AV show - purpose?

[vj_jasper]

if you do an AV show, do you want people to dance? if so, what genre's do you play, and how - from cdj or laptop or vinyl?

if you want people to watch, do you still attempt to beatmatch?

do you narrate/rap/interact at all with the audience?

what kind of set-times do you play for?

how do you advertise what your show is, and why ppl would want to see you?



just interested to know where others are coming from in their AV shows.

am hoping to do my own AV sets by way of performing AV sections and loops with Ableton, all taken from a 30 minute dvd i am working on called Byronimation.

[dvjprotohippy]

Well, we certainly want people to dance, and also want for them to stand and stare. It's a little strange. We play from a mix of digital vinyl (I use Torq), hardware (midi controllers, samplers, etc.) As for interaction with the crowd, so far we do live video remixing. Taking loops of the crowd and scratching/effecting it. Crowds really love seeing us making them dance in different ways. For our AV sets, we usually play for about an hour to an hour and a half. We have put our names on flyers for advertising. As for why people would want to come out and see us, we try and let people know that it is something that they may not have experienced before. Like being in a live music video. Hope that helps you out some.

[PilotX]

two different shows, two different purposes:
with absolute, doing ableton live/vjamm techno we want people to dance, and look at the screens at the same time; but mostly to dance and occasionally notice the screens.. or to be hammered and sitting down nodding your head and watching the visuals intensely

other a/v we do is a mixture of generally more chilled out a/v and music videos plus the odd short film if I find one that fits.. done as a chillout room people are meant to sit, music is not beatmatched unless I'm playing a mix cd by someone.
it's a chillout room so people are meant to talk and the visual side of things is more for mashed up peeps who can't talk.. normally I'll do about an hour or two of a/v stuff in the middle of a 9hr "set" in the room..

[vj_jasper]

awesome thanks.. very inspirational and practical approaches.

[Bokonon]

Horses for courses, depends on the place where I am playing, I've done stuff in galleries which was for watching and listening intently, but not for dancing, but some stuff for clubs which is more dancing orientated, but far more leftfield than straight up dance* music.

*as a verb, not a noun

[evomedia]

I'd also say depends on purpose, if your creating visuals that 100% need to stay in sinc, like say lipsincing or if it has to be triggered off a bands instrument etc then you'd produce the set differently ie AV, I produce visuals for VJing differently too, i create lots of small clips that I know I can mix live and are more generic, whereas for AV sets I generally start with the audio then do all the editing it all in AE, vegas etc, then load the audio in Ableton and get that to trigger resolume, keeping it in sync via midi clock.

Same prinicple for DVJ decks, its like producing a music video, a piece of content designed for a specific track...

i've always regarded AV myself as the video synced to the audio, so it can be any speed, any subject, any genre. Its all about tieing video specifically created for the audio together. As well as producing video that specifically suits the audio in style, speed, tempo etc.

Its the same as a music video after all, the idea of people dancing or not must come down to if the audio track makes people want to dance. You can do AV ala Coldcut style where each sound or audio clip has its own video sample. But for installs the purpose may be bigger, you may have to create a piece that tells a bigger picture ie, anti war, emotional, dark or funny. they may be designed to be watched.

You just need to adapt to each situation.

if you do an AV show, do you want people to dance? if so, what genre's do you play, and how - from cdj or laptop or vinyl?

I just use music I like, its like asking what genre a DJ will play to make people dance, you'll end up with a million differing opinions. A Dj just plays the music they like, could be any genre, could be a specific one, thats why there are top DJ's in all genres, as each has a following. I may dance at a psytrance club, but wont at a DnB club, doesn't mean no one else dances too.

if you want people to watch, do you still attempt to beatmatch?

thought that was the point you produce AV so its always on beat

do you narrate/rap/interact at all with the audience?

well i don't like being centre of attention, so all messages are through content

what kind of set-times do you play for?

Again depends on what its for, and how long I get to play for etc, I sometimes create tracks as AV pieces so can DJ them for as long as required, but if its for installation, its all about making it as long as it needs to be.

Content is probably the main factor, if you have hundreds of Av peices to choose from you could play for hours or days if you wanted, but if you only have made 20 minutes then pointless playing any longer.

You also need to ask yourself some creative questions like how long people will stand there for etc, but at the end of the day if the content and message are captivating or engrosing right to the end then thats good enough, if it starts to feel boring then its too long

how do you advertise what your show is, and why ppl would want to see you?

Well again depends on if its part of another event, my own event or for a client