CO - Camera angles and techniques

 

During our research we looked at a large number of videos of the genre so we could gain more knowledge of the conventions and codes of the style. Myself and Sam looked at one particular video, Before I Forget by cult American metal band SlipKnoT. It is the third single from their 2004 album Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses. It was listed as AOL's top metal song of the decade. "Before I Forget" borrows certain elements from a much older Slipknot song "Carve", which was recorded before their self titled album. The reason we researched the song was that the video has a lot of techniques and camera shots that we want to use in our video.

The video is famous because it is the first Slipknot video that shows glimpses of the member's faces, which is extremely critical because the band are famous for wearing masks on stage and in their music videos. The faces are shown in subtle ways, leaving a narrative enigma; there are shots of noses, eyes and mouths, as well as instruments and masks lying nearby.

Instrument close-ups used intermittently.

The band's masks cast aside for the video, leaving a narrative
enigma as to who's who and what they look like.

The parts from this video that we feel have influenced us and made us want to replicate in our video is the close-up shots of the instruments and the narrative enigma left as the camera never entirely focuses on the band members themselves, although we will all by in group shots near the end of the video. We won't shoot the whole performance for the video in this way, but we will use a few shot types like this and distribute them evenly to each member.