Some jottings from my notebook in Tangier, a few initial ideas about how the music and visual footage might work together. These ideas were not used in the final editing of the film. Prior to this residency I did not have much experience of editing music with photographs and video. I really enjoyed thinking about how the musical compositions could work alongside our footage.
During the week we would meet up with musicians and listen to them jamming, rehearsing the tracks as they were progressing. They would give us a recording of how the track was sounding at that stage. I found this was very helpful and inspiring, to listen and have those sounds in mind whilst continuing to take photographs and film around the city.
At the editing stage I think in a way it was unfortunate that we did not have a bit longer to discuss ideas and experiment more. I feel that part of the editing process became quite rushed, because there as so little time left. But I also think that the films have some really interesting sequences, and as a whole there was a lot achieved. The four of us who had worked on the films stayed up literally all night editing, talking about narrative ideas, how visual sequences might work with the music, about musical sounds, the pace and flow of the music at different points.
It was an intense 24 – 48 hours, lots of scribbling down notes, trawling through photos and bits of video, making storyboard sketches, we would use this as a way of creating the narratives.
There are certain parts in both the films which for me it seems that both the music and the visual footage are working really well together. For instance in the ‘Pace Of Life’ film, I love the way in which the bucket full of bricks, twists through the air up the building, alongside the sound of the saxaphone, the melody of the saxaphone and it’s tempo at this point.
Also in the ‘Pace Of Life Film’ I think that the sequence featuring the artisan metal craft-makers works well too. From the point at which the pace of the music changes, there is a breakdown in the tempo and a guitar solo, and at this point you see this man doing chalk drawings of his designs, the way in which the music relates to his drawing, the creation of the chalk lines and picture being created.
Following this I love the way in which the pace of the music changes again and becomes suddenly much faster, at which point the film cuts to a man hammering some metalwork in a workshop. The spontaneity of the filming and music here work well I think.
Video recording of a rug swaying in the wind one day. Some of this footage was used at the beginning of the ‘Pace Of Life’ film, alongside a saxaphone solo.
