Getting more opportunities with Live videos

One of the best ways of showing people what you can do as a band or artist is to get some “live videos” done. It let’s you demonstrate what you sound like and what your live act looks like without the bells and whistles of studio sounds. Festivals and promotors often ask for these, as it gives them an idea of what they are booking. I’ve made videos that have directly resulted in bands getting, showcase spots, support slots, festival placements and management deals.

It’s a great start for a band who are putting content on their social media. It doesn’t require the thought or investment that a proper recording does, but it gives you a lot more clout than an instagram photo saying “coming soon”.

I also mourn the numerous bands and projects that I’ve been involved in that have practised and practiced and made one fantastic gig, convinced that they would take it further and then life got in the way and it becomes a thing of memory and legend. As soon as your songs are gig worthy record them live!!! The worst case scenario is that you get better and re-record the ones that you think you have improved on! No band I have ever met, been in or worked with has looked back on their history and wished they had less evidence of it.

What not to do

It’s really tempting to get your Aunt Jeanie to do a handheld recording on her phone at one of your gigs. It’s free, but it’s probably not going to do you any favours. Even worse, if that’s all that’s out there, then that’s what people are going to judge you on. Google your band on youtube/instagram/facebook/twitter. That’s what prospective fans and clients are going to do. If you’re not serious enough to stick a bit of time and money behind what you are doing then why should anyone else take you seriously?

Phone videos of acoustic instruments are more palatable. I’ve put some tips here and here. It’s something you should get good at, because the chance are it’s going to be a useful thing to do regularly.

The other thing not to do is to hire someone to film 5 songs all at once and then not stagger their release. I remember once I did a favour for a friend and filmed and recorded some acoustic videos for them. We ran through about 8 songs. I edited them and sent them through. That night about 10pm, on a Tuesday, all 8 were dumped on Facebook. To this day some of them have views in single figures because everyone thought it was the same song. 6 months of content wasted. Read about release schedules here

How does it work?

Audio

So unless you are using a phone video or a GoPro, you are generally going to capture your audio and your video separately and then sync them. Sometimes when we do these, someone else does the audio. This is common if the location is a recording studio.

If we’re doing the audio, we’ll do our best to capture the whole band live by separately micing everything up. This isn’t an exact science. In an ideal world everything would be recorded separately in a vocal booth and joined together later, but it wouldn’t be a live video. So we try and record the band live by balancing a good sound with a good aesthetic.

Video

We usually setup some gopro and some static cams and then move around the room with a handheld camera. This will ultimately depend on the make up of the band. We’ve got enough interesting equipment and lights that we can always make a cool video. We then edit it all together and use some bells and whistles to make it look plush and add titles and all that malarky.

Location Location Location

Probably the first question I ask is; Where do you want to do it? We can pretty much make a live video anywhere(see below), but if you have access or funds to get somewhere really amazing or unusual then it can make for an amazing video. See some examples and ideas below. You should start out by knowing all your local venues. They might be quite happy for you to use the space on it’s downtime. Tag them in and it might even be a bit of promotion. It can also be nice to put bands in unusual spaces where you wouldn’t expect. Live session in a barbers? Acoustic session in a bakers? Horn section on the factory floor. The possibilities are endless.

Examples

I’ve done literally hundreds of live sessions over the years. I worked on the majority of the output from Tenement TV as either Camera Operator, Video Editor, Photographer or Audio mixer.

Here’s some other example of different types of things that are possible:

In a practice space

The place that the band feel most comfortable is where they practice. It also has the advantage of letting you make lots of noise.

The Byson Family

Walt Disco

Charlotte Marshall & The 45’s

In an empty venue

Venues are also set up to make noise in. They usually have great empty spaces, sometimes have stages and can add a level of gravitas and cool to the proceedings.

Luke La volpe - The Biscuit Factory, Edinburgh

Anton O’Donnell - Saint Lukes

Roseanne Reid - The Amsterdam

In a recording studio

One of the best ways to do live videos is to hire a swanky recording studio and an engineer and then just let me do the filming. I also like these ones cos I like visiting different studios around the world :)

Rock Choir - Abbey Road Studios

Laurence Murray Project - Chambers studio

In your house

If you’re lucky enough to have friendly neighbours and a tidy house, doing a little live session - acoustic or otherwise - in the comfort of your own home can have a great aesthetic and can be a bit more intimate than a venue or a studio.

Mark W Georgsson

Emme Woods

Al & the Bad Decisions

Somewhere unusual/outside

One of the most challenging things to do is to record outside. Wind and rain are pretty hard to plan for. We can do it and it’s a fun challenge and you can end up with some pretty special results. We can record audio, light video and record video all with battery power. Add in a some drone footage and you can really use an outdoor location.

John Rush - Queens Park

Jamie Robert Ross - Under bridges in the rain in Ayrshire.

Emme Woods - on a beach in Spain

This one is particularly special. We were on tour in Spain and I had taken a portable recorder and some microphones with me. It was great fun explaining it to the airport security. Once we were over that hurdle, it was great fun doing live sessions on the road and cobbling stuff together. I made some drums out of a Pringles tubs and then used them to trigger samples. The whole thing was edited and recorded on a laptop between gigs while everyone else was snoring.

I’ve done this a few times. I always bite off more than I can chew and over pack bags and regret it when i’m carting around, but this time it paid off. It’s part live video(recorded on a beach) and part tour montage

Costs

The costs come down to how many songs you are doing. If I am setting up all the gear and taking it all down, then it seems daft to only do one song. The more songs you do, the more editing there is, but the travel to the location and the set up and down is the most costly and time consuming.

As a ball park, I would say three songs for a band for £400 and £300 for a soloist.

Make it cheaper

Buy-in bulk. To get costs down. Increase the number of songs, and you’ll be paying less per song. If you’re really clever you could team up with another and and share the setup costs.

I used to do “video days” where I setup in one space for the day and offered slots to bands all day. I was able to offer quite cheap costs to each band, but it needed someone who can fill the schedule for the day.

Come up with an idea or location that is too good for me to turn down. I love a challenge and an adventure.

Come to Greenock to my studio. There’s loads of space and all sorts of couches and bay windows and views and I don’t need to fill a car. It will be even cheaper if you tack it onto other work I’m doing like recording some demos for you.

Conclusion

Well there you go, a whistle stop tour of what I do with live videos. I honestly believe they are one of the best tools for getting people who matter to engage with your act. It’s content that bands should constantly be collecting to drip feed across your social media. There are endless possibilities for making it interesting and you should always preserve your live act for posterity when the songs are tight and well practiced.

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