No matter what... don't lose the money shots with the band logos in the background. My band has posted some live recordings, but we make sure that anything posted is short, and visually appealing... basically if there's more than 1 second that looks like it won't catch someone's eye it doesn't make it into the video... no point in showing us all standing in one place while we play a song for very long.
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Feedback on our Demo?
- Thread starter mrcbass
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Heres a thought-experiment for fun
Understand, I am posting Extremes for Illustration purposes.........Ill let you answer this for yourself (and there is no right or wrong answer because everyone is different)
CASE STUDY:
You are a Harley Davidson event coordinator. You are not a musician and dont really care about musicians. Big ABATE-sponsored run coming up that will end at your dealership. You have two EPKs in front of you. Which will you hire?
- Top band is musically awesome -- when they do Comfortably Numb, it sounds like Pink Floyd. Stage presence is lack-lustre to mediocre and the pic pretty much represents what they wear onstage. They cost x (guy on right cut off a bit on purpose)
- Bottom band. Nowhere near as good sounding as top band but certainly good enough to get the job done. Excellent stage presence, light show, the works. They are just a tad more expensive at a cost of x+1
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Ha! I get your point. But it's not entirely fair comparison. Who's not going to choose the hot chicks in leather over a bunch of slacker looking dudes if the money is similar? If that's our competition, we have no chance of competing - and zero we can do about it. Hot chick LSs are just not abundant and as I'm sure you noticed most of us in the band are not going to pull off the "young, leathered, punky, hunk" look either. But, IMO, we do a have a bit of an image issue; it's said to say that I'm the most professional dresser in our band.
I've brought up dressing it up - to deaf ears. The band collectively wants to present the obnoxious t-shirt and jeans thing so that we fit with the biker image. We do all either ride or have ridden, so we're not total posers to the scene and the guys want to blend in rather than standout. We have decent stage presence most of the time (at least we do try to engage the crowd and each other and have a good time on stage). We have fun as a team and in the big picture, that's a big part of why we're in a band, so it's just not worth trying to turn the frogs into princes….
Thats why I made the disclaimer that i was posting Extremes for Illustration purposes
....My main point was that if you want Rockstar gigs, ya gotta at least try to look like Rockstars 
But this is the issue when trying to go up the echelon to those higher paying special events - just because your band makes the choice not to dress that part, there are bands out there that will...some of these have no problem dropping lots of coin to Wornstar Clothing. If you live in an area where mostly every band is T-shirt Guy Next Door, that should make ya want to dress the part even more to stand out from those other bands. Just like some folks think having "Fender" on a headstock makes a P-bass sound better, there are plenty of folks who will think you sound awesome by how you play the part visually .......Understand, with the exception of some vocals, Im not saying theres anything wrong with your band, Im just giving you the reality of the situation...unfortunately, image and presentation is key to a lot of Next Teir gigs(and very important to a newer band trying to get established).....
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1. The video is waaaaaaaay too long. 5 minutes is an eternity for today's first-world human beings whose attention spans have been whittled down to a nub. 2 minutes or less for something like this would be ideal. I've worked in tv/video for decades and advise clients that less is more. If you were checking your personal e-mail and a friend sent you a video or a link, the VERY FIRST thing most of us do subconsciously is look down to the bottom of the player window and see how long the video is... to see how much time you're going to have to invest. It's just the way we're wired up these days.
2. There are way too many still photos in the video. You're promoting a live music band... so come out of the gate seeing and hearing LIVE MUSIC. Use the still photos sparingly.
3. I'd save the page showing the band logo and info until the end of the video. Grab 'em off the top... plenty of time later to get to the details later.
4. Maybe you need to record special performances for the purpose of editing a video like this? A few more close-up shots which show band personalities and chemistry with the audience would be nice. Shots of the band's logo on a banner, kick drum, etc. during a performance would be cool to sprinkle in throughout a video like this.
5. No need to hire a crew with fancy gear for such a video -- shooting on a smartphone is affordable and people have kinda become to expect that kind of quality.
2. There are way too many still photos in the video. You're promoting a live music band... so come out of the gate seeing and hearing LIVE MUSIC. Use the still photos sparingly.
3. I'd save the page showing the band logo and info until the end of the video. Grab 'em off the top... plenty of time later to get to the details later.
4. Maybe you need to record special performances for the purpose of editing a video like this? A few more close-up shots which show band personalities and chemistry with the audience would be nice. Shots of the band's logo on a banner, kick drum, etc. during a performance would be cool to sprinkle in throughout a video like this.
5. No need to hire a crew with fancy gear for such a video -- shooting on a smartphone is affordable and people have kinda become to expect that kind of quality.
everyone else has mostly covered the negatives n positives
i would get rid of any vid/pix of the band playing to no one that you can see in the vid/pix
i would get rid of any vid/pix of the band playing to no one that you can see in the vid/pix
As a demo video it could be half as long and get your message through.
As far as the lead vocalist, he's more Vince Neil than Steve Perry but not terribly bad that it can't be fixed.
For example George Clinton can't sing a lick and can't play any instrument yet he leads two significant bands for over 5 decades and counting. With his weaknesses he's still the boss!
As far as the drummer dragging it seems you do a good job of dragging him along which is to say you two were partners in crime. Charlie Watt and Bill Wyman took that 'behind the beat' formula to great financial success in the band they play(ed) in and they were drag-ging. Maybe a pic or a video shot from behind the band showing an audience having fun would help with your message.
Keep rockin'
As far as the lead vocalist, he's more Vince Neil than Steve Perry but not terribly bad that it can't be fixed.
For example George Clinton can't sing a lick and can't play any instrument yet he leads two significant bands for over 5 decades and counting. With his weaknesses he's still the boss!
As far as the drummer dragging it seems you do a good job of dragging him along which is to say you two were partners in crime. Charlie Watt and Bill Wyman took that 'behind the beat' formula to great financial success in the band they play(ed) in and they were drag-ging. Maybe a pic or a video shot from behind the band showing an audience having fun would help with your message.
Keep rockin'
LOL - When I saw him in Orlando, he just meandered around onstage like the Godfather, weaving in-n-out of about 15 people (including assorted dancers) while everybody else did everything....Gotta love George
Wrong. People want the band to be bigger than life. You must dress up and you should not strive to fit in. You are cooler than they are and you show the audience respect when you look like you care enough to dress up a little bit. Guys want to be you, and the girls want to f**k you. C’mon, step up, be authentic and get some respect.
My experience with your average bar venue is, as you observed, they can tell in the first 30 seconds if you'll fit based on look and sound and second, the only relevant question is "What's your draw?"
If one's trying for the 'Outlaw Biker" image, without going full "Wild Hogs" show me some 'Live to Ride' T's and anything else that shows the image that won't cause a bar-clearing brawl... And put some Steppenwolf in your mix ;-)
Cool!
100% of what I know about your band is in the demo.
If I didn't hear it there, I wouldn't know...
mrcbass , here's an example of that 'fast picture thing' i referred to in an earlier post. this will be posted soon to our FB page --- just so our fans/supporters keep us in mind --- but it's not meant to be a part of our press kit, per se. it's meant to be fun --- the band and that 'fast pic' technique starts after the intro:
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