This film is included on an enhanced single-song CD along with a collection of photos and an e-book by Debra as a means of introducing the forthcoming 7-song CD. It can be ordered online at her Website, HonorYourTruth.com for just the cost of shipping and handling.
This is the final release version of our first music video working together…
It has some flaws, but it represents a whole lot of learning, experimenting, hard work and fun. There will be more to follow and we will continue to grow and test the limits of what we can do with sound and light.
The CD is being pressed by CopyCatsMedia.com also in Minneapolis. Contact Adam Wachter if you want a project quote. Phone: 612.236.9109 (direct) or toll-free: 888-698-8008.
adam.wachter@copycatsmedia.com
I am working on a music video to be included as part of an enhanced CD single to be released by Debra Hadraba, a singer/songwriter from St. Paul, MN. She is one of the founding members of the Braveheart Women Global Community and will be appearing at BraveHearts Rise! an Oct 2 – 3 Conference in Los Angeles with the likes of Dr. Maya Angelou, Mariel Hemingway and founder Ellie Drake among others.
She wrote the song, “Be Brave, Have Heart” in 2008 and worked on the studio recording, perfecting it for almost a year, We shot the video in several takes, carrying a Sony laptop PC with speakers as our portable sound source, struggling with the setting sun and trying not to get blowing sand in the keyboard. The zany outtakes might reveal Debra tumbling over a sand dune at Baileys Harbor Beach as I encouraged her to run away from the camera to close a scene… a mini-disaster.
We discovered a photographic goldmine of imagery and would like to thank everyone at the heart street art pool on Flickr who was kind enough to permit downloads of their heart graffiti photographs.
I am learning to build an enhanced audio CD rather than a DVD, so that Debra’s music can be played on a typical car stereo or portable CD player and the same disc can provide video, pdfs, photos and other extra content when opened in a computer. This method requires including an autorun.inf file to open the extra content on the CD.
I have been struggling with a few issues about lag time between the audio and video tracks, and am most familiar with rendering H.264 for online movies. I only notice the lag when when playing a local copy… a lag that disappears when I post it online. I tried rendering a Quicktime movie for the CD but that wasn’t acceptable either. After talking with Dave at Studio-120 in Minneapolis, I learned that the most dependable and universal format for enhanced CDs is FLV or Flash video. So, I finalized the film as an AVI at 1,116,408 KB and he can pull the FLV from that.
DesignWise Film Studios recently completed a 10-minute introductory video on Door County’s Midsummer’s Music Festival featuring Jim Berkenstock, explaining some of the workings of his unique chamber music concert ensemble. They celebrate their 20-year anniversary in 2010 – performing from mid June through Labor Day weekend at diverse venues throughout northeastern Wisconsin.
A director’s cut was screened for an audience of approximately 50 people at the organization’s annual honors dinner on August 25, 2009. After an enthusiastic response, suggestions on improving the audio on some of the outdoor sequences by reducing the natural background sounds were applied, resulting in the current working copy posted above. I am now developing a DVD with interactive menuing for final delivery.
Starting at the beginning…
I have been “becoming” a filmmaker for many years but seriously began to run hard for the goal in 2006. Since then, I have been putting myself through drills, training, editing, researching, shooting and experimenting. I created and continue to create a lot of test films, many of which are posted on my YouTube channel. Then, a few months ago, a break came. I was hired to create a professional documentary film on a group of classical musicians who have been playing a summer series of concerts throughout Door County, Wisconsin for almost twenty years.
I created this first draft from the footage I shot on Washington Island. Now, I am assembling a 10-minute video proposal, a short film for Wisconsin Public Television that uses a variety of concert footage on location shots merged with a spot interview with Jim Berkenstock, the co-founder of the organization.
Using effective titles and credits is important – and an art form in itself - so I am reading and researching more on The Art of the Title. I realize that on some of my test music videos I failed to add links to the artist’s Web sites within the videos, this must not ever be forgotten in the future. For the moment, there’s a Tuesday deadline to meet, so I am back to production.
This dedicated Web site will be a spot where I trace my path and share what I discover with anyone else who has a burning desire to become a filmmaker – at any level.
and I want a copy of Outlaw Josey Wales for only 6 bucks and change… don’t look!