The GoPro Chronicles: I got introduced to Captain Beefheart in high school by a friend who was really into The Greatful Dead but I didnt’ really appreciate this type of music till much later. I went more prog then onto punk/alternative. The jury is still out on the Dead though. It’s these weird herky-jerky type of moody tunes that will make for great GoPro or movie soundtracks, when the cuts are quick and disorientating so your film seem to cruise along.
Anyway, here’s a few other songs I think that might be good for a variety of camera moves. The sound bed you lay down in the background is essential to your edit for your family film. Sets a mood you can’t put into words and sets expectations. The subtle way you transition to each scene from verse to chorus will make your edit seems like it’s moving faster or slower. When shooting don’t forget to pan left and right, up and down slowly and steadily for the best B-Roll. The GoPro is much more forgiving when you shoot a fast frame rate. Which on the silver is between 30-60 FPS. You can never have enough B-Roll. Ever.
Obviously, you might not be able to easily afford clearing these songs but to practice yours skills they are great; the point is its a important to be familiar with the song. Not everybody is going to be able to score their own music. That would be ridiculous. Obviously unless you are making a rock video and shooting specifically for that song. There are millions of songs that you can lay-in while you find the perfect one. But there is always the risk of falling in love with something that just does not work. Anyway, here’s some ideas to get you thinking for something moody. This was also my first GoPro shoot. There are just 25-30 transitions in this one(guestimate). So as always enjoy the tunes and thanks for watching!
DOWNLOADS: Captain Beefheart –Zig Zag Wanderer MP3 from Safe as Milk (1967) Frank Zappa –Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow MP3 from Apostrophe (‘)(1974) R.E.M. –Camera MP3 from Reckoning (1984) Throwing Muses –film (2013) Residents –Boots from Meet The Residents(1974) The Plugz –El Clavo Y La Cruz MP3 from the Repo Man Soundtrack (1984) Built to Spill –I Dim Our Angst In Agony MP3 from The Electronic Anthology Project (2010)
Here’s some other edits that I did after first one that worked brialiantly.
MUDDERELLA 2014 NEW JERSEY – The Joy Formiddable w/ “Whirring”
All towns have stories. Sometimes it’s just nice historical folklore or a tale about some out of the ordinary or weird thing somebody did. These are songs that remind me of the suburban town Westfield NJ. This could be your town.
West Of The Fields MP3 by R.E.M. from Murmur I always considered this my hometown’s theme song but always at the same time I wondered where the fields were? Since we only have sports fields and no wheat or corn anywhere. It’s freaking suburbia where the MILF’s run wild in their black suburbans and kids jockey for overpriced educations. It’s mostly a young republican mill except for small subculture that makes it bearable.
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy) MP3 By Simon & Garfunkel. Ok So speaking of class systems. Us alternative kids referred to the preppy 80’s rich kids in our high school or wanna bes with the upturned polo collars as “Groovies”. I think it was Susan Fried who repurposed the term in 85′ or so (or at least I heard her say it first) and it caught on pretty quick and they started calling themselves Groovies themselves. oh “the irony my snossages” as my HS English teacher Mr. Barner would say. We were making fun of them since they were all John Hughes characters. We would hear shit in the halls like “Did you hear about the [insert groovie name here] party this weekend? or did you hear about such and such groovie chick gave groovie jock a BJ last night” etc, etc. We phrased it sarcastically like it sounds in this song all spacey and shit and created a pretty obvious line between the alternative punk kids and them. For Whom The Bell Tolls MP3 by Metallica slowed down to 33 1/3. Hilarious. Sound totally what the black psyche metal kids are into these days.
Quick Chek Baby MP3 by the band DUH. DUH were a punk band of which half were from Westfield and New Brunswick NJ. This is a track from their album/cassette demo which I called Trout I even made an album cover because of the last track of the same name and first song called “Fish House Row”. This tune directly references and describes Maulers which was the term we used for the heavy metal kids who hung out at the 7-11 type quick stops and malls and drove down the shore a lot, smoked Marlboro Lights and went to LaMours or at least as described in this song. Sort of derogatory since it’s slang and means not upper class or brass knuckles. These were the long hairs who wore tight white washed jeans and drove Cameros. Now it’s all fucked up because of that other Jersey Shore show but whatever that element is not worthy of a song. The music they like was awesome because it resembled some of thrash the skater kids liked so we invited them to our outcast parties and wrote songs about them.
Devil Town MP3 by Daniel Johnston from 1990 All towns have their demons. My town had the famous John List murders where he offed his family and resettled down south only to be found after the debut of America’s Most Wanted. The day of the show back in 1989 we all got together and watched from a house right around the corner where the gruesome scene took place some 18 years before where he shot his wife and three children with .22 caliber gun. A year after the murders the house mysteriously burned down. Crazy Train (cover) MP3 by Pat Boone from In A Metal Mood.
Come Home MP3 by The Dismemberment Plan from their record Change. This band’s music always reminds me of vacant streets at night. DC in particular where there is barely anybody milling about. Concrete.
Suburbia MP3 from the 1984 movie soundtrack composed by Alex Gibson. This is some lonely shit. In highschool we must had watched this movie and Repo Man 100 times each. Sometimes just looping them again and again back to back. We were white advantaged punks trying to get a clue. You could not make a movie like this today. The TR (or The Rejected) gave us a framework as we didn’t have it even 1/10 as bad mostly. Got a burn man?
This was fun. We’ll probably work on a Part II. There is always a story to tell.
Dennis Hopper 1936-2010 – Total shame about Mr. Hopper passing this past week. He was definitely one of those guys you’d want to meet to see if he was the real deal which from all accounts he was. He was a talented photographer, a icon and certainly a bad influence or good depending how you look at it. All the movies I saw him in over and over again growing up were always on the edge. He freely and easily spoke to a youth subculture of decent, hippies and drugs. The most bizarre character was the freaky Frank Booth in the David Lynch film Blue Velvet but then again all were pretty out there man. Here are some tracks for your pot mix.
Man of Aran is a beautiful black and white silent film that British Sea Power created a sound track for that takes place in Ireland. In this segment the track No Man Is An Archipelago is featured. The song is similar to one on Do you like Rock Music? but it works beautifully. I don’t don’t care. Glad to hear such stellar music form these Brighton chaps.
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