Tag Archives: Work

Aug 4 2007

Two Chapters Draw to a Close

Yesterday was a big day for two Dearlove boys, as A and I both marked significant milestones.

For A, it was his last day at daycare (the picture is from the graduation ceremony they held a few weeks ago). A was only 16 months old when he started at Pinocchio – just a wee lad in diapers with a limited vocabulary. It’s been amazing to watch him grow over the past three years and develop strong friendships with some of the other kids. He’s become especially close with Myles and Sebastian, we’ve gotten to know their parents, and I hope we’ll all stay in touch despite the fact they’ll be at different schools in September.

We really lucked out with the boys’ daycare. Pinocchio is a city-run daycare at the old Ottawa city hall, which is a pretty cool building. The teachers are great, it’s a nice facility, and the boys love it. One of the biggest sources of stress for young parents is finding good child care, and we were really fortunate that spaces were available when we needed it.

As for me, yesterday marked my last day as orchestra manager. I spent part of the day talking to musicians from the National Youth Orchestra about my experiences over the past nine years, the audition process, and issues facing orchestras today (I think I may have gotten a bit evangelical at points). I certainly didn’t know what I was doing when I took the job, and hopefully I gave them some concept of what happens behind the scenes.

So, I’m on vacation now for the next 31 days (wow, that sounds like a long time). On September 4th, A and I will both start new chapters as he’ll start Junior Kindergarten and I’ll move into my nice new digs.

Jul 21 2007

The Coffee Bitch

If you’ve ever wondered what an Orchestra Manager actually does, the picture above gives you a pretty good sense of how I spend about 95% of my time.Now, would you like that with cream or sugar?

Jul 19 2007

Making a Rock Video

Well, Tuesday night was an interesting experience. Bell had approached the NAC a few weeks ago about getting the orchestra to record the song “Believe” with Suzie McNeil and film a video. The project is designed to get Canadians involved in supporting Canadian athletes leading up to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

For those who don’t follow popular culture, Suzie McNeil came to prominence a couple of summers ago when she participated in Rock Star: INXS, a reality show on CBS that featured singers auditioning to become the new lead singer of INXS. B and I were big fans of the show, and Suzie was an audience favourite (although the job eventually went to another Canadian, J.D. Fortune).

After a few weeks of planning with Bell, the director, and the arranger, we were primed and ready to make a rock video on Tuesday night. We only had 4 hours, which isn’t a lot of time to record both English and French versions of the song. The orchestra was in place at 6:00 pm sharp, the stage was set, and we were all ready to go.

Or so I thought.

See, TV and film crews work a little differently. There seems to be a lot more “hurry up and wait” than I’m used to. There were a lot of people around – best boys, key grips, gaffers, etc. – but no conductor, no singer, and no real sense of urgency (aside from my nervous pacing backstage).

After 28 minutes of waiting around, the orchestra finally did the first run-through of the song. Four minutes later, it was time for a break. So, in the first 45 minutes of the session, we had done exactly one take.

Things did pick up after that, and it was pretty cool to watch. They had a camera on a crane that swooped in on Suzie at various angles. There was a big lighting rig at the back of the stage that would flood the hall in blinding light at various stages. After every take, a crew of hair, make-up and costume people would descend on Suzie to get her ready for her next close up.

Watching Suzie perform was an experience in itself. She was lip-synching, but she certainly threw herself into each performance. Even after four hours and about 15 run-throughs, she was still full of this infectious energy.

Inevitably, the last few minutes of the session were a mad rush to get the shoot finished. With seven minutes left, we agreed to do one more take, and then a camera battery failed. We ended up going four minutes into overtime, and believe me, some people made sure I knew about it.

I saw some of the playback after, and it really looked amazing. It’s funny what some simple lighting, a bit of movement, and some really expensive cameras can do. The actual video will be released sometime in the Fall, and the song will be available for download (you will also be able to get a copy as a ringtone).

If you want to see some behind the scenes footage, be sure to tune into CTV’s eTalk next week. They’ll be doing a segment on the video (along with segments on the next Canadian Idol cast-off, Ashlee Simpson’s plastic surgery nightmare, and Lindsay Lohan’s love triangle).

Jul 16 2007

Going Out With a Bang

This is the last week of the season for the orchestra, which means it’s also the last time I’ll be working with the musicians for quite some time. To mark this auspicious occasion, we’ve arranged for a very big and complicated week.To start, the orchestra is doing a recording project with a Canadian pop artist. They’ll be filming a music video tonight, recording the backing track tomorrow morning, and doing a promotional photo shoot around noon. It’s a big project, which means there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen – the video director, producer, the arranger / conductor, several unions, and a major Canadian corporation that’s picking up the tab. It’s definitely a lot more complicated than the usual CBC recordings that we’ve done, and my head hurts from trying to sort through the legalese found in the 90-odd pages of the American Federation of Musicians Sound Recording Labour Agreement (or the AFM SRLA for short). That’s some good readin’.After the recording’s finished, we are producing four nights of outdoor parks concerts at the new Lebreton Park. The orchestra is doing shows on Thursday (Marc-André Hamelin) and Saturday (Spirit of the West), with guest orchestras on Friday and Sunday nights.Everyone wants the orchestra to play outside during the summer, and it certainly is appealing when the weather is perfect. However, it’s been my experience that Mother Nature rarely cooperates for outdoor shows and I’m left to worry that it’s too hot / cold / windy / rainy / sunny.It’s also a really expensive endeavour. For these concerts, we need to build a big stage, cover it with a bigger tent, rent a lot of sound and lighting equipment, set up basic infrastructure like washrooms, information tents, backstage trailers, engage security for crowd control, round up volunteers to patrol the grounds, organize parking and refreshments for the musicians, create and distribute marketing materials, find a bilingual host, etc. Luckily the National Capital Commission has taken on a lot of those duties, so we’re sharing the work.So, after nine years, it’s come to this – a pop music video and Spirit of the West. The orchestra world is full of surprises.