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11/9/2020 0 Comments Teaching- Alternatives to Recorder Personally, I have never had an issue with recorders. I do wear musician’s earplugs when we play them and offer earmuff headphones for students to use. I have had students not like the high pitched squeal. I do still use recorders with my 3rd grade students but I also use several other instrument options for variety. One option is pitched percussion, and what are specifically called barred Orff instruments. These instruments come in varying sizes. If you don’t already have a collection in your school, it is best to budget for them over several years. When planning for a purchase, there are things to consider: Do you want a collection of several identical instruments or a variety of instruments of different pitch ranges and materials? The advantage of identical instruments is there is no stress for the youngest students when they don’t get the one they want. The advantage of different pitch ranges is students can explore high and low. The advantage of different materials (like metal or wood) can allow students to compare different ways of creating sound. In addition, for all different types of barred Orff instruments, there are options.  Soprano glockenspiel, the smallest instrument with metal bars, comes in at least 3 different styles that I have seen. Some have permanent (non removable) bars that allow the player to explore the C Major and A minor scales. This works when too many options could overwhelm students. Another style looks similar to a piano and has a full chromatic octave, so students can play in any key, but as I said above, more options may make these more complicated than they need to be. A third style has 8 bars of a major scale, but the bars are removable. Often, they come with Bb and F# bars that can be switched out to play in other keys. Another advantage to the removable bar style is that you can modify the instrument so only the notes needed are present. For example, if you are working on Mary Had A Little Lamb, you can leave 3 bars on the instrument and remove the rest, giving the students a much higher chance of hitting the correct notes and feeling successful. Instruments like the glockenspiel are small, so one student per instrument will be needed. For classes of 25 students, you would need a set of 25, or you could have students trade off with half that many.
Looking at the alto range, I have only seen models this size with removable bars. With wooden bars, they are called xylophones and with metal bars they are called metallophones. Metallophones ring a lot longer and can be played louder. As long as students are reminded to play gently this shouldn’t be a problem, but occasionally an excited student plays louder. Xylophone bars are made of wood (some are now a synthetic material). The last time my school ordered some, I found that I had to sand the bottom of the bars a little. It would be rare that a student would ever touch the bottom of a bar, but I still didn’t want to risk splinters. These models are large enough that 2 students can share one instrument and both play at the same time (often the range is from C to A on the next octave). Just like with band or orchestral pitched percussion, it is important to teach students which mallets work with each instrument. After several reminders, my students have been trained to use rubber on the metallophones and yarn on the xylophones. I don’t use brass mallets with elementary students because they can be piercingly loud. Similar to the alto range, there are tenor and bass models of xylophones and metallophones. I would only recommend having these as part of a collection of different sizes. Unless your music classroom is very large, you will need to store these instruments when not being used. The bass instrument is about 4 feet wide by 2 feet deep, so even 12 would take up quite a lot of real estate. Consider too, the larger the instrument, the higher the cost. There are many accessories available for these instruments like storage racks and carts with wheels. Before assuming that you need all of these, consider your own situation and how you would store and move the instruments. In my classroom, I have several tables making an L shape in the corner and most of the larger instruments fit under those. The rest fit in a tall storage cabinet. For Kindergarten and 1st grade, I will place the instruments in front of the students. For 2nd grade and up, I demonstrate and teach them the proper way to hold and to carry the instruments and they become responsible for moving the instruments themselves. Even with Kindergarten, I make sure that every student is responsible for putting their mallets back on the tray. I believe that every amount of student responsibility at clean up time benefits students.  Next, I will discuss electric keyboards. Just like anything, there are so many models and options available. Just like with Orff instruments, you need to decide whether you want variety in a collection or identical instruments. Either way, I would recommend that you find a model that is MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface--turning sound into data) capable (most of them are) so you can one day connect them to computers and practice inputting notes with software. The big brands of keyboards today are Yamaha and Casio. Both make a good instrument. The only difference I have noticed is that Yamaha keyboards can work with 3rd party power adapters, whereas Casio keyboards have to use Casio adapters because the plug is a different shape. I always use the keyboards plugged in (that’s what power strips are for), because replacing batteries would be a full time job. I recommend 61 keys or more so that 2 students can play on a keyboard at the same time. You can also either purchase stickers for the keys to help students find the notes that they need. This past year, a fellow teacher was able to use a Cricut to make custom stickers. In terms of making a first sound, keyboards may be the friendliest instrument. Students get excited at how easily they can start to make their own sounds and create or reproduce melodies. It’s never too early to introduce the C shape of the hand and demonstrate how much easier it is to reach the keys than with flat fingers. Decide ahead of time whether students will have time to explore sounds or if all will be set to the same piano sound. I recommend starting and ending the lesson with some exploration time and having the instruction portion be all the same sound. Otherwise, you will hear spaceships landing while students are trying to play Hot Cross Buns. One advantage to keyboards is that the students can be introduced to chords. Maybe once they have mastered the melody to a one chord song, they could play the chord with their left hand. Once you connect a keyboard to a computer through MIDI, there are limitless things that students could do. You may want to start with one main computer and students taking turns before you buy a MIDI cable for each keyboard.  Moving into the string family, this past school year was my first year using ukuleles, and it was fantastic. My school got a matching set, enough for 25 students. I found for myself that I needed a concert size instead of soprano because my fingers were too big! One of the wonderful things about ukulele is that the C major and A minor chords only need 1 finger. I actually start the students with chords before we try melodies. With chords, we experiment with rhythm and strumming direction. I require that all the students use a pick, so that they are not tempted to pull on the strings. With just these two chords, we can discuss what makes a major or minor sound. To help students find where to put their fingers, I use color coded sticker dots for the different chords. Introducing the students to the ukuleles is similar to any instrument. We started with learning how to properly open the case, how to safely hold the instrument, how to strum, etc. It was probably 2 weeks before we actually started learning chord shapes, but by then the procedures for using ukulele were automatic. There are many ways to learn strumming patterns, through echo games, reading upbow and downbow symbols, saying up and down as you play, etc.  Guitar is obviously larger than the ukulele. I have several teacher friends that have matching classroom sets of half size guitars. At my school, we had an instrument donation drive, so we have enough mismatched acoustic and electric guitars for a class of 25 to trade off. I would say the biggest difference from ukulele (besides the size) is that guitar has 6 strings, with different letter names than the ukulele. One modification is that, when strumming down (from the strings closest to your face, moving away from your face), you can leave out the lowest two strings and play with just the higher 4 strings to make chord shapes easier.
The next difference of guitar from ukulele is the material of the strings. Even though both ukulele and guitar may have some type of nylon, the distance that a student will have to press the string on guitar is more. Both ukulele and guitar have advantages, but I would say guitar has a steeper learning curve because of the differences mentioned. These are just a few of the options you have for some variety when you don’t want to focus solely on recorders. In many ways recorders are great for getting students introduced to wind instruments, but can also be deceptive because instruments like clarinet, flute, saxophone will take a lot more air than a recorder requires. Please let me know if you have questions and share your own experiences with recorders and other instruments in the comments.
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11/2/2020 0 Comments Film- When Was The First Movie? This is a question that I have heard many people ask. A great many people are quick to say The Wizard of Oz because that is the oldest movie they can remember, but films had actually existed for a few decades before that. There were already movie stars and a studio system before the advent of sound technology in 1927, 12 years before Wizard of Oz. The short answer to when was the first movie is-- no one knows! The idea of separate pictures shown fast enough to create the illusion of movement started in the last quarter of the 19th century. Carnival attractions of the little carousel with slits in it that when looking through it showed a horse galloping or a person dancing became popular. It was about 1885 that someone (it was not Thomas Edison, as is generally believed; he was a strong inventor and an even more ruthless businessman) figured out how to use sprockets to string film and play pictures in sequence with a bulb shining on the film. In general, film works because different amounts of light and dark will work differently with the chemicals on the film. This is how shades of colors are shown with film. The oldest film that is still viewable today is from 1893 France. It is a short comedy scene of a man watering the garden. A kid comes up and twists the hose to stop the water. The man looks in the hose to see why the water has stopped and gets sprayed. It is really amazing to think that we can still see footage from about 130 years ago. Film is much more likely to degrade than still photographs or paintings because of the chemicals used to produce the film. Many early film stocks are now lost because the chemicals used in its production were so flammable that entire vaults of films were lost to fire. Another reason that we have fewer films from the early 20th century, despite how many were regularly made, is that studios did not see a long-term value in preserving a film. Either they were stored without care or simply discarded once the studio had exploited them completely.  Frame Dimensions It was much later into the 20th century that standards of frame dimension, framerate per second, and more became the norm. The 1.33 or 1.37:1 that is called the “Academy” ratio was not standard until about the 1920s. If an aspect ratio is unfamiliar to you, it is simply the width of the image compared to the height. So the academy ratio is 1.37 times as wide as it is tall. A perfect square would have a 1:1 ratio. Some filmmakers envisioned that a square would be the standard and that filmmakers would make the image inside that square wider or narrower as needed for the story. Today, most films are either presented “flat” with a 1.85:1 ratio (often captured with a full frame and cropping the top and bottom to make it appear wider) or “scope” (named after Cinemascope, which was a widescreen system that began in the 1950s) with a 2.35:1 ratio. Many other aspect ratios have been experimented with over the years. I am not sure if anyone has ever tried an image narrower than 1.33:1. The widest aspect ratio that was presented in mainstream theaters was 2.76:1. Only about 5 films ever used the MGM Camera 65 or Super Panavision 70 system that allowed for this width, the most notable being Ben-Hur in 1959. The extreme width came from a 70mm (wider) piece of film and an anamorphic lens that would squeeze the image. When projected, another anamorphic lens would unsqueeze the image. Even though Ben-Hur was filmed this way, many regular cinemas did not have the ability to show it that way, resulting in them cropping off the sides of the image.  Frame Rate Another idea is framerate, or the number of frames that occur in a second. The 24 frames per second rate that we take for granted now was also not standard until about the 1920s. Much lower frame rates per second gives film that kind of choppy look that we associate with many silent movies. Keep in mind at that time, when the camera was hand cranked to feed the film through, the speed at which it was cranked could change the frame rate. So the standard, consistent 24 frames per second could not be widely used until the cameras were automatically cranked. Even though 24 frames per second for cinema presentation is still the standard, television and video technology makes it complicated. In most European countries, the standard for video is 25 frames per second, so it is not too difficult to convert a movie to show on television. However, in North America, our video standard is 29.97 frames per second (often simplified to 30). Clearly, you can’t just speed up the movie so that it runs at a faster frame rate (the result would be high pitched dialogue). Instead, there are formulas for converting frame rates (most are done automatically by computer software today).  Sound Technology Another film technology that is often discussed is sound. The transition from silent movies to full sound did not happen as abruptly as many people assume. Although experiments with sound synchronized to image began around 1926-1927 and the first full sound film The Jazz Singer premiered in 1927, full sound movies were the exception until about 1930. The first sound technology used were records that had to be lined up with the image. The limitations to this were quickly apparent, as the projectionist would have to change reels and records. Soon a way of printing the soundwaves on the film, called optical sound made it so that the sound was synchronized to each frame. At first, the sound was monophonic, meaning 1 channel, produced by a single strip of soundwaves on the side of the frame. Once television became competition to the film industry, filmmakers needed to think of ways to attract people away from their televisions and into cinemas. Beyond various methods of creating larger and wider images (detailed above), stereo sound (2 channels) was the next step for sound technology. This meant that not only were there 2 separate sound signals, but the sound could also be directional. This means sounds would be heard coming from the right or left, relating to what was happening on the screen. Although 6 channel sound is assumed to be a product of the 21st century (it was for home theaters), 6 channel film sound appeared in the 1950s as well. In order to accommodate the 6 different strips of optical sound, larger film was needed. The 70mm film actually showed an image that was 65mm because the 6 tracks of sound took up the rest of the frame. 6 channels then meant that the audience could hear sound coming from behind the screen, both sides, and behind the seats. Now that most movie theaters use digital projectors, the audio source is just another digital file. 8 channels seems to be the most in common use under various brand names like Dolby.  Color Technology The final film technology development that I will discuss today is color photography. Just like sound technology, color developed over time. Just like Wizard of Oz was not the first feature length film, it was also not the first full color film. Based on films that still exist, Becky Sharp from 1935 was in color. Before that, there were short films and experiments with color for certain scenes. Some mostly black and white films added a tint to certain shots, but it was still monochromatic. There were a few attempts using a 2 color process, which was later abandoned with the 3 strip Technicolor process.
We still know the Technicolor name because it was (and is) very high quality. To avoid all the technical details, the 3 strip color process worked because each strip was sensitive to a certain hue and rejected other hues. The three strips would be Red, Green, and Blue. Together, they could create any color needed. It was not perfect right out of the camera. There was a lot of processing work in the lab after filming that needed to be done for it to be perfect. This processing step was the reason why many films were still black and white through the 1960s--the cost of the processing. Later film products were able to film in color without the 3 strip processing and today, digital cameras have different photographic cells that respond to different colors, but the idea is still the same. So unfortunately, I was not able to answer the question of the first film that ever existed, but hopefully you learned a little something of the development of film technology. Please let me know in the comments if you have questions or would like more in depth information about particular film technology developments. 10/26/2020 0 Comments Profile- Henry Mancini Henry Mancini was one of the most prolific film and television composers of all time. By the time of his death in 1994, he had received more Grammy award nominations than any other artist (this has later been surpassed by Quincy Jones). He is also one of the few film composers to have one of his arrangements become a #1 hit when his version of the “Theme from Romeo and Juliet” knocked the Beatles off the top spot in 1970. Mancini was equally respected among film critics, audiences, and popular music listeners. Of the great film composers, he stands with the top few whose music is a terrific listening experience outside of the context of the film.
However, much of Mancini’s impact seems to have been forgotten in the post-Star Wars era when big, symphonic scores returned to popularity. Film music, like any artform, has cycles, the symphonic (I daresay, classical) scores of the 1930s and 1940s gave way to rock and roll inspired scores in the late 1950s and 1960s. Disco music reigned in the soundtracks of the 1970s, until Star Wars returned the style to symphonic music. One could argue that, depending on the film genre, symphonic scores are still the norm (with added electronic elements). Mancini, like many great composers, stands out because his music often stood out as contrary to the prevailing style of the time. What the general public remembers about Mancini are the Pink Panther and Peter Gunn scores, which are incredible, yet only a fraction of Mancini’s output. By examining Mancini’s work, we see he was quite versatile. Mancini got his start in Hollywood working at Universal Studios as part of a composing team or music department that would write music for giant monster movies. Often in situations like this, members of a music department would be uncredited and the title of music supervisor would be the sole credit. It was not until the end of the 1950s with the Peter Gunn television show that Mancini’s work was noticed. Also, Peter Gunn was his first collaboration with producer-director Blake Edwards, a composer-director partnership that would serve Mancini for the rest of his career. Today, listening to the Peter Gunn theme often reminds the listener of the James Bond sound. However, the influence actually went the other way. Peter Gunn premiered in 1958 and the James Bond series did not start until 1962. We could say that Mancini’s sound influenced the sound of the 1960s spy movies. Many times, Mancini’s score would complement the films by providing a contrasting counterpoint to the comic action on screen. Consider cues like “Nothing To Lose” from The Party and “Piano and Strings” from The Pink Panther occur during outrageous comedies. Like subtext for dialogue, his music would highlight the underlying emotions amidst all the chaos. Mancini was a master of jazz and pop orchestration. He actually wrote one of the few texts on the subject, Sounds and Scores, which I highly recommend. His use of string counterpoint and jazz harmonies were imitated heavily by other composers, especially in television. Despite his ability to layer sounds, his music never had to rely on complicated textures to evoke feelings. Often, a piece could be a piano melody with simple string pad beneath. A great example of this is “Hilly’s Theme” from Silver Streak. Some of his most notable melodies are recognizable within 5 notes. Consider “Moon River” takes about 3, “Pink Panther Theme” about 2, “Crazy World” about 3, etc. In terms of Academy Awards, 1961-1962 were quite special for Mancini. He won best score and best song (“Moon River”) from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and then best song for “The Days of Wine and Roses” the following year. His final academy award was in 1982 for the Best Song Score for Victor/Victoria. In between, he was nominated for an award practically every single year. He won a best song Golden Globe for “Whistling Away The Dark” from Darling Lili in 1971 and was nominated for 9 others. Including one posthumous award, he earned 9 Grammy Awards out of 33 nominations. Although his background was jazz, his classical sound could be quite evocative, many times having an Italian quality, which makes sense considering his heritage. A notable example of this is the Italian film Sunflower--no traces of jazz harmony or instrumentation, but unmistakably Mancini. Another outlier in his canon of films is Lifeforce from 1985. He jumped at the chance to work on a science fiction-horror movie when asked. The exciting title march fits well within the John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner scores of the era. Beyond his composing work, Mancini was also an accomplished performer, playing piano on most of his albums and soundtracks. His playing style is unlike that of any other pianist I have heard. When most pianists would play louder into the keys for a crescendo, he would back off with a lighter touch for the climaxes, as if he wanted the listener to be drawn in and listen closer. If you have not listened to a Mancini score before, or if it has been some time, I highly recommend it. Almost all of them can be found on Youtube and most of them are available on CD if you prefer the old-fashioned way :)  I like to break vocal tone production into 3 categories--air, space, and resonance. Each of these categories, of course, is broken down into further steps and sensations.  Air For air, I covered most of it in an earlier post. The biggest idea is to keep everything very relaxed and tension free. This includes not obstructing your breathing by leaning back or hunching over. You have much more control over the inhalation and how much air you take in than you do by pushing on the exhale. If you can remember to breathe to the bottom of your lungs, and let your belly pop out, you will be going in the right direction.  Space For space, you want everything as open as it can be. Starting with the jaw, we drop the jaw without forcing it down. If we think of the “aw” vowel shape, we can mostly keep the jaw dropped even when our lips are forming other vowel shapes like “eh”, “oh”, “oo”, etc. For “ee”, we simply raise our tongue. This small adjustment with the jaw can make a dramatic change in your sound. Try practicing it in the mirror to be sure your jaw stays down. A good exercise to practice this feeling is to say “yaw, yaw, yaw, yaw, yaw” but keep the jaw in the low position and only use your tongue to say the word. It will sound silly, but the sensation will be there. Going further into the mouth, we can use our tongue to feel the roof of our mouth. At the front of the mouth is the hard palate, which does not move. About halfway back is the soft palate. The soft palate naturally raises when we yawn. With practice, we can consciously raise our soft palate when we sing. Try exercises using words with the “ng” sound like sing, ming, etc. to feel the soft palate raise. This is where we get the “tall” tone that many singing teachers describe. Keeping the soft palate raised is one technique that I have struggled with for many years. What I have found helps me to check the position of my soft palate is to touch it with my tongue. Obviously I don’t do this while I am singing, but a brief tap right before I sing helps me to be sure it is raised. Eventually, it will become a habit to have it raised. The difficult part is that you cannot use a mirror to see this happening, so it all needs to be done through sensation and the evidence in your sound. With the jaw dropped and soft palate raised, the last step to creating space is to be sure to keep your throat open. I have a terrible habit of tightening my throat when I know higher notes are approaching in a song, when in reality the high notes would come out no problem if I just stayed relaxed and open. Practicing exercises with series of notes going down can help to relax the throat and lower the larynx.  Resonance For resonance, there are several ways to think about it. Every instrument produces sound through resonance. For a guitar, the strings vibrate as well as the body of the instrument. On a clarinet, the reed vibrates as well as the body of the instrument. A drum or cymbal is great to watch for resonance because you can see the drum head or cymbal moving. For singing, the vocal cords are vibrating but there is also vibration happening in tissues in the sinus cavities, mouth, lips, etc. Just like with your soft palate, you cannot see this in a mirror, but instead go by the feeling.
We can feel this vibration, or as I describe “buzzing on the front of the face” when we have closed consonants like “m” or “n”. When the lips touch you can really feel the vibration. To practice controlling resonance and use it to its fullest potential, it is good to start with these types of sounds before moving to other types of consonant and vowel combinations. Words like mom, marmalade, now, one, etc are good to use in exercises. During my second or third year of teaching, I began to have problems with vocal pain and fatigue. Since there was nothing physically wrong with my vocal mechanism, I was referred to speech therapy, which made a world of difference. It turns out, I had not been using much resonance in my teaching. When I wanted to speak louder I would try to push air or push from my throat. What I learned from the speech therapy is that more sound comes from more vibration--more resonance. Putting these three concepts together- air, space, and resonance, allows one to have a tall tone that stays consistent across the range from low notes to high notes. It also allows you to create a big sound with very little effort. If you are just starting out to explore vocal tone, I recommend that you work on just one category at a time, in the order I have presented them. Get your breathing working properly for you to start. Next, be sure you are providing the sound the space that it needs. Finally, work on producing some good resonance. Please let me know in the comments if you have questions or different tricks that work for you.  Sometimes we can be held back due to the fear that we have to know a concept completely before we try anything using that concept. As teachers, we can transfer this fear to avoid introducing concepts to our students. Over my years of teaching, I have learned to never underestimate what students of any age can do with the proper supports or scaffolding. There is nothing wrong with beginning to understand how music is grouped as rhythms and how sound can be organized through time without first understanding fractions, time signatures, division, etc. The way I introduce rhythms with PreK is to start with echo clapping. I simply clap a pattern and have students echo with the same pattern. With clapping, we don’t have to worry about the correct way to do it as we would with using a drum or another rhythm instrument, the students’ full attention can be on responding to what they hear. We may play this game for a couple of classes. Next, I count aloud as I clap (1 2 and 3 4) and ask the students to echo the clapping and the counting. I do this before even explaining that we are putting notes in groups of 4. We may do this exercise several times before transitioning to the same thing with rhythm sticks and then hand drums. Sometimes, a student notices that I stop at “4” and that is great. If no one notices, that is okay too! Once the students are confident echoing rhythms, we pass the beat around a circle. It starts with just the counting. I start by counting “1”. The student next to me (I would explain if we were going clockwise or counter clockwise) counts “2”, the next student “3”. This is how we then figure out that after we get to “4”, the next person will actually say “1” and we start over again. A student may get confused and say “5”. That’s nothing to worry about. Often, the student will realize what they have done and laugh. Simply start over again with 1. If needed, I demonstrate counting to 4 and starting over at 1 again. The next level of the exercise is to pass the beat and play instruments while counting.  After these exercises, I introduce what notes look like. We talk about how they have a circle part and then an up and down line. We don’t worry about what each part is specifically called or what each part means at this time. I then show 4 quarter notes in a row. I would say “remember how we counted notes in groups of 4? Let’s count how many notes we see”. At this point, every student is desperate to show off their counting skills. So I call on one volunteer to count the four notes. But what about all the other students?? Everyone gets a chance to count the four notes! The repetition is really good for learning how rhythms work. Next, I would change one beat to two eighth notes beamed together. At this point, students don’t need to know the specific names of the notes, that two eighth notes fit in the same beat as quarter notes, etc. I would simply ask “which notes look different in this picture?” Once again, a class full of volunteers will demonstrate their understanding. I would then say, “when we see two notes with a side to side line (beam) like this, we put the word ‘and’ after the number”. I then count the rhythm. Once again, if each student in the class wants to count each rhythm, that is fine. I make sure to count it in rhythm each time so that students hear the eighth notes as shorter than the quarter notes.  For several weeks, I will share 2 or 3 pictures of quarter and eighth note rhythms and have us count them as a class. The next step is to invite students to attempt counting a rhythm before we do it as a class. I have found about 75% of students are able to correctly count the quarter and eighth note rhythms at this point. I am not simply talking about memorizing the sequence of the notes as a group, but actually pointing at each note and saying a number or an “and”. With more practice visually, aurally (through hearing and echoing), and kinesthetically (through playing instruments), by the end of the year, I have found that each student is able to count simple quarter note and eighth note rhythms.
Sometimes very advanced musicians that have been performing for years forget about learning the basics. I know I cannot remember the first time I counted a rhythm. It was probably when I started piano lessons. I do have to admit that I didn’t understand time signatures until I was in middle school. My strategy with PreK rhythms takes away much of the complication and returns it to counting to 4 and recognizing pictures as symbols without having specific vocabulary that can muddle things up.  Growing up in the 1990s, the first Star Trek series I saw on television was The Next Generation, but I was so young, it really didn’t appeal to me. I liked the colorful effects but the stories were a little beyond me. By the time I started kindergarten, a local television station was showing reruns of the original series. I could tell that it was older than The Next Generation, but at that time, I was not concerned with what century each series took place or how one series led into another. My biggest interest was the characters and the stories. I honestly was not inspired by the diversity shown on the screen until I was much older. For a young child, anything less than infinite diversity did not make sense to me. It was later that I learned how incredible it was for the bridge crew to include a Russian navigator (during the cold war), a first officer that wasn’t even completely human, an Asian helmsman (only a couple of decades after WWII) and a Black, female officer on the bridge. The idea of a society without money that had a space fleet with the goal of exploration is still incredible. It is possible that I saw every episode of the original series by the time the local station stopped showing it. The next step was to go to the local video rental store (when they still existed) and rent VHS tapes of the Star Trek movies (I don’t think the store even had a single DVD at this time). Often, the tapes would have to be rewound before I could watch (anyone remember the “Be kind, please rewind” saying?)  My Mom was a great guide through the Star Trek universe. She knew that The Motion Picture (the first movie) would not have held my interest, so she started me with The Voyage Home (Star Trek IV), which is still my favorite Star Trek movie. I love the blend of humor and adventure. The original cast was so good in comic situations and this film really revels in that. Our heroes become the outsiders when they are thrust into (then) present day earth. Everything we see as “normal” was completely bizarre to the Star Trek crew, and it allows us to critique our own society. On my first viewing, the special effect that blew me away the most was how William Shatner’s toupee managed to stay on his head as he swam underwater to save the whales! There was something about the Star Trek movies that make them so familiar and yet so very different from the shows. If you think about the original 6 movies, Wrath of Khan (II), Search for Spock (III), and The Voyage Home (IV) form a continuous trilogy. I’m not sure if this was an intentional plan after the success of the Star Wars trilogy, or if it just happened that way. For The Motion Picture (I), The Final Frontier (V), and The Undiscovered Country (VI), the viewer does not need to have seen the other films to follow the story. However, one does need to be familiar with the characters to follow character relations. I believe this detail may contribute to how Star Trek movies seem to under-perform with a wide audience compared to the movies of other franchises. How much research does one need to do before watching a 2 hour movie? I know hardcore Trek fans would argue that people need a high enough intellect to appreciate a Star Trek movie, and that the 2009 reboot did well because it was “dumbed down” for the average person. When in fact I would argue that it did well because it introduced each character one at a time. In every other Star Trek film, it is assumed that the viewer is already intimately familiar with each character and because of that, if a viewer does not already know the characters, it is like 2 hours of an inside joke and the viewer is alienated from the start.  After The Voyage Home (IV), the next Star Trek movie we rented was The Wrath of Khan (II). I had already seen Star Wars at this point, so my expectations were probably similar to original viewers when Wrath of Khan premiered in 1982. It definitely met my expectations. It didn’t have as frequent action as Star Wars, but unlike Star Wars, you saw the destruction inside the ships and how that affected the characters. I also like that Wrath of Khan was more a sequel to the television episode Space Seed than it was to the first movie. The writers did a great job giving the viewer enough information about Khan’s backstory without needing clips or a play by play of the episode. Of course, I missed all the Moby Dick references until I was much older and could appreciate that. Unlike the Motion Picture, Wrath of Khan actually acknowledged that the characters (and therefore, the actors) had aged since the television series. So much of Kirk’s identity in Wrath of Khan has to do with his reluctance to acknowledge a significant birthday (implied to be 50).  I believe the next movie I saw was The Undiscovered Country (VI). Notice how my parents guided me to the even numbered movies before the odd numbered movies. The general consensus goes that the even numbered Star Trek movies are better than the odd numbered. Even film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel admitted this trend. This was true until Nemesis (Star Trek 10) was bad and the 2009 movie (Star Trek 11) was good. I remember noticing how much darker the Undiscovered Country was compared to the previous films. I don’t just mean tone, I mean the absence of lighting on the sets. There was literally less light in the image. Apparently, the cinematographer used a lot of source lighting, meaning that the control panels themselves were lighting the actors’ faces instead of traditional film lighting. I remembered getting totally freaked out during the zero gravity assassination scene. I remember reading somewhere that the film would have been PG13 if the Klingons had red blood instead of pink. That would have been helpful for my parents to know because I believe I was about 8 when I saw it. The shot where the Klingon gets his arm shot off was too much for little Mike. Years later, I’ve come to appreciate the Undiscovered Country as one of my favorite Star Trek movies, even if the Klingon villain quoted Shakespeare too much. From the first second of the Undiscovered Country, it is clear that the style is different from the rest of the series. Instead of a grand fanfare, the music begins with low bass and cello notes, influenced by Stravinsky’s The Firebird. The music score even includes a choir, which was a first for the Star Trek series. The film itself is more of a political thriller than an adventure movie. The only real space battle is saved until the very end, but it is quite an epic one. So many elements come together to make a great sequence--the Enterprise battles a Klingon bird of prey that can fire when cloaked, Sulu and his ship the Excelsior race to assist the Enterprise, and there is a time limit because all of them know that someone on the planet is going to try to assassinate the President of the Federation. The entire plot of the film centers around the idea that it is an end to an era, the Klingons and the Federation are signing a peace agreement, ending many decades of aggression. At the same time the Enterprise and its crew are being retired. What a fitting end to the original series.  After the Undiscovered Country, I watched my favorite of the odd numbered original movies, The Search for Spock (III). I saw an interview with Leonard Nimoy, who directed the film as well as starring as Spock, in which he described how he viewed the film as an opera. In that sense, the emotions of the film work well--feelings of loss and friendship are experienced in big amounts. This film fits the spirit of the original series much better than The Motion Picture. The crew were willing to sacrifice their careers and their ship because there was a chance that Spock was still alive. I think many people group Search for Spock with The Motion Picture (I) and The Final Frontier (V) because it is not as exciting as the previous film, Wrath of Khan and not as funny as the following film Voyage Home. But there are many humorous character moments and some great action setpieces. The way Kirk tricks the Klingon crew to board the Enterprise just as it is about to self-destruct is brilliant and the fight between Kirk and the Klingon captain is directly from the television series with the added big budget elements of the entire planet falling apart around them.  So far, I have mentioned The Motion Picture (I) many times. I believe this was the next movie I watched. I say believe, because I don’t remember much of my first viewing besides that I kept waiting for something to happen. It was very difficult for young Mike to get through. It is still difficult for older Mike to get through. When I rewatch it, I appreciate the production design and effects efforts. Compared to all the other movies, you probably see more sets of the inside of the Enterprise in this movie. Also, the number of different ships seen--3 Klingon ships, the newly-renovated Enterprise in all its glory, the spacedock, 2 different space stations, shuttles, the Vulcan shuttle, etc. The shots of the Enterprise from this film were reused in many of the later films. However, the story could have used more time to develop before production started and it could have used a tighter edit. I have read that the studio was so desperate to release the movie on a certain date that Jerry Goldsmith had to compose much of the music before seeing the scenes it was written for and that the premiere was the first time most of the people in the production had seen any of it. But many years later, the practical and miniature effects still hold up really well. The scene flying to the newly refit Enterprise is long but thrilling when the Enterprise is seen and it really does look like a beautiful, massive starship. Consider too that Jerry Goldsmith’s theme had not yet become the often heard theme to the Next Generation. Of all the original movies, The Motion Picture is probably the one I watch the least. It’s not poorly made; it’s just really boring. I have to be in the right mood, or convinced to have a marathon of all the original movies. Sadly, when I have tried to do a marathon in order, my friends and I get through the Motion Picture and often don’t have the energy for Wrath of Khan.  The last of the original movies I saw was The Final Frontier (V). I actually didn’t see it until years after I saw the rest of the series because friends and family recommended I avoid it. I actually saw it on TV (probably the Sci Fi channel at the time). Even though I was probably about 12, I could still see where corners had been cut in the effects budget. Industrial Light and Magic had already taken on too many projects in 1989, so they were not available for the production (‘89 was a big effects year with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, and Ghostbusters II).
Instead, the company that handled the effects for The Final Frontier (V) did not have the experience or the budget to do a job comparable to the other films in the series. Many of the effects do not hold up when compared to the television effects 20 years earlier. There is one shot where a Klingon bird of prey fires a torpedo at the Enterprise, and the Enterprise narrowly escapes. The shot is so poorly done, someone could literally have pulled a still image of the Enterprise with fishing wire and it would have been more effective (and cheaper!) However, I still believe that The Final Frontier could be saved with redone effects. Yes, the concept is silly, but the movie does move from point A to point B swiftly and there are many great character moments. Just like The Motion Picture, the music from Jerry Goldsmith is incredible. There are some great action cues, but the best themes (in my opinion) are the grand moments. The Star Trek fanfare at the opening transitions into a majestic cue of Kirk (at least they want us to believe it) climbing in Yosemite National Park. The music gives the feeling of American Classical music with harmonies reminiscent of Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. Near the end of the film, Goldsmith combines electronic and acoustic instruments to produce an uplifting and equally unsettling sound for the Eden-like planet that the characters believe they have found. Unfortunately, the film ends with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy singing Row Your Boat off-key, but that’s another story. Everyone has their favorite Star Trek television series. Next Generation is probably my favorite of the television series, but I will always enjoy the original film series best. Their balance of action, humor, and character relations give me a great feeling for the series that has been a part of my life since I was very young. 9/21/2020 0 Comments Film- How To Host A Movie Premiere Clearly, this post is not an exhaustive guide on movie premieres, but based on my personal experience hosting a premiere. A premiere is often a one time event (unless a big movie has premieres all over the world), but when it goes successfully, it can be the memory of a lifetime. I will go through the steps chronologically to hopefully avoid confusion. Obviously, the first step in planning a premiere is to complete your film or have a very good idea of when it will be complete. You do not want to book a venue and invite everyone, only to have a rough draft to present. Note--your premiere is not a test audience. Any test audience should happen before the film premieres. If you are applying to film festivals, be really sure to read the fine print. Some festivals will not consider your submission if your film has already premiered somewhere else. Festivals have details of their own, so that is a story for another day. For the purpose of this article, we are assuming that you have already presented at festivals or are deciding to not do the festival route. I live in a small area, so there are only 4 local cinemas. I simply sent out an email inquiry to each explaining that I was a local, independent filmmaker that had completed a film and wanted to rent a screen to premiere my film. Be sure that the cinema knows you only want to rent a screen and not the entire facility. Within a couple of days I had heard back from each company. I was surprised at how each already had a policy for rentals. In my area, each cinema is either locally owned or locally managed, so the situation would be different in a larger area with national chain theaters like AMC. I decided to go with the locally-owned theater that was very willing to work with me to be sure that the finished product met my expectations. I believe the price might have been a little higher than the other options, but the fact that the service included that personal touch attracted me. At that point, I was introduced to the behind the scenes operations of the cinema multiplex. In terms of the world, this cinema was small, with only 8 screens. The entire facility could be operated with simply one employee if necessary. A computer or phone could check on the status of each projector. I think the part that blew me away was the business arrangement from the film studios or distributors. What happens is that the distributor, or the movie studio (sometimes the same company, but sometimes not) leases the screen and they decide what will be shown on that screen for the duration of the lease. For example, if Warner Brothers leases Screen 1, the cinema owner cannot show anything else on Screen 1 without Warner Brothers’ permission. Because I wanted to show my movie at a specific time, I not only had to pay for the use of the facility, but also for the amount that the movie distributor might have made for the movie I was replacing at that time. It is a very strict system and the massive studios hold all the power. If the owner of the cinema did something to tick off Disney, they may lose the contract and not be able to show any future movies from Disney. This arrangement is another reason why small independent movies have such a hard time getting distribution in theaters, unless several small distributors can get together to lease one screen. This also explains why so many smaller movies are released only in “select theaters”. Once the date and time was all set and we knew which screen to use, we had to check all the specifications for that particular screen. At this particular cinema, all the screens had similar specifications, but that is not always the case. Some screens may project in 4K, others in 2K (about the same as 1080p television), while others are 6K or higher. Another specification to check is the sound. No matter how many speakers are hooked into the room, the system itself may only broadcast one channel or split the signal into 2 channels (stereo) or more. 6 speakers in the room does not mean that the signal is split into 6 separate channels. The same channel may be going through each speaker. I based my timeline of invitations on the big premieres of the 1950s like Around The World In 80 Days, The Ten Commandments, and Ben-Hur. These were called “roadshow” presentations, which meant that once they were released in theaters, there would be few showings in a day and the details would be very precise. My movie also included an intermission, just to add a bit of class (and a bathroom break). I sent out a “save the date” invitation about 6 months before the premiere and then another reminder 3 months before.  One detail I forgot to mention was that all of the projectors in this cinema are digital projectors. The majority of cinemas today use digital projectors. The reason for this returns to the distributors leasing the screens. It is more cost effective for a distributor to send a hard drive with a file (or several movies) on it to plug into a digital projector than reels of film. Remember how I said that one employee could run the whole facility? That means there is not a projectionist for each screen that knows how to operate film projectors. Even though all the projectors were digital, it didn’t mean I could just have a Quicktime or MP4 file on a hard drive and hope that it went well. Digital projectors require a DCP, or Digital Cinema Package. This package contains all the video and audio files needed to show the movie as well as all the information that the system requires, including the dimensions of the image, how many channels of sound and which speakers to send that sound, etc. The cinema owner showed me a free program called DCP-o-Matic, which did the trick. Of course, before the big premiere, we tested it out to be sure that the video and audio were exactly what they needed to be. Don’t just assume it will work because all the specifications line up. For the big night, I hired a photographer. That way I could concentrate on interacting with people and not worry about capturing the event. Not to mention, the pictures came out much better than if I had done them myself. Since the system is completely controlled by computer, the film would start at 6PM whether I was ready or not. I made sure to tell guests to arrive before 5:45. In a situation like this, you cannot plan the start time based on when the last people arrive. If you say it starts at 5:45, that is when you start. Around 5PM, I greeted guests in the lobby of the cinema, so that they could know which screen to go to. Of course, I was wearing a tuxedo, just to show how special the event was for me. At 5:30, I was greeting guests at the entrance to the screen itself. At 5:45, I began a presentation before the film began. Since everything was connected and automated, the lights went down when the film began and went up at the end. This was a life saver and a real important idea. By the time of your premiere, you want all the technical details to be handled by someone else or set to run automatically. You don’t want to be greeting guests and then run out to press play at the right time. This is another reason why I hired a venue instead of just renting a screen for my backyard. After the film was over, I had a Q and A session with the audience. This was a great opportunity to interact with people, some that had been involved with the production and others learning about it for the first time recently. Since I had planned ahead, I had DVD copies of the film and CDs of the soundtrack available for sale, which helped to offset some of the cost to rent the screen. Similar to performing live for an audience, there is nothing like being in the moment to encourage people to buy a product that they might not think to do if it is only online. My biggest takeaway from the experience of hosting a premiere is the necessity of planning. If I had not planned out every detail before the event, it would have been overwhelming and probably not an enjoyable experience for me. Once you are finished with the product, let the presentation be a celebration and not just more work.   There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding in terms of how breathing works when we need it in order to sing. I am not a doctor, but I can share the knowledge I have gained over time as a singer and working with other singers. The biggest misconception that many singers seem to have is that they can get a louder or more powerful sound by squeezing their abdominal muscles and pushing harder. Breathing is an automatic process and we really don’t have as much control over it as we think. Singing longer notes is really about the amount of air we inhale and nothing about pushing from our gut. One important thing to remember is that when we sing, we want as little tension as possible in every part of our body. Tension can actually be heard in your sound. One thing I always tell my singers is if a vocal sounds like it hurts, most likely it does. When you, as the singer, feel pain, you need to stop singing right away and rethink how you are creating your sound. Tightness in your throat leads to fatigue from overusing muscles that are not actually needed. It is very difficult to only tense your abdominal muscles and not react in other places in your body.  The process of breathing, as you know, has two parts--inhalation and exhalation. The major muscle at play is the diaphragm. Unlike many muscles that seem to get larger (think biceps) when contracted, the diaphragm actually collapses when active. By collapsing, it creates a vacuum in the lungs. In a sense, your body is not working hard to pull air in, the vacuum in your lungs is filled by nature. Think of scenes in a movie when a character is sucked out into the vacuum of space, except the vacuum is now your lungs. Other active muscles during inhalation are the intercostal muscles. These lift the rib cage, which gives the lungs space to expand. If you hear wheezing or a groaning sound when you inhale, it means that your throat is not as open as it should be. A moan or a groan means that the vocal cords are causing resistance against the air. For inhalation, the vocal cords should not be working at all. When it is time to exhale, the diaphragm then moves back up to its larger position. As you can see, pushing with your abdominal muscles will not make nonexistent air suddenly appear. All it will really do is make you uncomfortable. If you want to be able to sing a note longer, it really does you more good to focus on the full inhale and keeping an open chest and abdomen so that your lungs can fully expand. Instead of squeezing your abdomen, your stomach will actually appear to pop out when you inhale completely. Society tells us to always “suck in your gut” so you do not appear chubby, but proper, healthy singing requires us to pop out our belly. Besides, people will be too amazed by your incredible voice to watch your stomach move when you breathe. If you only notice your shoulders moving when you inhale, it means you are filling the top portion of your lungs. If you breathe like this normally, it is in your best interests for singing, exercise, and general health to retrain your body to breathe to the bottom of your lungs. If it’s easier for you to remember “breathe from your stomach” that is fine, as long as you remember that no air is entering your stomach. Hopefully this brief explanation has provided some clarity and useful things for you to focus on when singing.   Teachers today have so many responsibilities. Not only are we responsible for educating students in their subjects, but also we are responsible for teaching the students how to be part of a class, how to manage their time, etc. In one 35 minute music class, outside of music concepts, we may be incorporating concepts such as procedures for entering the room, how to speak to classmates, how to listen when it is time, taking out instruments, putting instruments away carefully, personal space, using manners, and more. Those in training to become teachers have a long road of preparation. I believe that by the time I completed my undergraduate program, I had somewhere around 160-180 credit hours. My program involved: music courses- history, performance, theory, ear training, orchestration; music education courses- vocal and instrumental pedagogies, elementary methods, secondary methods; education courses- special education, multicultural education, curriculum and design; honors college courses- many of these replaced general education courses, but were 4 credits each instead of the regular 3; and I had a film and video minor which was about 15 credits. I honestly do not know how I completed the degree in the time that I did. I did my student teaching (12 credit hours) as a 9th semester, so I technically received my degree in December, even though I marched in May. The amount of preparation could be overwhelming at times, and while an undergraduate student in the midst of preparation, the end goal can sometimes get blurred. I had a very difficult time, personally, understanding how I would apply everything that I was learning. It wasn’t that I didn’t find the material important, the biggest issue for me was that future students were just a figment of the imagination, they had not materialized yet for me. Long story short, there are so many things that college curriculums determine that someone must know before becoming a teacher.  However you must learn through experience the most important requirement of a teacher--you have to care about your students. It sounds so simple, yet I didn’t learn it until I started teaching. All of the theoretical knowledge meant nothing until I actually started building relationships with learners. The catalog of performance experience, music theory knowledge, historical practice, and more all served to build connections with my students. Why do I arrive at school early to be sure everything is set up? Because I care how the lessons will go for my students. Why do I follow up with a student that seemed to be confused with a concept? Because I care about that student’s growth and understanding. Why do I question a student’s actions when they make an unhelpful choice? Because I care about that student and how it affects everyone else in the room. Why do I modify assignments for students that need it? Because I care about that student. Why do I pull a 13 hour shift on concert days? Because I want my students to have a positive experience in a performance setting. What you learn in undergraduate music education programs may not reveal the full picture until you are in your own classroom. In college, you may laugh at learning 4 different ways to teach the same concept but then you are in the moment and have 4 different students that need their own way to learn each concept. I don’t think anyone actually familiar with education can claim that the pay is high, but measured in the number of relationships you build and countless lives you change through your work, teaching is the most rewarding career I have ever known.  |
