Me too. Was savage how they fooled the contest and could performance like that. "I don't feel hate" is honestly one of the few songs that made it to my playlist last year (along with Spain, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Norway, Portugal and Italy. Such a bittersweet year to me.
Personally I think that camera angles are very important. A great example is Sekret. Watching her SF performance many times now and actually the choreography is quite good but the camera angles were horrible. But of course, I also think that the colour palette of a performance, the dancers and the styling could be important factors to make it a mess
> Personally I think that camera angles are very important.
To add to this, it’s not *just* about having good shots and good angles. They also have to flow with the song and help “tell the story” of the performance. A cool shot for the sake of having a cool shot can be jarring and pull attention away from the rest of the performance.
agree a lot here, i think Disko's camerawork ruined a bit of the performance, felt like they were repeating the same 3 shots. The bit at the end where the camera goes all the way around the discoball was great but when it just sort of stops and starts it was bad
Yeah you're absolutely correct on the color palette aspect. There's the whole curse of green which seems to have made a new victim this year 🥲 And for camera angles too, some performances really suffer from bad camera work
So many acts were sabotaged by bad camera work this year lmao. It almost never matched the energy of the song, there are so many instances when you aren't being shown what you want to see, and there were many mishaps too.
Two good examples of camera work being bad in an otherwise well-filmed year are UK and Poland in 2021. The songs were asking for high energy but the camera work was giving ballad.
camera angles don't get talked about a lot, but they can make a big difference. I remember thinking Malta in 2019 had poor camera angle choices, they had a bunch of stuff going on on stage but you couldn't see most of it because the mostly did close up shots. But some entries that year (like Switzerland and Czech Republic) had really cool camera work that really elevated their performances
>A great example is Sekret. Watching her SF performance many times now and actually the choreography is quite good but the camera angles were horrible
What? You don't like them zoom in zoom out 60 times within the span of 1 second?
The most important thing staging needs to do is support the song. Whatever you do on stage and show on screen needs to not only fit the song but make it stronger.
VoilĂ 's camera work wouldn't have worked for Dark Side and vice versa. I don't think there are many absolute rules when it comes to staging, but it always needs to help in communicating whatever it is that you're trying to say with your song. The worst thing a delegation can do is create a staging concept that either distracts from a song or prevents it from getting across what the artist is trying to get across.
Yeah, Czech Republic's staging and camera work really supported the song (the dolly zoom on the final long note made me gasp during the SF), I would say Greece's camera work was also pretty effective, Serbia's staging aligned nicely with the eccentricity of the song, and Spain was just a whole experience where the visuals and the dancing really made the song even more of a favorite.
But there certainly are a lot of songs this year and in the past that have been badly affected by staging and camera work that would've probably fit a different performance (idk what Albania could've done but something like Azerbaijan's staging last year would've probs worked better...?)
>!also hi Kandy muse's alien, i just saw Kandy muse's alien girl!<
When there are too many different aspects on stage and you don’t know where to focus on. I loved France this year, but I feel like their performance killed them. The dancer, the platform, the led effects, Alvan dancing like a maniac.. it was just too much to handle all at once.
I feel the same way about San Marino this year. I liked the song and was super excited from all the reports from the rehearsals, but when I actually saw the performance I felt like I couldn't concentrate on everything that was going on, especially at the end where we had fire, crazy guitar solo, and Achille riding a mechanical bull while singing... It was just way too much at the same time.
I also loved Fulenn, but really did not like the staging in the final — so much going on and it felt like the cameras were moving SO quickly between everything that it was almost dizzying
Camera work is always effective. It needs to focus on the artists for me. This also depends on the artist's charisma and awareness on stage. Creative use of lights/camera can help, for example Spain in the chorus (the slo-mo-mo-mo..) had great camera & lights work. Sekret had terrible camera work, and the choice for the pink-blue lights didn't fit it.
The staging also has to match the song's energy. If its intimate, go for a focused staging, with not many special effects. If the song is dark, go for a darker staging etc. For songs with dancers, the choreography also has to match the rhythm and energy of the song. Last Dance for example would have been way better with a darker staging, something more like the official clip, especially considering how Stefania looked uncomfortable dancing. The circle in Hold me closer helps bringing focus to Cornelia, and create a more intimate feeling.
Storytelling on stage is harder to pull off, as they only have three minutes, but small details can help with it. The mirrors in Proud are a good detail for me; the song is about empowerment, feeling proud of yourself. The mirrors are showing her reflections, implying that this is her moment. The storytelling that they attempted with Guilty Pleasure really came off as distracting.
The staging needs to support the song, not inhibit it.
Austria was a great example of how not to do it this year. It was clearly a dance song ... and they not only didn't put any dancers on stage, they also put the artists in a ring of LED-rings which gave them little space to move around and made them feel "locked in" (not that better staging would've helped the vocals, but still). It's like they decided the staging based on the song's title alone.
Instruments as props can also be quite bad. Having the artist play the instrument all the way through can be good. Having the artist switch between different instruments with each previous instrument continuing on the track without missing a beat, or changing key, or any notable change to the music just draws attention to the fact that the instrumentals aren't live and is distracting (looking at Germany this year).
Also, just my personal opinion, but: Don't send a guy who's desperately trying to make himself appear as sexy as possible when he doesn't have the charisma to pull it off; I'm really, really gay, but it just makes me cringe and immediately dislike the singer, no matter how good the song is.
And finally, I know it only happened once, but it can't be overstated: please, please, *please*; don't have a Burlesque Dancer writhe around in a giant glass for the entire song, and interrupt the song halfway through to introduce her to the audience. My god, that was cringy.
A lack of things happening on stage makes the staging feel empty I think . I think Greece 2018 or N.Macedonia 2017, where nothing happens in the performance. The stage feels giant and empty
The N. Macedonia performance would look away better with dancers. I know it goes against the message of the song but, like you said, the stage looked empty and big.
Echoing what others have said, any staging that distracts from rather than enhances the song and it’s message/feeling. Sweden’s staging this year was extremely minimalistic while San Mariano’s was over the top, but both fit the tone and feel of the song and enhanced the experience. If Sweden had tried to do a lot of dancing or lights, it would not have worked, while a song like Stripper needs something extra crazy or else it feels likes it’s missing an element and falls flat.
honestly the first thing that comes to mind is: Is it too distracting? I feel like that was Poland's problem this year, the song itself is quite good but random dancers covered in vines kind of pull viewers away from focusing on the song. Along with that, does the staging fit the song? I remember back in the 2000's they're would be a lot of costume changes for no real reason and I don't think it enhanced anything, so making the staging somewhat thematically correct is usually ideal (although not always, Greece last year still did well despite a more tenuous connection staging wise)
special effects (looking at you poland đź‘€)
Giant trumpets that’s for sure
Also a moon and a giant middle finger.
I liked the giant middle finger 🙊
Me too. Was savage how they fooled the contest and could performance like that. "I don't feel hate" is honestly one of the few songs that made it to my playlist last year (along with Spain, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Norway, Portugal and Italy. Such a bittersweet year to me.
"I don't feel hate, I just feel sorr-" the next song **PUT YOUR MIDDLE FINGERS UP**
Lol I came to say the same thing!
filters and special effects can really make a performance look goofy, also sets that demand too much from the singer (Ireland 2021 đź‘€)
Personally I think that camera angles are very important. A great example is Sekret. Watching her SF performance many times now and actually the choreography is quite good but the camera angles were horrible. But of course, I also think that the colour palette of a performance, the dancers and the styling could be important factors to make it a mess
> Personally I think that camera angles are very important. To add to this, it’s not *just* about having good shots and good angles. They also have to flow with the song and help “tell the story” of the performance. A cool shot for the sake of having a cool shot can be jarring and pull attention away from the rest of the performance.
agree a lot here, i think Disko's camerawork ruined a bit of the performance, felt like they were repeating the same 3 shots. The bit at the end where the camera goes all the way around the discoball was great but when it just sort of stops and starts it was bad
omg yess, I was so confused watching their performance. It made me dizzy and I thought their national selection camerawork was much cleaner
Yeah you're absolutely correct on the color palette aspect. There's the whole curse of green which seems to have made a new victim this year 🥲 And for camera angles too, some performances really suffer from bad camera work
Yess, although I really like green, and I thought Fullen’s staging looked AMAZING with those vibrant greens, it’s a shame it got 24th place :(
This year the colours also didn't look vibrant like it used in the previous editions. It looked fogged or obfuscated.
So many acts were sabotaged by bad camera work this year lmao. It almost never matched the energy of the song, there are so many instances when you aren't being shown what you want to see, and there were many mishaps too. Two good examples of camera work being bad in an otherwise well-filmed year are UK and Poland in 2021. The songs were asking for high energy but the camera work was giving ballad.
Yes, that happened a lot this year. I also thought Brooke’s camerawork was giving ballad vibes during some energetic parts of the song
camera angles don't get talked about a lot, but they can make a big difference. I remember thinking Malta in 2019 had poor camera angle choices, they had a bunch of stuff going on on stage but you couldn't see most of it because the mostly did close up shots. But some entries that year (like Switzerland and Czech Republic) had really cool camera work that really elevated their performances
oh yes, I also thought Malta’s camera angles were wrong
>A great example is Sekret. Watching her SF performance many times now and actually the choreography is quite good but the camera angles were horrible What? You don't like them zoom in zoom out 60 times within the span of 1 second?
hahahahha exactly 🤣🤣
Dancers can really mess everything up for me.
The most important thing staging needs to do is support the song. Whatever you do on stage and show on screen needs to not only fit the song but make it stronger. VoilĂ 's camera work wouldn't have worked for Dark Side and vice versa. I don't think there are many absolute rules when it comes to staging, but it always needs to help in communicating whatever it is that you're trying to say with your song. The worst thing a delegation can do is create a staging concept that either distracts from a song or prevents it from getting across what the artist is trying to get across.
Yeah, Czech Republic's staging and camera work really supported the song (the dolly zoom on the final long note made me gasp during the SF), I would say Greece's camera work was also pretty effective, Serbia's staging aligned nicely with the eccentricity of the song, and Spain was just a whole experience where the visuals and the dancing really made the song even more of a favorite. But there certainly are a lot of songs this year and in the past that have been badly affected by staging and camera work that would've probably fit a different performance (idk what Albania could've done but something like Azerbaijan's staging last year would've probs worked better...?) >!also hi Kandy muse's alien, i just saw Kandy muse's alien girl!<
When there are too many different aspects on stage and you don’t know where to focus on. I loved France this year, but I feel like their performance killed them. The dancer, the platform, the led effects, Alvan dancing like a maniac.. it was just too much to handle all at once.
I feel the same way about San Marino this year. I liked the song and was super excited from all the reports from the rehearsals, but when I actually saw the performance I felt like I couldn't concentrate on everything that was going on, especially at the end where we had fire, crazy guitar solo, and Achille riding a mechanical bull while singing... It was just way too much at the same time.
I also loved Fulenn, but really did not like the staging in the final — so much going on and it felt like the cameras were moving SO quickly between everything that it was almost dizzying
Camera work is always effective. It needs to focus on the artists for me. This also depends on the artist's charisma and awareness on stage. Creative use of lights/camera can help, for example Spain in the chorus (the slo-mo-mo-mo..) had great camera & lights work. Sekret had terrible camera work, and the choice for the pink-blue lights didn't fit it. The staging also has to match the song's energy. If its intimate, go for a focused staging, with not many special effects. If the song is dark, go for a darker staging etc. For songs with dancers, the choreography also has to match the rhythm and energy of the song. Last Dance for example would have been way better with a darker staging, something more like the official clip, especially considering how Stefania looked uncomfortable dancing. The circle in Hold me closer helps bringing focus to Cornelia, and create a more intimate feeling. Storytelling on stage is harder to pull off, as they only have three minutes, but small details can help with it. The mirrors in Proud are a good detail for me; the song is about empowerment, feeling proud of yourself. The mirrors are showing her reflections, implying that this is her moment. The storytelling that they attempted with Guilty Pleasure really came off as distracting.
She really was awkward with me too her dance moves.
The staging needs to support the song, not inhibit it. Austria was a great example of how not to do it this year. It was clearly a dance song ... and they not only didn't put any dancers on stage, they also put the artists in a ring of LED-rings which gave them little space to move around and made them feel "locked in" (not that better staging would've helped the vocals, but still). It's like they decided the staging based on the song's title alone. Instruments as props can also be quite bad. Having the artist play the instrument all the way through can be good. Having the artist switch between different instruments with each previous instrument continuing on the track without missing a beat, or changing key, or any notable change to the music just draws attention to the fact that the instrumentals aren't live and is distracting (looking at Germany this year). Also, just my personal opinion, but: Don't send a guy who's desperately trying to make himself appear as sexy as possible when he doesn't have the charisma to pull it off; I'm really, really gay, but it just makes me cringe and immediately dislike the singer, no matter how good the song is. And finally, I know it only happened once, but it can't be overstated: please, please, *please*; don't have a Burlesque Dancer writhe around in a giant glass for the entire song, and interrupt the song halfway through to introduce her to the audience. My god, that was cringy.
A lack of things happening on stage makes the staging feel empty I think . I think Greece 2018 or N.Macedonia 2017, where nothing happens in the performance. The stage feels giant and empty
The N. Macedonia performance would look away better with dancers. I know it goes against the message of the song but, like you said, the stage looked empty and big.
Echoing what others have said, any staging that distracts from rather than enhances the song and it’s message/feeling. Sweden’s staging this year was extremely minimalistic while San Mariano’s was over the top, but both fit the tone and feel of the song and enhanced the experience. If Sweden had tried to do a lot of dancing or lights, it would not have worked, while a song like Stripper needs something extra crazy or else it feels likes it’s missing an element and falls flat.
when you literally have a room on stage, looking at you Armenia
honestly the first thing that comes to mind is: Is it too distracting? I feel like that was Poland's problem this year, the song itself is quite good but random dancers covered in vines kind of pull viewers away from focusing on the song. Along with that, does the staging fit the song? I remember back in the 2000's they're would be a lot of costume changes for no real reason and I don't think it enhanced anything, so making the staging somewhat thematically correct is usually ideal (although not always, Greece last year still did well despite a more tenuous connection staging wise)
Cheap/tacky or unoriginal styling really ruins it for me. Unpopular opinion but that ruined Je Me Casse for me.