Pointing Twice

We enjoyed capturing a one time performance at YBCA in San Francisco of this unique music/dance collaborative performance by Polish composer Jaroslaw Kapuscinski with Korean guest choreographer Young-Doo Jung and Canadian instrument designer John Granzow, who custom-built a gramophone for the piece! The piece is inspired by Anton Webern’s 1934 masterwork Concerto for Nine Instruments and features San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and conductor Steven Schick.

Check out the highlights:

 

Push Dance Company and the Shipyard Project

Captured some of PUSH Dance and their collaboration with the 3rd Street Youth Center to continue exposing and unpacking environmental and health issues for Hunters Bay Point and its Naval Shipyard - specifically from the perspective of it's youth. This is important for all San Franciscans to know about and listen to!

Check out the short documentary "Leftover from the Last":

And we're excited to capture their upcoming performance of Point Shipyard Project this coming weekend at the Museum of African Diaspora - MORE INFO HERE

SOIL - Randee Paufve

  As the sun sets over the El Cerrito hills...

Check out a yummy highlight reel from a 2-camera shoot of Paufve|dance - gorgeous solo work of Randee Paufve, featuring choreography by  Gregg Bielemeier, Della Davidson, Randee Paufve and Kate Weare:

 

Cameras: Nicole Fuentez, Loren R. Robertson

Image: Pak Han

FREE Download: VLC

Do you operate on a Mac? Do you follow Apple's regular updates?  If so, you've updated your operating system to OS X Mavericks. For better or worse, Apple is constantly updating software and hardware and it can be confusing to keep up with compatability if you're not constantly buying Apple's newest products.

 

Video Tip:Download VLC!

With Apple's latest OS X Mavericks comes Quicktime 10.3 (automatic update). Unfortunately Quicktime 10.3 has several downsides for the DYI video folks.  One thing to note specifically (especially LRRP clients that have quicktime .mov files in their performance video archives) is that one cannot open and play some .mov files without Quicktime "converting" the file - DO NOT CONVERT YOUR VIDEO FILES WITH Quicktime 10.3!

Instead, everyone, please download free software called VLC.  Use this as the default for playing/viewing video files (directions for changing default below).

DOWNLOAD VLC HERE

vlc

DIRECTIONS TO MAKING VLC THE DEFAULT: 1. Select a video in the Finder 2. choose Get Info from the File menu (or control/right click) 3. under Open With select VLC 4. click on Change All and confirm this action

Further Questions about this?  Ideas?  Feel free to ask/share!

 

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Sizzle Reels for Dance Pieces

I love putting together 1min (or so) edits of dance works that companies can use as a "sizzle reel" for their own marketing - it's the best way to download the essence of a piece quickly online (which is really the only way people watch dance/anything on the internet...quickly and on to the next).  Here's an example of one of Post:Ballet's premieres from their home season at YBCA a few months ago called Colouring.  

camera: Nicole Fuentez; editing: Loren R. Robertson

Vail International Dance Festival with NSP

I have had the privilege for the last 3 summers to work with Nel Shelby Productions on capturing this unique dance festival in Vail, CO. After each show (documented with multiple cameras), we edit a little web video to post the next day to keep the energy of the festival going online - it's really satisfying to help produce this work with such fast turn around - almost instant gratification!Here are a few picks from this year 2013:

A montage of work from International Evenings, to give an overall feel:

Ballet star, Tiler Peck, featured with Lil' Buck and Sergei Polunin in the same program!:

One of the outdoor community events - LOVE working with images of kids!:

 

For more videos, check out LRRP's facebook page

the Love wedding

On occasion, LRRP does weddings! In celebration of Jessica Robinson Love and Carrie Baum Love's anniversary, I'm posting an old video of their beautiful ceremony!

 

Video Tip: Plan to gather your archives as you go ...and then back it up!

Have you ever had a videographer document your show or event to then never get your hands on the actual document or even see it? Or do you only have the video in DVD format? Or is it solely online?

For performance, it is essential to have a high quality video archive of your work.  Don't leave it for later.

What do you need for the basics?

1. two external hard drives 2. high resolution video files (of raw and edited material), organized by date and project

Make a point to plan with your videographers BEFORE the documentation of your event, to get a copy of the highest resolution video footage in .mov or .mp4 format. It's important to get the highest quality version of the video so you or an editor can put together your work samples, promotional videos and portfolio edits. Editing with and exporting web resolution video or video ripped from a DVD will look very poor quality.

Put the footage on your external drive and then back it all up to another separate external hard drive.  There should always be at least two versions of ALL your material.  Seriously.  If one drive fails and you only have one copy (and your video peeps don't have a copy), it's gone. The end. Back it up!

Currently, 1TB external drives run around $100-150 each. Here's one I recommend: Seagate 1TB I also recommend these large capacity (64 or 128GB) USB thumb drive for easy file transferring: SanDisk 64GB USB thumb drive

LRP gives EVERY client a copy of all raw footage in high resolution .mp4 format as well as, when applicable, edited material and upload-able video files compressed to look good on the web.  Feel free to email us if have questions or ideas regarding file transfer and format logistics!

Video Tip: Make the most of your Online Videos!

Here's a checklist for making sure your online videos are as accessible and easy to find for audiences and anyone interested in what you do/make as possible:

1. Embed your videos into your Website!

Often I see artists only put a list of links to Vimeo or Youtube videos, which directs the viewer away from the artist's website.  Why not cleanly embed the video into the site for a nice portfolio look that keeps the viewer browsing within the site? **here's some technical guidance on youtube embedding 

2. Use both Youtube and Vimeo

I recommend to clients to put all work samples, highlight reels and promotional edits (anything under 15 min) on both Vimeo and Youtube to increase the potential of an interested viewer finding it online.  If there is a music copyright issue, then Vimeo is the only option. Additionally, I recommend putting full length versions of work on Vimeo (requires having a Vimeo Plus account). **here's a quick and important checklist for cleaning up your links

3. Use Tags!

This seems like a secondary task after uploading a video online, however, adding tags to each video will improve the search engine optimization significantly so that if somebody searches for you/the work, it will be one of the first links in the search engine list.  As a test, search your name/company and one piece of yours on google and see how long it takes to "search" for a video sample of the work. **Some good tags to use are your name, your company name, your city, the title of the work, "dance" or "theater" or "performance", names of performers and collaborators, name of the venue, etc.

4. Share your videos through Social Media

Facebook is a GREAT way to share documentation of your work (as the videos are embedded into the site)!  Tag performers and collaborators and/or post on their individual walls to encourage more traffic.  And a Twitter announcement with a link to the video is always good. Additionally, revisit old videos when you feel inspired to keep them circulating. **Remember to add " &hd=1 " to the end of the url to ensure playback in highest quality

 

These are basic practices that should be applied each time you upload a new video to add to your online portfolio of work.

 

Questions?  Ideas?  Feel free to share!

 

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