| Snackpot 06.01.2013 07:38 |
I know the DVD is older than the arc now but it always strikes me when watching it just how visually distracting it is and little really there is of Freddie. Of course there is a LOT of Freddie, but compared with other live DVDs I've seen (especially one with a half decent front-man) there's an awful lot of essentially static shots of the other members of the band, often doing not very much visually exciting. I understand that they may have wanted to get across the idea that it was a band rather than just a front man but at times it seems every five seconds or so (perhaps an exaggeration) we're treated to a shot of the back of Roger or a not very interesting shot of John playing the bass and looking around. It's not to say that these shots shouldn't be included at all but when you have arguably rocks most charismatic front man out there it seems a shame to miss perhaps almost half of what he's doing while we're being treated to the 19th shot of the drum kit for the duration of the song. I'm not saying it should be ALL Freddie, nor am I denying that he's on screen more than anyone else but part of the joy of a live Queen gig is to see Freddie interact with the crowd. I've always felt DVD doesn't really allow us to see that as it seems terrified of leaving the camera on the same shot for more than a couple of seconds. |
| brENsKi 06.01.2013 10:18 |
think you need to make fair comparisons. Live rock dvds tend to focus on the bands as a whole - after all rock bands are seen as a collective of musicians. take the Zep "celebration day" dvd - that's only just been released and this does much the same thing most live rock films focus - approx 60 on singer, 40 on rest of band (except during solos) perhaps you're making your comparisons to solo artists? where no-one really gives a fuck about the backing band |
| Bad Seed 06.01.2013 12:41 |
I have to disagree with the OP. From what I remember Gavin Taylor made a decent job on Wembley, the camera was on the correct person at the correct time. I was just watching Budapest yesterday and thinking to myself how much better the end result would have been if the camera spent a little less time on Freddie. |
| mooghead 06.01.2013 13:35 |
One of the best things about Wembley is that it isnt too Freddie centric. Having seen a few clips on youtube recently of selected songs from Budapest (you don't think I am actually going to buy it do you?) there are plenty of times when you want the camera to show you what is going on elsewhere but it seems the director must have a crush on Freddie or something. |
| cmsdrums 06.01.2013 13:59 |
Yup - Wembley direction is one of the best; catches the right band members at the right time, interesting angles, and not too 'frontman centric' |
| cmsdrums 06.01.2013 14:02 |
Ps - a lot of older releases did often tend to focus on frontmen; Live In Rio, and to a lesser extent Budapest, tend to do this from the queen catalogue. One of the issues with earls court 77 visuals is that camera angles do not change for minutes on end in some songs. |
| mooghead 06.01.2013 14:17 |
"One of the issues with earls court 77 visuals is that camera angles do not change for minutes on end in some songs" Not necessarily a bad thing... would love to see any Queen gig with a fixed front of stage camera showing the whole stage from left to right with no deviations... |
| cmsdrums 06.01.2013 15:02 |
Yup, I wouldn't mind that too, but I think it's one of those silly reasons that mean that QPL consider it unreleasable (likewise the Hammersmith 79 gig can't possibly be released with'only' stereo audio) |
| Thistle 06.01.2013 15:57 |
I actually think there are way too many cuts on Wembley too. That doesn't mean I think there should be more of Freddie, but the cuts aren't always interesting. On the flip side, even the Budapest rerelease artwork concentrates just on Freddie. Now that's wrong.... |
| Snackpot 06.01.2013 16:17 |
Not saying more Freddie in terms of camera time but perhaps more 'fuller' Freddie e.g show him interacting with the audience for 20 seconds or so then cut away. Instead it's cutting away every few seconds and often to something that doesn't look an awful lot different to a few seconds ago when you last saw it such as Roger's back on the drums. I'm not saying don't show the drums at all, of course not, but in the first 30 seconds of A Kind of Magic (post intro) there are I think 8 different shots of Roger sitting at the drums. Which is surely ridiculous? But it's not untypical of the whole concert. Two or three shots of each member of the band per song with a few cut aways to the audience would be grand. The way it is almost leaves me feeling a bit disorientated. |
| Thistle 06.01.2013 16:34 |
Yep, it's all over the place. |
| matt z 07.01.2013 00:58 |
Ungrateful about something shot over 26 FUCKING years ago! Dude.... wake up and meet reality. How important is it Anyways? |
| Snackpot 07.01.2013 01:27 |
matt z wrote: Ungrateful about something shot over 26 FUCKING years ago! Dude.... wake up and meet reality. How important is it Anyways?You realise you post on a message board about a band that effectively split up nearly 22 years ago, don't you? Much of the discussion will tend to be about things a minmum of a couple of decades old. Freddie's dead and John's retired. I'm not sure how 'up' on Queen trivia you are, maybe it's only us geeky hardcore fans who keep up with information like that. Just a tip because you might find a lot of discussion here about past albums, songs, tours etc :-) |
| Rick 07.01.2013 06:59 |
The Wembley concerts show John in an utterly good mood. For that only, the DVD is worth watching. The man has moves! |
| A Word In Your Ear 07.01.2013 11:27 |
I suppose if you want to watch more Freddie buy the original Wembley DVD & just watch the "Freddie cam" option. |
| Snackpot 07.01.2013 11:49 |
A Word In Your Ear wrote: I suppose if you want to watch more Freddie buy the original Wembley DVD & just watch the "Freddie cam" option.Dunno about 'more' Freddie. Longer Freddie maybe, which I guess would by default have to mean more. One of the biggest draws of Queen's live shows was Freddie's control and command of the audience. Of course the DVD doesn't have to ALL be about that but the way it's edited this aspect is completely missing. As good as Queen's performance at Live Aid was, I suspect the television audience's opinion of it may have been reduced if half the time was spent looking at the back of Roger. Just seems a shame that such a crucial element of the show e.g Freddie's command of the crowd is almost completely removed by the editing. Also Radio Ga Ga is ruined, there's not one decent sustained double-hand-clap shot of the audience throughout the whole song. It's madness. If any song edits itself visually - it's that one. Yet again rather than 10 seconds plus of the crowd we get a couple of seconds then a cut away then a shot of the drummer, then Freddie, then a cut away, then the crowd, then Brian....the visual impact of the crowd double hand-clapping wasn't really there. We saw it but only as one of a series of cutaways. |
| Hugowan 07.01.2013 13:53 |
Excuse me but i see absolutly nothing wrong in keeping balance in the camera angles. Me as a drummer, enjoy a lot of the camera work at Live Aid and Wembley, but it would be plain retarded to ask more and more Roger shoots just because of it. I'm sorry but you seem to be a little obssesed with Freddie. |
| earwig 07.01.2013 14:42 |
My only complaint with Gavin Taylor's direction is that there wasn't more 'front-on' shots. e.g. there's loads of camera angles from behind the members - looking at their backs. I was at Brixton when Brian's gig was videoed and I remember, other than the crane camera, there was just ONE camera at the back of the stalls shooting 'front-on'. Notice all the other cameras are basically looking up members noses at steep angles or are side on (like on the Backing singers). NONE OF THIS detracts from the quality performances of course!!! |
| Snackpot 07.01.2013 15:08 |
Hugowan wrote: Excuse me but i see absolutly nothing wrong in keeping balance in the camera angles. Me as a drummer, enjoy a lot of the camera work at Live Aid and Wembley, but it would be plain retarded to ask more and more Roger shoots just because of it. I'm sorry but you seem to be a little obssesed with Freddie. Just saying you get no real sense of Freddie's performance.. Not sure how this makes me "obsessed". Discussion will tend to be about one or more band members here. It is kind of a theme in this place. Strange and obsessive i know. |
| waunakonor 07.01.2013 16:04 |
I don't know, I find the so-called boring shots of John and Roger quite interesting. I just like seeing what everyone is doing at certain moments, and Wembley, for me, does an excellent job of that. I don't even mind if the angles are kind of odd. That's just my opinion, though. |
| popy 07.01.2013 16:34 |
earwig wrote: My only complaint with Gavin Taylor's direction is that there wasn't more 'front-on' shots. e.g. there's loads of camera angles from behind the members - looking at their backs.I agree on that. That's also my only complain. When Freddie is in front of the stage (that part that's added to the front of the stage, but missing from Budapest stage) there's no camera angles from the front. It's always filmed: a) from the sides b) from the back. A good example of what i'm saying is Brian's solo in Bohemian Rhapsody. It's filmed from the back, and them 2 or 3 seconds in the end from the side. There's no front camera angles. Although there are cameras in front of the stage (4 if i remember what Gavin says in the DVD documentary), they are only used for wide shots, not close ups. |
| The Real Wizard 07.01.2013 16:51 |
cmsdrums wrote: One of the issues with earls court 77 visuals is that camera angles do not change for minutes on end in some songs.... on the version we have. It's an edit, for whatever reason. Does anyone know if the individual angles still exist? Haven't seen them in documentaries. |
| Snackpot 07.01.2013 17:56 |
waunakonor wrote: I don't know, I find the so-called boring shots of John and Roger quite interesting. I just like seeing what everyone is doing at certain moments, and Wembley, for me, does an excellent job of that. I don't even mind if the angles are kind of odd. That's just my opinion, though.Yeah maybe I was wrong to use 'boring' to describe Roger's shots. But I still think they're unnecessarily frequent at times, as is the camera changes in general. |
| TheWorks84 07.01.2013 23:14 |
Snackpot wrote:A Word In Your Ear wrote: Also Radio Ga Ga is ruined, there's not one decent sustained double-hand-clap shot of the audience throughout the whole song. It's madness. If any song edits itself visually - it's that one. Yet again rather than 10 seconds plus of the crowd we get a couple of seconds then a cut away then a shot of the drummer, then Freddie, then a cut away, then the crowd, then Brian....the visual impact of the crowd double hand-clapping wasn't really there. We saw it but only as one of a series of cutaways.The first night show of Wembley has a decent crowd shot of the clappng during Radio Gaga. |