Prescreen video question , I brought this up previously but did most just use their phone to video? I think we will have 2/3 schools that require a prescreen and I dread them
We did two sets … the one, was with a high end camera with video capability.
The second set was with an iphone in our kitchen.
She passed 0 prescreens with the first one. Passed the last prescreen with the iphone one.
All done with iphone 5 against living room wall. All passed
Oh awesome . I was thinking my iPhone would be ok. I didn’t think they would require people to video professionally for goodness sake. As long as sound and pic is decent. I guess we’ll have to have my D voice teacher play accompaniment and videotape it at school etc. we don’t have a piano. Guess we can just use a CD also right? I must sound so clueless! Lol I hate technology…
We had one of D’s friends tape hers (he is now in film school). He used his own equipment, filmed everything, edited it for each school, put titles on things and gave us both digital files and DVDs. All for $100. It was worth it to me as I was so scared I either wouldn’t get it filmed correctly to begin with or I would erase something or have it in the wrong format. Having him do it took all those stresses away. We filmed D’s in a local dance studio (there were dance portions to one or 2 - Michigan and I can’t remember who else). She did pass all her prescreens.
@theaterwork … you don’t sound clueless at all! The first set of prescreens was recorded w/ live accompaniment. The second, was a CD recording of the accompaniment.
I seem to recall there’s one school that either requires “live accompaniment” for the prescreen or wants the intro + 2 songs + monologue done in one full recording with no edits. ??? I swear I remember seeing that somewhere.
But truly, I really think you’ll be fine with an iphone as long as you can see her and hear her!
Once I look up the prescreen requirements for the schools I’ll have to decide if we can just do it ourselves, I cannot edit video…yikes! We need one for Coastal Carolina, Shenandoah and otterbein.
Filmed on laptop and son did the editing (he had done a lot of goofy videos for youtube in the past, lol )
Does anyone know when the prescreen deadline is for Coastal?
@Joyfulmama - Last year Coastal Carolina began reviewing video submissions on September 1 and video submissions were due by February 9. My guess is that the dates will be similar this year. I know that the MT auditions filled up and they stopped accepting videos for those at some point before the original February deadline.
@austinmtmom oh good I thought Sept was the deadline. That gives us some time to get her material ready.
Thank you!!
While last year’s info might be used as a general guideline, don’t count on ANYTHING in the application/audition process to be the same from year to year at any given school. When we went through this process I started with a spreadsheet of the previous year’s info, but then updated as soon as the new info was posted on the website for each program. MOST things stayed the same, but not all. “Traditional” audition dates can change and the desirability of certain dates can determine how quickly you get in your apps and prescreens. Some schools will have one deadline for fall auditions and another for winter auditions. Also, be sure to keep track of scholarship deadlines for both the school and the specific program - if that is a concern for you. Some schools/programs will accept apps and videos later than the scholarship deadlines, but the scholarship window may have closed.
Balancing the sound for videos using live piano accompaniment can be tricky. It is much easier to use recorded accompaniment for videos - you just adjust the volume on the piano recording playback device. Using a live piano, all you can do is move the singer and the camera/mic around the room to try and balance the mix. Here is a link to a great post by @VoiceTeacher that describes how to balance the sound mix for prescreen videos:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17085841#Comment_17085841
Make sure that any videos submitted represent the very best work that you can do. Some schools will reference and replay the prescreen videos during the final decision process. The video quality is important, but the quality of the work is far more important. Its not just about being good enough to pass the prescreen.
The microphones included with mobile phones (and most video cameras) are generally really poor for recording music. It may be worth the effort to find a better microphone that will plug into your phone (or camera) and improve the sound quality of the recording. As VoiceTeacher mentions in his post, you can also use a separate digital audio recorder, which will greatly improve the sound quality, but requires some A/V skill to merge into the final video.
We used Microsoft Movie Maker to do the minor edits required for d’s prescreens last year (editing the beginning and end to get the start and finish exactly correct, adding a special slate at the beginning for some schools, etc.). It was super easy to use.
IMHO, learning sound and video recording and editing skills is important for students who wish to pursue a career in musical theatre and vocal performance. D learned to use Audacity to edit audio files and it really helped her to get all the 16/32 bar cuts ready for her auditions at Unifieds, where many auditions require recorded accompaniment.
ok great so now i need to learn video and audio editing skills…this is getting more & more stressful…I have no idea how to edit audio cds for the 16 and 32 bar cuts to use for accompaniment…is that what the Audacity is for then? I have barely mastered just burning a CD for D so she has cds for school for showcases she has…let alone cutting the music on them to fit the bars she is singing!
Audacity is a free sound file editor. There are others, but Audacity is widely used, even by the pros in the industry. The learning curve is not very steep and there is lots of help available through youtube.
You an avoid having to edit sound files for recorded accompaniment if you can work with an accompanist to record all the cuts that you need (there will probably be a lot of cuts, especially if you audition for BM programs that require an “Art Song”).
As I recall, D had the following 16/32 cuts:
Contemporary Uptempo
Contemporary Ballad
Golden Age Uptempo
Golden Age Ballad - 2 of these
Contemporary High Belt
Art Song in English
Art Song in French
Pop/rock Song
I totally get the tech stress @theaterwork ! I agree with Emsdad that it is am important skill for the kid to pick up, and my D has been working at it, but neither of us were ready for it when it was prescreen time a couple years ago. We ended up asking a tech-ier friend of D to help out with cuts, but uploads were still often a bear. (File size? compression? I’ve blocked it out, but I remember lots of tears as D, H and I tried to get things to work.) Looking back, if I were doing it again this is an area where I would hire a professional (coach, videographer, whatever) to take care of it
If you know an accompanist, they could record all your cuts in 30 minutes. Well worth any cost involved to get the exact cuts you need. Keep the files on your phone in case you show up at an audition without an accompanist. They may be needed for more than your prescreens. And they are also great to practice with.
I also still highly recommend hiring a tech savvy high schooler or trusted friend to video record and edit prescreens if it is something you are not comfortable with. It is hard for those who are good with technology to understand the stress and angst recording, editing and uploading causes those of us who aren’t so great with tech stuff. But this process is stressful enough as it is. Don’t take on tasks that cause more stress if you don’t have to. I agree that learning to record and edit is a great skill to have. I just feel there are less stressful times to learn these skills, not when you have so much on the line.
Ok so I could get an accompanist to play the cuts needed … Should I record that how? With my phone? I know you all must think I’m clueless ! I’m not really I just am not good with this stuff. I could then hire a video person we know to record D singing said tracks and then have him edit them on separate CDs? Then upload to the prescreen sites?
Our accompanist just recorded his accompaniment cuts on a computer and emailed the digital files to us. We had them in our email and D also kept copies on her phone to practice with and if needed for an audition.
For the prescreen videos, our high school friend filmed daughter then prepared a digital video file for each school per the school’s instructions. These then could be uploaded or emailed - whatever the school requested. He did also gave us DVDs for each school just as back up, but we never had to use them.
We recorded the accompaniment on our phones in the audio files section. The accompanist played all possible cuts and whole songs–separately, of course.
As time went on, D preferred a slightly different tempo for one song and she miraculously found quality piano accompaniment for it on-line (and, no, it wasn’t an overdone song–we were lucky).