Access Video
Soundbed Creation Essential Value-Add for Access Video
The rise of digital technologies has raised expectations for independent video production houses. While digital video and non-linear editing has revolutionized the industry giving small outfits the ability to take on almost all aspects of projects in-house, one essential element is usually outsourced. The task of crafting music beds to highlight and underscore video has remained the province of audio postproduction facilities. Now, Sony Cinescore soundtrack composition software gives independent producers a cost-effective, easy to master tool to add these capabilities, speed project turnaround times, and hold the line against ever-thinner profit margins.
Cinescore software is designed to provide royalty-free compositions that take the place that pre-recorded music libraries currently fill. The software delivers an extra layer of automated customization normally added by a professional audio producer. Operation is point-and-click simple. The video producer simply chooses from a broad palette of musical themes that can be customized to match the specific moods and genres of the surrounding work. Just select a basic theme for a region, and then Cinescore software generates music to fit that segment. The music's time and tempo, intensity, variation and repetition can be easily connected with associated video or voiceover down to frame level accuracy.
If the Hat Fits, Wear it
Access Video, Cathy and Randy Brown's video production company serving Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, discovered Cinescore software when it was introduced at NAB 2006. The husband-and-wife team has been in business since the mid 80s and provides Betacam SP and DVCAM production for corporate, organizational and broadcast clients.
I don't have to wait till Randy finishes editing to get started on the soundtrack. I can get going with a rough cut exported as an .AVI. This makes us incredibly efficient because once he's finalized the video, I'm just a few tweaks away from having the
music done.
Cathy Brown, Access Video
"Having to send a piece outside to an audio post house tags on an added two to three days of time and several hundred dollars in costs and being able to sidestep that is a boon," Cathy said. "Like any small production company, I'm used to wearing a lot of hats. The only question was how much time and effort it would take me to use Cinescore professionally."
Brown was intrigued enough by the demo to seek out an introductory training seminar offered at the show. After the hands-on walk through, she was ready to try her hand on a client's project when she got home.
Punching Up a Tim Russert Voiceover with Cinescore
John Carroll University in Cleveland has been a longtime Access Video client. Over the past few years, the Browns have gathered extensive footage documenting a major building project on campus. Now, they are creating various promotional pieces with the material for fundraising, alumni relations and attracting prospective students. The first Cinescore project was Watch the Campus Grow in Three Minutes, a time-lapse piece showing the university rising up from an empty plot of land with celebrity alumnus Tim Russert providing a voiceover. Russert's VO was taken from a previous presentation recorded for his alma mater on NBC's Meet the Press set. Randy Brown edited with Sony Vegas NLE software building the video around Russert's comments. With the VO and video in place, Cathy added the music bed plus audio stings and flourishes with Cinescore software.
The clip broke down into three different segments that Cathy marked on the timeline. Cinescore software filled them in with different compositions that segued seamlessly to move the action forward while setting the tone.
"Cinescore is easy to get started with, and there and lots of 'how-to' tutorials built in to help you navigate to the more advanced functions," she said. "There are lots of ways to customize a composition so that it creates a texture to bring out what's happening in the frame."
Even though she was a novice user, Brown was able to create a professional soundtrack that matched the quality of audio post vendors. Additional experience with the package, she expects, will speed up her ability to get exactly the right musical texture. In addition to the full repertoire included in the package, additional theme packs will be produced to ensure a unique sound for every project.
For Access Video, the real workflow advance for the two-person operation is the ability to edit and compose the soundtrack side-by-side.
"I don't have to wait till Randy finishes editing to get started on the soundtrack. I can get going with a rough cut exported as an .AVI. This makes us incredibly efficient because once he's finalized the video, I'm just a few tweaks away from having the music done," she said.
ROI on the First Project
The value-add that Cinescore brings to a small production house is significant. The savings from outsourcing soundtrack creation is added directly to the bottom line.
"Cinescore costs less than half of what you'd pay an outside facility for a single project. Budgets - and profit margins - are always tight and the ability to make money with superior results from the get-go makes this a breakthrough technology like the arrival of desktop NLEs," she said.
