I am asking you for your personal opinions here. Our trio has currently booked a number of shows this Summer at local wineries. Since then , a couple of promotors have asked us for marketing material and they always ask us for our CrackBook Page or the link anyway.
None of us are on CrackBook or Instagram for that matter. So we created this little video for a promotional showing. Now , I have uploaded over 800 video over the past decade and you and I are well aware that a majority of folks only watch about 10 seconds before the urge to click away infects their little pea brains.
Please watch this video and let me know how long you lasted. Be completely honest as I do not have a fragile ego here. Like I mentioned , I am guessing that you only watch 30 seconds at most. Any advice and ALL comments are welcomed.
If I were to edit these clips, Iād first select footage of songs with varied tempos and feels. Then, if possible, different camera angles/composition.
Regarding audio, Iād go with a feed from the board and not go with ambient recording from a mic.
Also, Iād lose the scuttering clouds footage. Anyone looking to hire a band needs to see what theyāre presenting to their patrons. Dress, attitude and stage presence count for a whole lot, even in a bar setting.
The guitar player is good, but too many solos in a row (or seemingly so) from the same static camera angle, with similar-sounding lines, can get monotonous
I would also place a bug in the lower right corner of the screen with the bandās logo. Iād lose the random flashing of the logo across the screen. It doesnāt help.
The very slow intro to āMidnight Specialā felt out of place, particularly with the band off the screen.
Lastly, art is in the editing ā of anything, really.
Mix up the song tempos, but leave enough of the tune so that people can recognize it. Cut back on the same-y sounding solos. And shorten the entire runtime of the video. Forget those whoāll only watch 10 seconds. Nobody will watch almost 5 minutes of meandering clips. I did, but I create videos for a living.
If you put yourself in the shoes of the people youāre trying to reach, youāll get the best perspective on what you actually need to include in your video ā and what you should cut. Best of luck.
This is probably not the opinion you want. Create a band Facebook page, pay whoever deals with it for the trouble. Edit the video down to 30 seconds, pin it to the top. Post excited to play [venue] on [date] two weeks in advance, a week in advance, two days before and day of. Iām pretty sure you can schedule those posts. Take a picture of you on stage and of your set list and post those after a gig with a caption about how much fun you had. Oh and if people comment they enjoyed the show reply with some one sentence positive statement. Shouldnāt take more than 20-30 minutes per week, if you can schedule posts you can do it all in one block.
You already know nobody is watching more than 30 seconds, why is the video five minutes? I watched 1:15 and I barely know what genre you play and what types of gigs you want. Iām not your target, the only thing I recognized was the bit of turn the page. Maybe the people you want to book you will know from the first thirty seconds, but the goal should be to communicate that ASAP.
The first tune is really catchy and it sounds really great, Iād give it at least 15 more seconds. Thatās a great intro to your band. I like what @MikeC said. Personally, I donāt like the cloud clip, and the cut at the beginning was just a bit too fast. Iām barely settling in to the mood and it was cut.
I would not have noticed everything but I fully agree with @MikeC here. But yeah,
advices from a professionnal is always a good thing to hear
Also considering that itās not a full song, but many segments, I would prefer a shorter video. Say something like 2 minutes with a more punchy editing.
Also I think that the texts with different fonts and color donāt look professionnal at all, it would be better without text (or very little, maybe just the necessary contact informations at the end).
And also the PRS Parlor sounds way better than I would have expected.
Iām surprised, are you sure ? I just checked and the average is 1:50 on my channel
Yup. Mike was spot on, the only quibble I would have is to not ignore the crowd that will only watch 10 seconds. You should make that first 10s convey
much of what you need. For a band teaser the impact of the content will likely ramp down exponentially with time.
Hi Travis,
While I agree 200% with @MikeC, Iād like to add some further comments.
Your band is like a brand, and you may want to promote it in the best possible way. Mike suggested that you add a logo/watermark on the video footage, which should represent the visual essence of your band. So the first thing to ask is: what is the band about, in a nutshell? What feelings and vibes do you want to convey? That might give you an indication about how to design the logo. Also, how you present yourself through the video is a large part of your āsale pitchā. You sound good, and you need to provide a consistent visual that is in line with the vibes of your music. That doesnāt necessarily mean to dress in the same way. Uniforms are not always a good idea. But you sure need a unifying theme that represents your band identity. If I may, I do have a few suggestions for a video and how to market your band, in the hope they can be helpful.
You surely need some way to capture peopleās attention. Depending on the tunes in your repertoire, if I had to market your band, Iād start with something energetic able to capture your musicianship. If you have some live gig footage, even better.
Consistent with the themes and the genres you play, a promotional video should capture who you are as people as well as musicians. A possible option is to include short interview clips where you guys discuss your passion for the music genres you play.
Because you are seeking paid gigs, presumably live, you need to show how you perform live. I assume you had such engagements before, therefore, using some of that footage, possibly with a dynamic edit, would help present your bandās musicianship in an attractive way.
Some bands add the classic ābehind-the-scenesā footage and I think it would help to present a more complete picture of you as a band and as people. Rehearsing, traveling, joking aroundā¦it would all help with promoting your bandās image in my opinion.
The end of the video you posted is definitely scenic and visually appealing with the time-lapse effect you chose. However, it might be also a good idea to start a stronger social media presence, compliant with the usual practices in your state and musiciansā circles. To that effect, you may want to wrap up your video with ways to find and follow you on social media.
Following what I previously mentioned about visuals, I think you could consider which specific design your band logo should have, including color palettes (colors do have a cultural meaning, so itās important to choose wisely) and graphic elements that are consistent with the band image you want to project.
I think our case is different as many of us are watching each otherās videos. Mine clock in an average of 1:38, but when you go into individual video analytics there is comparision to a ātypicalā video that retains folks for 30 seconds, more, or less as a benchmark. So maybe not an average but a milestone they use to judge performance I guess.
I am almost the same - but I tend to skip a few times through a track, think āNAH!ā and ā¦ next track! My gf hates me for that!
But with listening to the first 15 seconds of a track you will miss out anything by the slooooweeeestttt bbaaaannnnddddd oooooffff theeeee wooooooorrrrllllddddd: Bohren and the Club of Gore
Also, you would miss one of my favourite songs (and bands):
Yeah I do the same if the song has a long intro, of course. My favorite example - this song is a banger but the tone set in the intro is important too:
The This Mortal Coil version is even more so, by prepending ā16 daysā, which is also how Modern English usually played it:
if itās a band I know, I am much more likely to sit through a long intro. If itās a first listen, not likely at all. Too much music to listen to, itās got to grab me. Surfs up
To the OPās original point, this video was meant to be aimed at prospective band employers: promoters, booking agents, bar owners, etc.
As such, these types of folks are more likely willing to view āauditionā band videos in their entirety in order to make good business decisions.
Sure, other people might see this video, too, but social media viewers are in an entirely different category, where scanning and bailing on videos happen all the time. Such is life.
Regardless, I wish you the best, @travis.thepadre.reed. Keep shooting and cutting together lots of different venues, camera angles, tunes, etc., and youāll get where you need to be. You got this.
Iām no expert but I made it to a minute and a half before it started getting a little boring. Audio quality was very rough and I assume might make it hard to impress a possible client. Sitting in a garage also made it look a little more amateurish. Iād assume someone watching this wouldnāt want to watch for over 4 minutes. Think of commercials, they are 30 seconds long. You need to try and get your point across in something like 90 seconds. Just refine what you have a little and I think it would be more appealing.
