Music Video Production: Behind the Lens with Larry Del Casale, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, and Duduka Da Fonseca
This is one of those projects that reminds you why music video production is such a rewarding part of the job.
Larry Del Casale brought us in to capture a live performance session with two world-class musicians: Brazilian guitar legend Carlos Barbosa-Lima and percussionist Duduka Da Fonseca, recorded at Alchemy Post Sound in Peekskill, NY. The result was a music video that needed to do justice to both the musicianship and the intimacy of a session recording, which is a very different challenge than a narrative or performance-based video shoot.
Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Larry Del Casale have been performing as a duo since 2003, when they debuted at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall to a sold-out house. Their work together includes a Latin Grammy nominated recording, Beatlerianas [Zoho Records], featuring compositions by Cuban composer Leo Brouwer. They continue to perform and record throughout Europe and the United States. Adding Duduka Da Fonseca on percussion brought a Brazilian jazz sensibility to the session that informed everything about how we approached the visuals.
Filming a Live Session: What Makes It Different
Session and performance videos require a different approach than a scripted shoot. You're not directing musicians, you're following them. The camera work has to be reactive, finding the moments that tell the story of the music without interrupting the flow of the performance. Close-ups on hands, the relationship between players, the natural energy of musicians who have been performing together for over two decades. None of that can be staged. It either happens or it doesn't, and your job is to be ready when it does.
Coming from a musical background myself, this is one of the formats I find most satisfying. There's a discipline to it that forces you to really listen while you're shooting, which makes you a better cinematographer on every other kind of project too.
Music Video Production in the Hudson Valley and NY Tri-State Area
Alchemy Post Sound in Peekskill is one of the Hudson Valley's best recording environments, and it's the kind of location that works beautifully as a video backdrop: real acoustic treatment, professional gear, the lived-in feel of a space where serious music gets made. If you're recording in the NY area and want to capture the session on video, that combination of location and production value is hard to beat.
Whether you're an independent artist, a band, or a classical or jazz musician looking to get your music seen as well as heard, Absolute Motion produces music videos for artists across every genre in the NY Tri-State area. Let's talk about your project.
