Kankakee
Bands
Virtual Concert
Video Production
Position
Director / Video Editor
Problem
Kankakee School District has an annual concert combined with all bands within the program (grades 5-12), however during 2021 Covid restrictions prohibited the large group. The Director, Paige Smith, wanted to hold the concert still but modified.
Project Description
Mrs. Smith decided to choose a song with multiple levels of difficulty so all members of every band within the program could play together. Knowing this I decided to lean into the covid theme, and built a look for the video. Since the time period was heavy on Zoom/Skype meetings, I created a similar look to the platforms. Mrs. Smith and I created a direction sheet to give out to the students on how they should record, and what should be in frame. From there, we uploaded 200+ videos and created an incredible product to highlight the students' dedication and passion for the band program.
Festival of Bands
Festival of Bands is an annual concert within the Kankakee School District. It consists of 4 individual bands, roughly 500 students in, all performing 3 pieces per band. It starts with First year band students, Second year band students, Junior High Band with 7th and 8th graders combined, and then the High School Band. The tradition at the end of this concert is for the Junior High and High School bands to play a combined piece together, closing out the night. To keep this combined piece in mind, Smith found a piece that allowed for multiple levels of playing difficulty for all of the students to perform together.
Concept
Smith approached me with the idea and it took time to figure out how to add the combination piece of Festival of Bands with a virtual concert in an appealing way. I approached the concept by leaning into the theme of Covid, which involved a lot of virtual meetings on Zoom in that time period.
Execution
Once every video was submitted by the band members, we were able to figure out the layout frame by frame. Together, Smith and I made "plots" for the film. From there I was able to animate and create seamless transitions from plot to plot.
Proof of Success
Hal Leonard is the largest sheet music publisher in the world. They publish and distribute sheet music, books, DVDs, and software for musicians of all levels. They also offer online resources for music education and inspiration. They have over 1 million titles, and publish music for over 150 types of instruments. That being said, Director Paige Smith emailed the video to a Hal Leonard representative in order to forward the email to the composer of the piece used for the Virtual Concert. The representative had this to say:
