First music video (HVX200 w/ Letus 35 Extreme)

SignalPix

SignalPix

Active member
I went into a Potbelly Sandwich shop here in Minnesota recently and there was a lone guitarist playing for the lunch crowd. I struck up a conversation with him afterward. He asked what I did. I said I make videos. He said, "Hey, I need a music video. Can you do it?" Never having made a music video before I said sure (not really believing it would go anywhere). Lo and behold he was persistent. He told me the song he wrote was an homage to Vikings running back Adrian "All day" Peterson. Not knowing football at all I said, "Okay." He told me some of his ideas for the video. I put together an estimate for him. When he agreed I was like, oh man, now I gotta make this thing. I contacted some friends and we shot it over two days last month.

Shot it to two 16 GB P2 cards on my HVX200. Rented a Letus 35 Extreme from Cinequipt. My DP brought his set of Nikons. Recorded in 720p/24p. Edited it with Final Cut Studio 2 on my four year old PowerBook G4 (OSX Vers. 10.4.11, 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4, 2 GB DDR SDRAM). Exported the edited piece using Quicktime Conversion. Settings: MP4, H.264, 6000 kbps, optimized for download, 1280x720 HD, current frame rate, key frame automatic.

As of now, it's posted on YouTube with the "watch in HD" option. So be sure to select that. Love to hear your feedback: cheers, jeers, suggestions, whatever. One thing I am concerned about is that it looks (and works) good on my wife's PC, but on my PowerBook G4 the HD playback seems to stutter. A friend who is also a Mac user said he sees the same sort of stuttering. Please let me know what you guys are seeing, and if you have ideas on whether this is a hardware issue or something I could remedy during the compression stage. Thanks.

Be sure to click "watch in HD" after the jump: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkh0rUL_Os
 
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Looked good on my mac. Nice job. I liked the set design a lot. The camera work was really good. I think the performances were a little weak but with the actor/friends you used it was great. Directing was good, could have been improved with additional adjustments and takes but again, awesome and I'm sure the budget was about 2 grand cheaper than this video. The editing felt like an 8 out of 10. 10 being the best.

Looks good, keep it up.
 
seven.b said:
looks good on my imac. Nice job man.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind word, seven.b. Glad to hear it's playing okay on some Mac's. Unsure why the HD version of the video's stuttering during playback. Apple's 720 Quicktime movie trailers play back fine for me. Unsure what gives.
 
MDCFILMS said:
Looked good on my mac. Nice job. I liked the set design a lot. The camera work was really good. I think the performances were a little weak but with the actor/friends you used it was great. Directing was good, could have been improved with additional adjustments and takes but again, awesome and I'm sure the budget was about 2 grand cheaper than this video. The editing felt like an 8 out of 10. 10 being the best.

Looks good, keep it up.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the lengthy feedback, MDC. Glad to hear it plays fine on your Mac, too. As to the set design, I paid a friend who's done props and production design-y stuff before. I'll pass along the compliments. As to the talent, when you have three days to cast before the camera rolls, you take what you can get, but I was pleased at the outcome. Regarding the direction, I totally could have been better prepared before going into this. Lesson learned. I appreciate hearing your thoughts.
 
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