Quiet! This Is a Library!

A lighthearted collaboration between multiple aspects of the Fine Arts department entertained students with a concert in a unique venue – usually known for being a quiet space – resulted in a high-calibre film, and will hopefully inspire similar projects in the near future.

 

Music fans might be familiar with NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, which has run for 18 years, featuring artists from across the spectrum of genres preforming stripped-down versions of their songs in the NPR office. Shawnigan now has its own spin on the beloved series thanks to a student-led project that combines music, film, and recording arts.

 

Grade 12 student and Academics and Music Prefect Rosa O. and music teacher Mr. Vince Hale are big fans of the series, and take every opportunity to watch the concerts. It was while fulfilling one of her Prefect tasks that she came up with the idea for Shawnigan’s version of the Tiny Desk Concert.

 

“Mr. Hale and I always watch the Tiny Desk Concerts when he is on duty in Strathcona,” Rosa explained. “I was on Prefect duty in the Library when I made the connection that it was a great place to do something like that, and I wanted to try something like that.”

 

Rosa arranged for a performance behind the Library’s circulation desk by her band, Yanson and the Feathers, which features herself on vocals, Mr. Hale on keyboards, Ash B. on bass guitar, and bandleader Yanson W. on drums. She also reached out to film teacher and Head of Fine Arts Mr. Aren Goodman, who was also familiar with the Tiny Desk Concerts, and was excited to support for the collaborative project, along with recording arts teacher Mr. Ben Karegeya.

 

It was Mr. Goodman who came up with the name of Shawnigan’s concert series, combining the original title with the Dewey Decimal System for classifying library books that anyone who was an avid reader up until the last decade or so would be familiar with, and the decibel for measuring the intensity of sound.

 

Rosa researched what kind of equipment would be needed to film and record the concert, trying to use similar gear to what NPR uses for the original series. Once they got in the Library, it still took more than two hours to set up the equipment and fine-tune everything. They experimented with the colouring of the lights and angles for filming before starting the three-song performance.

 

“It looked pretty good when we set the whole thing up,” Rosa said.

 

Diego P. and Gibson S. filmed the performance, with Mingyo K. and Mr. Goodman editing the film, while Philip C. led the sound editing. Rosa was thrilled to see the final product, which was “better than we expected.”

 

As Music Prefect, Rosa wanted to increase student performances, and she hopes the Dewey Decibel Desk series grows and helps encourage more students to perform.

 

“I want to keep going with this. If more students want to perform, this is a great opportunity,” she said. “People who have stage fright might not be camera shy. It might be a better experience if there aren’t 500 people in the audience.”