February 10, 2005

• MikeVideo Internet Movie: “Tempest”

  There is now a new MikeVideo, called “Tempest” and is a “Mike(Music)Video” of the band of the same name recorded last year on my digital video/still camera at the Scottish Festival in Orange County. The band, which consists of Lief Sorbye, founder, lead singer, and electric mandolin, Ariane Cap, bass, Michael Mullen, fiddle,  Ronan Carroll, guitar, and Adolfo Lazo, drums, has been in existence since the mid eighties. They play rousing Celtic Rock. Frontman Sorbye, fiddler Mullen, and (female) bass player Cap, have a genuinely antic manner onstage (and off). I caught a complete performance on digicam, and the video consists of their rendition of  the Robert Burns ditty ”Green Grow The Rashes Oh”. Their official website is www.tempestmusic.com. Their CDs are sold online, including a 15th Anniversary three disc box set that includes the song on the “video.”

  Shooting a live band is interesting for me, as a photographer and videographer. So far, I have shot my friend Jim’s band onstage in a coffeehouse, and I shot this footage last year at the Scottish Festival. Because it is live, I only have one “take” and it lasts as long as the song, or in the case of the complete tape, the whole concert. I try to ‘frame” the band, and keep the camera moving to a. insure the footage isn’t a “static master” with no movement. Of course as you will see if you can access the streaming video feautre, the long shot of the band is okay, but I want to get up close and feature soloists, and get the “whole picture”. Since I love music, it is especially difficult with handheld to achieve a steady shot that doesn’t call attention to itself, but “directs” the viewer to “the action”. There are a couple of “mistakes”. Lief’s beginning of the song doesn’t have a lot of punch, but they warm up real soon. I got too close to amps on at least two occasions, and the music overmodulates a bit. Since I videotaped the complete performance with permission, I felt almost like a “pro” and you’ll see that the band “plays to the camera” on more than one occasion, which makes the video sort of “special”. This isn’t “edited”. It’s one long eight minute “take”, of a musical number “live”. This is my “first” MikeVideo this year, and isnt’ even featured on the “MikeVideo” section on AllThingsMike yet.

  CAVEAT EMPTOR: This is an eight minute “internet movie” in the streaming “wmv” windows media format. It can only be accessed from a Window Media player or other player that will play .wmv files. Because there is only one “copy” online, and my server package is only for a “home website” with little bandwidth, the download is extremely slow. It could crash older systems!  I got the download in about a half hour. Another correspondent told me it was an hour. If you have dial up you might not be able to watch it at all. This site is image heavy and and has been known to crash browsers before, so watch out. You’ve been warned.

  Now, if you can view it, I want feedback, both about my beginning skills photographing a moving band (for the second time) and about this great Celtic Rock band, Tempest. There aren’t any Celtic Rock bands on the radio stations, like back when Tull, Steeleye Span, and Horslips were actually well known.

  You have to either go to the concert, which is going to be at a Celtic festival or county fair, or in numerous nightclubs out of town. (Tempest has a tour schedule on their web site.) Or you can see it on  the WhenWordsCollide blog. My readers find out immediately when I “make another movie” for your entertainment. (Remember, all art, literature, and all movies on AllThingsMike are “free”. I want you to sample everything I have to offer. ) You can also right click the link, either on the image or below, and save the file to your computer. Again, it takes a long time, and if, by chance it were to be, let’s say, popular, and I started to get more hits, then it would probably overload my server, and I’d be charged an outlandish sum of moiney when I crashed the ValueWeb servers.

  I still have plans to edit together my three or four hours of  “Renaissance Faire Footage” but I got off that for a while, as it is very unweildy when you actually start downloading footage, and playing with it.

  In 1999 I wrote “In the future we will all have our own television stations on the web.”

  It’s 2005, and I’m supplying the content for my television station right here on AllThingsMike  for your enjoyment. I think you’ll like Tempest. I was blown away by these guys and told my friends that this is my current “favorite band”.

  CLICK HERE TO WATCH “TEMPEST”, A MIKE(MUSIC)VIDEO”

  Possible Long download time even on DSL thanks to a slow sending server and only one online “copy”. This video was recorded in the highest possible resolution and looks fantastic even on a 19″ monitor. The sound is fairly good, except when I got too near to amps and loudspeakers. Turn it up “loud” if you can. The file is a whopping 218MB. This was tomorrow’s post, but I noticed lots of comments on this morning’s entry, so I’ll post this one “early” tonight instead of tomorrow morning.

  There are photos of Tempest on their website, and on my Webshots Gallery, in the Folder entitled “Scottish Festival 2004″ on the second page of the Gallery. I have almost a whole page of photos online. I love this band. I don’t see how anybody could “not” like them.

  • 12:45 am
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