New Music Video - "Stay With Me"

PVSNC

PVSNC

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Here is a new music video that was written and performed by Makenzie Little.

http://www.pvsnc.com/media/staywithme.wmv

I had a chance to get my hands on a HVX200 for 3 days so I figured I would put it to some good use. I used the 1st day to familiarize myself with the camera and learning how to transferr the stock to an external HD while on location. I stayed safe with the settings and was really impressed with the camera. I like P2. We will do more but this was a test for me to see if I wanted the camera before I bought it. I still have a lot to learn about this camera but I think my SD day are over.
 
My thoughts:

Honestly, I didn't like it. Um I think it's mostly because it didn't feel right. Some colors were to flat, it felt extremely like it was shot with a 1 chip camera, and I think it can use major CCing. The shots you had were good in most of the video, but in some the framing was off from the others you had.

Transitions didn't work for me at all. Maybe take some out, and change it up a bit.

Sorry for coming hard, but it's really my opinion.

Keep shooting though, and good effort.

Robbie
 
I need to learn that camera better. Although I don't know your experience level, except to say if you've shot with this camera for more than 3 days, your more experienced with it than I am, I do have a couple questions for you. 1-Tell me what to change to keep it from what you describe as a 1 chip. 2- what CC would you do and where(I believe the outside shots could be richer to match the inside) 3- idicate what clips had framing off(I do know that I had one shot on the bridge that was slightly out of focus but nothing that would fit to replace it with) 4- On a medium tempo country song, what transitions would you put in and where?
I appreciate you ripping into this. I know how you feel when you say you didn't personally like it. I see some of the comments on some of the submitted stock personally don't like and, believe me, it's not even close to my style. I have to learn the cinematic world a step at a time. I've been studying and listening to settings arguments. There seems to be alot of opinions out there about what is right for what. I'm going to keep learning.
I still have this on the time line and may still go in and re-work it. It was a zero budget to start with so some more time won't hurt. Thanks.
 
Hey man,

I'm on the DVX, and I have owned it for a 6-7 months now?

3 Days? Damn man, not bad then. You're just learning right?

Get shooting, and learn that camera!

I just felt that your shots were "flat" and by this I mean color wise. They just didn't really "pop" or "stand out". Easy fix in post. If you want, you can send me a full res file, and I'll be glad to Color Correct (CC) it for you, just to give you an idea.

I'm looking at it now, and the first two shots were good. Color wise, and framing wise. So good job to that.

As for the 1 chip issue. 1 chip cameras are just the small MiniDV cameras you would buy at Walmart. Gross quality, colors, you get the drift. I'm not saying your quality was gross, but it just had a feel to one of those 1 chip cameras. It looked really video-y. Did you shoot this 24p? or 29.97? Or god what other frame rate does this camera offer?

Again, CCing this piece will fix it.

In some shots, I think there was to much space. In the car, maybe bring it in a little tighter on her by zooming.

This shot here:

1203897455.png


Could use some work, in terms of Coloring. It was a nice shot actually.

Over all, it just didn't feel like a music video, and I'm not sure why...Maybe it's the edit?

Anyway, good job for just 3 days shooting with this beast camera!

Robbie
 
I think the thing that's lacking is that there's nothing in particular happening -- just different shots of her singing in different places.

If there was a story going on that related to the lyrics of the song, people would look past the technical issues and just enjoy the video.

Technically, I think maybe you should reframe a little bit (a benefit of shooting in HD) and crush the blacks some.



And Robbie--
before you tell somebody that their footage looks like it was shot on a "gross Wal-mart camera", consider that it might be an issue with the method of compression.
 
No Drew, I'm not talking about the compression.

Even if it's full res, the colors still looked flat in most of the shots, and that's why I had that 1 chip feeling.

A story would help with this huge.
 
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Most all of my shooting in the last several years has been all SD 4x3 with Sony DSR390's. I have 4 of them, all with ccu's because alot of what I do is mixing multi-cams in a colliseum environment for corporate. I have alot of money wraped up in production gear that supports all of it including 15' x 20' projection screens, multiple plasmas, multiple mixing worlds and DVCAM recording decks out my butt, etc, so this camera looks appealing because it is so cheap. I haven't shot with a 1/3" in a very long time so I'm trying to overcome the puny ccd phobia. I have so much $ tied up in production that I really can't afford the 2/3" big brothers to this guy right now so I figured I'd learn some on this 1st.

I shot most all of this 30p. I didn't shoot anything in 24p since I really didn't know if I would shoot correctly to use in post. I wanted to get the strobe and shutter settings under control, or at least understand them better. I did do some test shots before I took the camera back. I think I shot in every mode there was.

I mentioned in the 1st post that I was shooting this what I call "safe". That means that the girl I shot it for could definately use it for a promo piece for herself regaurdless of how close to cinema look it was. Plus, we couldn't re-shoot anything after those 2 days, so it had to be usable from the 2 days. I would never do somthing like this with a first camera for a paid job.

I will have this camera in about 2 weeks. Then I can get wierd with the modes.
 
I don't think theres anything that wrong with this video, its just different style than what the MTV generation is used to. I do think a clearer story line would help in this type of slower paced video and yeah, some stronger color correction would make it pop but it wasn't that flat.
 
Hey, I aggree. The were 2 purposes in this video. To try the camera out in 2 days and just to give this friend of mine something to give to a music producer. It was just to help promote the song. It wasn't to much about shooting the video. I went into it with hardly a plan other than just listening to the song the night before and saying, "hey, let's try doing....um..this..yeah, I think that might work. 75% of what was shot was decided while we stood there looking around and saying to each other, let's shoot...uh..there. I didn't have anyone to help with the set-up's, being last minute as it was. I also wanted to shoot some green screen too, so I did take the time to set that up in the back room of the same coffee shop that we shot in front of. Since we shot that, I've learned alot on the forums about settings, detail levels, gamma setings, etc. When I get my new camera next week, I am doing another one with her and it will have a very planned out story line. I will also have help and will have many more shots to choose from in editing. I will shoot completely in the film modes, since then I will have the camera and can do reshoots. Thanks again.
 
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