Music edit question

scorsesefan

scorsesefan

Veteran
Sorry, this may be in the wrong section, but here it goes:

I'm editing a short doc about an artist/musician. I've filmed him performing full pieces (3 to 4 minutes) and they are really powerful and entertaining. I'm in a conundrum about where/if to cut his performances. I've tried cutting some pieces after about a minute or so, which is effective I guess, but there is some great stuff being cut out. I've tried piecing together the best parts of the performance, which feels to me a little like I'm re-composing his songs (I know, I know, we do this all the time in the edit)...

This isn't a concert film, it's more of a "slice of life" of the artist and only about 30 minutes in length.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Well, that's just the challenge of editorial decisions, isn't it? For a "slice of life" piece, just a taste of each song... the refrain? a particularly poignant verse or couple of lines?... should be enough to get the viewer to dig deeper after watching and seek out the full album.
 
Another possibility is to do a few full pieces with short interview segments inbetween. Sort of the exact opposite of what you seem to be thinking of.

3rd possibility is to use his music as background to an in depth interview with only maybe a minute total of cutaways to him playing, but the music fading in and out continuously through the whole interview.

There are lots of ways to skin a cat.
 
I'd would probably try to use some of the performance underneath the interview segments. An option of course without seeing/hearing the content.
 
Thanks, guys. Once again great suggestions :).. I tried a combo of everyone's suggestions and am going to use about a minute (the meat) of each song and try to fade them in underneath his interviews (as a bite ends). That way I figure I can use an instrumental opening underneath and then start wherever I want when it goes to picture (the actual performance)...
 
I have found that it's easy to fade into a musical piece in the middle and use the end (conclusion) as an edit point. Pick a transition in your edit, when finishing a thought, interview location, fade to black etc. Line up the end of the musical piece with that, then just fade into the piece wherever the video section opens. Most of the time it will work as is. If not, start with dialogue only, and fade music in, subtlely underneath, during dialogue. Fading music OUT in the middle of a piece, or even close to the end is unsatisfying. Pop music often fades out at the end, but "singles" were usually mixed that way so the DJ on the radio (remember DJ's ?) could talk over the outro while he segued into the next record (remember records?). In editing we are looking for dramatic transition points, and for the composer that's usually the turn to the bridge or the conclusion. Try aligning them and see how it adds power to your edit. Also, there's a great section on editing music in the book "Audio Postproduction for Film and Video", by Jay Rose.
 
Thanks, ric. Good info. I have "Producing Great Sound for Film and Video" by Rose, but I'll pick up the book you mentioned...
 
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