Nine months in the making, the music video for the Middle Fourth and Upper Fourth Girls’ Vocal Group’s cover of Bastille’s Pompeii has been released this week.
Mr Sebastian Johns, Assistant Director of Music, explains the process behind-the-scenes of the creation process:
“The first step in this large-scale project was way back in October, with the audio recording sessions. After the members of the group had chosen the piece that they wanted to record, the new arrangement was written and then learnt in a matter of weeks. The girls then recorded their part one at a time, singing along to a backing track in the studio and a large multi-track composite track was put together using a variety of rather clever music technology techniques (we will keep the secrets of the recording studio as guarded as possible…!).
Hattie Stephens then took to the studio to record the drum part, and after some detailed editing the track was ready to go. We then set to planning the video, the girls all suggested different shots and locations throughout the College, contributing to the final plan and we took the decision to wait until Summer term so that the College could be shown off in the best weather possible.
On the day, the pupils filmed non-stop for four hours to get as many shots as possible in all the locations. It was a long and tiring afternoon (special thanks go to Head of Photography, Rob Johnstone who was cameraman-in-chief throughout). The final stage sat with me to take on the rather lengthy task of going through the eight hours of camera footage and synchronising everything correctly with the audio. We do hope that you enjoy the video, both for the quality of the singing and the rather lovely views of Epsom’s glorious campus!
