Music

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Music

Postby Shaker » Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:40 am

If there is a good match between images and music, the two become one. Such a show is not a slide show with musical background, nor music with images. It is an indivisable whole and the viewer is not conscious of its two components.

It may take a while to find music which does this, but it is well worth the effort.
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Postby DickK » Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:30 pm

Absolutely agree! But it is HARD to do it right. Still, when it comes together it is, indeed, worth it. Oh, and on the rare occasion I get it really right, its more by luck (trial-and-mostly-error) than planning or even imagination.
Dick
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle ((PSG, PSE & Fuji HS20 user)) Presentation Impact Blog

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Postby Shaker » Fri Nov 09, 2007 10:10 pm

DIck,

I would very much appreciate it if you would point us to one or more of the shows in which you have succeeded. Then we can experience what is possible.

On the few occaisions when I think I have succeeded, this too has been by chance. I have no significant knowledge of music, and even if I had, well-know pieces tend to attract attention to themselves rather than to the show as a whole. So I tend to pick pieces which are unfamiliar.

My source is usually recorded radio music on the internet, skipping forward 5 minutes at a time after stopping briefly to get the feel of what is being played at the moment. This is where Audacity is so useful.
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Postby DickK » Sat Nov 10, 2007 11:13 am

Boy, that's almost as hard as finding the music for a show! Hmmm... lemme go look...

Okay here's a couple where both the show impressed me and the music is, for me, particularly well chosen:

http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewtopic.php?t=3578 That show's one of the best scenic shows around, IMHO.
http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewtopic.php?t=5428 Another in the scenic show genre. Good music.

I'm sure there are more ways to think of it, but I see a basic division into two types of shows. (What I mean by type of show isn't the genre but rather which came first, the pictures or the audio.) It seems clear that in the above and many (most?) shows, the person started with the pictures and added the audio as background. Ahhh... but why? The pictures don't (well, shouldn't) need the audio to be interesting. So why do we put it there? Answer that and I think you'll know what "good" audio is for your show. In this type of show, it means to me that the music & audio fit the pictures and reinforce the story being told by the show. It shouldn't normally draw attention away from the video but rather support it. The audio should pick up on some aspect of the pictures, maybe the geography--western theme, Spanish flavor; maybe the tempo, maybe the feelings evoked by the pictures: quiet vs. exciting, happy, nostalgic, etc. And that's why I find it hard to find the music I want--I'm "picky" and I'll keep looking until I either find something that does that or, occasionally, give up and just use something innocuous. Once in awhile, I'll know exactly what I want as I'm making a show--that happened when I did the Fountain Abbey Ruins section of my show about Harrogate UK--but that's rare. Mostly, I have a notion of the "feel" I need but just have go rummaging through all my resources to find something--that's the trial-and-lots-of-error part.

On the other hand there are shows where the audio is as much a part of the show as the pictures, occasionally even more. Personally, I've never done a show starting with the audio and put pictures to it--there are a couple posted here in the samples like that. I can certainly see how that could be interesting. In fact, I've got a vague idea percolating in the back of my brain for a show where the music is where I'd start and use a bunch of pictures to sort of illustrate what my mind "sees" when I listen to the music.

Anyway, I guess the best way might be to spend an afternoon/evening going through the sample libraries here looking for shows that people commented about the music choice. Then look at the show and see if first you agree and second what made the music choice "work".

Dick
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle ((PSG, PSE & Fuji HS20 user)) Presentation Impact Blog

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Postby Shaker » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:55 am

Dick,

Thankyou for suggesting the shows. I thought the music was good, possibly very good, but not the perfect match.

In particular, the music for the cliff dwelling had repetitive phrasing and it became a little boring and distracting. The images were without context for me, (due to my ignorance of the dwellings) and I found myself wondering why I was watching. And because of this, the music took precedence. If the pictures had more interest for me, then the music might have been fine.

The suitability of music may depend upon the viewer, but I don't feel this is a major factor in most shows.

The first show I came across which had a perfect match between images and music was about caving. I tried to find it again but can't. If anyone knows of it, please say.

In its absence, I have humbly resubmited one of my own shows in the Sample Shows area. The music was one of the few pieces I had lying around. When I tried it without any great expectations, it fittted the subject and mood perfectly. In fact, I feel it could have been written for the show. It needed a little surgery to extend it to the show length.
Shaker

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