Richard Anderson has proved that still photographers can bring a fresh vision to recording sound.
“The style I’m going for is clean, simple, moving,” Richard Anderson says of the videos he is creating for composer Michael Hersh. “I want to trigger the viewer’s emotions, if possible.”
It’s possible. Anderson proves this with his vision of Hersh’s “The Vanishing Pavilions, Book I, Movement 27.”
If I hadn’t been watching this piece with an eye on evaluating Anderson’s movie making skills, I would have never noticed them. And that’s the point: documenting a passionate composer-musician performing should be about the music and the musician, not the videography and editing.
I loved the way Anderson shared the art and philosophy of Christopher Cairns through video. I would have thought that capturing Hersh at the piano would have been much simpler. Not at all, Anderson made clear when we talked about his ongoing work with Hersh. Capturing professional-quality audio of a professional-level composer is no easy task.
Anderson recorded Hersh’s “Book I, Movement 27″ — as well as “Book I, Movement 6″ and “Book II, Movement 38″ — from three different angles using two cameras, with the help of an assistant, as he recorded Hersh playing each piece four or five times.
At least four takes were necessary to give Hersh enough audio tracks from which to select the best. These takes were also required to give Anderson the opportunity to photograph multiple angles, and to have enough footage to weave together in editing — to create a piece that visually helps trigger in us emotions evoked by the drama of the music and the passion of the musician.