June 7, 2008

INTERVIEW

Steve Stepanic – Sound Engineer

Steve Stepanic was our second Man with the Golden Ears – our sound engineer who mastered the audio from the show. He works out of Joao Carvarlho’s Mastering, a world-class mastering studio in Toronto.

Why did you agree to do this project, as it was an independent production where so many worked for so little?

Well, after seeing the rough cut, I was so enamored with the concept of the show, the performers and performances themselves, I was so eager to be a part of this. It really was an exciting new idea/concept for a show. Sometimes when you believe in a project, for me, the money is not as important as contributing to something exciting! And hopefully bringing in your skills/talents can help push the vision forward !


Explain the difference between mixing live sound, like SSP, and tracks laid down in a studio, either separately or a ‘full band live off the floor’ direction?

Well, "live" recordings/studio recording vary so enormously sometimes, and it all has to do with "being in the moment" and capturing those sounds with that raw energy that is inherent in a "live" project. With SSP, you really get a sense that this thing is just the musicians really "just getting into a place". There are dozens of mics, and leakage, and noises...all those things actually have a part in the final mix. Trying to keep the real performances intact is what we went for. We didn't really alter the sounds we had in the recording - we just basically brought out things in the mix that were there but maybe not heard as well in the live environment. You can't hide behind a "live off-the-floor recording". That's the beauty of it!

What were the most challenging aspects of mixing and Synching the music to picture - any song in particular?

Sometimes with picture edits, it’s hard to make the music work as well, because the music needs to follow the picture edits, so there is sometimes some massaging that needs to happen. I don't recall any major issues with the tracks themselves. Some of them had a few picture edits, say 3/4 within a song that had to match on the audio side.
More specifically, the rehearsal footage was quite a challenge. In terms of digging out what the musicians were saying, no direct mic-ing was used, as in the performances, so there is no direct sound for the dialogue - that was tricky...but I think we were able to pull that aspect of the mix off nicely!!

Probably the most challenging in terms of mixing was achieving that sense of "liveness/ realness" and also mixing in such a way to help draw you into the performance. And, the most challenging aspect in terms of the synching of the music to the picture was panning the instruments in such a way that matched to where you saw the particular instrument/musician on screen to complete the visual/audio experience. The picture cuts often were from different angles and different perspectives.

Do you have a favourite moment that you are proud of?

Put me on the spot why don't you!! I think I am most proud of the "feeling" we were able to pull out of "Blackwinged Bird" by Emm Gryner. That particular performance really pulls me in. I get shivers on that one !! Also, the 3 collaborations by all the musicians had some amazing interplay…amazing to listen to those elements combined in the mix !

What kind of equipment did you use to mix?

The music was recorded live with ProTools, and also mixed in a hybrid environment, involving Protools and also some of the finest outboard audio equipment available. I really love the power of digital and the sonic beauty of great analog equipment, and for SSP, we used both to achieve the mix.
Here is how it went down:

---all the music was mixed separately from the final mix (post audio mix)---music was mixed using ProTools and vintage Neve console, equalizers, and compressors.

---from there, we inserted all the music, along with the dialogue tracks and audience tracks to form the final post mix.

---in the final post mix stage, we also utilized the same sonic setup: Protools--with Neve console, equalizers, and Neve compressors, with the addition of finalizing the mix through the Sequoi Mastering software as a final output to a digital file format.

What advice can you give to aspiring music mixers?

I could go on all day here! I think (and I keep re-learning this simple piece of information) that one of the most important things (even though there are several) when mixing music is to do what is natural and feels right for the music. Try to picture the mix in your head before you start and trust your instincts. Easier said than done sometimes, but I think, we, as mixers, can become a slave to the process and the intent of the music may get lost. What 's the music trying to say?

February 8, 2008

INTERVIEW

D. Gregor Hagey – Director of Photography/Camera Operator

Gregor came on board quite close to the shoot day but created an economical and striking lighting design. We wanted the show to be led by the music, and not by the technical requirements of a filmed show, and Gregor’s lighting was the perfect low-maintenance solution – simple, effective and dramatic. He comes from a background of features, music videos and shorts.

What appealed to you about the job of lighting The Side Street Project?

Both the technical and creative challenges of Side Street appealed to me. The challenge was to light 3 bands in an unique stage formation for multi-cam shooting in a way that enhanced the performance for the live audience and more importantly looked great on camera and stayed within a modest budget. Also I love music. I knew Buck 65's music and a little of Emm Gryner's and I was very excited to be introduced to Holy Fuck. Finally I have to say that the enthusiasm of the Producers: Michael, Matt and Nicole got me very excited about working on this. It's a pleasure to work with people who are passionate about their projects. I have to thank Samy Inayeh for recommending me for the job, because he was originally attached to shoot it but a conflict came up with his schedule.

What was your approach to lighting the show? We had some specific references: The Last Waltz, The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, Festival Express, YouTube footage of Roxy Music on a 70's German music show - how did you translate these into a lighting scheme?

I didn't try to copy any specific lighting or camera ideas from The Last Waltz, The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus or Festival Express, but I did want to emulate the emotional feel and tone of those documentaries. This meant my approach to lighting the show was to keep it honest, warm and intimate for both the live audience and the home audience, but there also had to be a sense that not everything was in control. In order to get the best energy from the performance the lighting had to be unobtrusive to the artists and audience. I didn't want to use any cheesy lighting gimmicks that would distract from the intensity of the artist's performance so it was a mixture of dramatic lighting and stage lighting. On the one hand I needed soft flattering light on the artists, but on the other hand I needed to make sure each musician stood out on the stage. This meant hanging a warmed up balloon light above the stage as their key light and placing cooled down lekos behind each musician as their backlight. I also felt it was also important to keep the lighting as dim as the cameras could take so the ambience was comfortable for the audience.

We particularly enjoyed watching the helium lighting balloon go up - can you explain why that equipment was selected, how it works and the effect it has?

The helium balloon is a marvellous light. It lets you literally float a light source in the air above the set. I wanted a soft flattering light for the artist's faces so they looked great on camera and give a warmer more intimate feel. It wasn't possible with the time and resources we had to rig a large softbox above the stage so the helium light was the perfect solution. Stephen had some reference material with funky glass hanging globe fixtures which led to the idea of hanging a constellation of paper lanterns just below the balloon. On camera it looks like the paper lanterns are lighting the scene, but in fact it's the 8000W balloon light just above them. This also kept all the sight lines clear for the audience and multiple cameras.

Were there other particular challenges of lighting the show?

Because Side Street was shot in an empty old warehouse with no real set per se, the lighting became very important to create the design elements at the event. The constellation of paper lanterns was carefully hung to focus the audience's attention to the stage and create movement between the different artists. These had the bonus effect of creating a nice sparkle in everyone's eyes. Lights were carefully hidden behind the audience to throw orange and red washes on the back walls to create a sense of depth and excitement to the space. There was also a separate interview area created with a chesterfield that had to be quickly lit from the floor and then wrapped up out of sight for the performances. I have to thank Jonathan, Mael, and Veronika for their hard work with the lighting set-up.

You also operated one of the cameras - is this something you commonly do and why?

I usually operate the camera on the films I'm on. I love the connection to the actors and scene you get when you are looking through the viewfinder. The camera operator is an unseen performer in the scene especially when you're shooting handheld verité style. Mind
you I was only 1 of 4 camera operators on this shoot which meant we all had to work together to stay out of each other's shot, but still get the shot we each needed.

What cameras were used on the show?

Sony HVR-Z1U’s were used on Side Street, a 3-chip mini HD camera.

Do you have a favourite moment from the night?

It's hard to pick, perhaps Bagpiper or Pour Some Sugar On Me or maybe Spread 'Em...I can't decide. It was such a unique night because it had the energy and excitement of a live concert with the audience (which brings the intensity of the performance up), but also the control with lighting, camera and sound that you'd get from a studio shoot (so you have much prettier and better sounding picture).

 Wednesday, May 16 2007

INTERVIEW

Mark Radu - Live Sound Engineer

Mark Radu, the man with the golden ears, was our live sound engineer for the pilot show. On the night he created a full, rich, immediate sound, and this mix became the temp track which we edited to and immediately slapped onto our ipods and laptops where it has been in heavy rotation ever since.

His brief bio on the website of PA-Plus, the company he works for, states he is known for going the extra mile and this was certainly our experience of Mark. The artists he has engineered live sound for is staggering, ranging from AC/DC to Willie Nelson with stops along the way for Justin Timberlake, Destiny's Child, Prince, Rufus Wainwright - to name just a few from the incomplete list of 261 names he's still piecing together.

Mark kindly unpricked his ears and took a few minutes off from knob twiddling to answer our questions about creating the great live sound for The Side Street Project:

The day seemed particularly challenging for you: Three sets of musicians playing in rotation, sometimes collaborating, and performing songs that, for the most part, you hadn't heard before - yet you produced excellent live sound. What was your approach to capturing the sound, where do you begin?

I managed to listen to a few tracks from a couple of the Artists in the weeks leading up to the event. This, if nothing else, just gave me a sense of what the Artist was about and offered a bit of feel as to what I could expect on the day. Most larger tours spend weeks in pre-production. Everything is rehearsed, perfected and repeated night after night. Mixing a show like this soon becomes a cue to cue existence. When it comes to mixing a unique event like this I just went back to the basics.....sound reinforcement. Let the Artist lead, just follow along and reinforce them in the mix as needed. I didn't try and over engineer anything, I just followed the instrumentation and the dynamics of the performance and helped out wherever I could, keeping things very raw and intimate sonically to match up with the visual atmosphere created by the producers...

It was fascinating watching your process of deciding where to place the audience PA - what were the factors that you had to figure out?

This was kind of a unique challenge. As mentioned above, the show was very intimate with the audience completely surrounding the stage. Aside from the obvious criteria of covering the audience, I wanted to make sure that I could overlap the coverage of speakers from different points. This allows the audience to hear the mix from more than one given reference point. Secondly, I had to ensure that all of the speaker elements could be properly time aligned with the stage even though they were focused in different directions.

What does 'time aligned' mean?

Delaying the output of the nearer speaker so that it arrives to the listener at the same time as the farther one. The overlap in coverage allows for a more ambient style listening environment, while properly time aligning the speaker system to the stage draws the audible focus of the audience to the performers as opposed to the speakers.

Any tips for budding sound folk out there?

Technology moves along pretty quick. We've gone from analog devices to a vast array of digital devices and one would be hard pressed to do a large scale event nowadays without a couple of notebook computers wired into the audio system. With this in mind, you have to remember that sound is still physics, pure and simple. No matter what new toys or gadgets come out to manipulate the way we process or produce sound, you can't change the laws of physics. My best advice would be to get yourself a solid understanding of the physics of sound. This knowledge will never become outdated.....

Thank you, Mark.

Monday, April 02 2007

INTERVIEW

Stephen Scott - Director

Stephen Scott directed the pilot show. A seasoned and award-winning director of music video, he's worked with The Trews (So She's Leaving), Ron Sexsmith and Chris Martin (Gold in Them Hills) and Tea Party (Writings on the Wall) to name but a few. His television work includes Plucked (CMT) and Urban Legends. It was clear from the first moment we met Stephen that we were dealing with a major music fan. He immediately understood our concept for The Side Street Project and took all of our references in his stride. He proved to have the experience, energy, creativity and calm demeanour to do us all proud.

What appealed to you about the job of directing The Side Street Project?

I'm a music junky. I used to be a DJ before I started directing music videos, so I came to this project first and foremost as a fan of music. I was excited by the idea of 'cross-pollinating' different artists and really dig the different musicians who came to play. On top of all that, the production team was superb and everyone involved seemed to be sharing the 'good vibe' feeling that we were creating something special as a team.

What was your approach to the task of directing, given that there were a lot of different components and we wanted the artists to be as free as possible - we didn't even know the tracks the artists were performing until the day itself?

It was important to create an atmosphere that felt loose and open to collaboration, but there are always technical considerations and we wanted the final product to look and sound as good as it possibly could. A lot of planning and preparation goes into creating something that in the end hopefully feels very 'in the moment' and off the cuff. So everything from the lighting, to blocking, to camera placement was designed to be as unobtrusive as possible while allowing us to respond to what was happening in front of us as quickly as we could. We had to be ready for anything, because it was not a tightly pre-rehearsed event; we were working without a safety net!

Are there any specific challenges from the day that stick in your mind?

Shooting with multiple cameras 'in the round' is always difficult, but ultimately you have to be willing to sacrifice a bit of technical perfection to capture all of the best moments the musicians are offering, because that's what it's really all about. Simply trying to stay out of each other's way and not have the machinery of production distract the musicians was a big challenge, but judging from the quality of their performances I would say that we succeeded.

You seemed very calm on the day itself and well organised - is that your usual approach to the job?

I've always thought that if the Director is the quarterback of the team, they need to have their game together. There's a 'flow-through' effect that usually happens on set, so if the director is panicking or unprepared or unsure what to do, other people pick up on it and it can be very counter-productive. At the same time, you need to be flexible enough to deviate from the game plan when necessary, and experience gives you the confidence to do that. So I may seem calm on the outside, but on the inside I'm a raging cauldron of adrenalin, concern and excitement!

Do you have a favourite moment from the show?

There was a moment when I realized that while I was giving the cameramen direction, watching 5 monitors and thinking about the next setup, I had a great big grin on my face and was bopping my head to the music - I had become a member of the audience watching a great show. During the collaboration part of the event, which was probably the scariest and most 'fly by the seat of your pants' part for all concerned, everything seemed to be firing on all cylinders: the music was incredible and both the musicians and audience seemed to be having an amazing time. Something really magical was happening, and it occurred to me that this might be the most fun I've ever had on set!

You know Emm from a few years ago, and since directing the pilot and getting reacquainted you've directed a video for 'Blackwinged Bird'. It's a fantastic song, full of strong and curious imagery - what visual concepts did you bring to the song (or out of the song)?

For 'Blackwinged Bird' I came up with a very surreal interpretation of the song that places Emm in an imaginary world constructed entirely out of miniatures. Like Emm's music, it's playful and pretty, but a little dark around the edges. Contrasting images of confinement and escape were inspired by the lyrics and feeling of the song without attempting to be overly literal.

How did the shoot go? Did Emm pull any of her legendary diva moves?

I wish I had some good dirt to share about Emm, but unfortunately she was a selfless trouper (not a state trooper) - the shoot was long and she was in every shot, but always had good energy and never complained. She also came through with a very engaging performance I think.

We can't wait to see it! Thank you Mr. Scott.

Thursday, Sep 14 2006

It was an incredible night - there was magic in the air. We were blessed with the talents of Buck 65, Holy Fuck and Emm Gryner, who stepped courageously onto our warmly lit stage and shared with us their talents and a glimpse of their souls.

Earlier in the day, our guests had a brief, inconclusive, but quietly positive rehearsal of the collaborations they would be performing. Nothing was nailed down exactly, but we had faith that some alchemy would occur through discussion and osmosis and the incredible energy around the show.

Our cameras rolled as our host Charles Officer hosted the artists to some delicious food and fine wine, guiding them through conversations on art, career and industry.

The audience streamed in after a patient wait in the dark outside, rushed the bar and then gathered around the stage, just a breath away from the performers. A night of interviews and performances unfolded, sometimes like a conversation, sometimes like the best party you’ve ever been to – intimate, ecstatic, revealing. Buck gestured us into his world, Holy Fuck rocked our world, and Emm seduced us all with her pure, direct talent. The night was carried, as we’d always wished, by the craft of musicianship, songwriting and performance.

By the third round of music, the collaborations were beginning. The fourth ‘official’ round of full collaborations was breathtaking. Holy Fuck, aided by Buck 65’s dexterous spinning, brought unexpectedly subtle undercurrents to Emm’s yearning, sexy rendition of Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me”; Gordon Lightfoot’s “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was shaken off and beaten into the sound of shit going down – with Buck’s urgent vocal, Emm calling like a siren on the rocks and Holy Fuck pounding on the hull like the gales of November, the desperate horror of this tragedy broke the surface once more; Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper” was a haunting, relentless, pulsing electrocrash - an itch that you just can’t scratch - with Emm’s vocal drdrawing us into the solitary, doomed nightmare of a life heading nowhere too fast.

It was an intense, somehow ecstatic ending. Images of the evening are etched in our memory; sensations and sounds are still reverberating in our bodies.

The Side Street Project would like to thank all who participated - on stage, off stage and backstage - musicians, audience and crew alike. You were all integral in creating an amazing show. And we are extremely grateful to you all.