Research Complete!

Yay! Finished up the final part of research today. [The 'Other' category] and downloaded a bunch of clips.  I always have a hard time finding worthwhile video when it comes to news and current events for the year, so it's really helpful when contributors offer suggested links. Big thanks to 'GTH V-Com' for some great links in this section.

This final part of research is all about the leftover stuff that didn't fit into any of the other category's.  News and current events of the time, toys, gadgets, fads, books, and... well just about anything really.

Every time I release a new Remember video I can guarantee it will get a few comments along these lines:  "There's much more to a year than just music, movies and 5 news events!?"  If I took these comments too seriously, I would end up with a very different product, packed to the gills with news, sports and politics.  But these videos were only ever intended to be about pop culture with a smattering of current events thrown in for some context.  That might be shallow or whatever but it is what it is.  They're not meant to be a thorough historic look at the world at that time or anything.  If that's what you're after, you'll have to look elsewhere.

So, how do I decide what makes it in? 
Only the biggest and most world reaching items are going to make it in.  That usually means disasters [unfortunately.]  We've got earthquakes, plane crashes and wars happening this year.  Politics are not usually going to make it in because the rest of the world couldn't care less, but there was a certain presidential scandal that shook the whole world this year [and for some reason, people worldwide know the exact quote.]  Some pretty cool space stuff happened too,  Viagra was released... That sort of thing. [Not sure what will make it to the final vid yet though.]

Since they are primarily about pop culture, it makes sense for some pop culture related news to feature.  Lewd acts in public toilets and memorable Grammy moments for example could make it into the video ahead of less 'shallow' news perhaps.

Sports are a nightmare!  Everyone thinks their favorite moment should feature, but to others; it's just some guy kicking/throwing/hitting a ball and means nothing to them.  I could quickly fill the video up with so many great sports memories that there wouldn't be room for anything else.  On the other hand, if I only include a few sports I'll be asked 'where's my favorite sport?'  I tried to include the world cup one year, but was scolded that I should have included more great moments from the world cup, not just one! The same thing happened with formula one racing... So, I've been burned by sports too often and I only plan to include the winter Olympics this year.  And stick to worldwide sporting events only for future vids.

O.K. you get the idea.  This post is long enough already [and no pictures :( ] so I'll leave it at that.  Next I can finally start some actual work;  mixing the music!

Music Prep

Had some spare time today and was in the mood for some music prep so I'll finish the last part of the research another day.

So what's music prep all about?

Well first off;  I've got about 220 songs and I can only fit about half of those if I want to keep the video a reasonable length. [Under 15mins preferred.]  So a lot of culling needs to be done.  Also I just need to become more familiar with the songs so I can figure out how they might mix together well.

Basically, I listen to all the songs!

But not exactly.  I don't listen all the way through 220 songs.  I just listen to the important parts.  You know, the catchy bit that everyone remembers. [usually the chorus right?]

At the same time I work out the beats per minute of each track with this handy web tool.  [Having the bpm's becomes invaluable at the mixing stage.]  After getting the gist of the song I rename the file with it's bpm at the front.  This effectively orders all the songs by their bpm's.


I also move songs that I want to cull into a rejects folder.  [I need to get better at not downloading so many songs in the first place,  but it's difficult to know at the beginning how many songs you're going to end up with.] 

A peak inside my Rejects folder

Getting rid of songs is hard, but it has to be done.  In this case I listened through the list and still had over 200 songs left.  So I had to go up and down the list and slowly decide what else could go.  It always helps to come up with some sort of loose rules to go by, so:
 
-An artist could only have one song in the mix or two songs max, but only if they were HUGE.

-Try to balance the number of songs across different genres.

-Songs should have been popular in more than one country.

-Get rid of my pet favorites if they don't deserve to be there.  :(

-If there's still too many, get rid of Aaron Carter.  :)

A peak inside the Keeps folder

 
Like I said, these were fairly loose rules and were broken here and there along the way, but I got there in the end.  My final song list is sitting at a much more manageable 117.  Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze that many in...

So, all prepared and ready for mixing!





Random observations:
What a year for music. Lots and lots of classic tunes came out. Should be a good mix! - There were so many boy bands this year: Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, Five, 98°, And Girl bands like Spice Girls and B-Witched.  So... Look forward to those clogging up the mix... or not,  depending on your preference. - I usually mix in the odd TV and video game theme songs too.  A couple of kids tv shows come to mind for this year.  "I wanna be the very best, Like no one ever was!....."

See you next blog post.