Our Annual Concert played to a near full house and we have received several compliments on our performance and that of the Camilli String Quartet. The entire concert was recorded in High Definition DVD and is available to buy at only £5 each (plus p & p of £1-50 if needed) from Lyn. Alternatively see any chorister, who will get one for you. This is the fifth concert DVD produced by Colleen and Lyn since 2011, as well as two Cycle club DVD’s and all have been well received by those who have bought them (not to mention raising about £500 for the choir). For each one sold, £4 is donated to the choir. The concert has been edited to reduce the time to 98 minutes but all the choir’s songs and the pieces by the Camilli String Quartet have been included in stereo Dolby sound.
To produce a DVD of a concert of good quality requires about 3 hours continual, simultaneous filming from two HD video cameras plus back up sound recordings from digital stereo sound recorders. Many of you will remember videos taken on the Oriana cruise where all you saw was a static white blur for over an hour from one static camera and no camera techniques were used at all. The background of the ship’s engines could clearly be heard. Remember the Azura video where two cameras were used but the only visual effect was to zoom in to Eleri Edwards when she sang her part. Lyn also had to do a lot of sound and video editing to get this to anything like watchable. This was so poor that it was decided that it wouldn’t be justifiable to charge for these, so copies were given away! These videos were taken by so called professionals and cost over £300 each. Not many of you will have seen the professional DVD made of the 50th Anniversary concert. This is because, although the video footage was good, the sound quality from £20,000 worth of kit was awful and the video cannot be released. Another huge cost to the choir.
Anyway, Colleen voluntarily videos our concerts and both she and Lyn spent over 30 hours each on the Easter week-end taking all the film clips and sound recordings to match them into a suitable story. Each item in the concert has its own video clip in duplicate from different aspects and each has to be looked at for content, colour correction and focussing and matched to the sound tracks from the cameras and sound recorders. Transitions and overlays have to be put in and where film quality is unsuitable, special effects have to be superimposed. With, in this concert over 50 clips, it was no small task. Titles then have to be superimposed for each piece, checked for correctness and finally introduction and DVD Menu pages with music have to be constructed. Finally each DVD has to be ‘burned’ onto a disc, labels and covers have to be designed and printed. Each DVD is then packed into a slimline DVD case to make a suitable presentation. All this is done at no cost to the choir and while not of BBC quality, these are far superior to the ‘professional’ DVD’s produced in the past and are well worth watching and listening to.
If you would really like us to carry on recording our choir’s concerts, please consider getting one of these DVD’s as a memento of the choir’s excellent performance, especially as for so many, it was their first Annual concert.
Two recorded excerpts (Bohemian Rhapsody and By Babylon’s Wave) from the DVD are on You-tube. Click on the links Bohemian Rhapsody and By Babylon’s Wave to view them. Have a look and the quality of the DVD is far better. Don’t forget all fourteen pieces sang at the concert are recorded in full, together with those of the Camilli String Quartet.
For those who’d like one, the photograph of the choir on the DVD cover before the concert in A4 size, glossy print with everyone’s name on it, is available to order at £5 each. Proceeds to the choir. If you want a smaller one, it can be arranged, but this Thursday is the last day for orders.