It's at the Curious Comedy Theater http://www.curiouscomedy.org/ and we'll be filming Obo Addy http://www.oboaddy.com/about... and David Ornette Cherry http://www.davidornettecherry.com/ - "We call it ‘Round Midnight, not only because that’s an accurate reflection of what time the music begins every Saturday night, but also because the 1944 jazz standard is THE most-recorded tune composed by a jazz musician. That’s history and a heritage we want to keep alive and accessible to the masses." - Christopher Harley

So this turned out to be a fantastic exercise for me. I've never filmed a live music set and I wasn't sure how I'd approach it. I'm used to shooting interviews and anticipating shot sequences based on the interchange between the multiple subjects. Conversations have a rhythm to them and behind the camera one can learn to anticipate the next, most useful, shot. From watching the jazz musicians and their body language, along with listening to the structure of the music, I learned that I had to develop another method for anticipating the shot angles and the interplay. Needless to say, this fixed me in a more intimate relationship with the music than I had ever experienced in the past. Since jazz is so freeform, I had to really watch the body language and the subtle clues that the musicians gave to one another. I'm hooked! Thankfully, "Round Midnight" will be a continuing series of shows that will last until the end of the year. - Christopher Harley

And here we are a month later and I'm onto the second in this series for "Round Midnight." http://www.curiouscomedy.org/ Tonight I'll be filming The C4 Influenz - Rod Nightingale {Musical Director / Drummer} Dan DiResta (Lead Guitar & Musical Arrangments) Steve Aman (Rhodes & Keys) Derek Reynolds (Bass) Ben Darwish (Keys) Damian Erskine (Bass) Cameron Morgan (Guitar) DJ Flipflop (turntables) Marv Ellis (emcee) Chaucer G. Barnes (emcee) http://www.myspace.com/thec4in... - Christopher Harley

And again, this was another great exercise in learning about the JVC GY-HM700 http://pro.jvc.com/prof... and trying to stretch my creativity. I was going crazy trying to shoehorn in as many shots as possible where I was racking focus between huge shiny blotches of saxophone brass and the glint of bass guitar tuning pegs. Some of it might have be overwrought but I needed to expand on what I've learned so far. Alongside that, I was concentrating on slow, languid, arcs from one musician to the next but found that following a locked horizontal pan was just as compelling if I slowly started on the bass player's hands at the right of the stage and ended up on the drummer to the left of the stage. These guys played for three hours and yet it seemed like thirty minutes. I definitely want to film more music and hopefully this series can progress. Unfortunately, we're looking for corporate sponsorship and very little interest has been shown. I'll keep my fingers crossed. - Christopher Harley