StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Did a music video (awhile ago) and I would like a critique of it. I did not do the music, just the video, but please judge both, the band likes honest feedback as well. There is a few things I am not happy with but I will see what you guys have to say. I am always trying to improve my skill.

Likes?
Dislikes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOy-L2BXPAI

I notice that the camera rarely if ever follows a moving subject, the Vespa for instance starts in the middle of the frame and then it's just gone, I usually expect the camera to pan & follow it for a bit before it exits. Same thing with the woman, you see her walking into a static frame, then it cuts, then she's knocking on the door or doing something else. As a result the individual scenes seem too short and jerky to me, and it kills the flow of the video. I know that this is about the only way to do it since panning with a handheld camera looks seriously bad, so you did a good job within your limits.

What I think would help a lot is a homemade steadycam, which apparently can be built for under $20. This would let you smoothly pan and follow the moving subjects so you don't have to cut to new scenes as often, and then you can have better transitions between scenes.

Use the youtube function.

The good:

Some cool shots.
Girl's pretty doable.
Some of the band interacting with camera works.
Music syncing is pretty good (and I know that's a bitch).

The stuff I noticed:

What aerius said.
The aspect ratio should be in 16:9 really.
Continuity error: Girl has stockings that change into fishnet tights over the course of a moped ride (pretty minor, but yeah).
Some shots and framing I didn't enjoy (especially the girl POV at the doorway, where the dude looks at the camera), but that's the sort of thing that comes with practise and storyboarding.
Band footage not that dynamic.

And since this is a thread where we post our music videos, here's mine:

I think the cuts in the beginning are bit boring. Where the guy is grabbing the tools and reparing his Vespa and the girl is dressing up. These might be better if they were faster.

Regarding post production i´d try upping the contrast. The whole video is a bit flat at the moment.

Otherwise, nice shots and cool band.

I really like the band and checked out their myspace account. Good old school ska. Send them over to Germany. I´ll go to their concert anytime.

In order to critisize the work it would be necessary to know if you want to be critisized as an artist on a professional or a hobbyist level.

Thanks for the feed back. (I enjoy both professional and artistic feedback.)

The aspect ratio was 16:9. The export settings got fudge up, so the youtube video is 4:3, while the original is 16:9 1080i.

Glad you caught the continuity error. It bugs me to no end! It was shot in 3 parts and one 5 month gap. (Bands are flakey)

I am personally not happy with: the dude at the door shot, that fact that there are four or five shots of her at the door, and when she is leaving the house and that horrible pan into the bushes.

salm wrote:I think the cuts in the beginning are bit boring. Where the guy is grabbing the tools and reparing his Vespa and the girl is dressing up. These might be better if they were faster.

Regarding post production i´d try upping the contrast. The whole video is a bit flat at the moment.

Otherwise, nice shots and cool band.

I really like the band and checked out their myspace account. Good old school ska. Send them over to Germany. I´ll go to their concert anytime.

I will try that with the contrast. (Anything in post can be redo.)

salm wrote:In order to critisize the work it would be necessary to know if you want to be critisized as an artist on a professional or a hobbyist level.

Is this about mine? If so, a mixture of the first two would probably be best.

And yeah, small things like continuity errors are best avoided by doing all the shooting on one day if possible. That can end up impossible, of course.

Rye wrote:

salm wrote:In order to critisize the work it would be necessary to know if you want to be critisized as an artist on a professional or a hobbyist level.

Is this about mine? If so, a mixture of the first two would probably be best.

Na, it was about Sam or Is video.
Yours looks very professional. I can´t see much that distinguishes it from videos on MTV qualitywise. I´m no expert on music videos, though.
IIRC, you´re attending a film school, right?

Regarding the hustler video, I got basically the same as the people spotted here, although I just watched it first and then read the comments. Some tighter editing on the start would help, and maybe some more interesting framing. You appeared to be avoiding showing anyones face as well, although that may well have been deliberate. If the girl is cute, why not show it? If the scooter guy's the focal point of the video, show him too.

More dynamic shots of the band in action would be good, I cant hear this type of music without thinking of Madness and all the mental videos they shot for their tunes. Static mid-shots of them singing occasionally intercut with dutch angle close-ups looks a little mixed up and unfocused. Is it wacky or is it documentary? Also the hand-held shots were a bit iffy, I'd be looking for something to steady that up a bit. And what's with the yard sale at the end? Is that the band or the hustler or what? You lost me somewhat there, I was expecting some sort of stinger when I saw that, then nothing, letting the video peter out a little.

I have to say overall I quite liked it, and can see that the band would be pretty happy with it. Quality is nice, most of the shots are in focus and show the action, and as mentioned before it never hurts to have a nice pair of legs in your video. I love the music, and the band sound very pro compared to some of the bands I've played in. I would liked to have seen either more of the girl and the story (ideally involving the bands gig somehow), or concentrate on the band and just have babes populate the audience. I'd say 3.5 stars out of 5, damn good effort.

Kenny_10_Bellys wrote:Regarding the hustler video, I got basically the same as the people spotted here, although I just watched it first and then read the comments. Some tighter editing on the start would help, and maybe some more interesting framing. You appeared to be avoiding showing anyones face as well, although that may well have been deliberate. If the girl is cute, why not show it? If the scooter guy's the focal point of the video, show him too.

More dynamic shots of the band in action would be good, I cant hear this type of music without thinking of Madness and all the mental videos they shot for their tunes. Static mid-shots of them singing occasionally intercut with dutch angle close-ups looks a little mixed up and unfocused. Is it wacky or is it documentary? Also the hand-held shots were a bit iffy, I'd be looking for something to steady that up a bit. And what's with the yard sale at the end? Is that the band or the hustler or what? You lost me somewhat there, I was expecting some sort of stinger when I saw that, then nothing, letting the video peter out a little.

I have to say overall I quite liked it, and can see that the band would be pretty happy with it. Quality is nice, most of the shots are in focus and show the action, and as mentioned before it never hurts to have a nice pair of legs in your video. I love the music, and the band sound very pro compared to some of the bands I've played in. I would liked to have seen either more of the girl and the story (ideally involving the bands gig somehow), or concentrate on the band and just have babes populate the audience. I'd say 3.5 stars out of 5, damn good effort.

Again thanks for the feedback. The girl did not want her face to be shown (she was cute, but just did not want it shown). You are right I should have got more of the guy. The yardsale was the bands choice. Somekind of inside joke, so I did not put up to much of a fight.

I do need to work on the hand helds and dynamic shots of the band. I want to blame my camera for the hand helds, but thats just an excuse. (I will look into that homemade steady cam to add some weight to it.) I will start practicing handheld more.

salm wrote: Yours looks very professional. I can´t see much that distinguishes it from videos on MTV qualitywise. I´m no expert on music videos, though.
IIRC, you´re attending a film school, right?

I agree. When I watched your video my ego shrunk ten fold.

Damn, you're not wrong. That's a very pro video right there, Rye. How much of the shaky-cam was real and how much in post?

All the shaky-cam was live. You can use the earthquake filter in finalcut, but I don't trust it.

Thanks for your kind comments, guys. I don't go to a film school, but I do an MWP course (Media, Writing and Production), and this is one of the better things I've produced/wrote/edited.

Speaking of camera stabilisation...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvPHSd4zjZg&feature=sub

BFX from Indy Mogul is one of the film effects subscriptions I have on YouTube, some great ideas for cheap and cheerful film-making.

Kenny_10_Bellys wrote:Speaking of camera stabilisation...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvPHSd4zjZg&feature=sub

BFX from Indy Mogul is one of the film effects subscriptions I have on YouTube, some great ideas for cheap and cheerful film-making.

Yeah, I'm subscribed to them. It's interesting that they should mention the Canon 7d, I'm gonna get the Canon 5d sometime after xmas when I've sold my Sony HDR HC5E, I was playing around with one the other day and the depth of field and shooting in low light is sex on toast. They shoot in 29 fps I think, so once the firmware update comes to change that, the 5d will be absolutely sexual.

I'm looking to get myself a video capable camera soon myself, but since I have my Nikon DSLR I'm thinking more a dedicated HD video camcorder than a video capable SLR of some kind. I do like the filmic quality though, but it's a tough call.