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Thom Yorke's back
I’ve just been down at LCD Soundsystem, and now I’m at Atoms For Peace. One thing that’s been bugging me all weekend, and that’s the complete inability for Japanese video operators to get it right.
Extreme closeups. I don’t need to know how long it is since Thom Yorke cleaned out his ears. I don’t need to see the back half of his head occupying a quarter of the shot and the backdrop behind him taking up the rest. I don’t want to see James Murphy bounce in and out of shot as you try in vain to follow him. Zoom out for fucks sake!
Flea's armpit
Camera choice. Work your shots out. When James Murphy introduces the band, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll introduce them all. Get ready! Don’t show us the drummer when he’s introducing the keyboardist. You had two minutes of banter to line up a shot of each! Don’t start a slow pan of Flea from feet up only to cut to Thom Yorke when you’re half way up!
The mics on Joey Waronker's kit. And his elbow.
I’m all for artistic shots. But an out of focus lighting rig ain’t art. Fuck, just find the focus! Show me Flea playing the melodica (not a single close up!) and Yorke playing the cowbell. Yeah, you took your sweet time getting to that, didn’t you. We might find that more interesting than just Yorke’s face again.
Thom Yorke's armpit
Fuck it. I think I’ll get a bourbon.
I never noticed how spotty the camera work was until Dom pointed it out while we watched Atoms For Peace together. After that, it was pretty funny every time there was a “WTF?” shot flashed across the screen.
After I read this, I noticed the camera work at Summer Sonic’s Marine Stage (the big ‘un), and I have to say they did a lot better, which much more variety and full band and stuff. So it’s not the Japanese who are bad with cameras…