SING SECOND

The Reflection Series

By: Austin Lachance

Context

Just days before graduation in May of 2017, I found out that I would be able to spend five months attached to the West Point Public Affairs Office before shipping off to flight school in January of 2018. Recognizing the incredible potential afforded by this opportunity, I immediately began work on bringing to life my ultimate passion project aimed at the 2017 Army-Navy Game. From its inception, Sing Second was intended to be the climactic effort in what had been a West Point-centric creative career built around expanding the form of the Army-Navy spirit video.

Central Questions

What does it feel like to Sing Second?

What makes Army Football special?

Inspirations & Influences

West Point Alma Mater - As the son of an ‘85 grad, and as someone who grew up at West Point, the Alma Mater has always been meaningful to me. I knew the lyrics even before I was a cadet. Any time all three verses are sung, it becomes a conscious effort for me to not choke up by the third verse. Whenever the mundanity of lunch in the Mess Hall was broken by “Please direct your attention to the First Captain” followed by the announcement that a member of the Long Gray Line had passed, your heart dropped. The solemn, muted performance of the third verse that ripples through the Corps as led by the Glee Club, especially the rise at “Well Done” and the seemingly-infinite momentary pause before “Be Thou At Peace,” all contributes to what I believe is the closest we’ll ever get to knowing what they meant by “the last one feel[ing] to the marrow the grip of [their] far off hold”. And finally, the already high emotional potency of the Alma Mater is heightened further when placed in the context of the Army-Navy Game. For those who are not familiar with the expression “Sing Second”, it refers to the long running tradition among the service academies in which everyone in attendance stands uncovered at attention as each school plays their alma mater at the end of the game. The honor of being the academy to sing their alma mater second is reserved for the winning team. Therefore, anytime someone exclaims a desire to “Sing Second”, they are voicing their winning spirit in pursuit of that honor. If I could find a way to cinematically convey how the Alma Mater made me feel as a member of the Long Gray Line, I knew it would resonate with anyone associated with our great institution.

Gospel & Soul - In order to stylistically capture the passion and powerful emotions one experiences while singing the Alma Mater, especially after an Army-Navy victory, I wanted to add a gospel spin to our beloved song. There were a few inspirations which ignited this goal. The first was the gospel rendition of “Let It Be” from the 2007 film Across The Universe. This new version of the already iconic track, and especially the visual sequence that accompanied it, were incredibly impactful to me when I first saw them as a child and have stayed with me to this day. It truly ranks among my all-time favorite cinematic sequences.

The second source of inspiration for the gospel approach came from Chance The Rapper’s album Coloring Book, and The Most Unruly’s YouTube film essay about said album titled “Songs For Freedom”. Coloring Book is an album deeply infused with gospel and the video essay’s process of illuminating the ways in which Chance employed gospel, while at the same time providing a general education on the history of the genre, were all very eye-opening. As if Coloring Book wasn’t inspirational enough, when it came time to perform at the 2017 Grammy's Chance took it as an opportunity to completely revamp his performance, making it far more soulful and passionate than before. It was this heightened performance, an appreciation for gospel provided by the video essay, and the gospel revision of “Let It Be” that convinced me it was time for a passionate re-imagining of the Alma Mater.

1st Lt. Chase Prasnicki - Back in the summer of 2016, an incredibly talented Old Grad photographer by the name of Chris Pestel reached out to me to ask about using some of my footage from Cadet Leader Development Training for a film he was helping to produce titled None More American: Army Football in Post-9/11 America. As I started to learn more about the film, directed by Rob O’Sullivan, I learned about the story of 1st Lt. Chase Prasnicki. At the time that I am writing this, Chase is the most recent Army Football alumni to have died in combat. It became my mission to honor his sacrifice and by extension honoring what makes Academy football special on the grandest stage available to me: the Army-Navy spirit video. My first attempt at this feat was in 2016 with a short film that was to be titled Heart of Granite which centered around a conflicted Army football player learning what makes Army Football special by learning about Chase’s legacy. The project never received the breath of life, but the desire to make a grander statement about Army Football through the honoring of 1st Lt. Prasnicki persisted and finally found its home in Sing Second.

To Pimp A Butterfly - Around the time that I was developing the idea for Heart of Granite, Kendrick Lamar released his sophomore album To Pimp A Butterfly. I could go on about the musical mastery of this album, but what truly struck me at that point in time was the manner in which an artist employed his craft to maximum effect. Stringing together grander themes, brilliant collaboration with peers from different genres, call-backs to the greats that came before him... the list goes on. TPAB truly was a masterpiece that served the hip-hop culture and music at large. Inspired by the essence of that album, I had gotten it in my head that West Point needed its own To Pimp A Butterfly. A pure work of art that could serve the culture of the Academy. If I was going to dare to make a music video for the Alma Mater, especially one that honored a fallen graduate, it would need to be a masterpiece.

Defining Elements

Setting - A general theme that pervades nearly every video I’ve ever made has been a desire to “show off” West Point in one way or another. Whether it be the people, places, or activities in and around the Academy, I was always trying to show the viewer that West Point was the magical place I knew it to be. One such location that had been at the top of my short-list of West Point iconography to feature was the Cadet Chapel. If ever there was a location that singularly conveys the majesty of the Academy, it’s the Cadet Chapel. However, just as with the other elements of this film, I wanted to save the use of the Chapel until the moment was right. When the opportunity to develop Sing Second became more and more of a reality, I knew the time had come.

The majesty of the Cadet Chapel as captured by Cadet Amanda Lin

during the Sing Second shoot.

Performance - As I mentioned above, I’ve always been in search of ways to “show off” West Point. After years of using their support for countless projects, I was glad to finally have an opportunity to have a film centered around the incredible talent of West Point’s musical community, namely the West Point Band and the West Point Glee Club. Rather than providing soundtrack support for someone else’s film, this would be their time to shine. The camera would be on them, proving to the audience that the brilliant performance you’re hearing really is a West Point performance. Those solos you’re hearing really are from an Active Duty Soldier and a West Point Cadet. The chorus you’re hearing really is the West Point Glee Club. And of course the entire arrangement came from my long-time collaborator and friend, the brilliant Staff Sgt. Noah Taylor of the West Point Band (who had a brief cameo as the organist towards the end of the film). Given the nature of the projects we had worked on, Noah would usually be forced to make magic under a pressing timeline. Although he did always manage to deliver brilliant work under those conditions, Sing Second was the first and only time that he was given many months to really brainstorm and collaborate with others to tackle the tough task of making a soulful rendition of the Alma Mater. The allowance of that time to operate in peak form truly shows in the final product.

Messaging - Although Sing Second did function as a music video for the Alma Mater, it was also an Army-Navy video and therefore needed to tie-in to Army Football in some way. On the surface, it does so by using its visual and sonic beauty to answering one of the central questions: “What does it feel like to Sing Second?” Underneath that, however, it also attempts to answer “What makes Army Football special?” Sing Second is the second half of a two part response to this question that was set up by Believe It, the 2017 Army Football Entrance Video. Believe It asserts that what makes Army Football special is that its players will go on to serve as leaders in the United States Army. Sing Second uses the legacy of 1st Lt. Prasnicki to remind us that the service that we commit to can and sometimes does result in the ultimate sacrifice.

Cinematography - The visuals of this piece needed to reflect the absolute craft that was put into the soundtrack. The soundtrack was finished well before the shoot, which gave me plenty of time to listen to it on repeat and live with it. Although I had already formulated plenty of general cinematic ideas from the beginning, I was unable to refine them until I had the final version of the soundtrack that those visuals would be supporting. One of the things that truly struck me about their performance was how surreal it felt to have such a beautiful re-imagining of the Alma Mater. I knew that the cinematography would need to match this surreality, simply floating through the world of their performance so as not to disturb it. This objective journey through the space was meant to give the feeling that there was an almost intrinsic value to their performance. They never break the fourth wall and look directly at the viewer. No one else is in the Chapel with them. The performance is not for us - it's a performance for its own sake and we’re simply being treated to it. For all we know, if we weren’t being given this glimpse they’d still be there, alone in the Chapel, singing all the same.

Challenges, Solutions, & Experimentation

Soundtrack Development - The immediate challenge of this whole endeavor was tackling the task of re-imagining the Alma Mater with a soulful twist. After numerous collaborations with Staff Sgt. Noah Taylor, one of the West Point Band’s staff arrangers and perhaps my closest creative partner, I had become rather effective at communicating and refining my visions for the soundtracks to my projects. This time around however, I was falling frustratingly short. I could hear what a gospel Alma Mater sounded like in my head, but could not find a way properly convey it to Noah. On top of this, Noah identified a technical challenge that we would face: the Alma Mater does not have a chorus, which is typically an essential part of a gospel song. The verses are treated as the solos for the main performer, and the choruses are typically where the choir joins in support of the soloist. Finally, while we were in search of a new setting for the Alma Mater, we knew we could not stray too far from the traditional arrangement, lest we risk upsetting those who hold the classic performance dearly.

Before we could begin to tackle any amount of the creative process, we had to first assemble the team. Within my first few days working in the West Point Public Affairs Office, I had asked for and received the 'ok' from then-Director of Public Affairs Lt. Col Scot Keith to pursue the development of a soulful Alma Mater spirit video as one of the main efforts for the 2017 Army-Navy Game. As soon as I received that clearance, I immediately began campaigning around the West Point musical community to set things in motion. Of course, the first person to be cued into the development was Noah, who knew of my desire to craft Sing Second far before it was even formally known as Sing Second. The next step was to secure the full support of the West Point Band. In late July, I met with Sgt. Maj. Denver Dill to discuss Sing Second, along with a handful of other projects I planned to do with the West Point Band throughout the fall. Sgt. 1st Class Brandie Lane, the Band's Grammy Award-winning audio engineer, was also in the room for the discussion and began kicking around ideas. This wasn't Brandie's first introduction to Sing Second, though, as she shared an office with Noah at the time and had heard us brainstorm about the idea on numerous prior occasions. After securing the Band's overall blessing, I had one-on-one meetings with Constance Chase, the West Point Glee Club director, and Staff Sgt. Jeremy Gaynor, one of the West Point Band's lead vocalists (famous outside of the Army from his appearance on The Voice). I used these personal meetings as a chance to break the concept to them, explaining some of the messaging, symbolism, and inspiration behind the idea, and as a chance to get their initial thoughts moving forward. The final teammate to be selected was the cadet soloist that would be joining Jeremy. Constance decided upon Cadet Arykah Moore, Class of 2020, to fill the role.

"We knew the soloist would have to craft the part personally and that it needed to come from an authentic place of artistry. We also wanted a voice that would mesh well with SSG Jeremy Gaynor’s. CDT Moore had done some very special, 'real deal' work as a soloist with the Knightingales her Plebe (freshman) year. I was confident she had it in her to deliver something special, which is what this project required. I worked with her and SSG Gaynor for, if I remember correctly, just one session. In my view, my role was to encourage Arykah, grant her the freedom to express. As everyone is aware, cadets constantly conform to highly specific standards. In this case, the requisite standard was different from the norm: to express in her own way what these words mean to her.."

- Mrs. Chase on her decision to select

CDT Moore as the cadet soloist.

"I first heard about the Sing Second project in early August 2017 during reorganization week. Mrs. Chase stopped me at rehearsal for the awards ceremony and told me that SSG Taylor was writing music for the Alma Mater with an almost gospel feel to it. She said he had asked her to select a female cadet to sing one of the solos. I thought it was a nice idea, and I felt honored that she had thought of me for the solo; but nothing I had imagined was even close to the beauty and passion that went into the music or the video. To this day, people tell me how impacted they were to hear and see such a great production."

- CDT Moore on first hearing of the

project and her initial thoughts.

Once everyone involved had been brought in on the idea, there was a master planning meeting mid-September to set forth the rehearsal, recording, and filming timeline.

The solution to our first challenge of re-envisioning the Alma Mater came in the form of collaboration and jam session-style brainstorming between Noah and Jeremy. After our first meeting, Jeremy had plenty of time to ruminate on his vision for a soulful Alma Mater before his first jam session of sorts with Noah.

"I try and bring passion and soul with every opportunity I have to perform, simply hoping to be an inspiration to someone. I have a process of going about every performance where I like to understand and internalize what it is I am singing about and what message I am trying to impress upon my audience. The developmental stages of my performing a gospel/soulful Alma Mater was one of those rare occasions where the inspiration was already given to me. What the song means to so many who have walked the Long Gray Line ... I found it more challenging trying to be sure I honored those pioneers through my performance."

- SSG Gaynor

"At first it was difficult to bring in the style of gospel to our stately song. I chose to create an arrangement that would hint at a gospel/soulful sound, but feel more spiritual and more cinematic. I kept the Glee Club parts to traditional choral writing, but re-harmonized the piece to have a more contemporary sound."

- SSG Taylor

Noah showed up with his rough shell for Jeremy to play within, Jeremy showed up with his thoughts to bounce off Noah’s work, and I showed up to watch the magic happen and slightly corral the brainstorming to suit my needs for the film.

"In 2017, my family had lost three members. First was my young cousin; she just graduated from college. Just a few weeks had past, then we lost my grandfather. We were all still mourning my cousin, and had now lost the most kind and gentle soul. The spring was a sad time for my family, especially my mother, as it was her father who had past away. Just after our first production meeting for Sing Second, I found out that my grandmother (my mother's side) had also just past away, which meant I would be travelling home during the time I would need to write the arrangement. Somehow, in the face of a very sad year, I was able to write this piece and finish a rough mock-up before I left for the funeral. I don't remember the details of the writing process, I just know I had less than a day to make travel arrangements and write the piece."

- SSG Taylor on the personal challenges

he faced early on in the process.

Aside from the overall goal of creating a soulful Alma Mater, there were aspects of the soundtrack development that were informed by the cinematic vision. Such moments included broad brush strokes like the performance needing to feature Jeremy as a soloist, a female Glee Club cadet as the second soloist, the entire West Point Glee Club, and the arrangement needing to include organs both as a stylistic choice and to fit the setting of the Cadet Chapel. Some of the finer brush strokes related to the “arc” of the song, and how it would drive the arc of the film itself. I knew I wanted to open with a prolonged shot of the chapel ceiling that would transition to Jeremy surrounded by the Glee Club, and so we needed to have beautiful, almost eerie droning beginning to set the tone that what you were about to experience was unlike anything you’d heard or seen from an Army-Navy video. In order to balance the performances between Jeremy, Arykah, and the Glee Club, we devised a plan that also solved our earlier problem of developing a gospel feel to a song without a chorus. The first eight bars of a verse were to be a solo performance, whilst the last eight would serve as a pseudo-chorus of sorts, with the Glee Club joining in to give it that feel. Jeremy was to take the first verse, the cadet soloist the second, and all would share the third. One of the main inspirations to the arc of the song was following an exaggerated version of how the original song progresses. When performed in full, the Alma Mater always starts out the third verse in a softer, solemn tone, accentuating “Well Done” and pausing slightly thereafter to let the previous words sink in. We were going to elevate that performance, coming in just as soft and solemn, rising to the most powerful “Well Done”, and letting it ring out into the emptiness for what would feel like an eternity. Lastly, I knew I would need three rounds to the end, to provide me with the three shots to bring forward the football player, and we would need to finish with the most climactic rise and cut in order to have the player conduct the performers to such an ending and cut to the end title.

"Austin's vision for the film was very clear to me from the start. We have worked on a number of small projects and have developed good communication. His direction for Sing Second was spiritual, uplifting, and very cinematic in the way he described the scene. Having a cinematographer who can paint a vivid picture with words of what the final work will be makes it much easier for me to compose/arrange music and gives me the direction and tools I need to produce the recording sessions."

- SSG Taylor

After the first couple of jam sessions between Jeremy and Noah, Jeremy had refined his approach to the piece and moved on to collaborate with Arykah, who was developing her own take and bringing her own influences to the table.

"I definitely pulled from some of the R&B music I grew up listening to, such as India Arie and Alicia Keys. I tried to balance that soulfulness with keeping to the traditional roots of the Alma Mater in order to create a sound that was both passionate and formal. I think the music reflected the traditional and modern aspects of West Point, and I wanted to invoke these aspects in the way that I sang."

- CDT Moore

Jeremy and Arykah utilized their jam sessions to help Arykah develop her solo for the second verse, find ways in which Jeremy could support that solo, experiment with how to share the third verse and finale, and in general explore the various opportunities to infuse the Alma Mater with soul.

"One creative challenge that I faced was loosening up vocally during our practice runs with SSG Gaynor. Because it was the Alma Mater, and I had sang it in a formal fashion many times with the Glee Club, it was difficult to allow my own soul and personality to channel through the music. SSG Gaynor and Mrs. Chase were very helpful and patient with me. Mrs. Chase encouraged me to be more free with my voice; SSG Gaynor even told me to step away from the musical score and sing from the heart. That really helped me pull back from singing the Alma Mater like I was a part of a choir and really open up and sing as a soloist."

- CDT Moore

"I grew up in the church and having that gospel background, so it was more challenging being sure that I didn't get in the way of CDT Moore's creative space. She was a joy to work with and very much a star herself, in my humble opinion."

- SSG Gaynor

While they experimented with one another and refined their performances, Noah finished up the overall arrangement and prepared it for the Glee Club to rehearse it.

"[Noah] and I talked beforehand about the style Austin wanted and how it could best be achieved by the Glee Club. Once we were clear on that and he gave us the score, it was easy enough to put across to the cadets, who, by the way, are great musicians. [We prepared for Sing Second] the same way we go about preparing any new piece: learn the notes, rhythms, style; dig into the meaning—it is always about meaning. It was interesting work for us to bring a different musical sensibility to the most familiar of all West Point songs."

- Mrs. Chase on how she prepared the Glee

Club for their Sing Second performance.

There were two main challenges while recording the performance. First, the West Point Band’s main recording studio was under renovation and we were relegated to the acoustically unideal Glee Club rehearsal room. Secondly, the film was to feature the entire Glee Club, but the specific sound we were going for did not suit every voice in the Glee Club. Our solution to these two problems was simple: we had the brilliant Sgt. 1st Class Brandie Lane on the job. Her audio solution to recording incredible audio in the rehearsal room transcends my limited knowledge of recording technique, and when asked:

"I don’t want to give away all of the trade secrets..."

- SFC Lane

However, the solution Brandie developed with Constance to maximize the vocal talents of the Glee Club was rather elegant. Constance had identified a number of cadets whose voice fit the sound we were going for (which ended up being anywhere from two thirds to no less than half of the full choir) and we recorded this smaller group in multiple locations relative to the microphones through multiple iterations, which all together reproduced the aural scale of the full choir.

Recording Jeremy and Arykah was far simpler and executed in the West Point Band’s sound-proofed recording booths the day prior.

"Recording was a great experience. I had never recorded a solo before, so it was very new to me. I was nervous walking into the studio at the bottom of the band building. But after hearing SSG Gaynor sing beautifully while I was waiting for my turn to record, I felt more confident in my ability to deliver a good performance and be flexible when SSG Taylor or SFC Lane suggested a small change or two. I couldn’t have performed as well without their help and encouragement."

- CDT Moore

"Recording is always fun. I have had my share of recording sessions. The challenge in recording is trying to be sure your emotion is shown in the finished product. That when the listener or consumer hears the finished product the intended emotion expressed is felt. My experience in the recording of Sing Second, specifically, was being the first voice in studio. No one else had recorded anything before I had the opportunity to record my lead vocal/harmony part. In those situations, you have to be sure of yourself. You must anticipate how the finished product should sound and deliver. Not an easy thing to do, but something I very much enjoy!"

- SSG Gaynor

Once Brandie had the clean audio from the vocalists, the refined MIDI tracks from Noah, and a piano performance from Staff Sgt. Brian Ponton, she mixed it all together and used her software to “place” the performance within the Cadet Chapel. As a matter of fact, she was doing this effect in real time through the headphones used during the recording session for the Glee Club, offering a rather surreal experience of standing in a plain room and yet feeling like you are in the chapel if you closed your eyes.

"None of this would have been possible without a little help from convolution reverb and MIDI. SSG Taylor and I learned a lot from this process, including patience in finding enhancements that were natural sounding and supported the mix, rather than change it completely."

- SFC Lane

"The only technical challenges we had in the recording process with our musicians was the construction and remodeling of Egner Hall. Brandie and I did not have access to our recording rooms and our large rehearsal hall. We had to record in small practice rooms and still make the solo voices and choir sound how we want. The saving grace was our access to a good MIDI project studio - we recorded piano, organ, and a few other instruments all directly into a sequencer using samples. It saved us a lot of time and headache during construction."

- SSG Taylor

The only things that I tried to play around with regarding the final mastering of the track were adding more low end organ to the finale, and seeing how long we could hold the gap after “Well Done.” In the first rendering, the gap was about a second long, in line with the original performance’s gap. But as mentioned above, I really wanted to extend that gap in order to let the powerful “Well Done” ring out into the emptiness of the Chapel. Brandie ran a gamut of different versions, and the final iteration we settled on was a four second gap. It felt long enough to feel like an eternity, and yet not so long that it kills the momentum of the soundtrack and film. I knew I’d be using the third verse to reveal Prasnicki’s plaque, and had hoped that this version of the third verse would act like a hammer to the chest of the viewer in order to bring the message home. I must admit that the final master of the song was so perfect that the first night I was listening to it late in the office by myself, I wept for minutes after the song’s end.

Thoughts on the final soundtrack:

"My impressions of the soundtrack can most appropriately be summed up in one word: emotional. I believe I speak for more than myself when I say that SFC Brandie Lane, our audio engineer for this project, is a Grammy Award winner for a reason and it showed in the final soundtrack of Sing Second."

- SSG Gaynor

"I thought the final soundtrack beautiful. It’s one thing to practice and record a good performance. But the sound engineering is what intensifies the music and makes it really moving to the audience, I believe. SFC Lane did a beautiful job mastering the music. "

- CDT Moore

"Any of SSG Taylor’s treatments of Alma Mater are inspirational. His clever ability to reach out musically to anyone who has a connection to West Point is unmatched and a skill that’s so invaluable to this institution. I’m just the lucky one that gets to set up some microphones and capture his masterpieces!"

- SFC Lane

"I was simply amazed at how well it turned out considering the speed and manner with which we put it together."

- SSG Taylor

Tools & Techniques - There were countless positive aspects that came out of having the opportunity to work in the West Point Public Affairs Office for a semester, including getting to work with and learn from the absolute professionals within the Public Affairs and Visual Information team and gaining access to their broad arsenal of equipment and expertise. If Sing Second was to live up to the cinematic expectations I had set for it, we were going to have to use that arsenal to maximal effect. Two specific items from the Visual Information shop that I knew were going to change the game for us were the Canon C300 Mark II cinema camera and the DJI Ronin camera gimbal.

The Canon C300 Mark II is the flagship camera for the Visual Information production team and an absolute imaging powerhouse. As a true cinema camera, the C300 Mark II offers numerous features such as the brilliant Canon color science, the dynamic range provided by it’s C-Log gamma profiles, and its natural handling of motion that all work to create an image worthy of the big screen. In addition to the image quality, other features such as the internal ND filters and flawless Dual Pixel Autofocus make the C300 II surprisingly user friendly and practical. Despite its relative ease of use, this was still a proper cinema camera and as such would require proper training and experience if I was going to employ it the way I wanted. The image quality alone, however, wouldn’t be sufficient to truly achieve the cinematography I desired. I would need to be able to move the camera as I please, which brings us to the DJI Ronin.

The DJI Ronin camera gimbal, along with other similar camera gimbals, has revolutionized independent filmmaking by allowing an individual to achieve cinematic stability and camera movement at an affordable price point. For all it can do to expand the creative capabilities of the independent shooter though, it does have a drawback: it can be rather fatiguing and cumbersome to hand operate for a long shoot. Towards the end of my Firstie (senior) year as a cadet I had the opportunity to experiment with and use the smaller Ronin-M, providing me with the familiarity and experience of operating and fine-tuning a DJI gimbal. However, even the smaller gimbal with the smaller camera setup could still be draining to use after a long shoot. I knew that if I could find a support system for the Ronin it would not only allow for the unrestricted use of the gimbal, it would also unlock the ability to completely outfit the Ronin with everything necessary to enable the single shooter: monitor, microphone, focus control system, thumb joystick control, mounting larger and longer lenses, etc. Additionally, taking the physical strain away from operating the Ronin allowed for more creative focus to be applied to executing the shot. Back when I used the Glidecam HD 2000, my solution to this similar problem was the Glide Gear DNA 6000 spring arm support vest which proved wildly successful at expanding my creative capabilities. My choice, then, for supporting the Ronin was the mighty Tiltamax Armor Man 2 spring arm support harness.

My first time experimenting with my Armor Man 2 harness in the Public Affairs Office. (Video by Michelle Eberhart)

Nearly every project of mine during my time with PAO prior to November 14th was essentially practice for the Sing Second shoot. Practice with handling the C300 II, assessing proper exposure for C-Log, navigating the menus and learning the camera’s capabilities, and learning how to color grade the footage to my liking. Practice balancing and fine tuning the sensitivity of the Ronin, learning its unique characteristics, experimenting with different setups and arrangements of gear on the Ronin, and refining the technique of employing the Armor Man 2 to support the gimbal. After a semester filled with exciting Cadet Summer Training action, countless lifts with the Second Aviation Detachment and Cadet Parachute Team, chasing crew teams on the Hudson River, and the seemingly endless production for the Army-Navy epic Lead From The Front, I had built up the necessary skill and experience to attack the Sing Second shoot.

Production Planning & Execution - Seeing as it is that Sing Second was going to be one of my most ambitious projects, I knew that I would need to revamp the way in which I would approach its production. In the past, there had been countless projects where my ability to “wing it” yielded great work. For all the times it had worked though, there were also the small handful of moments in which a lack of planning and poor craft led to disastrous executions that ultimately wasted the time of everyone involved. One such failure actually happened with members of the Cadet Glee Club in which we were trying to make a going-away tribute to a beloved Brigade Tactical Officer Colonel Merkel. Haunted by the memory of that forsaken project and motivated by the excellence I thought Sing Second deserved, I spent the months leading up to the shoot ensuring that my planning and craft were in peak form.

The single most developmental experience that informed the production planning of Sing Second was the titanic production for Lead From The Front. The concept and initial development for Sing Second far predates the genesis of LFTF, but cameras rolled much sooner for LFTF and it involved countless high-complexity shoots that each had their own unique challenges. Each shoot for LFTF involved a finite window with at least one member of the West Point command team, and therefore carried a dire ‘no-fail’ sense of urgency. The pressure surrounding these shoots stressed the importance of four things: efficiency-oriented planning, mandatory rehearsal, plan refinement informed by the rehearsal, and disciplined yet adaptable execution. We only had one school night to film with the Glee Club in the Cadet Chapel, so there was a similar sense of no-fail urgency to this shoot meaning we would need to rely on those four principles listed above.

There were three different rehearsals for the Sing Second shoot. The first was a simple equipment rehearsal down in the PAO shop many days prior. I had selected three Sigma Art Series lenses for the shoot, which was to be done entirely on the Ronin gimbal with Armor Man harness. Although the efficiency planning I had done rearranged the chronology of the shots in order to minimize the amount of lens changes, there would still need to be at least three lens changes. Each lens change would require stripping down the harness and rebalancing the Ronin, which can be a cumbersome process when you’re simply guessing and bracketing in on the balance, sometimes taking up to ten minutes per iteration. Between three different lens changes, nearly a third of the shoot would have been spent messing with equipment which is unacceptable. My solution to this was to take the time to finely balance the whole camera system for each lens, note the balance measurements for each axis on the Ronin, print out & tape a small table of the measurements for each setup on the Ronin, then practice acting as a one man pit crew rapidly changing and rebalancing the gimbal according to the measurement table. By doing so, I was able to get the time for a full swap down to roughly two minutes.

Me executing the rapid rebalancing method during the Chapel Shoot,

as captured by Cadet Amanda Lin

The second rehearsal was a solo rehearsal for myself in the Cadet Chapel a few days prior to the shoot. I used this time to experiment in the space, try out different focal lengths and framings, capture different exposures for me to color grade later and see which is ideal, and practice some of the more complex camera movements like the long opening shot that transitions from the ceiling to the choir; all things that didn’t require assistance to rehearse. The third and final rehearsal was in the Cadet Chapel one day prior to the shoot, this time including my cadet assistants Tim Johnson and Cameron Hudson to walk through the shot list and what things would need assistance at what points. This third rehearsal was intended to cover each and every shot, but it ended up being monopolized by practicing the single hardest shot in the whole shoot: the introduction of Arykah that transitions into an orbit around her solo. First we experimented with and decided on the blocking, established the route I would walk around Arykah, then ran countless iterations. Even after easily no less than 20 full repetitions of the shot, I was still not confident it was coming out how I wanted it to. Between the transition from initially walking backwards into smoothly entering a circular side step, the step-up and step-down that constantly happened around the orbit due to the slight ledge Arykah stood on, all while maintaining perfect framing and manual focus proved to be far more difficult than I had thought. Even though I hadn’t nailed that shot within the rehearsal, I still considered it a successful rehearsal because it provided me with the reps and lessons learned to still acquire the shot with minimal takes during the real shoot.

One of the planning & execution techniques I had developed during the LFTF shoots was the utilization of a quarterback sleeve-styled shot list taped to my forearm for immediate reference and coordination. The information on the card would vary depending on the nature of the shoot for LFTF, and in the case of the Sing Second shoot it included a numbering and description of the shot, in/out timecode for the portion of the soundtrack relevant to that shot, lens to be used, and highlighted notation to draw attention to difficult or key shots. We would use this time code to have Noah cue up the song five second prior to the in mark, which would give the performers enough time to get into their performance of the song. After each call for cut, we would either immediately reset to the same timecode to prep for a new take or call out the new timecode for the next shot. This shot list, which Tim Johnson also had within a notebook to aid in coordination, allowed for heightened situational awareness among the minimal crew involved.

The notebook-embedded shot list (left) used by my shot list supervisor

Cadet Tim Johnson, and the shot list I taped to my forearm (right).

The planning, rehearsals, craftsmanship, and absolute professionalism of everyone involved that night all contributed to the best executed shoot in my entire life and it absolutely shows in the final product.

Photos below captured by Cadet Amanda Lin

"The film shoot in the Chapel was historic. There's no better word I could use to explain it. Not many are allowed extended stay in the Chapel and to film such an inspiring video in that location? Historic."

- SSG Gaynor

"A moment I’ll always remember as one of the cooler things I’ve done as WPGC Director was explaining to Army football player CDT Ken Brinson (and track team member, and chemical engineering major with “nearly perfect grades”) his cue and count-down to give the cut off at the precise moment. It took one sentence to explain. He listened intently, said, “Yes, ma’am, thank you, ma’am,” then proceeded to nail it on the next take."

- Mrs. Chase

"The film shoot was amazing. I had seen a lot of Lt. Lachance’s videos while he was a cadet my Plebe (freshman) year. But seeing him and his team in action was an entirely different experience. It takes a lot of patience and even more takes to make a great video. But we were able to put it together in just a few hours because of the professionalism and talent from everyone involved."

- CDT Moore

"The Cadet Chapel at West Point is a great place to shoot (he says knowing nothing about recording video). It was the right place to put the musicians in to shoot that piece of music. The shoot was fast paced - Austin and his team were very organized and kept us on task. The whole thing took just a few hours and then we were done."

- SSG Taylor

Staff Sgt. Bryan Ponton, Pianist, West Point Band

Cadet Cameron Hudson (center) providing behind-the-scenes filming support during the shoot.

Coming around for another pass.

Cadet Tim Johnson and I discussing the plan as we reset for another take of the opening shot.

Members of the Glee Club enjoying a brief rest between takes, likely during a lens change.

Consulting with Tim to ensure we were sticking to our plan.

Cadet Joy Shaeffer (hugging Mrs. Chase) had just found out she had been awarded a Marshall Scholarship just before the beginning of the shoot.

The clearest shot of the complete setup used for filming.

"During one of the reset pauses in filming, I took a few minutes to tell the Glee Club about the seven former Glee Club members from the classes of 2000, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008 who have perished since the War on Terror began. Each of them had performed with the Glee Club right where we stood in the Chapel and all had recorded with the club there—their voices can be heard on the original soundtrack recording of “Mansions of the Lord” for the film “We Were Soldiers,” or their faces seen and voices heard on the DVD “Stand Ye Steady;” the 2000 grad sang on a Glee Club-USMA Band compact disk that predated my appointment as director in 1999. On the day we filmed “Sing Second,” I named them one by one, bringing added significance to our purpose as a team."

- Mrs. Chase

Editing & Grading - The editing and focal length choice were a conscious decision from the very beginning to have the visuals and pacing of the film match the energy of the soundtrack. We start with generally wide shots and grand sweeping long takes, matching the energy and flow of the music. From here, the frequency of editing and focal length selection both progressively increase throughout the course of the film, pushing us toward the high energy emotional climax of the piece.

The decision to frame the film in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio served both an aesthetic and technical purpose. Aesthetically, choosing the quintessential anamorphic aspect ratio is an easy way to make your work look and feel more cinematic and dramatic. A technical aspect to selecting 2.35 was the freedom it allowed to recrop and stabilize footage as necessary with minimal loss of detail. Sing Second was filmed in DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) and was to be exported in UHD 4K 2.35 (3840 x 1634), meaning we had sufficient resolution for both horizontal and vertical adjustments. Software stabilization of footage was rarely needed for this edit, but when it was (i.e. the final push in on the Prasnicki plaque) we had the room to get it just right. Of note, this was one of the first times that I had actually exported the project as an actual 2.35:1 video file, as opposed to the lazy man’s version of putting black bars over regular 16:9 footage (which I am guilty of on countless occasions prior to Sing Second).

While there were slight technical aspects to the decision to color grade Sing Second in black and white, it was a predominantly creative decision. Black and white lends itself to a very timeless feel, which is absolutely something I was going for. Even though this was aimed at the 2017 Army-Navy Game, Sing Second was intended to be appreciated no matter the generation or era. Cadet Gray is one of the essential colors within the West Point palette, and so having a gray-scale image helps to imbue the piece with an extra essence of the Academy. Finally, as discussed earlier, Sing Second is the second part of a two part statement on Army Football initiated by Believe It, which was also black and white and also featured the same football player Cadet Kenneth Brinson (#56) as its climactic symbol. By maintaining the same color scheme, it helps to tie the two works together and establish them as clear bookends to the historic 2017 football season. By having both works in black and white, one may notice that Believe It features a black jerseyed #56 while Sing Second features a white jerseyed #56 - a visualization of the fact that both films represent variations on the same theme: What makes Army Football special?

Release & Reception

Screenings - Prior to its release on the internet, there were three significant screenings within the West Point community for Sing Second. The first took place in the main auditorium of Bartlett Hall for the Glee Club and all members of the West Point Band that helped. This particular auditorium was perhaps the newest and therefore best equipped across the entire campus, which is why I selected it in order to provide those who contributed to this film with the best possible viewing experience. Within that one screening we all watched it three times. The first time was raw, with nothing more than a simple introduction. After the first viewing, the shock of what they had just seen prompted an immediate second viewing to try and absorb that which they may have missed the first time. After two chances to take it all in, I took the time to explain the symbology and messaging of the film, followed by a third and final viewing armed with this new knowledge about it’s meaning. Even after what had been hundreds of viewings up until that point, there was something special about this screening that had me choked up unlike anytime before. This was the grandest setting I had seen it in with the highest quality audio system, and this was the first time I was listening to the final mastering of the soundtrack that improved upon the organs. When those organs came back in for the final moments of the third verse, it physically shook me to the core, and I consider it the closest thing I’ve had to a religious experience.
The second screening took place in the Superintendent’s Conference Room at the beginning of a command and staff meeting. To describe the audience in short, it was essentially a room full of the ~50 most important people at the Academy, including the Superintendent himself Lt. Gen. Caslen. After a single viewing and subsequent description of the symbology and meaning behind the film, I was unexpectedly presented an Army Achievement Medal by the Superintendent in front of the entire command and staff - a proud moment to say the least.
The third screening was never meant to happen, but came about due to peculiar circumstances. The night of the Army-Navy Brief for the Corps of Cadets in the massive Eisenhower Hall was meant to be a grand first screening for Lead From The Front. However due to various technical difficulties that screening would not be possible. We made an on-the-spot decision to ‘audible’ and screen Sing Second for the Corps instead. I had prepared remarks to intro the beginning of a Lead From The Front screening, not Sing Second. So when the time came for me to walk out in front of the Corps of Cadets, I had to scrape together some semblance of remarks after the world had just fallen apart backstage - conjuring as many ‘thank yous’ as I could think of and doing little by way of explaining what they were all about to watch. The introduction wasn’t as clumsy as it could have been, but it was far from pristine which was truly upsetting for me seeing as this was my proudest work being shown to all 4,400 cadets at once. In the end I would say the screening went well, but I do believe there were likely those who were confused by what they saw without any context, especially since the Corps would have to wait another three days to see it again when it would be uploaded to the internet.
Acknowledgement - After the 2017 Army-Navy Game, Sing Second was submitted to the Maj. Gen. Kieth L. Ware Army Communications Awards Competition (an awards competition for the entire Army Public Affairs community) and won 1st Place in the Short Form Production category. Although Sing Second was not produced with awards in mind, earning this distinction ranks among my proudest achievements and receiving this formal recognition, especially at the Army level, served as an affirmation that Sing Second had achieved that which it was intended to be from its inception: a bonafide work of art.

Final Thoughts on the Film

"I am a vocalist, but I am also an artist. There's no greater feeling than a song or a performance coming together and having the impact that you initially thought it would when the idea was birthed in your mind. To trust, throughout the creative process, that end result is going to be exactly what you had hoped it would be. A director's job is a difficult one in that you do not have the option of going back to the drawing board if the end product is not what you had thought it would be. There are others putting their trust in you that your vision, you direction is the most impactful, most appropriate one. Even when things may not seem to make much sense to you in the moment, you have to allow yourself to trust that your director will indeed deliver. My impression of the final film was just that: Lt. Lachance delivered. From one artist to another, that kind of attention to detail is very much appreciated."

- SSG Gaynor

"It brought me to tears, honestly. Every time I watch the film and see everyone in the Cadet Chapel, hear the beautiful talent of West Point’s musical groups, see the camera pan to 1st Lt. Prasnicki’s name, and see the final cutoff by Cdt. Brinson in his football uniform, I’m filled with pride for my school and for what we represent. It reminds me of what drew me to West Point back in 2015 when I first visited and fell in love with it. On days that are tough here (and there are many), seeing this video makes me feel honored to be at West Point and makes getting through tough days a little easier. I’ve heard this from other people who’ve seen it. They let me know how much the video meant to them and how they, too, are filled with pride for their school when they watch. I’m so honored to have been a part of the production and even more honored to be a part of the Long Gray Line."

- CDT Moore

"I think it was the most artistic and expressive project Austin had created yet. In his earlier works, you can see him learning the technique of developing stories. This piece was planed and executed amazingly well by Austin, his crew, and the musicians during the sessions and the shoot. I think Sing Second is my favorite piece Austin and I have worked on together. It was a piece that allowed me to write the music and set the mood/pace of the film first - all composers would wish for that. This piece was about the West Point Community and the Army as a whole - it was more than a football spirit video. It's a video the Academy can play year after year. After several years working with Austin on his video projects for USMA, his were some of the best I have worked on in my career as a composer. He is a genuine storyteller and I hope we get to collaborate again soon."

- SSG Taylor

In honor of the one year anniversary for Sing Second, a Special Edition colorized remastering of Sing Second has been created as a special treat to those who have enjoyed the original, presenting a fresh look at the visuals an meaning of this special production

Credits

In addition to those mentioned throughout this write-up, there were many others who helped to make Sing Second possible, and I want to take the time to recognize & thank them for their contributions below!

Music -

Arranged by: SSG Noah Taylor, West Point Band
Recorded & Mastered by: SFC Brandie Lane, West Point Band
Choir Director: Constance Chase
Vocalists: SSG Jeremy Gaynor, West Point Band; CDT Arykah Moore, Glee Club
Pianist: SSG Bryan Ponton, West Point Band
Choir: West Point Glee Club

Crew -

Director/DP/Editor/Executive Producer: 2LT Austin Lachance
Shot List Supervisor: CDT Tim Johnson
Chapel Shoot BTS Photography: CDT Amanda Lin
Chapel Shoot BTS Filming: CDT Cameron Hudson
Football Player: CDT Kenneth Brinson

Support -

Early PAO Support: LTC Scot Keith
West Point Band Resource Coordinator: SGM Denver Dill, West Point Band
Cadet Chapel Resource Coordinator: Ch (LTC) Donald Carrothers, USCC Chaplain
Cullum Hall Resource Coordinator: Cynthia Hunter, Cadet Hostess
Army Athletics Resource Coordinator: Stephanie Menio, ODIA
Award Submission Assistance: Michelle Eberhart, Visual Information Division
Craft Services: Lisa Lachance & Zachary Lachance