Making the Philadelphia Experiment "Ra" (Live) video

[MinistryOfLostSouls]

Hey DT fans,

I have been a Dream Theater fan since the radio world premier of Pull Me Under.  I recently had the pleasure of working with Jordan on an experimental film for his song 'Ra,' which was performed live on the Rudess Morgenstein Project tour, last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOL8YxX-iEs

I sat down and wrote a moderately humorous story about what it was like to meet, work with, and then get to know Jordan as a friend, over the last couple of months.  Don't worry, Jordan has already read it.

Check it out:  https://mattberdyckrules.blogspot.com/2014/03/things-i-learned-about-and-from-dream.html

Special thanks to all the DT fans I met in Miami Beach, last week, who were getting off the Progressive Nation Cruise.  Over the course of the day I signed like twenty autographs and now all the hot chicks who live in my neighborhood think I'm famous.  Unreal. 

All the best,
Matthew

[countoftuscany42]

looking forward to reading this since I happen to be in a few shots of the "Ra" video 
Great show, was front row the whole time and the shots of Jordan signing a stack of albums is me   
Love the video too, thought it turned out great even though i would have loved for a dvd of that tour

[MinistryOfLostSouls]

looking forward to reading this since I happen to be in a few shots of the "Ra" video 
Great show, was front row the whole time and the shots of Jordan signing a stack of albums is me   
Love the video too, thought it turned out great even though i would have loved for a dvd of that tour

Oh hey dude! I actually have a special video planned of that footage of Jordan signing your albums.  That was the first time Jordan had seen the LP box set cover.  It's a pretty cool piece of film.  I'll have it out shortly.  This guys signed DT album collection is spectacular to say the least!




To answer the question about a full DVD release:

I did this with one camera over two nights.  While I do have a full, unreleased, audio recording of the Philly show, the track used in the video is from New York two nights later, I do not have full streams of video.  As you can see I ran my ass off all over the venue to make it look like I used multiple cameras.

I do not have the full recording of New York.  The recording we captured in Philly was great, but Gianluca, Jordan's long time tech and Pro Tools guru, got a better recording and then created the master that was used in the final version of the video. 


Random trivia:

I ended up mixing the Philly version at the other Les E. Claypool's post studio, not the Primus bassist, the legendary sound recordist for Akira, in L.A., which also houses the space ship set that was used on the new Billy Ray Cyrus, rap, Achy Breaky Heart video, with the stage manager, who runs the place, being a former Dream Theater employee.   The complex also houses the green screen used by College Humor, and Sofia Coppola for the car accident scene in Bling Ring. 

If anyone has any questions about the video or feel free to ask!

[Tom Bombadil]

I still regret not going to that show in Philly. Shoulda just skipped the damn schoolwork.

[rumborak]

Cool video. After watching it I was left wondering though: who plays the guitar parts there?

[BlobVanDam]

Cool video. After watching it I was left wondering though: who plays the guitar parts there?

The guitar and all other background instruments are part of the backing track which is just the studio track. According to wikipedia, the guitar on Ra was Vinnie Moore.

[rumborak]

I don't want to mar this thread with this discussion, but I'm a sad panda at this massive use of click and backing tracks lately.

[BlobVanDam]

I don't want to mar this thread with this discussion, but I'm a sad panda at this massive use of click and backing tracks lately.

Considering it's a two man performance for an existing song with several layers, I don't see a problem in this instance.
For a full band, I don't have a problem with a click, although I'm not big on backing tracks.

[JayOctavarium]

I don't want to mar this thread with this discussion, but I'm a sad panda at this massive use of click and backing tracks lately.

Like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LEsyAf00VU

[rumborak]

I actually have no problem with that kind of use of a backing track. That's a clinic, it has a very different purpose.

[MinistryOfLostSouls]

While he was on stage at both shows, Jordan said that he was excited to do the Rudess Morgenstein Project because a lot of Dream Theater's parts are him only using one hand.  With RMP he got to use both hands through most of the show.  The backing tracks are just icing.

Random trivia:

The first guy in the video, helping Jordan with his keyboard is Ariel Shafir, a brilliant Berklee College of music educated drummer who collaborated with Jordan on the song  'Bad News Jitterbug' by Eyal Amir https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql6LpUhiFO8