Performance techniques

For the genre of music that we wish to do for our music video, there are certain aspects of performance that we need to make sure we pull off to give off the right representation and atmosphere for the genre. In heavy music the performance is all about energy and movement from the vocalist all the way to the drummer. Seeing as we want to do a mainly performance based video we need to pay close attention to detail with this.

Vocalist
The vocalist is the main focus in most music videos, however in this genre they get a lot less coverage than other genres. This is because the performance is a lot more based around a band as a group rather than a single individual. However, especially in bands like Architects where the guitarists are playing very complicated music it is essential the vocalist is constantly full of energy to put across the mood of the song. Head banging is a very common feature with the person moving their head violently in time with the song, working especially well if the vocalist has a full head of hair! (refer to the video - Early Grave, Architects) Although it may feel ridiculous to do it conveys the energy very well. Some vocalists use the microphone and its lead to create interest and movement, e.g. swinging it round their head, doing complicated movements with the lead (refer to the video - Make Damn Sure, Taking Back Sunday).

Guitarists (refer to the videos - "Vices Like Vipers, Oh Sleeper" and "Early Grave, Architects")
The guitarists all tend to work around the vocalist, but generally just move around the performance area so that although they may not be doing lots of fancy moves, the audiences is constantly kept interested. However in certain bits of songs sometimes the guitarists will find the music easy enough to play and also perform. Sometimes guitarists will head bang and even fling their guitars around them, over their shoulders, behind their heads and even all the way round their neck. Their job is generally to move around, not distracting from the vocalist but creating interest on the stage.

Drummer (refer to all three videos)
The drummer's role is to play the beat with energy and to convey interest to the audience much the same as the rest of the band. Obviously they cannot move from where they are but rather than just keeping to themselves they can be over the top with their movements. We found from the Wheatus video shoot that what you think to be a big movement on camera looks very weak and so everything needs to be completely over the top.

The general conclusion is that not only is it very difficult to write about performance techniques and much easier to demonstrate, but that for the genre of music we wish to do the vital thing to have is energy. If the band all move around the performance area and constantly engage each other then the performance will be interesting to watch, whereas without energy, it will become boring and repetitive