Sound, and now, Sight
 |
The robocam (inset), operated from inside the control
booth,
above and behind the music stage, captures many
interesting
views of the Concord Band and Music Director
James O’Dell. |
Audio recordings of the Concord Band’s
concerts go back to the tenure of the
Band’s first Music Director, William M.
Toland, in 1962. Recorded initially on
Phillips cassettes by an amateur, the cassettes
were made available to any members
of the Band who wanted to have
something to show for all the effort that
had gone into their concert preparations
and were also saved as part of what became
the Concord Band Archive. The
Archive is now kept in the vault at the
Concord Public Library.
 |
Cameras, at the
rear of the hall,
one on
each side, and a remotely
operated camera
behind the Band,
give
the producer and technical
director many
options. All CCTV
camera operators are
volunteers. |
In the ‘80’s, when it became economical
to produce CDs on a small scale, the
father of one of the members of the Band
began to record our concerts digitally,
using video cassettes as the recording
medium. Eventually, the Band hired
a professional audio engineer, who
brought in hundreds
of pounds of digital
recording equipment
for each concert
and set up multiple
high-quality
microphones on
stands, running endless
cable up into
the control booth
that sits above the
percussion equipment
closets at the
back of the music
stage at the Performing
Arts Center
at 51 Walden. Over
time, the recording
equipment became
less bulky; today a
conventional PC
running specialized software attached to
a multi-channel microphone mixer is
used. A few years ago, the Band’s audio
engineer at that time gave the Band four
high-quality microphones and all the necessary
cable so that they could be permanently installed at 51 Walden. This, of
course, meant that it was no longer necessary
for stands to be set up and microphone
cable to be run for each concert.
As planning for the Concord Band’s
50th Anniversary season, 2008-2009, took
place, Dan Diamond, a long-time Band
member and Trustee, wondered whether it
would be feasible to take the next logical
step and make video recordings of the
Band’s concerts. He contacted Charles
Paige, Executive Director of Concord-
Carlisle TV, the town’s public access cable
channel, and a visit by CCTV people
to 51 Walden suggested that our building
was ideal. The control booth was perfect,
but the key ingredient was that a professional
audio engineer was already recording
the music, which meant that he
might be able to provide the necessary
stereo feed. As it turned out, he could.
 |
Producer Barry Mirrer
determines
what should
be
featured on screen
based on
the musical score. |
There was now only one ingredient
missing: We would have to find a producer
who could read concert band conductors’
scores, was willing to learn a little
about TV production, but most important
of all, was willing to put in the time
in advance of each Concord Band concert
to analyze and mark up a set of scores
with camera cues that he or she would
read back in real time during a concert to
the technical director. The technical director,
in turn, would actually communicate
with the camera operators over an intercom,
telling each of them what their next
shot should be (e.g., solo clarinet) and
operate the real-time camera switch to
determine which camera image to record.
The technical director must be an experienced
professional,
and Matt
Geiger, CCTV’s
production manager,
has handled
that job superbly
in all three videos.
 |
Technical Director Matt Geiger
of CCTV directs
and selects
camera shots in real time. |
Finding an
experienced concert
producer
was out of the
ques t ion, be
cause this had to
be a volunteer.
While we put out
the word that we
were looking for
such an individual,
Dan drafted
a one page document that could have been
entitled
How to be a Video Producer for a
Concert Band Concert. It had a chart
showing where all the instruments of the
Band sat, and a section labeled “Intercom
Instructions for Communications between
Video Producer, Camera Operators and
Switch Operator”, which, ignoring the
role of the technical director, shows how
little he knew about video operations at
the time. Ignorance being bliss, however,
the Band found Barry Mirrer, who had
band conducting experience mostly from
conducting pit bands for shows. He has
been perfect for the job, getting better and
better at it with each of the three videos
that have now been made.
Once the video has been recorded, all
that remains is for the raw “footage” to be
cleaned up, a title screen added up front
and credits to be added at the end. For the
first Band concert video, Dan Diamond,
who had by then discovered that he was
the Executive Producer of the video, decided
that it might be fun to learn how to
do the post-production editing himself.
Like lots of things (skiing, for example)
that look like fun until one tries to do
them oneself, he managed to get through
it—and some parts of it actually are fun.
But having to re-learn the software twice
a year—because that’s not often enough
to remember how to do much of anything—
does take some of the fun out of it.
Concord Band concert videos may
be viewed on
CCTV’s website and on the
Concord Band's YouTube channel.
Dan Diamond is the senior member of the Concord Band, having joined the ensemble in January, 1970. He is a percussionist who began his lifelong love affair with the snare drum 63 years ago. His is the founder and editor of our newsletter, Notes from the Concord Band
, and Executive Producer for Video Production.
