We got to re-edit our character profiles in FinalCut, which gave me a chance to go back and clean up all of my terrible audio from the first go-around. It’s still far from perfect, but wayyy better than before. I had two more shoots to incorporate into the profile, one of which was an all-day affair (see previous post), which made for an interesting re-edit since I was trying to keep the basic narrative the same. Here’s hoping it worked okay.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDLi2j0gVGM]
I should be working on my thesis prospectus right now, but there’s nothing like a paper to make you decide to catch up on blogging.
As the previous post said, I spent yesterday at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis following my Character Profile subjects (all 120+ of them) through the paces of performing at a band festival. Theoretically the photos I took would be incorporated into my Picture Story multimedia piece, but that’s going to need some serious re-editing in order to fit in the additional element of festival competitions. We’ll see if I have time to pull that off (again, that thesis prospectus…). In the meantime, here’s a visual summary of (almost) everything that happened yesterday.
Silhouettes. I couldn’t help it.
For better or worse, I don’t usually take photos like this. Let me know if you think it worked.
Holding their certificate of recognition- but no trophy.
One of the winning bands got to the parking lot at the same I did. I have to figure out which one! Argh.
I haven’t had a chance to do more than a rough edit of my pictures from yesterday, when I went with the Hickman band to a marching festival in STL (in which the band placed a quarter-point out of trophy-level contention). Here’s one that, um, stood out a little from the others. I think there are at least three light sources competing for attention in this photo. 
I can’t embed Soundslides files in WordPress (gah), but here is the link to my draft of the Character Profile. The audio is pretty wretched (I was trying to make the recording levels of five different recording situations actually work together…they didn’t), but please please watch and tell me what you think! I get to rework it into a FinalCut show in the next month, so any and all feedback would be much appreciated.
The Soundslides file is here (it’ll open in a new window).
Also, a couple of images that didn’t really fit into the final audio narrative:
These are some stills from the Character Profile I’m working on for Picture Story. My “character” is the Hickman High School marching band (I wanted to follow a drum major around, but Rita suggested just going with the whole group. Much better!), which is made up of some 120 people, including the color guard, and which currently has a better record in competition than the actual football team does.
My high school didn’t have a marching band, so most of what I already knew about band kids came from my best friend, who was a trumpet/tuba player all through high school–in Florida, where football and band are at a tier just below Friday Night Lights level. I’ve been up at Hickman five times in the past week, and can safely say that these musicians are hardcore. They’ve been simultaneously prepping for their Homecoming game (last night) and a marching festival, where they’ll be competing with other Missouri bands. Their field practices are at 6:30 in the morning, they have additional practices during actual band class and for two hours in the evening during a game week, they have to know their routines and their music cold, and on top of that, there’s the whole schoolwork thing. As one of the drum majors told me, it’s a lifestyle. I’m impressed.
Warming up during morning field practice.
It’s cold.
Woodwinds during indoor practice
Fourth quarter of the Homecoming game (Hickman won).
I have yet to hunt down everybody’s name…but the toddler is one of the band director’s daughters. Awww.
Going out for the halftime show during Homecoming.
Waiting for the buses to the band festival to load. Scant rest for the weary.