As if you needed another reason to drop into The Edge relaunch on Saturday May 7, how’s this? We’ll have Rock Band set up in the Auditorium from 12 until 3pm. Grab some mates and live out all your dreams of musical stardom.

Of course the usual classic rock songs will be on offer, so fluff up your mullet, hold your breath to squeeze into your tightest pants, and warm up you falsetto.

But the most exciting part is that you can also choose to play a song by Brisbane band Surface Paradise, “The Gulf Stream”.

It’s the result of many, many hours of work by visualist and all-round creative ninja Jaymis. With the blessing of Matt Redlich from Surface Paradise (who might even pop in for a jam at the relaunch), Jaymis faced the painstaking task of transcribing, programming and animating the parts for each instrument

And you CAN try this at home, says Jaymis, thanks to Rock Band Network. It’s an online community where Harmonix, the creators of Rock Band, opened up the challenge to anyone to convert any song into Rock Band.

“Rock Band Network allows anyone with knowledge of music and programming to author a track that can be published and ultimately purchased on Xbox,” said Jaymis.

“It means bands outside the mainstream have a really cool way to get their songs out there for the world to hear,” Jaymis said.

And the Network is growing fast, with contributions from around the world adding about 1000 songs to the Rock Band catalogue. “The Gulf Stream” is just the start for Jaymis, who is also working on songs by the Hungry Kids of Hungary and Ball Park Music.

Jaymis is quick to counter those who say Rock Band is just a game.

“The latest version of Rock Band has incorporated an actual keyboard and a Fender Stratocaster guitar. You can actually learn to play an instrument from scratch with Rock Band – I’ve been picking up the drums for a few years and now I’m learning guitar,” Jaymis said.

Here’s the track:

Surface Paradise – The Gulf Stream (live at Letterbox Lullabies) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

Check out the full program for the Relaunch. Come for the Rock Band, stay for the rock bands (and hip hop. And dancers. And short films. And doughnuts…).

As an editor, one of the most common requests I get is “Can you edit the footage I shot at my show?” So last year I wrote a post on CreateDigitalMotion.com with some tips for artists documenting their shows:

Shooting Video For Gigs: Take That Camera Close and Make It Look Like Stuff Happened

I’m in the middle of editing a video that combines an artist interview with event footage. The supplied raw material is 10 minutes of interview footage and 45 minutes of the event, shot from a single camera. From that footage I was able to extract 5 minutes of usable interview, but just 40 seconds of the gig. It’s not that the gig video was badly shot, it was just homogenous. Medium-long shot of people dancing. Medium shot of the DJ. Over the shoulder shot of the DJ. Medium shot of girls dancing. Repeat.

This is sad, because a single camera and half an hour is plenty of time to capture a dynamic performance. The secret sauce? Close ups.

Segue – Reset (Live at Big Day Out) from Jaymis on Vimeo.
I shot this video for my friends/collaborators Segue at last year’s Big Day Out. Two days before the show, the festival organizers told us that we wouldn’t be able to do our own visuals for the set, so it was decided that I’d be camera guy instead, with an eye to getting footage for a live or studio video. I’m not much of a videographer – I keep forgetting whether clockwise zooms in or out – but I’ve spent a lot of time editing video, so I’m generally able to cover dodgy shooting with edits.

For that to work however, continuity needs to be maintained. In the above video, I’ve taken great care to ensure that continuity of action is held between cuts. If there’s a medium shot of an artist drinking water, or putting on his headphones, then the following closeup will show him putting down the bottle, or mixing with headphones in place. The footage may have been cut from 20 minutes earlier in the set, but because I got plenty of closeup footage, there’s no need for continuity to be kept across the entire stage, just on the detail that’s in focus.

This was a very time-consuming process, taking about 9 hours to turn 50 minutes of footage into a 7 minute edit. To show the band why it took so long and how I achieved the final result, I created a two-up video, which displays the final edit on top, and the live camera feed below. I’d previously kept this edit private, to maintain the mystery for the band, but I think it’s worth revealing to show what’s possible if you give yourself plenty of shot variation to play with:

Segue – Reset (Live at BDO Two-up Edit) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

Obviously the setting really helps here – thousands of kids jumping around can’t help but be exciting – but even if the source footage isn’t epic, with your non-linear editor and enough closeups, you can make it look that way.

A VJ, or Video Jockey, is an artist who performs with video. It’s like a mixture of video editing, digital art, and playing computer games on stage.

Jaymis has been a VJ for over 10 years, has played all around Australia & Europe, and spent a year touring Aus as the “Visualist” member of Bobby Flynn and the Omega Three.

His software of choice is Resolume, which now works on both PCs and Macs, so we’re able to run a workshop where everyone can use the same software, together!

What you’ll learn:

This workshop will cover the basics of VJing – how digital video works, how VJing software works, how to select, prepare and perform with video clips, and a little on how to work with a laptop, midi controller and projector for live performance.

What you’ll need:

Yourself, and optionally: some video clips you’d like to work with.

I’m currently editing some video of a gig and interview, taken at an album launch party here in Brisbane. The promoter supplied me with a DVD containing about 10 minutes of interview, and about 45 minutes of “party” footage. If you’re in to documenting your work you’ve probably shot some just like it yourself: Crowd dancing. Shot of the artist. Over the shoulder of the artist tweaking his Lemur. Cute girls dancing. Repeat.

Of that 45 minutes of party action, I was able to extract only about 40 seconds of usable footage. It wasn’t badly shot, just homogenous. There was no shot variation, so it wasn’t interesting to watch, and there was no way to edit for continuity, to give an overall, consistent feel for what was going on.

The missing ingredient, which would allow me as an editor to glue it all together, was closeups.

Last year my collaborators Segue had a high profile gig at the Big Day Out. At the last minute the festival organizers said we couldn’t provide our own visuals, so I took my camera along instead, with a view to shooting footage which could be used for a live video. As there was just a single camera, I tried to cover as much ground as possible, shooting from the front and back of the stage, out in the audience, getting wide shots of the crowd and zooming up close on details of the rig and artists. I’m not a very good cameraman, but I knew that with enough details, enough cutaways, enough different shots, I’d be able to tie everything together at the end.

Segue – Reset (Live at Big Day Out 2008 Two-up Edit) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

Getting the footage back to my studio, I took over 9 hours to edit that 45 minutes of footage into a single 7 minute live video. At the time the band were wondering why it was such an intensive job, so I exported a two-up edit of the video to show them how I was able to use closeups, crowd shots, and details to take that single-camera shoot and make it look like there had been a team of ninja cameramen swarming the stage.

The two-up edit shows the final mix on top, and the original continuous camera feed underneath.

This edit took so long because I was very careful with the continuity of shots. If I was cutting from a wide shot of an artist drinking, the following closeup should show him putting the bottle back down. If he had headphones on, then subsequent shots should have them as well. It didn’t matter if those clips were dragged in from 20 minutes earlier in the set, because close shots don’t show enough of the stage detail for the viewer’s brain to realise that things are happening out of order.

I’m sure many CDMu readers have been lumped with the task of capturing video of your own performances, or those of your peers. You may have edited the video yourself, or given it to a handy visualist to have a crack. Even if you have someone else shooting video of your show, it’s worth giving them some direction on what you’d like to to see. Hence:

Jaymis’ Tips for Great, Editor-Friendly Gig Shooting

Leave the camera(s) running constantly: Even if there’s only one, you won’t miss anything. If there’s more than one camera, continuous tape makes multi-camera editing exponentially easier.
Closeups are your friends: Close, detail shots allow you to tie disparate pieces of footage together and to cover camera moves. They also add variety, and show some intimate details of what’s happening on stage. Closeups of the crowd and venue are also great for adding context, without having the distraction of a full human body unrelated to the action.
Keep the camera moving: If you just want to document your set for posterity, having it up the back on a tripod is fine. But if you want to produce some thing visually interesting, then get that camera moving around the space. Remember to hold it still in between moves so you don’t get stabbed by your editor. Take your cues for the music. Move a couple of beats, hold focus for a phrase. Make your moves in between sections of music. Wide shots for builds, close shots in the middle of a section.
Don’t be scared of manual focus: Out of focus shots can be a great transition device. For fast, exciting music, hunting focus reinforces the frenetic nature of the action.

All of the other standard photography rules apply of course, so find someone to tell you about white balance, aperture, shutter speed, exposure etc. If you stuff those up though, there’s a lot which can be done in the edit, but we can’t make up interesting footage in post-production. That has to happen on the night.

If you’d like to learn how to take interesting footage and turn it in to an interesting video, come along to the Video101 workshops I’m running at The Edge!

2–6pm Sunday 23 May and Friday 9 July 2010 NEW DATE!
Facilitator: Jaymis Loveday
Cost: FREE
Book: email The Edge

Video is super hot right now. Cheap video cameras, video editing software, and the internet have combined to level the playing field for production and distribution. All you need to get your video out to the world is a creative idea, a camera, a computer and a little bit of technical knowledge.

Jaymis has a lot of technical knowledge, so he’s going to compress it down to the bare essentials – enough information for you to learn to shoot, edit, produce and publish your own video in four hours!

This workshop will benefit performers, musicians, writers, crafters, speakers, businesses, artists… anyone who creates something which can be seen with the eyes and heard by the ears.

What you’ll need:

If you have your camera which can shoot video, bring that along. “Point and shoot” digital cameras (the ones which are usually used for taking photos) are ideal. If you have your own tripod and laptop for editing, that would also be useful. If you don’t have any gear, you can borrow a camera from The Edge for the afternoon, but you’ll get much more out of the workshop if you can work on your own gear.

You should also come along with an idea, something you’d like to show the world. If you’re a musician or a performer, have a song, poem or piece ready to perform (bring an instrument or costume if required). If you’re an artist or creator, bring along some of your work to show and talk about.

What you’ll achieve:

This workshop is all about video, so let’s have some examples of what Jaymis’ “Cheap, Fast, Effective” video production philosophy has achieved in the past.

Cowper – Avid Reader Tour:

The Gig:

Rowley Cowper had planned an Australian East Coast tour in which he played music in bookstores, in exchange for books. He wanted to share his touring experiences and performances with the world, so the morning he left on tour, Jaymis gave him a quick “Video 101″ workshop, and sent him on his way.

5000km (Cowper Avid Reader Tour) from Cowper on Vimeo.

The Gear:

Rowley had a Canon IXUS point-and-shoot camera (About $400) a minidisc to record his music, and a tiny compact Asus EEE laptop for editing ($300).

The Videos:

During the two week tour he produced 6 videos – 3 live performances, 2 video blogs, and 1 performance of another musician he met along the way:

4–6pm Wednesday 12 May and 9 June 2010
Who: Jaymis Loveday
What: Workshop on how to use free software WordPress
Cost: FREE
Booking: book.it@edgeqld.org.au

WordPress is a popular blogging software and Content Management System, used to maintain millions of websites around the world—including The Edge.

In this workshop, you will learn how to configure, write, and administer your own blog using WordPress.com, the free blog hosting platform. We will also cover topics such as purchasing your own domain name, using Google Apps for email, writing for the web, and new-blogger etiquette.

Our afternoon began with music from Andrew Curnock piped into the auditorium. Andrew is a sound artist and Catalyst who lends himself to digital media, spending his time designing game soundtracks and the like. He works under the moniker of Beat Therapy and we were treated to some of these creations while we warmed up to the event.

I, for the duration of the event, filled the position of Master of Ceremonies (or MC for those born later than the 1950s).  At The Edge I’m the journalism Catalyst but unfortunately journalism isn’t a particularly engaging performance art, so I ended up as MC.

Now before I get into the afternoon’s performances I feel obliged to describe the rather eclectic scene we created within the space. We had Jaymis, Catalyst and visualist extraordinaire, set up with laptop, a vast array of cables and interfaces, and several tiny cameras. He produced some pretty awe-inspiring projections throughout Show Pony using just these tiny cameras and an array of effects.

Show Pony Number 1 from The Edge on Vimeo.

Catalyst Sandra, a kinetic sculptor and artist, arrived with a box of clockwork toys and a map of the world to a crowd of bemused faces. She set up and explained how her background in physiotherapy fed her passion for kinetics (movement) and her creativity helped her explore some very original applications of wind-up toys (i.e. toy soldiers marching on a map of the world from the US to Asia to create a narrative play space). You can play with this idea at her upcoming workshops.

Catalyst Sandra, a kinetic sculptor and artist, arrived with a box of clockwork toys and a map of the world to a crowd of bemused faces. She set up and explained how her background in physiotherapy fed her passion for kinetics (movement) and her creativity helped her explore some very original applications of wind-up toys (i.e. Toy soldiers marching on a map of the world from the US to Asia to create a narrative play space). You can play with this idea at her upcoming workshops.

Time for the performances.  Writer, academic, musician and Catalyst, Ian Rogers, kicked us off with some drone metal. Ian’s special blend of noise and rhythm is created using Abelton Live software and some clever patching. If you’re intrigued by this poor explanation of Ian’s practice come along to one of his workshops at The Edge; he’ll show you exactly how it’s done.

Andrew Gibbs was up next. A Catalyst and an audio-visual performance artist, his music usually resides in the glitch, break-beat style but we had him performing an ambient set. While it was his first ambient gig you would have never known, as he pulled it off with the poise and grace of a seasoned ambient professional. He even whipped out some impressive visuals to match.

The evening wrapped up with two-piece local act, Card House, dishing out an energetic display of electric indie pop. Even mid-set technical difficulties couldn’t dull their energy and they brought the evening to a fitting (and lively) conclusion.

And that’s that. The first-ever Show Pony wrapped up and the crowd dissolved away. Don’t worry, this wasn’t a one-off. These events are happening every Saturday in The Edge Auditorium and we’ll have performances from all kinds of Edge partners.  Check out the calendar for more info.

Now that the craziness of The Launch has passed, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself, and tell you about what I actually do. You may have seen me referred to as a visualist, but as this term is understood almost exclusively by people who are, themselves, visualists, this probably bears some explanation.

What is a VJ?

Apparently, the term VJ or “Video Jockey” was coined in the 80s, to describe someone who performed with moving images on screens. Back in the 60s (and before) this would involve film and slide projectors, overhead transparencies, and oil projection. Over time, video gear became cheaper, so the term encompassed people who worked with analogue video (VHS and Betacam), live video feeds, CRT screens, DVD players, and eventually laptops and data projectors. By the early 2000s, laptop computers became fast enough to display and mix multiple layers of video, and hard drives became cheap enough to for a performer to carry many thousands of video clips around in a backpack. Data projectors also underwent a drastic drop in price. The stage was set for a VJ explosion, and explode we did. In the last decade, VJing has progressed from a relatively tiny subset of event production, to an integral part of just about any live performance or club. Computer VJ programs now number in their hundreds, we have our own, custom hardware,  and there are many different “forms” and styles of VJing. VJ also became the pop-culture term for someone who presents music videos on TV. We needed our own nomenclature.

Enter The Visualist

In 2006 I founded CreateDigitalMotion.com with Peter Kirn, an electronic musician and video artist from New York. The site covered the gamut of live video performance, video production, animation, visual programming, music videos, video hardware hacking and more. We’d been watching the art form progress and change around the world, and started to use the term “visualist” to describe someone who was a rounded video performer, who shot, animated and programmed their own source material, created and customized their own hardware setups, and then performed live, with or without a band, DJ or source of music. For us, a “VJ” now refers to a performer who uses VJ software (or hardware video players) to mix pre-created video loops and provide visual backing for a performance, whereas a Visualist is someone who is much more deeply intertwined with the process of creation, production and performance.

What is a Jaymis?

Hi. I’m Jaymis. I’m a visualist (everyone on the same page now?). My main proposed activity while I’m here at The Edge is to help other artists become visualists. I’ll be collaborating with fellow catalyst Andrew Gibbs, and putting on workshops designed to take you from Zero to Visualist in 6 months. So you’ll learn: How to shoot and edit digital video, how to animate using a computer, how to perform live using VJ software, how to design and implement a system for live video production and streaming, and more!

Outside of the workshops, catalysts are available to collaborate and work with other artists. So to give you an idea of whether you’d like to get together and be all Catalysed, here’s some examples of my work:

Studio Music Videos

Edward Guglielmino – Fail With Me (Warning: Some naughty words feature in this song)

Edward Guglielmino – Fail With Me from Jaymis on Vimeo.

Cowper – Berlin Four Two

Cowper – Berlin Four Two from Jaymis on Vimeo.

Edward Guglielmino – Settle Down With Me (Director’s Cut)

Edward Guglielmino – Settle Down With Me (Director’s Cut) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

Live Music Video

Flamingo Crash – Sister Sister

Flamingo Crash – Sister Sister from Jaymis on Vimeo.

Cowper – The Kite Song

Cowper – The Kite Song (Live) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

Live Event Vision and Streaming

Hungry Kids of Hungary – Scattered Diamonds (Live)

Hungry Kids of Hungary – Scattered Diamonds from Herovision on Vimeo.

Edward Guglielmino – Crushed by a Late Night Dream (Live)

Edward Guglielmino – Crushed by a Late Night Dream (Live) from Jaymis on Vimeo.

Animation

Stencil Cut and Spray

Tree Stencil Cut and Spray Timelapse – Draft from Jaymis on Vimeo.

The Colour Chase

The Colour Chase from Jaymis on Vimeo.

There’s plenty more to be found on Vimeo. If you’d like to ask any questions or to organize a meeting, please get in touch!

4–6pm Saturday 13 March 2010
Who: The Edge’s new Catalysts
What: quite a lot of showing off
Cost: FREE

Ride on down to The Edge this Saturday afternoon for the first ever Show Pony—The Edge’s own creative mash up.

Check out some of the weird and wonderful things our Catalysts have been up to over the last couple of weeks and find out how you can help them take over The Edge.

There’ll be live music by Catalyst Ian Rogers (AKA Ambrose Chapel), a showcase of participants from Musicadium’s upcoming workshops, as well as the debut performance by Hologram Carver (AKA Catalyst Andrew Gibbs).

Live visuals will be produced by Catalyst and Createdigitalmotion.com co-founder Jaymis Loveday including footage from The Edge Opening Event.

Catalysts Sandra Landolt (sculptor) and Stephen Stockwell (journo) will also be around if you have any questions about upcoming workshops at The Edge.

Kick back with a coffee and a muffin and see what The Edge Crewis up to (sign up for an Edge account first to get 10% off your coffee). This will also be a great time to sign up for free workshops (learn everything from cardboard engineering to music software) and check out the space.