Review After Filming

After filming the gig at the Voodoo Lounge for my music video I would say that it was very successful. I managed to get plenty of footage throughout the night, including clips and full length videos of the song I am making the video for "Whatever Happened To Rock 'N' Roll?" which was performed twice for my benefit, once at the beginning of the set and at the end for their encore. I believe the choice of camera was a good selection as it performed exceptionally, keeping up with fast objects and taking rapid shots especially in the glaring flashing lights from the lights setup on stage. It managed to give my high quality video and audio in the low light, in terms of the visuals it was as good quality as actually being at the gig.

I was able to set up prior to the band coming on stage which meant I was able to get the camera correctly tuned and set for recording in low lighting. In terms of recording the band were very kind and helpful by giving me a song sheet meaning I knew when they were going to be playing the correct track. The audience were well behaved which meant that I didn't have much trouble with people trying to get into shots or jogging the camera etc.

Photograph taken by myself from the
Mojokings gig at the Voodoo Lounge
in Stamford on the 21st of  November.

However not everything did go according to plan, in my shot list and storyboard I had planned to get shots of the audience for the band, and from the audience research via my questionnaire this was something that my target audience wanted to see also. Although this was not possible to get a good shot of the audience as there weren't as many people who attended the gig as originally anticipated meaning in some of the shots the crowd look rather thin and I don't believe it reflects the true scale of people who attend performances by the Mojokings, their gigs are generally very busy and this is what I wanted to capture. I have tried to use some camera tricks to make it appear that there were more people, this was done through using close over the shoulder shots like it was from an audience members point of view, also these shots were inspired from The Brains 'Misery' music video which I have attempted to reference through the use of similar shot types.

Another thing which was a slight technicality was that the banner I had planned to be featured in the background could not be hung up. Though the Mojokings had the banner there was nowhere to actually hang it. Despite this after all I think it was actually better to not have anything in the background and having the plain black stage wall as it's actually less distracting from the band performing, so in actual fact this may have been a plus overall.

The venue itself was a good choice as it is a unique looking place with a great atmosphere even with few people. The stage was also great for getting multiple angled shots since it was open at the front and sides meaning it could get central shots as well as ones angled and ones from the side which were like seeing the audience from the bands perspective. Generally it allowed me to get a variety of shots as despite being a small venue there was plenty of space to get multiple shots.

In conclusion it was a very successful recording where I managed to get lots of brilliant shots as well as some good photographs which I may be able to use for my poster or digipak production in the future. It was tough to get all the footage filmed at once since I only had that night to get all the footage I needed, it was also the end of the bands tour for the year so there wouldn't have been any other opportunities to film the band live, but I believe that I managed to get all I needed for the video and I would say that I managed to get it done to a good quality standard despite some inconveniences.