S.T.A.R.S.

Songs From The Shows XI - The Video

14th - 17th July 2004

Hi and welcome from me, Steve Garratt, to another year of  Songs From The Shows. I remember the first Songs From The Shows that I ever attended back in 1995, It was the second year of the show and it was the first time my daughter had been in it. We went along to the performance as proud parents expecting to find something that reminded us of the school plays we performed in when we were kids and would enjoy it simply because our child was in it. Well were we surprised? I would say we were, the show was highly entertaining right from the start and continued to thrill us right to the end. We have been involved in the the show ever since that year and I can tell you it gets better and better every year.

About 5 years ago we started to get interested in the movie of the show. In previous years the video had been produced by a film crew who parked a huge lorry packed with electronic gear out the back, they laid hundreds of thick cables throughout the hall and used 3 enormous cameras and microphones on stands to capture the action. Editing and copying was all done at the same time from the lorry out back and copies were available to purchase as the show ended. This all looked very professional and to be able to buy the video as you walked out was impressive. The only problem was that the quality of the finished result was disappointing and did not do justice to the show or the cast.

So where did they go wrong? Well there were a number of problems, not all of them were the fault of the video team but most of them we felt could be improved upon. The first problem that became apparent was some obvious technical problems with cameras and equipment. This kind of thing can always happen but, as they filmed on one night only and edited on the fly during the performance, they only had one chance to get it right. The movie tended to be rather dark also. This was in part at least, due to the poor lighting used in the show back then. I'm pleased to say that it has improved since then. We noticed though that those of us who had made their own amateur movie using camcorders produced better results in the low light conditions. I think that the biggest problem the video crew had with this show however is that they had never seen it before and were not able to keep up with the unexpected speed at which the action changed.

Well the next year came around and we said that we would have a go ourselves, we couldn't do any worse than the professional team on quality and having to wait a while for copies to be available is well worth the wait. The first year we used a single camera and simply dumped the result to VHS tape as it was recorded. This in itself turned out to be a better result than the professionals produced simply because we had been to rehearsals and were able to anticipate the action. Since that first year we have been getting more and more ambitious in the movie production. Last year we used 4 high quality DV cameras and edited them all together by computer.

If you have enjoyed  watching the movie of the show over the past few years then you are going to love this one. If you are new to the show then I guarantee that you are going to love it and want your own copy of the movie that goes with it. Get your order form here.

New - DVD versions. This year we will be concentrating on high quality copies of the movie on DVD-R. If you don't have a DVD player yet don't worry because you will still be able to order a VHS copy. As we anticipate a high demand for DVD's this year we will be producing this version first, the VHS version will follow a little way behind it.

Look out for this guy.

Tom Hardwick - Our lead videographer and editing wizard.

If you have any trouble downloading the order form or you have any questions, comments or requests then please drop me a line at steve@garrattconsultants.co.uk

Download the Video Order form here

PS: I still have a few copies from last year and previous years. If you missed out one and would like to complete your collection then send me an email to steve@garrattconsultants.co.uk I might be able to help.