The Steel Guitar Forum

I was surfing and found a singer (Ryan Adams) on MTV with a steel player in his band, so I watched for a minute. The steel player took a really nice solo, and as he did, the cameraman ignored him and showed a close up of the guitar players hands instead.

I hope Adams, upon viewing this, will instruct future camera operators to show the steel player when he is soloing from now on.

This happens so many times and it drives me crazy every time. Steel solo while showing the piano player, the drummer's feet, close-ups of the bass man....or the audience.

Kind Regards, Walter

I guess it's what the cameraman is told to do. I don't know.

I must say on Emeril Saturday night, Wayne Dahl was on camera alot intakes and outakes. Martina was the guest. It was so cool to see Steel featured so much on a TV Show you least expect.

Good Job Wayne!

Camera directors must be trying not to encourage all those grandstanding, attention-hogging gyrations the steel players are always doing.

It's rarely the cameraman's fault.

Almost all broadcasts (or video recordings) use multiple cameras - some fixed in place, some with slight movement, some portable. The camera operators are either told what their duty is; stay on one or more areas of the stage for the whole show, or choose what they think is interesting. It's almost always the first, and very often there will be cameras used for one or two performers and one always on the "frontman".

The director (on a live show) watches the feeds on multiple screens and switches from one to another based on what he thinks is happening, interesting, etc. Often the director has no clue what instrument is playing a part (or doesn't care) and whoever looks the most animated and/or interesting gets shown. And let's be honest - visually, it's almost impossible to tell when most steel players are "bearing down" and playing a solo - rarely do steel players change position or expression. With no visual cues, a non-musician will be at a loss.

I have a bunch of Byrds videos from the 70's - rarely is Clarence White shown for more than a second or two during a solo because he was usually immobile and "bluegrass deadpan" on stage - so the guitar solos would show Skip Battin on bass, because he was moving around.

With taped broadcasts it's the same thing except the director chooses what camera feeds to splice into the final cut.

Once in a while - and it's very rare - there will be a director who is also a musician, or who simply "gets it" and gets everyone "on screen" at just the right times.

On low-budget shows with one or two cameras, then it's the cameraman's job - and I kind of sympathize with them under those circumstances, especially if they don't know the band, songs, etc. They have no way of knowing what's coming.

yup, they always cut to Roy Acuff's yo-yo when theres a steel solo

Jim, What you say makes sense. But don't the artists have any input into which camera shots make it to the final cut?

MTV directors are certainly savvy enough about music to show soloists in action. They do it all the time in other genres of music. This would be another case of a music professional not having an understanding of the steel.

But don't the artists have any input into which camera shots make it to the final cut?

Nope.

First, on a taped show the "artist(s)" are long gone by the time the show is being pieced together; most artists are also not going to sit there and watch every camera angle (as would a director) and make their own decisions, nor are they qualified as to the VIDEO content; most contracts wouldn't allow it anyway. You put that in a rider addendum in a contact with ABC and they'll laugh.

On a live broadcast there would be no way to know anyway. I have seen written guidelines with time markings: Vocal 37 sec; guitar fill 4 sec; vocal 49 seconds; keyboard solo 32 seconds....etc etc etc. I used those mixing shows back in the non-automated days and appreciated artists who supoplied such clear info ( and had such a well thought-out show). That way lighting, mix, etc. was all right on the money. But the guys I know in video production never see that kind of detail nowadays - and honestly, back in the 70's nearly everyone working support at shows was a musician or at least knew what the instruments were. Now they just know their job and with the exception of shows filmed specifically for DVD production nothing like that shows up anymore.

For you girl watchers,most of the time on the[not so grand]opry,A lot of times when Tommy is playing a solo,you WILL see the most endowed pretty young lady in the audience,don't you know.

How many remember years ago,that the camera at the opry was over head above the steel man and zoomed down on him.I bet Brillcream could have sold alot of hair products too.

In my personal opinion...the entire world does not want to give credit to the steel guitar because it is an accomplishment that does not come without a lot of hard work. The steel guitar player doesn't really even need a band...they can keep their head above water with no problem...steel guitar players do something that everyone else would love to do but they don't want to work at it LOL.

I don't think it's directed particularly at the steel guitarist. They seem to do the same thing with most of the band. Someone will play a great lead and they zoom in on the bass player, or if they zoom in on the right instrument they'll show his picking hand, so you can't see his handiwork on the fingerboard. It's a matter of the technicians not being musicians and not taking the trouble to study the subject they're videoing.

It doesn't have to be like that. I have an "Asleep at the Wheel" DVD where both Cindy Cashdollar and Herb Remington are playing, and they do an excellent job of knowing which is which, even though to the non-musician, the difference betweem someone playing a a 3-neck Fender Stringmaster and someone playing Pedal Steel could be quite a test. On that particular CD they have a plethora of people playing fiddle and mandoline, and two lead guitarists, and they get it right every time.

To me, what I find really objectionable, (and they don't seem to do it so much nowadays,) is when they zoom in and out to the rhythm of the music and pan from one place to the other so fast that your mind can't keep up with it. They're putting their own amusement ahead of the music. They should remember that when a show is advertised as "The Rolling Stones on Tour", people watch to see the Rolling Stones, not the technicians. Otherwise they might as well call the show, "The Fred Smith Video Distortion Extravaganza". Somehow I don't think they would attract such a large viewing public !

I will give credit to the camera crew of Austin City Limits because out of every episode of that show I have yet to see a single time when they did not zoom in on the right musician at the right time.

John McGlothlin wrote:I will give credit to the camera crew of Austin City Limits because out of every episode of that show I have yet to see a single time when they did not zoom in on the right musician at the right time.

Yes, I've noticed that too. The "Asleep At The Wheel" DVD that I was referring to was an Austin City Limits performance. By the way, it's not widely known that you can buy DVDs of most of the Austin City Limits shows, and they run about 90 mins., including a lot more material than what is broadcast.

One band I was in, the guitar players name was Cory. After my steel solos, people would yell "Cory!".

I saw this video as well. The steel player is Jon Graboff, a forum member and a great player. I saw Jon with this band a few weeks ago in Montreal. It was an excellent show. We got to chat after the show for a bit. Great guy.

I too was a little disappointed by Jon not getting filmed for the solo. I don't think there was much footage of Jon at all, which was a drag. Unfortunately, it's the way things go with videos. The boys probably knocked off this video in the midst of their BUSY schedule, and moved on - while the editors made decisions about angles, etc.

Mike Perlowin wrote:Jim, What you say makes sense. But don't the artists have any input into which camera shots make it to the final cut?

The artist? You're kidding, right? In a video, the director is the artist.

I saw the Ryan Adams video for 'Two' off his newest album yesterday, between commercials before Wes Anderson's new film 'The Darjeeling Limited'. Which was weird, but I thought it disappointing that while there is steel on the song, Jon was NOT in the video.

Mark, he is there, but not until the very end.

the director is the artist.

Thanks b0b, for saying in 5 words what I was trying to explain.

"Bluegrass deadpan." Jim, you're killing me!

Chris, I must have been fighting for popcorn. Did Sheryl Crow show up at the end too?

No, Mark, I think she was off getting the boys drinks.