Chinese Lion Dance Music Tuition Video
One of my (personal) passions is Martial Arts; I have practiced Kung Fu for many years and am currently a 5th Degree Black Belt. In China, the relationship between Kung Fu and Chinese Lion Dance is very close.
Kung Fu students have always traditionally performed The Lion Dance, due to its acrobatic nature they are well suited. Whilst I have myself, performed in the Lion, I have also done each and every other role; I'm quite multi skilled - a jack of them all but I do have my roles that I prefer.
It is through this connection to Chinese Lion Dance, that I was asked to help produce a video to help teach others the music side of the performance. The drummer (Jose) in the video, is a professional drum teacher and performer in several bands and so his skillset made him the perfect person to present the video.
From the brief we were supplied on what was required, Jose, Nathan (Gong) and myself made a production plan and Jose wrote the script that best outlined the tuition the video would present.
The shoot was a simple affair; two lights, backdrop, two cameras and a lav mike for voice and Audio Recorder for the music.
From the Script, I prepared a Storyboard to help guide the filming and highlight any assets we needed. From there we scheduled a full day to film the main teaching sections of the video and a further filming shoot of about an hour or so for the finale performance.
Filming took just over 5 hours nonstop from the time everything was set up and went remarkably smooth. Joses' knowledge of the subject and ability to communicate clearly and effortlessly was what made filming smooth - and despite him feeling like he fluffed up a lot in front of the cameras - he really did a great job.
The shoot was a simple affair; two lights, backdrop, two cameras and a lav mike for voice and Audio Recorder for the music. The music and voice had to be recorded separately due to the vast difference in volume each has.
The second shooting day was put aside for the performance and so an early Sunday morning was chosen. A nice quite spot in the local park was ideal and whilst we knew the music would be loud enough to draw attention to our slightly hidden location. It was still a surprise however, to see about 20 people watching as we finished the piece. Thankfully they loved it and clapped (long enough after the performance to not appear on recording).
Editing was where the largest amount of work was on this project. Matching two cameras and separate audio feeds, titles, sub titles etc. All the video was processed and adjusted and the audio enhanced too, especially to define some of the levels in the music. Editing took over 20 solid hours, but the result is well worth it.
The initial feedback is highly reflective of the work that was undertaken.
You can watch the video here: Chinese Lion Dance Music Tuition Video