Have you ever wanted to attend a concert, but it was states away? What about being unable to afford a concert whether it be ticket prices, travel expenses, or other financial trouble? Or, have you ever shown an interest in hardcore? Sunny Singh, the creator of hate5six, has the answer. Hate5six is a website with thousands of videos of punk and hardcore shows, primarily from the Northeast. In 2001, Singh started to document the South Jersey pop-punk scene to learn filmmaking and editing and to be a part of the community. After seeing that he could share his work online, hate5six had its official launch in 2008.
When opening the website, you are greeted by the manifesto, explaining what the project is. It says “This project stands for the redistribution of high-quality live music videos in as much of an anti-capitalist framework as realistically allowable”, making sure that everybody has access to the free and high-quality videos Singh provides. After almost 10 years, it has become his full-time job, so he crowdfunds his income through Patreon. With this, he has been able to go from releasing 250 videos a year to around 600, uploading daily. By subscribing to his Patreon, you have the ability to vote on whichever video comes out next. All of the videos recorded will eventually get uploaded, but it is up to the consumer to decide in which order.
As mentioned before, Singh films, edits, and releases the videos by himself, and he has answered some questions about the process in the FAQ section of his website. Throughout the project so far, he has used three different cameras (currently using a Z Cam E2) and edits on Adobe Premiere. When at shows, he holds his camera the entire time instead of using a tripod because “hate5six videos are defined by their dynamic nature. A static shot on a tripod is devoid of any emotion or feeling connected to the show.”
In 2016, a 17-minute documentary by Keith Glidewell, Hate5six: Behind the Rage, was released, giving a more in-depth look at the video making process. When seeing how he could improve his videos, Singh decided that he wanted to get overhead shots of the band/crowd. Instead of buying a drone, because he prefers the do-it-yourself method, he built an overhead sky cam. He explains that the camera sits on the machine, which will be able to turn 360 degrees, and it travels on a suspended cable above the crowd to get the shots.
In 2017, Singh developed and released SAGE, which is an artificially intelligent band recommendation system. To get recommendations, you have to type in at least one band you love and one you hate. After submitting your answers, you will get multiple bands recommended, complete with links to their music/videos and a match percentage out of 100%. If you want to know more about how it is developed, you can read about it here.
Singh was filming at the Act Like You Know festival in November and had previously recorded a few of the bands on the lineup: Spy, I Am, Broken Vow, Scowl, and Gridiron, to name a few.
At the Act Like You Know Festival, the vocalist of Deepincision, tweeted about Singh after meeting him.
Even though the main focus of the videos on hardcore, punk, and metal bands, Singh can step away from that. Some of my personal favorites are the death metal band 200 Stab Wounds, metalcore band Killswitch Engage, and pop-punk bands Knuckle Puck, Neck Deep, and Yellowcard.
There are even non-music videos on his website. Under the Videos tab, there is a link to LOVE5SIX, a playlist on his YouTube. There are 18 videos of different weddings he has recorded. Each video is of one wedding, titled with the couple’s names, containing a highlight reel of the day.
There are still plenty of videos from both the Act Like You Know Festival and otherwise that are going to be uploaded, but the order of the releases are based on a voting system. If you subscribe to his Patreon, you gain the access to vote once a day on the video you want to see next. Also, subscribing helps make sure that hate5six can continue to make content.
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