Boost Your Fan Base By Firing Your Camera Crew

from the free-bird! dept

Thu, Dec 28th 2006 5:04am — Karl Bode

Instead of hiring professional concert documentary crews, a growing number of bands are handing the concert documentary process over to their fans, relying on amateur video to generate low-cost promotional material while increasing fan appreciation in the process. The Beastie Boys had some success with this idea recently, using footage shot by fans to create a popular documentary. Though some complained that the finished project had an over abundance of kitsch and a noteable lack of quality, they seem to have missed the point that the very idea brought the band far more attention than yet another bland, traditional concert film ever could have. The Shins have taken this idea one step further, teaming up with Current TV to create a five minute video that's comprised of at least one still image from over 200 spectators and their cellphones or digicams. The end result is a somewhat shaky and blurry concert film that at one point offers a video montage of the entire stage made up of dozens of fan shots. It's a win-win situation for the bands, who boost fan loyalty and create low-cost promotional material on the fly -- provided they've got a hard-working and patient editor.

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14 Comments

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Dan, 28 Dec 2006 @ 7:06am

Yeah, but...
The thing I like most about Band videos is the stage footage. I think the point to a documentary should be seeing what you don't see. A kind of "Behind the Scenes" feel.

(oh, and first... I guess)
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Sanguine Dream, 28 Dec 2006 @ 7:08am

Wait for it...
I'm sure that somewhere someone is thinking:

Corporate Big Suit: "We're losing money by not making these documentaries for bands. We have to sue to recover these lost wages."

Big time band with expensive lawyers: "We're saving a lot of money on this idea. Let's get a copyright/trakemark/patent on this idea so no one else can do it."
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Overcast, 28 Dec 2006 @ 7:16am

But isn't that a 'copyright' violation? lol
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The Swiss Cheese Monster, 28 Dec 2006 @ 7:33am

It will catch up with them eventually
While this is a great promotional item, editors are going to get more and more expensive for this kind of project making the ROI less worthwhile. But in the mean time.....
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- Jon, 28 Dec 2006 @ 1:43pm
  
  Re: It will catch up with them eventually
  Please - even a great Avid editor who is super fast is about $3500-5000/week. If you can't cut a music video in a week you have no business being an editor anyway.
  
  You might need to add an assist editor to organize all the source materials for you, at maybe $1k to $1500/week, but at the end of the day you've still spent way less in editorial costs than what it costs to have 4-6 camera operators, all the camera rentals, the insurance policy (EXPENSIVE!) for renting said cameras and accessories, etc. etc.
  
  The net cost savings on stuff like this will never be outweighed by the cost of an editor and/or assistant editor.
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Ben, 28 Dec 2006 @ 8:10am

Damn, I spilled my coffee.
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wolff000, 28 Dec 2006 @ 8:52am

So I CAN take my camera in to the concert now?
I wish more bands took the grateful dead route and let fans film and tape as they please. a real fan is going to buy the cd/dvd no matter how many bad copies were made at a concert. I love the concept of using the fan footage to make the videos. when you include people in things like this it makes them want to buy the product. i have never bought a behind the sccenes video on a band but i definately would if i shot some of the footage for it myself. even if my part lasted only a minute or so it would be worth the money to buy it.
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anonymous coward, 28 Dec 2006 @ 9:18am

millions saved with crappy consumer content videos offsets the loses from piracy. lets call it even.
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NutSak, 28 Dec 2006 @ 9:36am

let's take this all the way...
I'm going to fire my whole band, sound crew, lighting guys, roadies, drivers, manager, a&r guy, label, studio techs, personal assistant and nanny and let my fans take over all these duties.

funkin'-A!
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Julie, 28 Dec 2006 @ 9:47am

Bad Idea
That's all fine and good, but remember when cell phones were expensive and fewer people owned them? It was the Darwin effect. People weren't yakking on their cell phones at the top of their lungs or talking on their phones in movie theaters.

A few months ago, a jerk with a loud 35 mm camera was taking pictures, it wasn't a huge venue, and the band finally had him thrown out, because he was disturbing everyone. Give the masses cheap video cameras and let them tape concerts, and we're going to have the same problem that we do with cell phones. I work hard to be able to afford good seats, and I don't want some yutz with a ten dollar camera blocking my view.
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Wile E. Coyote (genius), 28 Dec 2006 @ 9:57am

my take (pun intended)
Use small head-mounted cameras with a wireless connection to a recorder backstage. No one is blocking things up, and you get more natural shots since no one is thinking about what they're shooting. You just get whatever they're looking at.

Guess they shouldn't allow them in the bathrooms, though!
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Tyshaun, 28 Dec 2006 @ 4:50pm

....
And our standards for quality continuously goes down in the pursuit of increasing "audience participation" to boost revenues and give ADHD afflicted youth a warm fuzzy.

P.T. Barnum just called and all the video taping fanboys had their 15 minutes, let's let the professionals get back to producing quality concert films. I saw the Beastie Boys "film" and aside from the media buzz it was pretty darn craptacular.
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- Tyshaun, 28 Dec 2006 @ 4:53pm
  
  Re: ....
  and I need to apologize to Andy Warhol who first talked about the 15 minutes of fame, not P.T. Barnum, who espoused wisdom on suckers being born every minute (especially those who are buying into this whole idea with such enthusiasm).
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  - Mike (profile), 28 Dec 2006 @ 5:24pm
    
    Re: Re: ....
    P.T. Barnum, who espoused wisdom on suckers being born every minute
    
    Actually that's wrong too...
    
    http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html
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