supposed to be off every other show, but had to sing back-to-back performances last week as the other Cinderella was ill. That was the night they were filming for broadcast, so good for Rini.
Later that Night:
I Button Holed a tiny camera as I walked in to the opera....
When a man writes unjustly about my wife, he takes his life in his hands.
A small but cheap shot at Rini's almost perfect French has angered some powerful players.
The people who work with my wife tend to really love her, and more often than not, they take a moment to tell me so. Her dressers, colleagues, directors... they bear witness to the herculean strength that Rini displays when at work, no matter how she is feeling or what she is dealing with. When someone has a go at her, people jump to her defense.
A critic fired a nasty shot into the back of Rinat Shaham, a tireless artist and courageous performer, criticizing her pronunciation during a performance of Massanet's 'Cendrillon', a well loved story about a down-trodden girl becoming a princess.
The ensuing uproar began building when Rinat replied on the issue on another blog, and another Critic emerged from the shadows to defend her, calling the article:
Rini left her thoughts on Norman's blog, which he republished, becoming a heavily trafficked article about double standards. Comments and emails began flowing.... the 40 or so comments are fun to read..
It's nice to witness an argument and be able to hear each of the voices uninterrupted.
The manager at my favorite cafe in Manhattan had soaked bacon in bourbon for 9 months to bring this recipe to fruition. (Like the worm in the tequila only tasty?), A midnight viewing of my old friend's crooked new apartment before an icy stroll home to finish some blurred packing... some nausea on the way to Kennedy airport should not have surprised me.
Delta tries to screw some more bucks out of its weary customers by charging $80 for exit rows, but none of us are having any of it, and they have to give them back to us at the gate as the flight is so full:
"Yes Doctor Bucknell, there seems to be a window available now, mysteriously, at this last minute...."
Is this how the airline is trying to pay for having USB plugs installed in every seat?
I admit to myself that I am impressed with this new development as I charge an ipod and wash down some paracetamol with a free imported Heineken and curl up in my two empty seats. It's nice to be the pigeon from time to time, and not the statue.
Coming back from travels to a messy home instills dread in my last few days anywhere abroad.
I'm cleaning house like a ponzi accountant..
The three week trip to Brussels and Sicily begins tomorrow night. My downstairs neighbours must be wondering "why all the action upstairs... "
To take editing on the road means not forgetting anything, so the carry-on is slowly filling up with wires, drives, chargers and notes.. and some light camera gear... but no viola. That neglected piece of finely crafted maple must think I'm a bastard for leaving it at home all the time. Lucky it doesn't Bark.
(insert Pun here).
It's a great time of year for the mind to be distracted by alternative scenery, food, language... The end of a year: time to look back and forgive yourself for not being your best, or maybe give yourself a pat on the back for a year well spent (if you've had beers at the time this is more likely), and time to squeegee the chalk off the board with a wet ... squeegee and blank your conscious.
2012 will be exciting I hope, with a juicy new camera, new computers and a new workflow with the editing.
Maybe it's time to start working on that documentary on my wife...
Time to fly, I'll write if I see anything strange in the airport..
