music video from 'toxin' director chris folkens

[leaftoe]

hello group

from director chris folkens (http://www.dualfilms.com/) and i:scintilla (http://www.iscintilla.com), we humbly present a brand new music video for 'capsella [toxin mix]'

below is a link for a 30mb mp4 file of the complete video (not the greatest compression)...also remember that quicktime v6.0 or above is required:

http://www.iscintilla.com/visual/capsella_hi.mp4

this video was shot entirely with the dvx100 and edited in final cut pro v4.....comments on the video can be directed to cfolkens@uiuc.edu....comments on the music can be sent to info@iscintilla.com

thanks!

jc

http://www.dualfilms.com/
http://www.iscintilla.com/

[soundman]

if slick is everything, then youve got it all. ?is slick everthing?

[J.R. Hudson]

What's with the interlacing? ???

[artistiam]

The video was hot something I could see on mtv without questioniong who did it but why wasn't it crisp I'll have to say what john said what's up with the interlacing?

[Mino]

Ummm... It sure would be nice if I could focus on something for more than a tenth of a second. Other than that it was ok. Nice tune.

[pandvx72]

I think the "is slick everything?" comment is a good one. This piece is slick, but not very smart. The execution of the piece does not make the concept very clear. I am very confused by the storyline. What is the storyline?

[Toaster]

I enjoyed watching it .. there were some nice shots and some clever effects.

But I was confused a bit by the storyline as well. Not really sure where I was being led.

Also, just my little wish, if compression is compromised, maybe try to save it at a smaller size (320*240) which will make it less pixelated when viewing...

But nice work overall ... congrats :-D

[Shaw]

The music was quite pro but I'm not sure I can say much for the video. The editing was indeed slick but the actual camera work seemed somewhat poor (in terms of stability). Don't get me wrong - it looked nicely exposed focused etc but I'm just not a fan of the wobbly look. Maybe I don't watch enough MTV.

I very much disliked the editing though (even though I think the editing was good for their _goals_. It's the goals I disagree with). Honestly, it eliminated the whole sound sync thing which is IMO a good demonstration of really strong directing and editing ability. Fast cuts just don't impress me. I much prefer to see fast camera moves. You get the fast movement but in a much much nicer way.

[monte]

I think i understood the story, he gets the call, then we go back in time, see that the girl got assaulted, and see the guy driving to come get her.

Felt a lot like the music video "California" except without the closure of the Rapper shooting the rapists.

[Bradbro]

Guys, you're being a little harsh, (except for the part about the interlacing, it was hard to actually evaluate the video it was so distracting - please work out the compression thing). They are clearly a band wanting to be on MTV and this video delivers. It's got the look and feel of a quick-cut MTV clip, it has fast cars, hip band in club cutaways, what more do you want if you want to visualize this thing being on tv? Kind of got an Avril all grown up, dealing with adult issues vibe from the video. Overall I say nice job!

[Cheesesailor77]

yeah looks sweet dude, but the 'lacing is... eek, u can barely make it out. Other than that, i agree the editing at least needs work, i think, mtv or not, we've all agreed its a little to quick to really take anything in.

Whoever DP'd though, PROPS MAN! Excellent work

[antomic]

excellent! very pro. i am a fan of visual stimulation. i like the rapid fire cuts. great job. i wont mention the interlacing, but yeah...

[J.R. Hudson]

Still concerned with the interlace and artifacts issue; that being said...

This is a wonderfully shot piece. Eye Candy in a typical 'seen it' and 'been done' before kind of way. Its what 'they' want I suppose. The director/dp knows how to shoot though; techncially this si superb.

I thought it worked wonderfully when the live footage was intercut into the conceptual footage. Great job; I thought the 'casting' of the 'boyfriend and blonde' was kind of weak though and would like to have seen more contrat in terms of lighting on their scenes.

The band was cool; the singer hot and a rockin song. Kepp usposted on future DVX works and good luck with this. (Of course the dude that posted never came back) :P

Nicely done. Some of the best work I've seen on here. Still trippin on the all of the compression issues though.

[leaftoe]

hello

my name is jim and i am guitarist/programmer/keyboardist for the band in question.......i (with the director at my side) posted this video for comments.....and comments we got!.....we definitely appreciate everything that was said (that's why we posted it to this forum)

a few tidbits about this video:

- it was produced with a $0 budget
- there was a barely-experienced crew at part of the shoot
- the compression we used sucks (any ideas?)
- we were definitely going for a 'slick' video, not an 'mtv' video

keep the comments coming!.....we were happy with the way the video turned out and we welcome criticisms and praise!

thanks

jc
http://www.iscintilla.com/

[antomic]

well "$0 budget" and "barely experienced" is undetectable. this was beautifully done. you have surrounded yourselves with talented people.

as far as compression suggestions...either throw a deinterlace filter over the final piece or reverse field dominance?

[gualbert]

Was good but for the pace of the song the video has too much flickering, in-out focus, shaking, in-out zoom, quck cuts, etc... just an opinion of course ;)

[J.R. Hudson]

I agree Gualbert. I'm not saying I could do better as this is really a technically sound video. Unfortunately, it is nothing new and almost an overkill on the 'post effects'.

I think it's time for video's to take another direction visually as they all are kind of the same thing over and over.

I do want to emphasis, Technically it is a great job; conceptually it is nice.

Not terribly original though; which is subjective on my part anyway.

[natob2]

I think it's time for video's to take another direction visually as they all are kind of the same thing over and over.



I really agree with you John. And I'm really not speaking specifically about this video. So many music videos these days, professional MTV work and amateur work that can be found on this board, just kind of blend together to me. I love when a video says something, makes some kind of statement, and takes a very original approach to making that statement.

Among many other examples, I think that the "U.S. History" music video from Digital Interference (http://www.digitalinterference.net) is a good example of making a statement. Yeah the lyrics may hold some cliches, but it really says something. I encourage people to check it out.

Then again this is just my opinion and personal preference.

[STORYTELLER32]

Overall very professionally done.

WAY too much fast paced cutting though which is just a post production choice. There was a story in there? IMHO, if you're going to do the fast paced cutting, keep it to just a band performance when you don't have to follow a story. Or keep the story stuff with less cutting to make it more clear and use the fast paced cutting only on the band performance.

Cinematography looked great. Song was good. Lead singer does look like an older Avril.

[dakotapod]

I really like the look

Don't get the storyline but that means little.

[dualfilms]

Greetings all! (I apologize for the stream of consciousness style but i'm running on about two hours of sleep in three days)

Thank you all for your posts...they have all been very informative and while some have been rather critical, that is to be expected on a forum like this, especially with a lot of directors with their own unique style, etc...

That being said I figured I should address some of the issues that have been brought up repeatedly on this thread, since I...well...directed, produced, shot, and edited the thing. First and foremost the interlacing....ahhh yess....t'was not interlaced my friends. We shot in 24p and if anything it must have been the really shi**y compression that I had to use (which I now thoroughly regret releasing because it is just that bad and totally does the video a disservice) because the G5/FCP4 system i was working on was giving me so many problems that the only thing it would export was a really crappy (and WAY too large) mp4. That being said, I am currently working on getting a much cleaner version which I will post soon.

Thank you very much for the kind words on directing and dp'ing this thing...it was really just me running around with a small student crew (mostly involved in traffic control (or COW control....LONG story....we were filming by a farm...lets just put it that way) and/or driving the cars for the car scene) and the DVX and wide angle and telephoto lens (sometimes hanging out of the back of a jeep instead of running but you get the point). Most of it was using purely natural light -- which just goes to show the importance of working with great locations when working on a micro (or nonexistent) budget. In fact, I almost liked it that way because -- and I wanted to make this clear -- this was really a test of guerrilla filmmaking. It was my first real attempt at producing/directing/editing/shooting a music video. I wanted to give it a rougher feel (hence the grain, shaky camera in parts, and quick edits/movements/zooms). Sometimes that rough feel was entirely natural (as in the car scenes where my car is actually zooming past the camera at 80 mph...and the camera car trying to keep up!)...

So, to make a long story short(er)...this was more or less an experiment in creating a music video and even whether or not I could pull off a car chase scene of sorts. It was more of a learning experience (because I'm at the University of Illinois where there is *NO* film program and I have to teach myself!) that in the long run gave this band a video to work with...allowed me to work on developing, shooting, and editing a music video, unlike the other work I had done to that point! Above all else, I felt that this created a good working relationship with the band and that I will look forward to hopefully filming another video sometime this upcoming semester!

As for editing, I may even head back to the editing room to tool around with some of those edits....especially those *even I* think are too fast....which actually leads me to ask all of you if there is a certain time in the video where the edits (above all else) should really be lengthened...where the story just doesn't make sense....please let me know!!! (like a timestamp from the video). I really look at this site as a sort of test screening of sorts and I really value your input because you are really some of the most critical audiences I've found (which is GREAT!!!)

Do you think I should avoid telling the story out of sequence? That is actually one of the things that appealed to me about this that made the video at least somewhat unique...perhaps the visual style could illustrate the flashback a bit more than the flashes do now (no pun intended)? Perhaps if we flash from color to black/white? What do you all think?

As for the story, I'd like to clarify this....ultimately the song is called the "Toxin Mix" because it is going in the film I also produced/directed called "Toxin." The lyrics in the song really parallel the story of the film and I wanted to create a music video that would *also* parallel the same lyric of "Do we turn to logic or follow love"...hence bringing at least some light to the situation the main actor is facing....after she storms out and leaves him hanging...he could have just walked away but ultimately he follows love, goes to rescue her, and at the end the last shot of the film is her saying (although unfortunately not so clearly) "I'm sorry".....

I'll be sure to post a revised draft soon enough....meanwhile stay tuned to www.dualfilms.com for the updates on this project and my others (including "Toxin" which actually made its way on this board a while back...the trailer at least...there's actually two clips on the site which give at least a partial look at the film!). Also, for those of you who might take interest in this...although this music video had a really rough jagged look to the footage and the final edit, I have a much different approach in store for the next video....of course this time maybe i'll have some money to rent a dolly ;)

Kindest regards,
Chris Folkens
Producer/Director/Composer
www.dualfilms.com

"TOXIN" COMING SOON (www.dualfilms.com)
**Selected for Chamberlain Brothers/Penguin Group International Student Film Festival Compilation DVD** (COMING IN MARCH to TRIBECA and on DVD)

[B._Summers]

So ZERO Lights as far as you putting anything up?

[dualfilms]

Not zero...i borrowed an interview light kit for one of the days of shooting for some of the interior stuff of my apartment...in fact that was the most critical to have at least some sort of backlight on the subjects in order to separate them from the walls. The parking garage was great because the lights were so close to their heads that it gave great light where we needed it...beyond that the car stuff was shot from 9am - noon and color corrected in post to look cool ;)

anyone else have any suggestions or comments? i would love to hear them!

kindest regards,
chris folkens

[IncMedia]

Coooool Video.. I Like.

[dualfilms]

Thanks IncMedia! Glad you enjoyed the video :-)

I'm really interested in trying to get a higher resolution/quality render of this thing to post for you guys to see... i would REALLY like to get one that is exported as true 2:35:1....B/C i hate wasting space on the black bars!!!

~chris