Dler
Beloved Kurdish Singer
Dler sings in front of the green screen
It was the year 2002. A local producer came to us asking if we would set up a green screen at a local college to videotape a talented singer. And so it was that we met Dler and his lovely sister. She was there to support her brother in his video, and powder his face to keep the shine off.
We spent the evening videotaping him as he sang several songs. He sang each song twice so that we could videotape him using different angles. These were the days when it was more cost-effective to produce videos using one camera. And then the director would simply instruct the talent to make the same moves. That’s so that the editor could have more footage to work with. Whereas today you can put up several different cameras at varying angles because today’s equipment is a lot less expensive. Or you can use one 4K camera and the editor can zoom in without a loss in quality.
Great Excitement
Anyway, Dler was clearly excited that he would be sharing his talents in this green screen video. The reason we use a green screen is so that the editor can key out the color green and place other footage behind the performer. If, for instance, Dler was singing about a beautiful waterfall, then we could place a slightly blurred waterfall in the background. Or if he was singing about a lovely woman, then we could place that woman in the background.
Dler was a consummate professional and loved to sing. As we wrapped the equipment after the shoot, we told him we were looking forward to seeing the edited video.
Then several months later, we received a call from the producer asking if we had kept a copy of the footage with Dler. “No,” we told him, “We handed all that footage over to you on the night we shot it.”
Dler Passed Away
Unfortunately, the footage we shot the was lost by Dler’s manager so the video was never fully realized, and sadly, Dler passed away shortly thereafter. We did manage to locate a short video of Dler’s music on Youtube (below).
There is a lesson in this for all of us. How much energy would have been saved, and how much heartbreak would have been curtailed if only there had been a copy made of the footage. Today this is easier to do than it was in the year 2002. Footage is now shot on disks and the files on those disks can be uploaded to laptops and hard drives. It has been said that files are not backed up unless they exist on three different drives.
This is a nice Youtube video; however, it’s really a slideshow. How much more impactful it would have been if the viewer could see Dler singing and dancing. We will never know what happened to the original musical footage of the Kurdish singer, Dler, but I feel fortunate that it at least still exists in my mind. What an honor it was to meet such a dedicated young man and what a loss to the world that he is no longer with us.
