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whitegrey

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Posts posted by whitegrey

  1. Posted

    Kaimy Plants - #45

     

     

    I haven't listened to a thing like that for a while now, genre/style-wise... A very nice and fuzzy sound-wall, washed out vocals, reminds me a lot of early downy (especially the vocals). Pretty neat from the 2:40 mark on. Bonus point for the female drums.

    indigo and Tokage reacted to this

  3. Posted

    About the city pop discussion from earlier; seems like SPARK!!SOUND!!SHOW!! make fun of it with 'Urban kill' which is kind of a camouflage (usually they are more on the rock side). At least the refrain goes; 'Urban kill the shity city pop' - so I guess I see what they did there :P

     

     

    Maybe late to it, but a PV I recently fell in love with; COMezik - Imagination

     

    The pace change to a more subtle tone just on the right parts work for me, I can dig it.

    CAT5 reacted to this

  6. Posted

    I really like Alligatoah lately. Very intelligent and clever lyrics, often provoking (criticism of social topics) but that's part of the concept. Here's his newest one;

     

    Also 'Grossstadtgeflüster' - it's more on the 'feel good' and 'optimistic'-side (that particular track) - basically a 'Berlin-Track', but I like it.

     

    For people who liked Die Toten Hosen some time back I'd suggest Adam Angst;

     

    And looking at the previous mentioned bands - I'd also throw in something in the broader field of 'Gothic'...

    Knorkator - it's kind of a 'fun-project' (taking most stuff not too serious lyrics-wise) but they have some good stuff in my opinion - I'd even say they are very underrated.

     

    I'm a native german-speaker tho - so no clue how helpful my list is...

    Typically I'd suggest way more 'intelligent german rap' but that's more for the pros I guess - because most of it works on a level where you have to grasp pretty sick grammar-jokes and word-play...

  8. Posted

     

    POP CHOCOLAT - two way

     

    It's from earlier this month but somehow I've missed the news... Really love this band - even seen them live back in 2008 in Tokyo. They are around for quite some time now - one of my 'secret-love-things' when it comes to girl-driven indie stuff to be honest.

  10. Posted

    Uh, oh.. How could I have missed this, hope we haven't had it here already;

     

    -> newest

     

    -> older one, with first 1:30 minutes are a prelude - the "action" starts after that...

     

    "amenimomakez" - Very nice stuff for my taste; Piano-Rock-Pop, female vocals (bit higher pitched but I don't mind), kind of faster pace... I like!  :)

  11. Posted

    It's obviously a fake wooden gun without ANY functionality - can't even pull a trigger there... :)

    And to my defense; never went to anything 'army related' - actually declined service there and worked as a paramedic instead. So I have no clue what I'm doing on that picture - they just needed more "soldiers" on a film set where I was working so the staff had to step in - well; couldn't say no. Usually I'm behind the camera - for reasons like that. Protection vest was a real police one (an old one tho), pretty heavy and no fun running around with, but interesting to see how this stuff works and feel (way too big for my "body mass" anyways, I felt like a turtle).

    Ito reacted to this

  13. Posted

    I can't comment on the VK part as it clearly is not my genre (knowledge-wise)... but a good example on how to get the live-performance feeling and part of the aesthetics of a regular PV together are detroit7 in my opinion. They are regarded as a "live band" - which I can totally approve of (seen them live a few times) so for them it makes total sense to show that. Ok, now to get the picture;

     

     

    -> You (or at least I) can see that this was taken with at least 2 cameras in a setup that looks like a rehearsal room, pretty intimate, pretty close to the action. I'd say it was shot in 2-3 runs (maybe more, but 2 full runs for sure), maybe with a few pick-up shots later on to use for the VFX parts (visual effects, the smokey parts with the flying birds and stuff), but they might have even managed to get what was needed in only 2 full runs. I can clearly notice staff people (partly hidden or just not moving much - with good angle-blocking to be not seen from the other camera too often) which are shooting details during the single runs - this was probably done to save time (=runs). For me it works and I don't really mind the things mentioned (ok, I have an eye for it - but that's because of my profession. I can ignore it if I want ). Even with this 'rough' sound I'm pretty sure they put a studio track under the pictures. They've played different tracks at this location (you find it on YT with the addition "special studio live") but that one was shaped like this with the PV-esque parts so doesn't look like a 'plain' performance-video anymore.

     

    They also have another example where I'm pretty sure they shot it during the actual recording session, so part of what you get here is "real", definitely no playback used. But it's still clearly shot in a manner to be able to produce a PV out of it and not to take it as a final one-shot video, it is put together from more then one run again (3 for sure). A recording session like this takes a few hours to a day so there was time to get what was needed to have enough footage to intercut it;

     

  14. Posted

    As somebody who works in the field of movie & TV production (also worked on music-video shoots, but not on that many) all I can say is; there are various reasons... Hope you don't mind reading a longer text now... :P

    Most simple answer tho; music videos - if not on the high class sector - have limited budgets which means most of the time you only have one A-Cam (the main camera, biggest/best quality camera) and no B-Cam (ok, you can throw some GoPros in for action shots e.g. for guitar or drums, but for me that doesn't count as real B-Cam). Which means to achieve different shots and framings for cutting you have to change positions, you have to change the glass (if on primes), you often also have to change the lighting-setup or stage-setup in general. To do so you usually let the band play the full length of the song at least 2-3 times with breaks between the full song-runs to change the camera setup - which needs some time, after that you do so called pick-ups from various short parts which might be needed in addition (e.g. guitar or drum solo only, or maybe close-up of the eyes of the singer and so on - you get the idea). Now we get closer to the fact why playback is used and needed -> PV = promotional video -> means a video to promote and "sell" the band (after all it's a business) - which means you need to show off the best style, the best music quality, maybe the message or the art... That's why like 99% of music videos, especially PV's use the studio track of a song (final mix of a studio-recording) and not a "live-recording" and since it's nearly impossible to nail that a second, third, fourth time just for the video-recording (you need about the same timing, position- and sync-wise to have all the options when cutting) you usually do it with playback - thus it's also easier for the band members to focus more on the expressions, the "style", all the things you basically see in videos but usually not live on stage (e.g. stuff that would just be in the way at a live-setup/stage). It's also to get to the full length, to nail the right playing speed and so on - most musicians are used to performing lip-sync and I guess especially visual artists who care about appearance know how the stuff they do is looking or appearing to others (it's part of the game, you can even call it a 'show' sometimes - not in a bad way tho -> music often is 'entertainment' after all). Now about the cables where there are more options now; sometimes it's just a visual reason - cables don't look pretty pretty ( :P) when you don't need it for compositing an image (sometimes you have them as visual part, without another function - e.g. to state chaos, to hang from walls, to 'strangle' ppl as part of the performance and so on) so for "clean" pictures you want to avoid them. Most of the time the cables are just not practical to perform the way the bands perform in PV's - which is - most of the time - over the top compared with a live performance. They have to move more, they usually are on heavier make-up or special costumes, the focus is more on the 'how do I (or stuff I do) look in camera' then on the 'how well do I play my instrument on a technical level' part (one more reason to use playback - you still have to make it look like it's well played but you don't need that exact same focus as on a 'real' performance). When shooting video (in general) it's also about the safety of all the ppl involved - you have big (hot) lamps standing around, you have (somewhat) expensive equipment that can be damaged during action, you have ppl running around doing stuff who shall not trip over cables and so on... Sometimes it's just a case of "no time to do the cabling" because of reasons like limited shooting time (you have to pay for locations, often by hour, you have to pay for personell and so on) or limited resources/budget (who brings or manages the cables - most of the time PV's are not shot at a concert location or recording studio but more like at a TV/Greenscreen-Studio or "on location" where you have to bring and carry all the stuff you need there yourself). Sometimes the stuff used is only a "Prop" without function and not the "real" thing - because real instruments are expensive and you don't want to damage them (again). So even if this stuff has 'real' plugs it might not be able to be turned on so it makes no sense to do so. As mentioned when you use water or rain for visual reasons or e.g. play at really cold or really hot locations you don't want to use electricity because of safety reasons or if not to protect ppl just to protect your equipment. Sometimes you also don't want to have lights and LED-lights of eg. the turned on AMP in you picture because it might cause flares and it might cause reflections and so on. Ever noticed that about all of the professional gear is black or even has a matte finishing -> that's because of reflections (which are a nasty thing, and sometimes mean a lot of work to avoid them - because you don't want to see the whole crew in a mirrored reflection at any time - lot's of fun when you shoot at small/tight places with mirroring stuff in there). After all these PV's should look 'good', and sometimes good doesn't automatically mean 'realistic', film involves lot of tricking the audience or faking stuff but in the end result you might not even notice it... Or only if you focus on it or take a closer look, or have the knowledge to see it... :)

    Edit: one thing I forgot -> often it's also because of the power output/source limitations; on location is often not possible to provide enough output to power all the stuff as most of the power will be needed for lighting the scene (we talk about lamps up to like 2.5 Kilowatt to achieve daylight, even the smaller ones are like 650 to 800 Watt each - if you don't run everything on LED-Stuff which still is more expensive then 'regular' light... And on music video's you are usually on a tighter budget which means you don't have the money for the most expensive, power-saving stuff). So if you need all the power plugs for the film-department (which usually also spans to much more departments then 'camera' only, who will also need power-plugs and power in general) you might not be able to also power the whole 'music'-department (Amps and stuff) without killing the power line.

     

    Edit 2: About the "let's post videos (PV's?) where the band plays actually" -> those are performance videos or live-recordings / studio-recordings then and a totally 'different type' of video or attempt actually... As told earlier; a PV is used to sell al single or an EP or an album - so you want to show ppl how the stuff on the album actually sounds, with the actual, finished audio track from the CD. Which also means you want to show them it's a 'good' product with 'good' production and 'good' sound (despite you want to sell is as hard/dirty/grunge sound or with genres that actually have to sound 'bad'). For the CD-versions they achieve(d) this sound at a (maybe home-)Studio, with lots of work and time, with good mixing, with post-production, with separate recorded instruments and vocals and so on (sure, you can also record 'as a band' but even then it's not the same situation in a studio as it is 'live'). There's usually _no way_ to sound like that on a location where you shoot a PV - except you shot while actually recording; which makes the whole thing a studio-recording video (sometimes you get those as 'making of on DVD's or limited editions). So for me a PV is already 'playback' per definition most of the time - if not then it's just not a 'regular' PV... Hope you can follow me here.

     

    Edit 3: simple communication - the director often needs to communicate with the cameraman during the shot if he notices e.g. wrong framing or if he wants something different then the cameraman at a moment, usually on at least one of the full-length runs you have hand-camera action with freestyle framing and the camera just moving around on the scene to get (usually dynamic) additional shots. Depends on the production tho - some PV's are only from fixed positions (tripod) or from a circle-track with a dolly and so on - but usually it also involves a dynamic camera, can also be a steadycam or gimbal... For that it's much easier for the camera personell to work in a silent surrounding - you don't want to run around between the playing band members (which is difficult enough) and then in addition be blasted on with loud stuff from the Amps (which also cause vibrations btw, also a thing you don't want to have on video). Video involves focus, involves smooth moves, steady and recall-able movements or shots and so on -> all of that is much easier to achieve when you're not blasted away with loud music. The playback is usually just loud enough for the musicians to follow the timing or to get the starting point (then turned off for the freestyle part) - sometimes it's even through in-ear monitoring only, at least it's never on concert-volume. Just to mention; one of the number-one rules on set is; don't be loud, don't make any noise, don't even move, turn off your phone... at least that's how professionals do it, if you don't obey that rule you won't work in that field for long.

    Hmm, I think I got most of it covered - for more specific reasons; just ask :P

    IGM_Oficial, clow_eriol, Aion and 3 others reacted to this

  19. Posted

    I currently listen to that nice lady named Yasmo... She's from my country (Austria) so most of her tracks are in German, some are a mixed with English and only a few ones are English. Very intelligent and critical lyrics (she also does poetry slam stuffs). Music-wise it's a bit on the funky side with her current Live-lineup and makes a lot of fun in my opinion.

     

     

    -> that's an old one but the lyrics totally rock my world as I kind of work in the world of film... so, yeah... F*** the acedemy! :D

  24. Posted

    Heavenstamp new mini album titled "Romantic Apartment" will be released on 2014.07.16 on GOLDSHOES RECORDS.

     

    Tracklist:

    1. Parasite

    2. 秘密の花園

    3. インヘルノ

    4. パライソ

    5. Shibuya scramble

    6. 夜空に星のあるように

     

    New PV can be watched here;

     

    All info should be up on:

    http://www.heavenstamp.com

     

    I really loved their earlier stuff including some Remixes...

    This here sounds like if they've toned and settled down a bit (not as energetic, less electronica) - but it still has a distinctive sound and especially the voice of Sally that I liked so much - so I'm looking forward to it!

  25. Posted

    Ok... That was my first intention also... But I didn't know the 'which is titled as "Kareha" in Ringo's repertoire'-part/fact which got me confused and unsure later on (because I knew las salle de bain was not the one even tho that one's also french)... I say many thanks to you for bringing that up and pointing it out in detail  :)

     

    -> you'll get +1 REP for that :D

    Pretsy reacted to this
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