Shooting on location with six video cameras, SMCC students recorded and produced what amounts to a 2½-hour documentary of rock band performances at a music club.
Six Communications & New Media Studies students, primarily from the Advanced Video on Location class, recorded a Maine Academy of Modern Music (MAMM) benefit concert on Nov. 20 at Aura, a club in downtown Portland.
CNMS student Jim Redpath
The students spent a total of 10 hours at Aura, setting up their cameras, preparing the audio feed and recording 27 performances of bands and solo acts featuring MAMM students ages 10-18. In all, SMCC students took roughly 36 hours of video with the six cameras, then edited the footage down to a final product of 27 videos with a total length of about 2½ hours.
The show, a scholarship fundraiser called Chords for Kids, allowed students at MAMM to perform live on a stage in front of an audience in a public venue. It also gave SMCC students the chance to record a live event outside of a controlled studio environment — under pressure, no second chances or retakes allowed. Led by Jim Redpath, a CNMS student who served as the project producer, they then edited the footage into professional form and delivered it to MAMM in less than a week.
“This is such a great opportunity, not just for the music students but for our students doing these videos,” said Redpath, who is also a work-study student for the CNMS program. “It’s a great hands-on, real-world experience for our students. It’s a huge undertaking, and everyone was so professional.”
Besides Redpath, other SMCC students taking part in the production were Kyle Brunelle, Gavin Chambers, Joshua Hagin, William Meehan and Joseph Puleo. The videos can be viewed on the Maine Academy of Modern Music website.
MAMM is a Portland-based nonprofit independent music school (with programs in Bangor and Machias) for students of all ages and abilities. SMCC students have recorded and produced videos of three MAMM performances in the past couple of years.