Secrets of music videos and 'DVD remix' - Edit This! - Jim Swaffield of Relevant post-production house - Interview

Post, Oct, 2002 by Matthew Armstrong

NEWYORK -- Jim Swaffield, principal of production/post house Relevant (www.relevant-nyc.com), has been producing, directing and editing music videos for over a decade and says it is one of the most challenging of all the mediums.

"With a commercial, you have to hold the viewer for 30 seconds," notes Swaffield, "But with a video, you've got to hook their interest for three or four minutes. You have to dangle something near the end that's going to make a person stick around for the entire clip."

Taking his videos from start to finish, Swaffield has reaped the benefits from the lower cost of equipment in recent years. In the early 1990s, he would edit his music videos on an Avid and then go to an outside source for the finishing work These days, editing on Apple Final Cut Pro with a Pinnacle CineWave RT card allows him to cut uncompressed video and, combined with programs like Adobe After Effects, deliver the finished product without leaving his studio. More importantly, this change has allowed him to view the project as a whole and discover ways that he can enhance his images in post and enhance the post process by capturing extra footage on set

"In the past few years, the technology has all just clicked," says Swaffield. "Now I see the post and the shooting as one integrated activity. I can do the main shoot, come back to the studio and shoot the band on green-screen. During the edit I need another shot we can construct it in the computer."

Along with doing more and more work in-house and taking advantage of the compositing capabilities of After Effects, Swaffield has been taking advantage of the functionality of DVDs to add a level of interactivity into the extra features. With his music videos, he refers to the alternate, interactive versions of the videos as "the DVD remix."

"My whole idea for DVD is to make the extra elements core elements," explains Swaffield. "The DVD should take you further than its linear counterpart on MTV."

NO SECRETS

Swaffield recently completed a video for jive Records' teen-pop band No Secrets called That's What Girls Do, which was featured in the animated film Powerpuff Girls (Warner Bros.). Swaffield produced, directed and edited two versions of the video, which he then authored on a DVD that included a third version that was the DVD remix.

The first version is a typical music video featuring the band dancing. With a tightly choreographed dance routine, it was relatively easy to cut from one shot to the next.

"It's all about building layers and having an arc to the story," says Swaffield. "For this, it was showing the girls playing around, practicing their dance moves during the day and then moving into a more polished dance routine and party at night, which ties back into the theme of the Powerpuff Girls, 'Saving the world before bedtime.'"

A second version was made that incorporates footage from the film Powerpuff Girls. This required Swaffield to scour the movie's footage to find moments that related to the song lyrics or actions of the girls in the video. In addition to making a connection between the two, he also manipulated clips from the movie with Adobe Photoshop to make it appear that the Powerpuff Girls were singing the song.

DVD REMIX

Using Apple DVD Studio Pro Swaffield used the functions of the DVD to create an extra, interactive version that allows viewers to learn and see even more about the band. But unlike many DVDs, where the extras are simply outtakes, interviews or content that was re-purposed, Swaffield had a game plan during production to create the DYD remix of the song.

"Usually the guys that are authoring the DVD have to work with what they are given and the DVD is really an afterthought," says Swaffield.

Swaffield brought the band in, shot each against a greenscreen, offering a little personal information, and then doing their dance routine individually. The girls were composited together side by side in After Effects with a projection of the original video playing behind them. Letter icons appear at the bottom of the screen that correspond to the first letter of each girl's name. The remix starts with the selected girl offering some personal info.

The video remix begins with the selected girl singing and dancing in the forefront with the rest of the band backing her up. Users can use the Angle button on the remote to select a different girl to be in the foreground,

Swaffield sees a great opprotunity in offering DVD buyers more. "DVD is a natural fit for the music and music video industry," notes Swaffield. "With the DVD, you can have the music videos, allow people to play around with the interactivity that DVD allows, and also deliver the music in 5.1 surround sound."

BACKWOODS TO BROOKLYN

In addition to his music video work, Swaffield is busy putting the finishing touches on his first feature film Backwoods to Brooklyn, which he wrote, directed, edited and produced through the film's production company Waterworks. The film is a "fish out of water" comedy about a Brooklyn rapper and a sheltered rural kid from New Hampshire.