Concert Video Continuity

Was just watching And All That Could Have Been, a live video by Nine Inch Nails and got to wondering about a few things. The video itself is good and quite entertaining; I have always had a thing for potentially seizure inducing flashing lights.

As with most live videos, it takes the form of being one single continuous show, even though this is not the case in reality. The first time I had watched it I had never clicked in to the idea that it was clearly footage from many different performances. This time around though, while watching Head Like a Hole, I noticed that Trent was playing three different guitars: one green and black, one white and red and one all black.

This break in continuity sidetracked me to wondering as to what the desired composition was supposed to be for the video. Was it really designed to seem like one show? Was it designed to give the feeling of what a Nine Inch Nails show is normally like? Was it designed to give the feeling of what a Nine Inch Nails show is supposed to be like? Was it designed to give the feeling of what Trent wants us to think a Nine Inch Nails show should be like? At this point I started wondering if the footage you actually see in a live video really has much or any correlation to the music you actually hear in the video. For all I know, other than some close-ups of singing or guitar playing, what I see on the screen may be from a performance of an entirely different song from what I am hearing.

I guess this is all just the process of editing. 'Carefully constructed' as Murray would say. No detail left to chance. Gotta make it look cool. I watched it; I guess that counts for something.