Exclusives

Remo Rocks The Video

“Now one doesn't have to depend on big budgets, big studios, and big production houses for anything. Power to the artists, power to the creators, and not to business sharks! That's what the digital and computer age has done for us.”
– Remo.

EXCLUSIVE TO ARTYEARS
One of India’s favourite music icons REMO FERNANDES is a one man industry, literally. Besides entertaining sell-out audiences, this Goa based musician can play all instruments, write lyrics, sing in different voices, design album covers, engineer recordings, mixing and even shoot his own video!

Not long ago, Remo launched Indian Pop into cyber age with ‘Cyber Viber’ – India’s first single to be released exclusively on the Internet through fabmart.com. The song was a huge success with over 20,000 downloads in the first two weeks itself. The video for the song was conceptualized and
executed by Remo himself. He handled everything that includes scripting, directing, editing, choreography, costume design, special effects, computer graphics and shooting all the scenes, except those that he is present in!

Remo operates at home on the Intergraph Workstation and the software he uses is DPS Velocity. The camera for the ‘Cyber Viber’ Video was a Sony DCR-VX-9000 E. Our curiosity got the better of us, as we asked Remo about his background in the field of Audio Visual. You will realise that there is more to Remo, than what meets the eye.

We are grateful to Remo as he was gracious to answer some of our most inquisitive of questions:

You are known to handle everything from recordings to making music videos. Do you enjoy having total control over your work or is it because you can work at your own convenience?
It’s a combination of reasons really: I love having total control over my creations, and I love working at my pace and at my convenience. But there's another reason too: I love working in Goa, and unfortunately there are no professional technicians here in Goa in fields such as sound recording and video production - so that kind of forces me to do things by myself.

What is the time-frame required to complete a music video like ‘Cyber Viber’?
I don't really remember how long it took, because I had to re-shoot and re-edit a lot of stuff since it was all done in a trial and error method. But on an average, I would ideally look at an average of about one week of shooting, and one week of editing. Of course, about two weeks or more would go into preparation like script concept and so on.

An ‘Intergraph Workstation’ is not exactly amateur hardware. Do you get professional help in your learning process or do you prefer the trial-error method?
Yes and no. The Intergraph people sent down a technician to set up the workstation and give me a five-day crash course on it. After that it was me and the manuals. And occasional phone calls to the Intergraph technicians in Bombay to solve some on-the-spot difficulties which the manuals couldn't help me with.

How important is colour in background animations to you, or do you concentrate wholly on effects?
Everything is important! The animations, the effects, the backgrounds, the colors, and so on... as far as possible, I have tried to give importance to as much detail as I could.

Compared to professionally handled stuff, how difficult was it to edit your video from raw footage and synchronize it to your music?
I have been working on my music software called "Cubase" for years now. And frankly, I found the video software much, much easier to learn and use, even though I only got to study it for a few days. I think video is simpler and very, very user-friendly. Well, at least DPS Velocity is.

Any action you would have loved to add to the video, but was too complex to include?
Oh, lots of stuff, of course! Even in music, I can't always do every sound or effect I'd like to - so then one improvises and is forced to do something else instead. And very often those are the exciting creative moments which give birth to unexpected, unplanned things which turn out quite original.

Not many would have noticed that ‘Cyber Viber’ is a one-man-effort as they view it on T.V. Any tips for many others who undertake such experiments on a smaller scale?
Me, give tips to others? I am totally inexperienced, how can I guide others? I can only say that according to my point of view, you should go by your instincts rather than by technicalities. There's no one right way and one wrong way to make a video. If it feels good and looks good to you, if it conveys what you want to convey, go for it. And remember that creativity and originality count for more than technical perfection.

What are the most distinct advantages of working on an ‘Intergraph Workstation’?
I can't really answer that objectively, because I've never worked on any other video solution, so I have no basis for comparison. The Intergraph was a great pleasure to work on, though. Very intuitive, very user friendly, very straight forward and simple.
Digital Cameras are turning out to be a delight for both amateurs and professionals, in the sense that they are easier to carry around.

How do you rate its quality/resolution/output as compared to other heavy equipment used?
Once again, I haven't worked on anything else before [besides of course home video stuff like first VHS and then Hi-8]. Digital video is a god-send to people like me who like to do their own thing at home, though. Just like computer software for music was a godsend. Now one doesn't have to depend on big budgets, big studios, and big production houses for anything. Power to the artists, power to the creators, and not to business sharks! That's what the digital and computer age has done for us.

What do you think of MPEG videos and MP3’s? Do you love or hate the Internet?!
I love the Internet, I love MPEG and MP3 and all the goodies which the Web has made possible to us! If I didn't love the Net, I wouldn't have made "Cyber Viber"!

REMO sings the title track for the movie ‘All the Best’, with none other than Indian Superstar, Amitabh Bachchan. The song is due for release shortly. You can find out more about Remo and his music at: www.remofernandes.com


In advertising not to be different is virtually suicidal.
— Bill Bernbach