In this piece of research I will be looking at my first performance based video which is The Who's "Who Are You?" It's based in a studio where the song is being recorded and shows the band performing the song.
The first shot is a mid shot of lead guitarist and song-writer Pete Townshend, being the first person shown could show importance or signify that it is his song. At this point which is the intro there are no vocals and the guitar is the main focus of attention possibly another to why he is shown first.
The camera swings to the left slowly, this acts as an establishing shot to show the surroundings of the band which is a regular recording studio, as the camera stops and focuses the central focus is the drummer of the band, Keith Moon, here he is shown drumming to the intro. The light shining above him could be to symbolise his stance in music at that time or even as simple as a extra lighting
As before the camera swings to the left and this time we see the bassist John Entwistle, these 3 previous shots introduce the band as sort of establishing shots for each member.
This time the camera goes in the opposite direction, to the right where we see Roger Daltrey in a separate room to record the vocals for the song, he faces down as the song builds closer and closer to the first line
A high angle shot is used after the first line and then focuses on Keith Moon, this matches the track which has a drum roll at this point
A mid shot of Pete Townshend is used and shows him playing guitar, a fast edit is being used here from shot to shot to go with the fast paced nature of the song.
As before a drum roll is used as a way of focusing on Keith Moon as at this point he is the most important sound in the track. It also captures Moon's unique drumming style with exaggerated facial expressions and leaning into his drum kit.
The next verse begins and this is symbolised by giving Roger Daltrey a close up to show that he is where the listeners attention should be at this point
John Entwistle also receives camera time just as the rest of the band do, his shot is a close up, this could be to display his emotionless way of playing bass, which just like Keith Moon, was quite unique and instantly recognisable
The backing vocals are prominent in this section so we get a close up of John Entwistle singing into a studio mic
Pete Townshend also gets a close up while singing the backing vocals
This mid shot facing the back of Pete Townshend shows him having swapped his guitar for a piano, the track has slowed down at this point which could be the reasoning for the dimmed light or since the piano is only the thing you can hear at this point the light has completely focused on Townshend.
There are quick bursts of drums in between the piano where we get an extreme close-up of Keith Moon showing intense facial expressions, this could be because the track is building up again and this editing is showing the fact pace at which it is coming.
The editing is getting faster at this point and this side-on mid shot shows a bit more of Townshend's piano playing which is increasing in speed and also his facial expressions which are becoming more and more intense
Pete Townshend is doing his typical thing and getting very much into his guitar playing, as he gets faster and faster the camera zooms in on it
The band other than Roger Daltrey are captured with mid-shots together, here they are shown messing about with Keith Moon dancing and Pete Townshend making gesutres
An over the shoulder shot of Pete Townshend shows Keith Moon while they are still messing about
The 3 are captured again, the music is almost silent at this point as it builds up again
The track suddenly burst to life again and Keith Moon is captured again with a huge facial expression as the crashes the drums.
John Entwistle gets a mid-shot and this shows off his inconic fender bass
The backing vocals are shown being recorded, by Townshend and Entwistle
The 3 members are captured together from a different angle over a mxing board
The track is getting to its climax at this point, Keith Moon's facial expressions and hard drumming illiustrates this
Pete Townshend gets anothe rmid-shot as the rest of the band have, here the music getting more and more intense
John Entwistle get a close up of his bass playing to match the trac, all the shots are increasing in speed between the transfers to go with how fast and intense the song is at this point
We get more of a frontol Mid-shot of Pete Townshend this time, this shows us more of his technique rather than the restricted view we had before which was more side on
Throughout the video Daltrey hasnt had any different shots, its been a constant close up of him singing into the studio mic
During the last 30 seconds of the video all the shots are ones to have previously appeared in the video, the editing becomes very fast that shots dont appear for more than 2 seconds before the video fades to black as it ends with the last man to appear is Keith Moon whos drums are the last intrument to be heard
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