The Process
Excerpts
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We know how to shoot live music. Our state-of-the-art filming techniques capture the energy and emotion of the musicians, immersing you in the performance and allowing you to fully appreciate the depth of every musical passage.
We believe the work behind filming music performances needs to be as well planned as the music itself. This is how we do it, from start to finish:
We always aim to let the emotions of the music decide what should be presented to the viewer. Analysing the score is the foundation of our process.
We can shoot as many takes as we'd like but typically do the dress rehearsal and two concerts with 5+ operated cameras. All operators have designated shots following the music. Our script assistant reads the score cues telling them what's next.
The camera crew consist of feature film photographers who all have their own ability to produce camera work that speaks the same language as the music. We use only top of the line cinema lenses from Angenieux or Arri.
Using custom built software, natural differences in timing between performances are adjusted and all footage is synced to one master audio track that is edited and mastered beforehand. The result is a massive multi-cam video view with 15-20 camera angles to choose from, allowing us to edit without compromise. There's a beautiful take to match every moment of music.
In the final step we color correct each shot and apply a look that match the mood of the music and setting. Color grading is an important step that brings the viewer even closer to the music.
This process is applicable to any live music performance. Here is an example from The Stockholm Concert Hall:
We produce films with everything from full scale orchestras to solo artists.
Here are some excerpts from our work.
Yellow Tone love shooting music but we also produce feature documentaries. Here are the films we are the most proud of.
A poetic history of music in 5 episodes
Why does something exist that we call music? What gives people the ability to convey emotions through something sounding in an invisible medium? What happens to us when we listen? When we play? In a new documentary series for Konserthuset Play, filmmaker David Tarrodi seeks answers to these questions.
The starting point of the series is Western art music, and we meet musicians, listeners, composers and researchers. The five programs (about 30 minutes each) have different themes, revolving around one or more of the elements that the concept of music consists of.
The docu-series is available for free streaming worldwide at konserhuset.se
A film by David Tarrodi
This is a documentary film about world renowned jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson and his trio E.S.T. with drummer Magnus Öström and bassist Dan Barglund. Esbjörn Svensson became one of Europe’s most successful jazz musicians at the turn of the 21st century before tragically dying at the age of 44 in a scuba diving accident. The film is a tribute to a lovable person and a unique musician.
It was produced in 2016 in a collaboration between Yellow Tone and SVT. It was premiered on SVT2 on October 29th 2016.
(Borderland) A Yellow Tone TV production
This is a TV-program about placing a full scale symphony orchestra in the middle of an outdoor night club, the essence of a two-day summer festival in 2019 at Trädgården underneath the Skanstull bridge in Stockholm. Orchestral concerts with Tchaikovsky & Philip Glass as well as pianist David Huang playing Bach's Goldberg Variations with "silent concert" technique in the middle of the well-attended loud party. Audiences of all ages, drinks, hugs, crowds, conversations. The sound and feeling still echoed in the concrete when everyone then went home.
Watch it here until April 2023
The TV-program was produced by Yellow Tone for SVT in 2019 and aired by SVT in 2020. Artistic directors of the festival are Christian Karlsen and David Huang.
A Film by David Tarrodi
This is a 1 hour documentary covering the last 2 weeks of Sakari Oramo's chief conductor era with The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
The film unfolds in close contact with the music of Sibelius, and gives insights to musical relationships – in which the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra also plays a significant part, considering its long relation with Sibelius’ music. The film takes us to rehearsals and concerts during spring 2021, featuring Lisa Batiashvili in the Violin Concerto and soprano Anu Komsi in Luonnotar. Several individual members of the orchestra participates, as does Sakari Oramo’s father, Ilkka Oramo, emeritus professor of the Sibelius Academy. Adding to this, the film pays visit to the Sibelius monument in Helsinki and to Ainola, the private home of Sibelius.
(Life as a relative) A film by David Tarrodi, based on family inquiring by Ebba Hedberg
This film is about a family dynasty starting in 1847 when a poor man named Julius is born. In his teenage years he decides to walk all the way from the south of Sweden up to Stockholm. He manages to start a business, a bakery that his son Nils later on took over and built a whole empire of businesses in the early industrial era. Nils then passed it down through generations and Ebba Hedberg, the great great grand daughter of Julius, is today telling the story of how all this have shaped her life. She even grew up in the old bakery that Julius once built.
The film was produced on behalf of Julius and Nils Westerdahls Foundation. It has regular screenings at the old bakery called Julius Hus. The house is a museum open to the public and it's located at Bondegatan 21, Södermalm in Stockholm.
(Allan Pettersson - The first symphony) A film by David Tarrodi, in collaboration with Marianne Gillgren, Gunnar Källström & Peter Berggren
Allan Pettersson is one of Sweden’s most prominent composers who was active during the twentieth century. His first symphony was never completed and Allan Pettersson made sure that it was never performed during his lifetime. Even though, he chose to call his first ever published symphony “the second symphony”. In 2010, thirty years after his death, the sketches of his first symphony were compiled, and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra premiered the piece under the direction of Christian Lindberg.
Yellow Tone produced the film on behalf of music publisher Edition Tarrodi. It is available on DVD through BIS Records and was also aired 12 times on AxessTV the fall of 2011.
Yellow Tone showreel
E-mail
david@yellowtone.se
Phone
+46 (0) 702 058 138
Address
Yellow Tone AB
Tavastgatan 41
118 24 Stockholm, Sweden
