Je viens de entreprendre du travail sur la vidéo promotionnelle d’un group de cirque qui s’appelle Quatuor Stomp. Je vais poster des images du premier tournage sur le site et aussi sur ma page viméo bientôt

My trusty inspiration capturer

I normally work this way. I record a melodic idea into a personal recorder. The H4N by Zoom to be exact. I then piece all my ideas together into what I think the structure could be. I think the operative word here is what I think because songs change and evolve. I have written songs where I started with a verse, came up with a chorus later on, then scrapped the initial verse I had indeed worked very hard on. The original idea had disappeared but it left me with something fantastic. The whole idea is to get the ball rolling and, most importantly, not to get too attached to parts, that later on, you think should go to let the song grow. Re writing is the hardest thing to do while writing.

Cubase 6 does the structural organization for my songs

After working with the H4N, I put the song to click (metronome) in Cubase 6 so that if ever a collaborative opportunity pops up, I can send a track that is workable to another musician. I tell him or her the bpm and they can work on the song. This is where I like to iron out structure in my songs. I like to know how it evolves. Should there be a bridge? How long is the pre-chorus? How is the finale going to sound etc.

Here comes the hard part for me. I love to finalize my lyrics at this point. So far, everything has been sort of a mumble into the microphone. Some great ideas come from mumbles because song melody tends to push us toward a concept and a song idea. Most of the time the place it pushes us to lyrically isn’t off by that much. But this is where I leave the computer and try to find an original angle to what I am trying to say. Lyrics are sacred and I rework and write till the album is printed. I have been known to sometimes re sing stuff at mix

Hopefully I can sort of film this fuzzy process for you so that you can see what I go through from idea to finished product. I want to work on this during the holidays. Hopefully my schedule will permit.

J’essayais de trouver une manière de promouvoir ma maison sur le site de House Exchange. ( Le site on échange notre maison avec des gens autour du monde) J’ai commencé à filmer le charme de mon chez nous et voilà. . . .boulle de neige!

Filmed with: Eos 60D, Panasonic G2, 14-42 panasonic lense, Canon 18-135 (not a very good lense). Nikkormat 135mm 2.8, Nikkormat 50mm 1.4, and a Nikon 50mm 1.8. Edited in Finalcut, Music composed in Cubase 6 and Ableton live, Motion tracking and Image sequences done in Motion. Slider shots filmed with Indislider mini. Compressed in Apple Compressor.

This is the garage seen from the dispatcher's perspective

At certain perspectives, the garages sprawl out as far as the eye can see; literally. Organization also is apparent. The number of busses parked side by side and the synchronization at which they go in and out of the garage is mind boggling. Ingenuity and adaptability are also two qualities that shine. Many solutions have been created to cope with different problems over the years. The solutions that staff, workers, management and drivers have come up with are both efficient and effective. Also, the level to which the RTC garages are busy is also very impressive. It is a place that almost never sleeps.

I would like to make a film on all the aspects that the RTC garages are about. The reality of a bus user is really to just hop on a bus, wait for their stop, and then get off at their exit. This is done with a complete ignorance of what is really happening behind the scenes. I believe that one would be fascinated to see the actual reality of the bus that they hop into. It would also raise awareness into what each and every consumer pays for, when they pay whatever fee that they have to pay to use public transit.

The Scenario

The scene would open up with a gentleman or a lady hopping on a bus and a time-lapse of the busses day. Many angles of the bus’ day would be taken (the street view, the driver’s view, and possibly another angle as well). We would literally go through a full day of the bus’s transit and finally reach the garage where it parks.

This is where the fun begins. Using time-lapse photography techniques and a series of  interviews we would see what actually happens to a bus behind the scenes. Once certain strategic interviewees are chosen, we could interview people and show detailed aspects of bus maintenance while they speak. For instance, If we interview a specialist in bus cleaning, we could have images of the actual bus cleaning process while they are talking. It will be most important to take care of getting the interviews before we shoot any sort of stock footage.

The last interview of the film would be the dispatcher. We would follow the same sort of scenario as above, using the dispatcher’s description of the final dispatch to show the bus actually going back on it’s run. The film would end with a time-lapse of the bus going back on its run and the film slowing down when the first customer hops on the bus. Essentially, we would be back to square one.

Second draft for the logo shown after my productions. It is groovy and cool. Audio done in Cubase 6, Motion graphics in Motion 4, Encoding in compressor.

Vidéo promotionnelle réalisée pour l’École de cirque de Québec. Un beau projet fait avec des gens sympathiques et généreux. Tournage entre février et mai de 2011.
Tournage avec une Canon EOS 60D et une Panasonic G2. Montage visuel en Finalcut. Création musicale et audio en Cubase 6 . Objectifs utilisés Canon 50mm, 1.4 pour les entrevues, Panasonic kit lense 42-50 et 45-200 pour les plans de coupe.

Promotionnal video filmed for the Quebec city circus school. A really nice project made with generous and nice people. Filmed between February and May of 2011-06-01

Filmed with the Canon EOS 60D and the Panasonic DMC-G2. Editing was done with Final cut. Musical and audio creation with Cubase 6. Lenses used were the Canon 50mm, 1.4 for interviews and the Panasonic kit lenses 14-42 and the 45-200 for my establishing shots.