Short doc about the recording of an album. Need help!

[tomperson]

Hi all,
I've been recently invited to film the recording of an album. It's a fairly low budget project, mostly acoustic, vocals + guitar.

About the band/album:
The vocalist has quite an interesting personality, he is pretty well known locally for his crazy live performances, and for being overtly gay. The guitarrist is kind of like the opposite, very stable and calm, so they complement very well. The album is a studio rendition of some of the same songs they play live (which are extravagant covers of popular music). The studio recording sessions add up to something like 20 hours of vocals and guitar, and that's pretty much it
(mixing will be done at musician's home, don't know about mastering).

About the documentary:
As it always seem to happen with stuff like this I was invited the day before recording sessions started last week, so I had no time to prepare for the event, and there was no way they could change the studio booking. Fortunately, shooting has been going quite good, so far i have some nice footage of the musicians doing their thing.

My intention is to make a short doc (about 15 minutes) out of the material recorded so far, it should be fun to watch, and at the same time it should convey the mood, personality and spirit of both the music and the artists.

Questions/Concerns:
My main concern now is how to give structure to the doc. As I had no time to plan beforehand, I have a mix of footage of studio sessions recording, some chit chat, and a bit of them talking in a pretty informal way about the project, which is good, but not really structured, and I'm not sure about how usable some of the shots are (due to background noise, lighting, etc). I have some pretty hilarious moments too, but I need a backbone for this to work. My idea was to do a more "formal" interview after the recording sessions, and use that as the core of the film, but I fear that it may lose some of the "mood" that developed in the studio, and even worse, they may get fed up with talking again about topics
they already addressed (albeit in an informal way).

I intended to touch the following topics:

- The background of the band. How they met, how long they've been working together.
- The experience they have gathered so far in the live shows.
- How did the live shows evolve into an album.
- The songs in the album. Why did they choose those, what's their take on the songs, how they differ
from the originals, etc. What's the core idea.
- What comes next.

Qs:
How would you deal with this?
Would you do a formal interview?
Would you do it in the studio or elsewhere?
What would you ask?
How would you structure this kind of doc? How would you jump from the interview to the studio and back?
How to get the story flowing?
What kind of editing tips would you apply to something like this?
How would you decide the point of attack?
How to end the doc?

I know I'm asking a lot of stuff here, this is my second documentary project, and the first one with interviews, so I'm pretty much learning as I go.

Thanks in advance for your kind advice and experience. Any thoughts/ideas will be most appreciated.

 

[Phileas]

tom, you sound hungry for feedback so i'll share my response to your post. first off, maybe you don't have to worry about them getting fed up if you ask for more interviews. if you think you're lacking footage, you should definitely try to get more. just explain to them the issues you noted here regarding background noise, etc. and they'll understand, right?

regarding 'mood', perhaps if you interviewed them in an interesting setting, such as back in the studio, at their practice space, or after a performance, you could recapture some of that mood you're concerned about losing. just pick somewhere workable that isn't sterile. you want to create a feeling among your future viewers that you are showing them a glimpse of the exciting world of music.

as for your questions, i agree that you should explore with them the question of what their 'core idea' is. what is their mission (if they have one)? as musicians, what are they trying to express? what are their motivations, what drives them? what unites them? are there conflicts within the group? does everyone share the same vision, or are there tensions? that might help you find a narrative line.

obviously any aspects that distinguish the band from other ones is important to develop, too. why should we care to watch this particular group? how are they different from every other cover band? cover bands are sometimes associated with non-creativity. what will you do to make this band noteworthy to people?


oh yeah, and people love negative information. we pay attention to it. if you can draw out any drama (does the singer experience discrimination for being gay, for instance?), that will certainly bring interest to the plot.

so to sum up, storyline-wise i'd suggest trying to use a combo of audio-visual hooks, worthy quotes (spliced up using other footage to keep it moving), and a mind toward drama and/or conflict. maybe you should try to draw up an outline before you edit. that might help you see the connections and to better organize your ideas into chunks before finding yourself lost in a swamp of too many options of what to put in next!

hope these thoughts help!

 

[Ric O'Shea]

You might want to try doing seperate interviews with members of the band. People will usually reveal more interesting (and possibly useful) information when not in a group setting. This may also lead to better questions if and when you do a reshoot of a group interview. Individual shots will also help to mix things up a bit and should help with the flow of the story.

I've had to reshoot interviews before (because I managed to booch something) and never had anyone get fed up with it.

Best of luck.

 

[a.King]

Im still trying to learn this out as well and i have been doing it for over a year nonstop now.

capture the characters of the band members. you must become friends with them if you want it to turn out good at all. The closer you are to them the more they will reveal to you. capture everyones character and try and find a story within it. there is no formula to this, and its hard to answer all your questions, at least for me it is. also try and keep some slight distance from them. dont be up in there face with the camera or the will hate you after 2 days. wireless mics would be a huge plus for you as well.

here is some of my short doc. pieces about bands. a lot of them have no story but some do.

http://www.youtube.com/drewkingvideos

good luck.