Arena/Concert visuals- do some VJs just not bother?

[Gumby]

Is it just me, or are alot of visuals which are used at large arena music events just not that good? The VJ just seems to play around with either the bands logo/name or one clip throughout the whole song. Is this because they can't be arsed, are really bad, or are told to keep it simple so as not to distract from the band?

Example: (yeah, i know it may not be everyones taste but it serves my point:)

YouTube - Scooter - Nessaja (Clubland Live)

Particularly with this song, there are bits when it goes all quiet, yet the VJ is still doing really fast paced brightly coloured stuff. I personally would lower the opacity and play a nice slow clip to fit the mood, then rack it up when the speed returned.

And this song of there too:
YouTube - Scooter - Ramp (The Logical Song!) (Clubland Live)

It has so much potential for good visuals, but theres nothing. I mean come on!

[evomedia]

Often these are not vj controlled shows, many of the big av staging companies that provide the kit also supply the visuals, however these are nearly always content from motion loops discs, I'm pretty sure the clips above are using standard motion loops footage.

So most of the time the show is pre programmed and is just triggering pre decidied loops. I've seen them used loads on glasto main stage etc. So dont blame the VJ, I doubt a VJ was ever involved. But when the content is just off stock motion graphics discs its hard to fight against the economics.

[deepvisual]

its not just wallpaper
except when it is.

[bleep]

i hear you man !

i think when it comes to big screens ... the majority of vjing is still to make an entrance.

[thomase]

I did a huge festival as cam director last year for the huge LED wall next to the stage. The lj had two martin video servers at his disposal for the on stage screens. All he did was show some official band photos and logos - no visual concept behind it. As evomedia said, it's often not the vj for most big acts and festivals don't seem to bother with a concept for visuals and just use what they have (e.g. logos, discs delivered with the server,...) rather than talking to a designer or vj...

[bleep]

^

the irony is in how much spend is on screen hire vs content ...

its like having a ferrari and running it on water.

[deepvisual]

its like having a ferrari and running it on water.

its like having a rolls royce but not being able to afford the insurance.

[john01]

I think the standard of the visuals matches the standard of the music on those two clips

I guess we can call all this recycling a way of conserving the obviously rare resources of originality.

[Gumby]

Im sure they could even get some live shots of the dancers and fiddle around with it a bit with a KPE, even that would look better than the logo...just like one static shot from the front of one of the girls...

its really disappointing when they don't bother with visuals with massive screens like that.

[devonmiles]

they wanted it exactly that way. look, theres no moment of improvisation when working with acts like this. you go through endless rehearsals and the result is something everybody agreed on. ( luckily we were not guilty for the examples shown but for one of the following tours...):scream:

[Gumby]

they wanted it exactly that way. look, theres no moment of improvisation when working with acts like this. you go through endless rehearsals and the result is something everybody agreed on. ( luckily we were not guilty for the examples shown but for one of the following tours...):scream:

Sorry, didn't mean to lampoon you! It was just a comment in general about visuals for big acts.

Have you worked with scooter before then?

[deepvisual]

they wanted it exactly that way

didn't they just.

Here's todays rave recipe:
take one MC
add 3 dancing girls.
mix them together with one DJ and a producer and mime slowly for 14 hours.

make some fucking noise......

[Gumby]

didn't they just.

Here's todays rave recipe:
take one MC
add 3 dancing girls.
mix them together with one DJ and a producer and mime slowly for 14 hours.

make some fucking noise......

haha sounds just about right

[deepvisual]

damn.. I forget the entourage...
damn.

[Kyle]

and the drugs

[devonmiles]

its no god business conduct to say something about clients on public forums. but aside from that, H.P. is a really nice guy and they spend 8 hours a day in the studio to prepare for the tour.
as for band visuals in generall: the higher the act the more people are involved in the overall appereance on stage, which makes it really hard to comunicate your own ideas. as its gonna be shown in many countries, it doesnt have to be sexually explicit, politic, resemble other artwork,be not too fast, too slow, too colorfull, too black and white, not just black, not just white, not gender specific, not too abstract but not plain realistic, and in general just not distracting by any means. if you subtract all this, whats left?:roll:

[thomase]

so are you going on tour with them or is that a pre-programmed show?

[SteveG]

if you subtract all this, whats left?:roll:

Free, unpaid gigs or perform in your bedroom? :) Produce what they're after perform larger paid gigs which let you eat well, buy new equipment, drive faster cars and entertain girls who hang around the booth and in the dark back stage areas :)

[devonmiles]

ah, no that was back in 2004. the vids looked pretty old so I assumed it was something from the 90ties. but if it displays a recent tour I wouldnt be surprised either. theres no reason why quality should improve magically...

[Gumby]

drive faster cars and entertain girls who hang around the booth and in the dark back stage areas :)

I think i'd be willing to sacrifice creativity if i get these, but only if i get them

[devonmiles]

you wont barely entertain em if you dont do lines. ah, you meant the fast cars...

[Gumby]

you wont barely entertain em if you dont do lines. ah, you meant the fast cars...

Girls in the fast car would be even better...the only thing that could top that is lots of girls in an Evo X

[john01]

if you subtract all this, whats left?:roll:

perhaps some allusions

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/halloffame/arts/images/whdavies200.jpg

little puns on the source of the source of the sample