Rant: Garbage videography in regards to music

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

There I was, watching this video of the expressive E Osmose

And I just couldn’t take it anymore. Why on Earth, as a company that’s selling a keyboard product–one that is meant to be PLAYED, are you showing B Roll of Los Angeles and quickly cutting to unfocused closeups of some dude’s head? Oh because it’s “artsy”? Because it’s “cool”? Because, damn it, we have a budget and spent good money on videographers and editors, guess we better get our money’s worth. Who the hell signed off on this?

I also sometimes watch performances of bands where it’s the same thing. They cut to a new camera every 1 or 2 seconds and it’s infuriating. Can I PLEASE just watch somebody play an instrument for like, 5 seconds? At least? The keyboardist is taking a solo now, can you NOT cut to the guitarist and the drummer and the singer? For the love of God.

I was at the gym some months back and this older gentleman with taste I respect (he’s all tatted up with great bands…stones, monkees, beatles, you name it) ranted to me about how everything is so fast and every single movie and commercial has a new cut every second and everything is FAST ACTION FAST and I told him I agree. I guess I’m turning into him. There’s nothing like watching a good Tarantino or Hitchcock film where you’re just looking at one camera shot of people talking for upwards of a minute…

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#2

I didn’t find it too bad to be honest. Cutaways to heads is because it’s meant to be the artist’s reaction to playing it for the first time (though I genuinely doubt this was any of their first attempts). More worrying for me was some of the shitty sounds being used - that J3PO flute sounded like General Midi haha

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#3

ah yes, nothing like seeing a blurry, unfocused shot on the side of the snarky puppy’s keyboardist’s head to get that sweet, sweet reaction

#4

This phenomenon has been around for as long as cameras were pointed at musicians.

The problem is simple. The camera person and or editor thinks such an such an image looks good.
However, they have consistently failed to match what looks good to what is happening in the sonic realm.

Sure, the bass player angle might look good, meanwhile, lead guitarist over there out of shot is playing solo of the decade… and you camera person and or editor are missing it.

Check out footage of Fleetwood mac playing albatross on TV. The camera work is terrible!

With electronic music it gets worse, as the instruments are much smaller, often only requiring the most subtle of finger movements. Blink, and you miss it.

I fully support your rant @GirTheRobot. If I wanted artful videography, I wouldnt be watching a modular techno jam, or live elektron improv gig , or basically any other type of bleep bleep musical video…

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#5

Watch less music and your problem will be solved. Don’t delegate to the eyes what should be experienced with the ears.

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#6

I mean. To be fair. We’re talking about musicians and music. If you want static shots of people jamming on their synths from a fixed camera angle there is about 2097856029672096720796 videos of them on Youtube with like 2 subscribers and 3 views. That’s millions of hours for you. You’re welcome

#7

NO NO NO. But you’ve got it all wrong. What irks me isn’t the video quality, what irks me is when people have 20 thousand dollars of synth gear and can’t be assed to plug into an interface to record it. Instead we get a video with a moog one running though iphone microphone audio. Money well spent

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#8

I want to watch things without people cutting to new shots every second or half a second. Is that too much to ask?

It hurts my eyes.

#9

It’s been prominent in action movies for a long time. For me the straw that broke the camels back was watching Avengers: age of ultron. One million fucking characters in one movie and every fight scene was cutting to the next hero within 2 seconds I was exhausted by the end and just turned it off. I couldn’t take it, it was just laser beams and steel and I had no clue of what was going on.

The Bourne series does similiar things. It’s infuriating to be honest.

I think saving private Ryan started the trend. In that movie it was a way of portraying the chaos, it fitted the movie. Everyone else just got lazy and copied, not thinking about the end results…

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#10

Amen dude. I watched two episodes of The Mandalorian and gave it a definitive “fuck this” because even quiet, sparse moments of the show had editing like an action film. Why is it that the bounty hunter on the ranch hanging out with a solitary farmhand is edited like a bunch of bad guys are shooting guns at him? There’s a time and place.

In terms of video editors signing off on this nonsense and not understanding music, the director/project manager should have the final say and he/she should understand what’s required. They should understand all aspects of the project–that’s their job. Showing god damn B ROLL of PALM TREES over audio of a semi-famous musician playing your groundbreaking device is a huge headscratcher.

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#11

The most horrible thing in that video is Jordan Rudess’s Beard.

#12

Hey, there’s a Minimoog in the back and it’s correctly switched on, as is all the other gear.
No complaints there.

#13

My most disliked trick is the ‘shaky camera’ to make it look like its first person. Used by a lot of directors because they think its artsy. It just ruins a film for me. And i agree quick cut scenes every few seconds is damn annoying. These directors should watch Alfred Hitchcock and how he use cameras for effect. They are all out of Art school thinking their the best.

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#14

Man…i am so agreeing here…
That´s why i like old movies. They took their time to eventually show a scene.
Nowadays it´s hard to find a show that does not do it.

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#15

Same thing with young composers’ work, I’m afriad. Perhaps this stems from knowing that deep down there are no real materials here, so the fast cut is to obscure the weakness of ideas… :grinning:

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#16

There are exceptions.
Tales from the Loop e.g.
Slow paced shots, and Most ppl critizing it as boring because of that. I found it very pleasing and enjoyable to watch. Soundtrack is also great.
Highclass directors like Jodie Foster.

#17

When George A Romero finally got Night of the Living Dead released, people weren’t just shocked at the violent content, many film people were horrified at his super brisk, quick cut style, which could still be seen as pretty snappy, even by today’s standards.
There can be no argument that Romero didn’t know what he was doing behind the camera or that his editing team weren’t equally skilled. He learned his craft, like so many of his generation, making TV ads, which at the time barely registered a couple of seconds per cut, and transferred those techniques to more serious endeavours.
Romero has been a massive influence on so many directors, from Sam Raimi to Edgar Wright, who have all managed to add their own interpretation of his quick cutting style, often with very satisfying results.
The OP’s video is an advert, and is cut in a style that I would expect an advert to be cut. It’s not been done very well, but that’s more to do with the lack of skills of director/editor than the style they were trying to achieve.

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#18

This thread title introduced this song in my head…

I totally share OP’s feelings. When exposed to frenetic / schizophrenic videos, I either stop whatching them and only listen to the music, or just switch the video entirely off.
IMO it should be the way for everyone sharing the feeling. With time it should have an impact :slight_smile:

May I suggest some excellent Take Away Shows by La Blogothèque, especially those filmed by Vincent Moon?
They are a caress for the soul.

I still remember when I first watched this in 2006:

I was really impressed by the feeling of the video whose aim is simply to capture the artist playing, and the surroundings including the audience, all in one take.

Having one plan by bar is just overdoing it by lack of clear idea.
Eat that, you frenzy music video maker!
Look at Vincent Moon and the Blogotheque crew capturing what music is all about!

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#19

Maybe settle in for some Bela Tarr films to detox?

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#20

This is actually what I thought this thread was going to be about!