One thing that has been bothering me since I started the STW project for Slice, is how are we going to engage the viewers and have them sit in front of YouTube for as much as a regular football match that is over 90 minutes. It seemed obvious straight away, that it will be a hard task. I am not even sure that I would sit there and watch for that span or close myself. A full one and a half hours of music is one thing but if it is a cover 10 minutes is an optimistic expected time of attention from anyone. Sure Slice will do several instruments (guitars, base, pianos, etc.) but to keep the viewers attention will require a little more than a good performance. so how to go about this.
Well we don’t intend to make a movie, we want the focus to stay on Slice and on the music as much as possible, but we will need a full range of visual resources to keep the viewer engaged. We first of all need to work on Slice’s shyness, he hates cameras and he struggles posing, or acting in front of one. We will need a much more communicative attitude from him, than what he has used so far. We will be working on this on the next videos he records and uploads. He needs to work on his body language, it is ok to move but we need to get a message a declaration out of every move. he needs to improve his face to face expressiveness being able to look into the camera and establish contact with the viewers on the other side, he need to transmit to them in a one to one basis. He needs to do all this, at the same time he is bringing out his performance and delivering to everybody via the camera, and the music.
But that alone won’t be enough and we are very conscious about that, we need to bring in some resources, footage that we can use to keep the candle lit. Needles to say that we can’t use others intellectual property without their permission, and we have still to clear that issue with the covered artist in the musical side, so getting in to further trouble with video copyrights is not our intention. This simply means that we will be recording footage with Slice out side the studio and elaborating a side story for the different songs. Also via YouTube we have found some amateur users that we are contacting and asking for their help in any way possible. There will be an extensive credits section for all that help in any way. We seek any kind of help except for financing, this is not an economical venture, never has been never will be. It is about music and respect, with a little side effect on promotion for Slice and all contributors.
Also there is going to be a huge effort put in to graphics and backgrounds, musical performance will be recorded indoors and we will use Chroma Key to get the performance in to the different contexts that may arise. We also count on using some special effects to the extent of our own limitations. these resources are a key part since we hope to keep the interest level high without diverting the centre piece.
Additional difficulty is that the original is a very well known piece of art and has sufficient entity of its own and we do not want to transform or adulterate the original master piece in any way. This is an exercise of respect and admiration. We need to be very careful to not trod on anybody's toes as best of our capabilities and keep the source and spirit of the original as intact as possible.
Getting everything right and and producing a mix of all components, while making it enjoyable and and entertaining. Is at this point a huge task to look up to, and I am not sure I have everything I need to get it right. I am very determined and I have the picture of it all arranged in my mind but brining all this out and on to a video is going to be a challenge I would never refuse.
The idea of publishing the full recording in one large video is a compromise so we have also came up with the idea that we will do individual tracks for each song independently in a more digestive presentation.
We can’t disclose the artist or the master pieces name yet until we get all the legal issues worked out, but a bit of mystery will not do any harm. On a personal account if any one want’s to help out in anything possible, please contact me at ian.a.burt@gmail .com and I will be happy to provide more information.
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