How to Save a Life - The Fray

I'd say you did a very nice job, esp for a 17 year old. I loved the overhead floodlight shot of the piano and the overall general lighting on the piano looked nice.

The overlay of the text at the beginning really brings down the production quality like a big slap in the face.

I don't so much like the square vignette nor the fully desaturated look of the story shots, although the content was decent. I maybe woulda done more of a bleach bypass than fully destaturated. The candle in color in the foreground really overwhelms the desaturated, scaled down background which brings down the production quality. It would make for a good DVD menu as it looks like a drop zone, but for a video I'd make use of the whole frame at all times.

The basketball slam dunk from two angles.. although cool in it's own way I'd cut it completely as it was very distracting to the storyline.

The clip after the basketball part with them sitting in the gym or whatever was unnessary as well. Everything in there needs be a narrative on the two friends friendship, or lose it. Was that slam dunk a pivotal moment in their friendship? Was that guy stretching on the bench? Unlike the boy kissing the girl, or the campfire.. these were too mundane.

The head wrap .... not sure I get it. Brain cancer? Him pulling off his hat to show his friend the bandages is too much information without enough info at the same time. It lacked any subtlety. If they were that close the one would already know the other's situation and the hat scene would be redundant. I can see where you were going with it maybe. Perhaps you trying to show some normalcy and then a sudden stark reminder of reality when he removed the hat? Not subtle enough though. Let the story tell itself more quietly. The one could just glance away, refusing to meet the other one's eyes followed by the reaction shot and the audience's imagination would fill in the blanks.

Overall impressive, great effort, you're miles ahead of the game for your age. Very nice concepts, shows you story boarded to some degree... great job with the whole piano shots (lighting) and post treatments. Definitely the high point. Some work needed on content/continuity and some of the compositions ie the candle and the smaller vignetted stuff.
 
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I like the song. Actually I love the Fray, I was into them before they actually made it big.

Although, I think you missed the overall feeling of the song in your rendition of the story. That is me personally though. There were a lot of shots that had nothing to do with the song.

However, I think the piano part was shot very well. I'm not actually a fan of dropping in a replacement of the artist. But since you don't have the actual band, I think it looks great.

I would kill the square thing. I don't see a reason to have it.

But good work overall.
 
Thanks so much for the comments :-)
Greatly appreciate the time you put into it!
Will work on improving these things and being more subtle.

Yes, it was cancer. We were hoping to use a bald cap but it broke and had to make do with bandages.

I agree, it's not the same when replacement artists are used but this was the task we were given for our media project. It would have been better if I had stuck to the rendition of the story of the song, but I had this vivid image of the story with him getting cancer and thought it suited the the feeling of the song, yet not so much the words. Thanks again for your comments.

If anyone else has any comments I would love to hear them.
 
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Also if anyone else has made any music video's please feel free to post them in this thread, I would love to see what you guys are up to and get some inspiration for future projects :-D

Thanks
 
Sheesh Louieeesh! If you don't get an "A" for this project I'm going to kick somebody's ass. I'm very pleased you are getting some detailed critiques. When work is shoddy most people give mild encouragement but when people have talent and are developing it you will see good detailed criticism such as Ming's.

I was impressed with how positively you took the comments and how you gave a pledge to work on being more subtle. You're going to develop into a great filmmaker if you maintain this attitude and keep experimenting. I have a 13-year old son who wants to make music videos and I'm going to show him yours as an inspiration for what he can accomplish if he applies himself and can get some cooperation from his school. The spotlit piano was totally pro and your shot selections were dynamite.

I don't know where you are located but if you're on the west coast you should come to one of our music video shoots some day.
 
I thought it was very well done. You had some interesting camera angles and movement and I thought the story and acting worked out very well. I thought iwas lit well and you avoided sound issues altogether. Overall a very good job.
 
Sebastian, I very much enjoyed your video. I've taught high school video production, and you easily eclipsed anything my students have done. With such talent, I hope you'll keep practicing your art.
 
Cheers Mark :-D
I hope your son liked it. Please let me know when he's made his music video, I'd love to see it!
That would be so cool, but sadly thats miles from where I live, New Zealand. Maybe if I come and visit America sometime soon I'll pop in and say hi!
Cheers for the offer.

Thanks wsimpson and shutterspeedfilms for the positive feedback :-) If there's anything else you think I can work on for future projects, please let me know.
 
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