An immersive viewing experience - New DEBUT Horizon Artist videos
We spoke to Lizzie Holmes, founder of DEBUT, about the process and creative ideas behind the new series of Horizon Artist videos.
“This is a very fun and rambunctious piece of music to play - it’s one of my favourite pieces for the clarinet” — Guillermo Ramasasa
“The whole process was a colossal achievement, both for our videographer and our performers - it was a new way of working”
Behind the scenes at our Shoreditch Treehouse recording session with Bobby Williams recording Varvara Tarasova and Jorge Carlo Mariani
DEBUT’s Horizon artists have been working hard on a bespoke new recording project, and we’ll be releasing them over the summer. We spoke to Lizzie Holmes about the process behind the videos, working with videographer & sound engineer Bobby Williams and why the experience was important.
"This is the first piece for bass clarinet that I discovered by a female British composer. I absolutely love the atmosphere that it creates.” — Hannah Shilvock
“In a live performance … you’re thinking about communicating with an audience and sharing the story.”
Secret Concerts in the heart of Shoreditch.
“Its worth reminding the artist that they are excellent. That is why they are there.”
“This Beethoven is a work of absolute extremes, it uses the whole range of the piano, but, ultimately I just find it a really reassuring work.” - Gamal Khamis
What is the camera movement for?
As classical musicians, we’re used to making recordings for auditions and application processes, but the camera has to be fixed which can sometimes feel quite stilted.
I wanted to recreate the feeling that we get in our DEBUT concerts at Brunel Museum and Shoreditch Treehouse - of being within touching distance of an artist and being able to see the movement of their hands on the instrument as if you were right next to the performer.
I was inspired by videos on YouTube of singer songwriters - a number of them are using this style of filming and I found it captivating and thought it was just what we needed!
Why use Shoreditch Treehouse?
Is there a better space in London? Shoreditch Treehouse is not only an insanely cool and beautiful venue but it has this magical Concert Grand Steinway piano (a model D, the same as in Wigmore Hall!).
The piano is Ross’s most loved possession. He is the owner of Shoreditch Treehouse and maintains the piano beautifully, it’s the centrepiece of the space.
How important is the recording process for the Horizon Project?
Doing recordings can be one of the scariest things we do as a performer. In a live performance, you are thinking of so much more than your technique and over analysis - you’re focused on communicating with an audience and sharing the story.
With a recording, you can get really stuck in your own head. So what we wanted to do with our Horizon artists was create a safe space, encouraging the performers to share pieces that they knew really well.
When you make recordings you don’t want to be recording something that’s new or scary - it’s stuff that you need to be able to do in your sleep - it’s your core repertoire, the things you could sing on a hangover and with a little cold, and still know that you would nail it!
It’s about confidence.
Its worth reminding the artist that they are excellent. That is why they are there and why we’ve asked them to join us.
Bobby, our videographer and sound engineer, made the idea come to life, but he and I were focusing on making the space look beautiful. We just trusted the performers to get on and do their job, which was to provide a brilliant and consistent performance.
What did the artists gain from the recording process?
When I spoke to a lot of our Horizon artists, they said it was one of the most enjoyable, relaxed recording sessions they had done, which I’m really happy to hear.
As I said, it can be a super scary process. In terms of the nitty-gritty, we did a rehearsal in space and then we did one fixed camera shot which is the full-width shot you see. This was the safety shot that Bobby could cut to in each of the performances (if he had a wobble, or needed to rest or reset his position).
The main take was the second recording, which was Bobby holding his camera by hand and moving around the space. It is incredibly exhausting having to crouch, stand up, and move in so many different positions - he recorded six artists each day and we did two days filming.
The whole process was a colossal achievement, both for him and for the performers as well, and it was such a new way of working. We’ll be releasing the videos in the coming weeks, so watch this space for more to come!
You can see all of the new recordings on our YouTube channel
Catch Hannah & Gamal live at our upcoming
DEBUT at Shoreditch Treehouse concert on Saturday 13 August
