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December 09, 2009
stumbling about in the middle eight
People that do music say it's easy. But then people from Iceland don't think it's that difficult speaking Icelandic. Hver ég giska á paõ myndaõ af is not.
Clara's Gibson mandolin
I love music – but I don't know how it works. I know how important it is in film. At college I was the only one who put soundtracks on every film I made. For my degree show I had three projectors and two tape recorders with some very complicated sync. systems.
So I'm learning about this music thing, slowly it has to be said, but learning, learning how it's made. And there’s one element that crops up a lot in the songs I work with, one that features strongly in the song in the current video. That is the middle 8 or the bridge as it's sometimes known.
The middle 8 is where the song departs from its verse/chorus structure and wanders about in a different pair of pants for a while [8 bars possibly] before returning to the verse/chorus thing.
And it is in this different place that moods change. It's in this bit where we are told a bit more of the story. Harvey tells me it goes back to the 17th century. So it’s a tried and tested device.
Harvey Brough and the Baroque guitar
In Good Ship Father, Clara has put the most intimate and uplifting part of the song, not unreasonably, in the middle 8. I, for my part, have three stories going on in the video – Clara and Harvey singing the song, Young Clara wandering about the house and Young Clara daydreaming of lying in a tin bath with a toy boat. Plus a separate animated sequence.
Clara Sanabras
So, for this middle 8, I want Clara, close up, singing her wonderful song straight to camera [very powerful, very intimate, very beautiful], I want a daydream of Young Clara in the tin bath and I want the animated sequence. All three established, told and paid off in 43 seconds.
There’ll be some fine work pulled with the scissors tonight.
Harvey and Clara
Posted by john at December 9, 2009 07:19 PM
Comments
If it sounds as good as it looks we'll be happy.
Posted by: Daphne at December 10, 2009 08:35 PM