<p>No - it was just extended to 12 days to Oct 12</p>
<p>Resume?????? You are only identified by an Arts number - they do not want any information about the applicant to keep it as fair as possible.</p>
<p>That's what I thought (and what S did)! Now I can't find the post here, in which someone was talking about resumes and NFAA, so either I am hallucinating, or having some sort of senior moment!</p>
<p>As binx points out, hiring someone who calls themselves a professional is no guarantee of quality. You do not want someone who specializes in weddings or pop music videos. If you do hire the job out, try to find someone who can let you watch examples of other classically-oriented video recordings that they have made. Acceptable recordings can be made with the kind of equipment she describes, but the room acoustics are important and it may take some experimentation to find the right location for the microphone.</p>
<p>The NY Phil recording instructions are pretty good but, while they point out that the mic should be eight feet away from the floor, they should also point out that it should be at least eight feet away from any other large flat surface (e.g. the ceiling and all walls.) This is particularly important for loud, directional instruments like the trumpet in the OP's posting.</p>
<p>Yep - I agree it would be different for a trumpet than a violin! Even in our large family room, I'm not sure a trumpet would work. S2 has recorded himself on horn just fine there, though. But we have a two-story ceiling, and open walls, so there is lots of space. But our set up was portable enough that we could have recorded her elsewhere easily. </p>
<p>One thing that is important to know (some professionals don't understand this) is that the picture needs to be stationery, and generally no closer than waist up. No zooming, or panning, or close ups, or anything fancy. When we hired the guy, we were really hiring his equipment, because we didn't think what we had was good enough. When he gave us the finished product, he just shrugged and said, "It's pretty good. I had a little trouble with the visual, but the sound is great and that's what matters." Umm, no. He must have hit some button on the camera that tried to record wide angle for one of the songs, but not for the other, so half of the video made my D look rather "thin" - and made her arm position, bowing, etc, look terrible. Even flipping through the screen options on our TV could not get her "fat enough" on one song, and the other song only worked on wide-screen (so if the judges had a different screen, it wouldn't work.) He had a very nice cover for it, and fancy graphics at the beginning, and lots of bells and whistles. But we couldn't use it, because with violin, so much depends on form.</p>
<p>You are all right...and Zep is right too...I am making Much Ado...but S worked VERY hard to get all of his pieces perfect, worked with his accompanist and put a lot of time into the whole thing. You are merely hearing my frustration with the outcome. We did use an external mike..a very good one. Brass instruments are just funny creatures. Or at least they are when recorded in our living room (which is where our piano lives). I also didn't realize that there was no resume requirement...ok, now I really am confused...you would think they would want resumes and teachers recs to add verification. But what do I know? And in the spirit of Shakespeare I am content to let lie. Thank you all for your suggestions and words of comfort. We just may scrap the entire deal and look ahead to auditions!</p>
<p>An idea: the person who comes up with a great camcorder with a built-in mic that would be able to record these kinds of performances will probably do very well if this requirement is going to be state of the art!</p>
<p>Wow Binx,
I'm heading down to your house in Atlanta to do my son's horn recordings!</p>
<p>It is so true that it is different for instrumentalists AND for each instrument. We've also got a 2 story-ceiling large room with open walls downstairs and upstairs, and it didn't work here because we got vibrations from the sconces situated high up at 10' on the walls. We have attempted to minimize those rattles, it's not really a viable option for NFAA anyway as we don't have a piano in that room.</p>
<p>"Furthermore, judges can hear "past" a poor quality recording."
Sorry Zep, I wish it was true, but we don't live in a perfect world. I know my kids would be horrified to send a poor quality recording. They work so hard on their tone, to be judged from just a few moments of their playing, that they want it to be the best it can be. It's sort of like telling Cinderella she can go to the ball in her ash-covered clothing because the Prince will see her beauty within.</p>
<p>"The tide is turning towards video so get used to it."
On this too, I differ. I think that tide must be moving slowly from mid-ocean because in our 5 years of recorded instrumental auditions this is the first video. I do know that they often record regional live auditions, but I'm not responsible for that equipment. Has anyone else done this for an instrumentalist's audition? It would be helpful to find others that have been working on this longer.</p>
<p>As I mentioned earlier, daughter's one recorded audition had to be on video. She also did five live auditions, one of which was simply a grad student in a room making a video for later viewing by the faculty members on her instrument. Had I known that in advance, I could have sent them a copy of the video we made for the other school and saved ten hours of driving and the cost of a motel room. Another of her live auditions was videotaped, even though both faculty members on her instrument were present for the live audition. The other three were not recorded in any way. So in our case, half of the schools required a recording of some sort and all of those recordings involved video.</p>
<p>Son just did grad school auditions last spring. Three of his 4 schools required prescreening and all accepted CDs. However, competitions have been a different matter. In 2002 he applied for a national chamber music competition. They had to send a VHS tape. They also had to submit photo ID pictures - either driver's licenses or passports. When they showed up at the competition their IDs had to match what they sent in. I was pretty surprised at all of this.</p>
<p>I've done it in accompanist's living room, which BTW was a "double wide." Standard miniDV camera with Sony external, stereo mic. I put microphone by D playing clarinet, and kept her to "one side" in case I had to increase or decrease piano volume by using the other stereo channel. Turns out balance was perfect, but that was dumb luck; I was expecting to have to do a little work on that. Obviously camera was on a tripod... </p>
<p>This is really not that big a deal. You can get very nice sound with little hassle. The key is to do a few practice cuts with the microphone in different places; you'll be sure to find something decent. If you have the piano in your house, do all this prior to "the day" so you can practice editing and burning the DVD. </p>
<p>I think many here are dropping their gastric pH over a relatively minor issue. And look at it this way, everyone auditioning for a particular program that requires video has the same issues. Much good info has been posted here, which others don't have access to so take it and run...</p>
<p>Per Zep:</p>
<p><i've done="" it="" in="" accompanist's="" living="" room=""></i've></p>
<p>And you probably weren't the first. ;)</p>
<p>(I could NOT let that line go by; it was far too good a set up.)</p>
<p>I may be the only person in the world who doesn't own a camcorder so if D decides to do this competition, I guess I'll be getting recommendations on that too.</p>
<p>There are so many people at school with all varieties of camcorders. Getting one, borrowing one, borrowing a friend with one, unless you are a hermit, any of those should be possible. </p>
<p>The microphone may be another issue. Fewer friends had those.</p>
<p>I give no quarter and ask for none. Great one violadad!!!</p>
<p>Hey Imperial Zep...my gastric ph is completely restored...but I would like to hire you! You definitely seem as if you know what you are doing. I think our problem was our living room...which unfortunately is where the piano is. S's teacher came over and said there was no way we could get a decent recording (we recorded her). She and my son are looking for another venue. So we'll see. Interestingly, the performing arts high school up north said this was an issue for them as well this year.</p>
<p>Nah, I really should have a camcorder. I've sort of been meaning to buy one for years - good excuse perhaps.</p>
<p>"This is really not that big a deal"
Obviously that totally depends upon your experiences - you are obviously well versed in video recording, have knowledge and possession of a camcorder and an external mic AND are very familiar and possess video editing software. It would be nice if we all had the same knowledge and hardware as you....actually symphonymom had a great idea... want to come over and videotape my daughter's audition? :)</p>
<p>Just occurred to us (since S is doing recording this afternoon (I know, a bit late in the process but this month--year?--has been a perfect storm of non-corresponding schedules among accompanist, singer, voice teacher)--does he look into camera or around as if singing to an audience? My thought is that he should look not look at the camera, at least not much, as it looks too much like a salesman's spiel. But I'm often wrong. (In any case, this is not a big deal--no gastric juices churned up for this! Just wondering.)</p>
<p>GOOD LUCK neumes! My CT daughter is doing her vocal tape on Monday. They didn't have it down to the wire now did they, lol?!! I'm sure she will treat it as a regular performance and sing to an "audience" above the viewers eye (camera).</p>