First Music Video - Shortcut to the dream (Foreign lang)

[foreigndude]

Hey everybody,

I just shot and edited (and published) my very first video gig ever. For those interested in how it was done, my original pre-production post is here.

The video itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8K7XNNpH7I

As I mentioned in the linked post, I made a ton of mistakes in every aspect from A to Z, but this was a total success and the band couldn't be happier with the results and comments they have received.

I'd like to thank the DVXUser community for being fricking awesome!

 

[Snapper123]

Honestly, I thought the alternative storyline (and especially the woman's scenes) looked outstanding and very professional, but I thought the band's scenes looked pretty low budget and especially with the band members having husky facial characters, a more contrast based lighting can do wonders for heavier set faces. There are some band shots that really excel at the end, but the lighting choice for the band, the low-key feel of the simple wide angle shot with a big distance between the band and camera, and even the way the band moved really made me feel like those shots were amatuer-ish and reflected what many young videographers seems to make the mistake of doing. The set design looked really good, but I want to say I remember seeing some pre-shoot shots of this video on another thread, with the lighting style being at night with the V really shining bright or something, and I thought that looked really good as a concept.

Basically, with bands, you really have to have a very appealing lighting style (much like the style of the woman's shots) that gives a very handsome, trendy appearance (in some sort of way) to the band, you have to make sure their clothing is very trendy in it's own right and appropriate for the look (those scarves really scream "I'm 30 trying to be 18!"), and in all reality, you truly have to be picky about these things. It looks like you did a wonderful job with the alternative storyline (and in those scenes, I'd use you as a cinematographer hands down, you really captured some good looking things there), but for the band, it plain out indeed looks low budget. That V light really is the only factor that seems to hold those shots over. If I were you, I'd honestly try and salvage more shots to throw in there (preferably close-ups of the band members) if you have any left over that you didn't use, and honestly if I were the band, I'd have probably wanted a re-shoot with a much more "rock band" lighting style vibe. I'm sure they're happy because they're an indie band and are probably glad just to get a music video, but don't let that let you slack. You really gotta always make sure to deliver a product that would really make it on television or Youtube.

Here's a good example of a lighting style that really takes it to the next level, and what quick, close-up shots of members can truly bring out in a music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDJpf2mQ0w4&feature=relmfu

Not saying to go all out like that, but it's mainly the singer's facial lighting style that I'm talking about, a bit contrast is a good thing - and while she doesn't suffer from a husky aspect, male singers sure do, so you really have to thin their faces up to something very handsome using a few tricks. Also, with your video, I keep thinking that a close-up wide angle would have done neat for you front band shots, like with the singer super-close up and a bit fish-eyed, with the other members much smaller and around him. Most of the frontal shots just seem too stale and too flat, both perceptionally, framing, and lighting wise.

Not trying to bag or anything, there were many good shots and this is probably very good for what an indie band would expect to get (and it will probably serve them very well!) it's just that I saying all this because I see super huge potential in that video and it indeed kept my attention, I just wish it was executed much better in some of the visual stylings band wise.

 

[foreigndude]

...but I want to say I remember seeing some pre-shoot shots of this video on another thread, with the lighting style being at night with the V really shining bright or something, and I thought that looked really good as a concept.

One of the reasons we couldn't go with that idea goes back to lighting. We couldn't get it to look decent with the worklights and couple of smaller clamps that I had, so we decided to stick with this.

Now, in retrospect, I would do some things differently of course, well, many things.

Thank you very much for the compliments on the side story. It was filmed during three different nights. First, we went out to film some city shots for an hour one night. Then, another night we did the "traveling in the car" parts in about a couple hours. Lastly, the girl scenes were filmed on a separate night at Detroit's Greektown Hotel...that took about 3 hours, mostly because I had too many people in that room that kept ruining the shots (unintentionally, but still, ruining them). That's one of my biggest issues because I wanted to include the girl scenes a lot more.

The mere fact that this was my very first project says a lot, I think, in both positive and negative aspects.

I get your idea about lighting (based on that video you attached), but being inexperienced, it will take me some time to get better at lighting. I'm very excited about learning more about all this stuff, though!