Promo Video-Feedback

[wheresgrant3]

I have enough video from shows that I pulled together a promo reel from various performances to shop for new Agents, Clubs and even private events. Probably over long, I sorta slapped this together... it's becoming a house with many rooms and additions. Just wondering if I can get feedback on which songs to cut... or what other info to cover. I know this isn't professionally filmed or mixed but judging from the club bands already getting work with terrible GoPro and cellphone footage tied together in Windows Movie Maker I think we'll be fine. It's live footage, it doesn't lie, it presents the band in it's purest light. What you see is what you get.

 

 

 

 

[Vito Corleone]

My only suggestion is I'd get to the "big gig" clips sooner. A lot of the earlier clips are all 'saying' the same thing. You could have half of them and tell the viewer the same story. But other than that, it's your usual great, spot-on work.

[ski219]

You have some good material to work with and need to edit it down some. I would shorten all the bites and I would replace the extreme close black and white of the singer at the head with the shot with the clip at around 2:00 she he is singing baby tonight with a bunch of gigs hoping in the front and he jumps out a bit.

[sventvkg]

I liked it a lot. I like a shorter promo so I would edit it down a bit. Keep everything just make the clips shorter....I love your concept and your frontman is one of the best I have seen on this level. If I had my own band I would include many of the songs you do in fact and I love that you do all the modern hits...Avici, etc etc....Playing to the crowd. THAT is what being a cover band is about nowadays and keeping it very upbeat, party and danceable. Really well done...Same concept I have as far as backing musicians. 3 peace with tracks, right? I like a male and female front team.

[Vito Corleone]

A general comment about promo videos:

 

I don't think it's of a primary concern WHICH specific songs you put in a promo. Most clients aren't really going to care as much as we do about the specific songs. If you're doing a lot of pop hits, a lot of the people doing the hiring or working for the agencies aren't even going to know them. What's important is that you hit all of the strengths of your band that you want to highlight. The different lead singers. The different styles of music. Featuring the soloists. Crowd participation. Etc. And no reason to repeat yourself on hitting these points. Once you've shown you do a rap bit, there's no real reason to do another one unless it hits another strength of the band that wasn't featured before.

 

I think that's more important than keeping clips short or having more or less of them or the overall length of the video or making sure you've put some particular song in the video.

 

When things get repetitive is when they start to get boring.

[wheresgrant3]

WOW... this is all great feedback. I generally wasn't expecting that positive of a response. Honestly I've been sending this to clubowners and agents and I have heard even one f******g peep. Actually that is not true. We did hear back from one who said he liked what he saw and he would be in touch. That was Feb 28th... nothing so far.

 

 

[wheresgrant3]

You have some good material to work with and need to edit it down some. I would shorten all the bites and I would replace the extreme close black and white of the singer at the head with the shot with the clip at around 2:00 she he is singing baby tonight with a bunch of gigs hoping in the front and he jumps out a bit.

Are you saying I should remove or move 'Let Me Clear My Throat". That's the first song in. It's the song as it's recorded on camera. In fact everything is live and in real time. So it would be awkward to replace it... but I could move it or just scratch it.

[wheresgrant3]

I liked it a lot. I like a shorter promo so I would edit it down a bit. Keep everything just make the clips shorter....I love your concept and your frontman is one of the best I have seen on this level. If I had my own band I would include many of the songs you do in fact and I love that you do all the modern hits...Avici, etc etc....Playing to the crowd. THAT is what being a cover band is about nowadays and keeping it very upbeat, party and danceable. Really well done...Same concept I have as far as backing musicians. 3 peace with tracks, right? I like a male and female front team.

 

No tracks. We have two keyboard players (myself included) laying down the electronic instrumentation, samples and I have to say we are quite busy. That's why we are somewhat toward the back flanking the drummer. I think we do have a more organic sound with manual synths rather than tracks... when bands use tracks they sound like all of the other bands using tracks (in my opinion) but at the same point we'll never be as polished as a DJ. So there are pros and cons... \we can stop on a dime. And we often do.

 

Here's an example of some of the dance songs we do without any tracking:

[wheresgrant3]

New edited video... I shaved 2 minutes off the video... have it down to 5:09.

 

 

[ski219]

Regarding the first shot I suggested changing. I think the one at 2 minutes in is stronger. Plus the close shot of the singer swings around to a bunch of dudes. If you want to hold onto the music you have there maybe just cut out of the shot before it pans off the singer. My thought process is the first thing the club owners/bookers you are sending this to see after you talk about the old band is an extreme close up and then bunch of guys. The ECU does grab your attention but does it say what you want it to? I would rather see good audience interaction and girls. Trying to think like a club owner/booker and am thinking guys go where the girls are. This is really your first shot introducing the new band so it is important. I have not looked at the revised version yet.

[ski219]

Hey, I have played Molly Darcy's before. Hated their long narrow stage.

[MarkGifford-1]

The second edit is much better...

 

I agree w/losing the crowd-cam meathead shot up front.

 

Some other things I noticed:

 

You say "8 former members of NIAB" - I only see 7 people in the band, and even that's hard to tell, as kbd guys are completely hidden.

 

Who's the guy doing the first "Jump Around?" - he doesn't appear in any of the other shots...

 

Sound quality on the many of the clips is really iffy - the first clip of the girl, you can't even hear her. I'd strongly consider getting your final edit together and recutting the audio tracks to the vid.

 

You could probably set up something in your rehearsal room to get that done.

 

It's "tailor-made." I'd also add "event" to the types of gigs.

 

I know it's very touchy, but I'd get your girl out of the shorts. Not flattering at all, and I know from experience that it really does matter. She looks fine in all the other shots. Good luck with that, tho.

 

I'd also try to get some vid of her killing a ballad, if you're looking to get wedding gigs. That's the main function of the girl singer, in function bands.

 

MG

[Vito Corleone]

There are a few options for getting better audio. If you're using a digital mixer, you can record in multi-track and mix it later. I've also had pretty good luck with taking the two-track live audio straight out of the board and mixing it with the vid cam audio for a pretty nice live sound. A separate standalone audio recorder might work as well. Personally, I think the clips need better audio, but how much of that is just my personal preference and how much might actually be hurting the response you're getting? I dunno. But I'd err on the side of caution here. I know you've put a lot of time, money and effort into quality video. Don't chinzh out on the audio.

[Vito Corleone]

I'd also try to get some vid of her killing a ballad, if you're looking to get wedding gigs. That's the main function of the girl singer, in function bands. MG

agree. And if you're shooting for weddings and corp stuff, you probably need some less frenetic clips as well. You actually might be OVER selling the party here a bit. For a lot of events, they want a party but not a riot! To a lot of clients it might just look too much like "a bunch of drunk kids".

[Iamthesky]

Now I really want to go see you guys play. And that's speaking as someone who doesn't go see cover bands.

 

When this is done, I'd like to post a link to it on Facebook. People in this area (bands and fans) really need to see what a cover band SHOULD be like.

[wheresgrant3]

The second edit is much better...

 

I agree w/losing the crowd-cam meathead shot up front.

 

Some other things I noticed:

 

You say "8 former members of NIAB" - I only see 7 people in the band, and even that's hard to tell, as kbd guys are completely hidden.

 

Who's the guy doing the first "Jump Around?" - he doesn't appear in any of the other shots...

 

Sound quality on the many of the clips is really iffy - the first clip of the girl, you can't even hear her. I'd strongly consider getting your final edit together and recutting the audio tracks to the vid.

 

You could probably set up something in your rehearsal room to get that done.

 

It's "tailor-made." I'd also add "event" to the types of gigs.

 

I know it's very touchy, but I'd get your girl out of the shorts. Not flattering at all, and I know from experience that it really does matter. She looks fine in all the other shots. Good luck with that, tho. <g>

 

I'd also try to get some vid of her killing a ballad, if you're looking to get wedding gigs. That's the main function of the girl singer, in function bands.

 

MG

 

 

Thanks... this is all good feedback.

 

The audio is lifted from a radio commercial that ran in January. So there is no altering it. I felt it gave a good intro and outro to bookend the live footage. So I chopped it in the middle and inserted live footage in between.

 

The guy on 'Jump Around' is our keyboard player... actually all of the players have one song in the set they contribute to. I stuck that in simply because the crowd footage was good and it's an important club in our market.

 

The sound is on camera micing. I know it's iffy... but honestly if you saw the video/audio content from bands in the market and clubs we are targeting this is above average. Most are using poorly recorded audio with fast MTV style edits cut video or terrible Go Pro footage and offer no live representation of themselves. This isn't intended to be a professional demo... just a collection of live footage and foot in the door. If I use a separate audio source I will have to redit everything and I won't be able to put the live footage in proper context. I can pull that track of her singing that song... I merely put it in b/c it's popular in the clubs and I wanted some footage of her singing. But I agree... probably not the best song.

 

 

I agree about the shorts... but I'm thinking the club owner is looking at the crowd shots more than her shorts. But I completely agree with that.

 

She absolutely kills on Ballads... but this is for targeted clubs only.

 

 

[wheresgrant3]

BTW... this is the typical club/professional demo that's pushed by agents in my area. They are all from the same studio. There's probably a kick back involved. Can you tell the difference between any of these bands? Sort of a blur.

 

[video=youtube;cUV7-bgx5_c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUV7-bgx5_c

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This studio charges I believe $500 per song per mix... you roll in for 5 songs and it's a 3 hour shoot. All of the audio is tracked live and mixed live not in post. It's a TV studio and they just tape live video from three cameras and mix as the master is cut. So a 5 song demo is $2500. OUCH...

 

The thing is... it looks professional... but NONE of these bands look or sound this way live. The contrast from live video to the recorded demo is glaring. None of these bands have the PA production or the video/light show (two elements we sell). Eventually we'll be forced to cut a promo the same way... but right now the focus is getting club owners attention. I'm not sure how we'd stand out with an identical, cookie cutter promo than more than a dozen area bands are pushing.

[Vito Corleone]

You don't have to cut a promo the same way. Shoot higher. Niche yourself. You've got the knowledge and the skill to do it. These bands pay big money for the cookie cutter promo because they couldn't come close to doing what you already do if their lives depended on it, most likely. Better audio isn't hard to do. You could record one or two gigs with good audio and easily match it up to the footage you have. The matchup doesn't have to be 100% perfect and you're a good enough video editor to hide the imperfections if you need to. And if you want to have a couple of clips inserted that more closely match what these bands are doing, you have the video equipment and lighting to pull that off pretty closely as well. As far as these bands not looking or sounding like their videos? That only matters to the degree they might fail at the gig because they don't live up to the promise their promo makes. But if they are getting the gigs and the clients are happy, then it probably doesn't matter to anyone besides other bands that they aren't really that good.

[wheresgrant3]

You don't have to cut a promo the same way. Shoot higher. Niche yourself. You've got the knowledge and the skill to do it. These bands pay big money for the cookie cutter promo because they couldn't come close to doing what you already do if their lives depended on it, most likely. Better audio isn't hard to do. You could record one or two gigs with good audio and easily match it up to the footage you have. The matchup doesn't have to be 100% perfect and you're a good enough video editor to hide the imperfections if you need to. And if you want to have a couple of clips inserted that more closely match what these bands are doing, you have the video equipment and lighting to pull that off pretty closely as well. As far as these bands not looking or sounding like their videos? That only matters to the degree they might fail at the gig because they don't live up to the promise their promo makes. But if they are getting the gigs and the clients are happy, then it probably doesn't matter to anyone besides other bands that they aren't really that good.

 

It's not a knock on any of these bands. They are all decent club bands. I just believe we have a way better product on an organic level. The trend and current foot print for every agency band right now is...

 

#1- Girl out front... guy frontman supports. The guy may even be a better singer but the girl is showcased in every band.

#2- Plethoric use of backing tracks. This in and of itself isn't a problem until you get that...

A) none of these bands run their own sound therefore the tracks can be heard at varying levels.

B) all of these bands are covering the same songs and using the same backing tracks... so they really do all sound the same.

 

#3)None really have much, if any light show. Ours could use some improvement but it's at least coordinate with the material and elevates the performance.

 

I could (but I won't) post these bands playing identical clubs where our footage was shot and there is a stark contrast in the presentation and performance. With us, what you see is exactly what you get.

 

We will definitely work on the audio. There's a local studio we even talked about renting and recording. At the least I have plenty of great video to edit over. Part of it is that I don't have a ton of time and I'm lazy.... any video with more than 10-15 cuts and edits I start losing my game and my setup (Mac Book, Final Cut) get's time consuming and pretty hairy. There is a certain point where I would just give someone else the footage to edit.

[Vito Corleone]

As far as the generic look of these bands goes---here's the deal with that: we all love to bitch about homoginization, but the truth is that the reason so many pop songs sound the same, and so many cars look alike, and so much fast food tastes the same, is because that's what the market demands. People SAY they want something different, but most really don't. And if bands with this sort of look and sound and promo work for the club owners, then they are going to gravitate towards those sorts of promos and be off put by stuff too far out of the box. So, if you're having trouble reaching these club owners, my advice to you would be to put together and video that says "we are everything those bands all are AND MORE!" Set up in a room somewhere and shoot some footage that looks like those vids look, and then intersperse it with all the great stuff you have that they don't.

[MarkGifford-1]

BTW... this is the typical club/professional demo that's pushed by agents in my area. They are all from the same studio. There's probably a kick back involved. Can you tell the difference between any of these bands? Sort of a blur.

This studio charges I believe $500 per song per mix... you roll in for 5 songs and it's a 3 hour shoot. All of the audio is tracked live and mixed live not in post. It's a TV studio and they just tape live video from three cameras and mix as the master is cut. So a 5 song demo is $2500. OUCH...

 

I guess the question to ask is - are these bands getting the gigs you want?

 

They all look/sound about the same, but there's a reason for that. It's the same reason that when you go to a local "arts" festival, most of the stuff in all of the booths is the same... It's what people want to buy, that year.

 

Like it or not, with the new lineup, you're in this market. The new band has nothing to do with the old band - it's a completely different demographic, style and look. The old band was an active-rock, heavy drinking/partying vibe, the new one is a classic Top 40 party band.

 

You can tailor the vids to different markets, but I know that to get to the big money wedding/function gigs, you've got to appeal to that audience - I agree w/Guido in that your present vid would probably scare most of them away - it looks a little too nuts.

 

The thing is... it looks professional... but NONE of these bands look or sound this way live. The contrast from live video to the recorded demo is glaring. None of these bands have the PA production or the video/light show (two elements we sell). Eventually we'll be forced to cut a promo the same way... but right now the focus is getting club owners attention. I'm not sure how we'd stand out with an identical, cookie cutter promo than more than a dozen area bands are pushing.

 

Unfortunately, there's nothing in your promo that shows this. I realize that audio probably means a lot more to me than to most, but touting how great your production is and then using clips that have inaudible vocals and gross clipping/distortion is kind of self-defeating, no? The lighting didn't really come off as anything special, either.

 

The crowd interaction is great - your front guy really works it, and the crowd shots certainly add a lot of excitement, but I think you need to get the rest of the production a little better.

 

I'd pick a gig, in a place that looks good with a decent stage and get 2-3 people there who know how to shoot vid, w/a decent DSLR that will shoot HD and some Flip or GoPro cameras. Have them shoot their ass off, for a set.

 

A simple CL ad will get you a dozen, who'll be glad to do it for $50 and a few drinks.

 

Borrow one of the Zoom thingies, and set it up at the console, so you get a decent recording. Some have 4-tracks, so you can get a feed off the board, and the live room. Or better yet, the live room and individual tracks of the girl and guy singer, so you can make sure they sound great.

 

That should get you what you need...

 

MG

[Vito Corleone]

As far as "with us what you see is what you get"....that's only as good as you can convey that to the client in the video. You can't include a disclaimer saying "we provide a better product on an organic level, even if you can't tell from the video because ours is all live and the other bands are canned and tracked." That's great that you know that and that I know that, but we aren't the target audience here. Nobody cares how you get to the end product or the details but two things stand out when I compare your clip to these other bands. A) they sound "cleaner" and that will naturally be more appealing to the average viewer. B) their frontmen are boring to look at. Clean up your sound, emphasize your awesome front man and throw in all the great audience clips and I think you're good to go.

[ski219]

I edit with FCP almost every day. I come from a background of producing television marketing, promos and commercials. As we say in the business - short form. Short form video usually calls for quick cuts and lots of edits. Not always though, there are exceptions to every rule. I have done :30 spots that were just one shot. The thing with video as opposed to print is that everything goes by fast. It does;t sit there on the page for the viewer to read or come back to. One of the hardest parts of my old job in TV was dealing with marketing VP's who would want to cram too much information into one piece. In a case like yours I would cut one demo for club owners and another for events/weddings if you are looking to move that way.

 

Also, shorter is better; 5 minutes is long.

[ski219]

I edit with FCP almost every day. I come from a background of producing television marketing, promos and commercials. As we say in the business - short form. Short form video usually calls for quick cuts and lots of edits. Not always though, there are exceptions to every rule. I have done :30 spots that were just one shot. The thing with video as opposed to print is that everything goes by fast. It does;t sit there on the page for the viewer to read or come back to. One of the hardest parts of my old job in TV was dealing with marketing VP's who would want to cram too much information into one piece. In a case like yours I would cut one demo for club owners and another for events/weddings if you are looking to move that way.

 

Also, shorter is better; 5 minutes is long.

[wheresgrant3]

These are all good ideas.... Mark I appreciate the honest feedback.

 

The experience so far is this... we've gotten zero agent attention so far. No replys nada. It doesn't matter really...they ignored the previous band too. LOL And really the agents are the scurge of the market really... producing the homongenizatrion in the first place. Most of the agency level bands are earning $800-1400 (not including agent fee) where as we've been able to negotiate $1600-2000 independently. And we need that... we have 8 people to pay out. We also bring more to the show. Our experience as an independent band in getting our foot into regional clubs has been exactly like the old band. Keep knocking until we eventually hit., Then on the first performance the manager want to get us back as soon as possible, even moving around other bands to accommodate any open dates we have. We'd rather avoid the agents altogether but the have a lock on the a-list clubs in many markets. The thing is... the homogenized promos were produced after these bands were signed to the agency. I am not keen on shelling out $2500 for a 'Solid Gold' variety show demo in the hopes that maybe an agent will be willing enough throw us a few dates. As Guido said earlier these bands are dependent on the studio for the video production... and they are also completely dependent on the agent for booking shows. We have our own manager, we have our own lights and sound (used limited in clubs that have their own).

Borrow one of the Zoom thingies, and set it up at the console, so you get a decent recording. Some have 4-tracks, so you can get a feed off the board, and the live room. Or better yet, the live room and individual tracks of the girl and guy singer, so you can make sure they sound great.

I did try this for one video. I didn't find it easy at all. Pulled audio off the board and the mixed it with video. It just didn't feel or sound right. If we do that I need a professional to go the distance. film, mix and produce. I'm just way too limited to get the results needed.

 

 

Am I the only one here thinking the audio is serviceable but not terrible? (You can all answer 'YES SH*THEAD! LOL ) I deal with a lot of club owners... you walk into their offices and they are listing to a band a laptop with tiny speakers. Again this is just for bars and nightclubs. We're not trying to use or sell this for professional gigs (weddings, private events, etc). This is just a bridge to help us fill the calendar.. a short term plan, until we can afford better promo materials.