So today was pretty awesome. I’ve worked on live productions before, but never had to record a live music performance, aside from crappy concert fancams which don’t really count. So today was very educational. I knew the obvious pointers from Georgia, like making sure that crew set up and are briefed well before the artist does, and to make sure that said artists have water and access to a bathroom. Those practical points came easy to my floor manager mindset, but the one thing I didn’t account for was her nervousness. It didn’t occur to me how the artist would feel in the environment, so I didn’t account for her sudden mistakes, and sometimes non complimentary performances. That’s not to say she didn’t perform beautifully, Georgia’s voice and songs are beautiful, but as Rohan had warned us earlier she hadn’t had a lot of practice in a while. So as a professional we had to take into account her comfort and make sure that we could present an environment for her to perform her best. It’s definitely eye-opening, and now with this small experience in my pocket I can use this knowledge for future projects and remember that although it’s not always practical to treat the talent as royalty, we should still make an effort to let them feel comfortable.

Now to follow with this weeks live recording, I have decided to share three videos that showcases some of the qualities of recording live performances.

1. Hate To See Your Heart Break – Paramore ft. Joy Williams

In it’s simplest form it is a behind the scenes kinda video, showing us clips of the studio process of how the song was recorded. It blends both artists as intricately as the song does, and doesn’t shy away showcasing these two amazingly talented women singing. As a video I find it to be charming, especially with how it doesn’t detract any attention from the emotional song. Their delivery is heart-wrenching and just watching their faces as they sing the song lets us connect with the artist much more than we would with a different form of music video. Also they’ve used a lovely filter effect which I believe to be just candles being waved back and forth in front of the camera, which is very similar to Rohan’s technique of using sparklers in one of his videos. It’s just a cool thing I didn’t even pick up on on the first viewing, but after Rohan’s enlightening talk about music production I can appreciate it’s effect and how simple it is to execute.

2. One – Ed Sheeran

So what do I have to say about Mr. Sheeran that hasn’t already been said about his live talent. Not only does he do all his shows solo with just his guitar and loop station, but he does it without fault. This music video just highlights how truly angelic his live shows can be, and it’s especially effective in it’s ability to position you like you are the only one (see what I did there) in the stadium. With the inclusion of a few clips from places around the main stage, it captures the real experience one would have at his concerts. Like hearing his voice slightly distorted to match along to the fact that you’re in a location that isn’t directly in view of him. Upon first viewing, I thought it was all lip-synced to the original audio, with filters used to distort the song when they edited the shots, but after a little sleuthing, which is to say I compared my album version to the music video version, I found that the audio they used for the video must have been recorded on location. The studio version has more instruments that come into play and layers of backing vocals that just aren’t there in the video version. Since that discovery I have watched the clip over and over again, and would argue that this choice to have only live music makes the experience of watching him more intimate, or even voyeuristic. It’s like we are intruding on a rehearsal, or a personal moment for Ed and just gives the video a bit more personality than just a simple clip of him lip-syncing to his song.

3. WHO YOU? – G-DRAGON

This final music video is one of my favourite fan collaborations out there. In the KPOP world fan-cams are abundant, with almost every single live show and performance recorded in some form or another and then uploaded to the internet. G-Dragon and his crew here embraced the culture completely, and invited fans to practically shoot this 2013 release for him. It’s a genius idea which not most can pull off, and it also works to showcase the power fans have in GD’s career. The video also proves that again you don’t always need the fanciest of camera’s to create something special.