Three Little Birds (2016 JRLMA Opening Titles)
Singin' sweet songs, of melodies pure and true...
When Approached by the committee of the Jack Richardson London Music Awards to be involved in the production aspect of this year's event, I was excited to be involved with an organization supporting local music. I also embraced the opportunity to call on some close friends to help me out to create something special to open the show with.
Weather decided that it was having none of this, and decided to turn wicked in between shooting giving me only 2 good days to capture everybody’s performances.
Everybody absolutely brought their “A” game, and it made my job so much easier in post. This video would not have happened if I wasn’t able to work with a fantastic group of individuals willing to let go, have fun and dive in.
My favourite thing about this shoot is that my daughter was there to accompany us for the heaviest day of shooting. We were on the rooftop of One London Place, under a rail bridge, and around Victoria Park all in one afternoon. 2 days later, she was able to see the video screened for an audience. I have a hard time explaining to my kids what I do for a living, so it was satisfying to me to have her experience this.
A huge thank you to everybody involved, and to the Jack Richardson London Music Awards steering committee, and board of directors for trusting my vision on this project.
"Three Little Birds" performed by:
Sarah Smith
Deni Gauthier
Carly Thomas
Gina Farrugia
Ken the Zen
Cole Benjamin
When Stars Collide
James Nestor
Jesse Nestor
Runaway Angel
Chris Rowan
Shelly Rastin
Darcy Corbett
Greg Weir
Bill Armstrong
For the nerdy details of the shoot…
Aside from the two locations where we shot in studio, all of the audio captured to create this was recorded on location. I used an iPad, an Audio Technica P48 microphone hooked up to an iRig pro interface. Audio was recorded using Garageband for iOS and later brought into Logic Pro X where I could go through everybody’s takes, and select all of the best parts. The ease of use and portability of the iPad made this feat easy to achieve as I was the only person on the crew pulling both audio and video responsibiliy.
We recorded Sarah’s performance as the bed track the day before she left for Germany outside the market downtown. The weather was so cold, we only had time for two takes before the equipment shut down due to the low temperature. Her performance you hear is her first and only take where we rolled sound on audio.
I sent the bed track to each artist beforehand so they would have some time to do some homework and be ready to shoot. I allowed each person a maximum on 3 takes if they needed it.
Audio & Video Edit lines from the project.
My days working as a musician were beneficial to me approaching this project as not only did I have to shoot the video, but I had to produce and engineer the song. As you can see but the screenshots above, this project had quite a few moving parts. None of the performances you hear were overdubbed, or auto-tuned.
A huge thanks to Deni Guathier who did the final mix of the song.
The bulk of this video was shot, assembled and delivered in 3 days.
On a personal note. I would like to personally dedicate this piece to Pete MacVoy who passed unexpectedly 5 days ago. Pete was a lover of all things art, and I feel he was watching over this one to help pull out a miracle.
Crew
Edward Platero: Director, Camera, Audio Recording, Audio arrangement
Deni Gauthier: Mixing
Sarah Smith: Song Arrangement
Maya Platero: Assistant
