First project - feedback please!

R

richblend

Active member
Hey, been reading here for a while, and just finished my first project.

It's a music video, shot with HV20 and SG pro. Budget was £40, to buy the work lights from Homebase.

For the first half, we shot on Brighton beach - it was run and gun, and we only had 2 hours to do everything, so there were a lot of compromises (and mistakes made). We got buzzed by a police helicopter (which made it into the video), but no-opne asked us to leave.

For the 2nd half, we shot at an abandoned airbase. We had permission this time. We only had 8 500w worklights to illuminate the whole band, so it was a real struggle to get enough light, and there is some grain.

This is a first cut, and I'd REALLY appreciate some feedback, so I can improve it. The main issue is a lack of original footage (due to time constraints). Any tips on CC, the pace, shot choice would be awesome.

Video is here (flash streaming, no download needed)

http://www.pitchblend.com/v6/sirens_video.html

Thanks!
Rich
 
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Well done. I like the color. Better than a lot of videos done on much more expensive equipment. Like the music too.

It looked fairly stable for an HV20. Were you on a tripod? How did you do the tracking shot?
 
carbon3c said:
Well done. I like the color. Better than a lot of videos done on much more expensive equipment. Like the music too.

It looked fairly stable for an HV20. Were you on a tripod? How did you do the tracking shot?
Click to expand...


Thanks. Color was a modified preset in magic bullet.

It was tripod for 95% of the time (a very, very cheap tripod). Tracking shot was on a home made dolly - PVC pipe and castors. It fell apart haflway throgh, and was pretty damn un-smooth, but I think it just about did the job.

And thanks for liking the music too! It's actually my band - I'm the guy singing. The shots with me in were filmed by a friend who had no knowledge of cameras at all. I just focused it for him and hit record, ran in to shot, and played.
 
I thought the shots looked a little unstable, but not quite handheld. I think the end result gives a good style to the shoot. It just goes to show you don't need a lot of money or experience to make something that will pass as a professional video to the average viewer. I wouldn't change a thing. Someone with more experience than I might have some shooting tips, but as a whole it's a beautiful piece of art.
 
It looks really awesome, and I think your friend did a good job too. It's really a minor thing but there is a shadow (of helicopter?) in the beginning of the video.. that kind of destructed me a bit.

I like the song a lot. I hope you post the linke when it's finalized.
 
Thanks guys. Yeah we decided early on after some test shots that trying to have a super slick/stable/smooth feel would be too hard with the cheap equipment - so we just embraced the shakiness, even added some shake in post as well. I think it suits rock music anyway.
 
loved the heli drive by. my 2 cents great images ,but too long on the band . if there was something happening beside the band image that would work. insert shots of ? i don,t know two girls going at it on the tarmac.pov from the heli . but from the heli it is shows just one girl .just a idea but needs to break away to other images. what was the budget in us $$$? .....keep the horizon straight with hand held will be ok. fcp smoothcam will straighten out the horizon.... back to the gutter for me.
 
I agree with you about that. Its a little repetitive with just the band, but I couldnt really think of anything else to do. We're so inexperienced with this, we just wanted it to look not-cheap. That was our only criteria.

The budget was basically £40 ($80 US), just to buy the work lights.

Dont think we can afford any POV shots from the Heli !!
 
Watched it again. Really great music. Let me guess, U2 is one of your influences?

Btw, the tilted horizons didn't bother me. Just be careful to not divide the frame in half with the horizon. It's always best to not split the frame in half either horizontally or vertically. There are a couple shots were you do that, but I wouldn't change it.
 
Thanks. I wouldnt say that U2 was a big influence, but we're influced by bands that were influced by U2 (if you get what I mean). I see where youre coming from though, with the delayed guitars.

I'm aware about the horizon thing - ive read about the rule of 3rds, and because of the black bars, am I able to reframe it a bit, so I might just do that.
 
$80 wow . how long did it take all in one day? keep it up and you will be up in the heli in no time. how about other tunes? on a site? alot of people should take note that some one can do great work with limited equipment and no money. i just love great no budget images that are great.
 
It was very quick. The daytime stuff was done on a beach - it was a hot day, we didnt have permission to film, and the beach was crowded. We had to wait until about 7pm for everyone to leave. Then we had top carry the equipment 1/2 a mile to the spot. We only had 2 hours filming until the sun set.

The night time stuff was filmed 2 months later in a differnt location - we had permission this time, and had about 3 hours to shoot.

You can hear more tunes and find out more at www.pitchblend.com (theres also some photos of the shoot)
 
Good work!! There's not a lot more anyone could expect you to do on that budget. I'd agree that if you do want to improve on it maybe you could break up the scenes of the band playing with inserts of something else - it could be something equally low budget, you don't have to be in the helicopter to do it!!
Good website too. I liked the tube video at the top of the page and the stills.

Jason
 
This is a REALLY nice job man! Congrats! :)
I think there are a lot of people who doubt / don't belive that this images are from a cheap consumer cam... Could you please share your settings with us? Which shutter speed and in what mode were you shooting this to avoid rolling shutter? Have you noticed any issues while shooting with sgpro? BTW what lenses have you used? One of the best budget music videos I've seen in a while! I am really impressed!
 
The music was great. The video quits after 30 seconds, I don't know why, apparently everybody was able to see the whole thing.

Anyway, judging from the first 30 seconds, I'd say you're song is on a whole other level. You shouldn't put out this video to represent yourself. You need a first class video.

If I was there I'd do it for you for nothing.
 
Wow
I'm pissed. It looked good
but it quit after 30 secs too
I'm on a macbook pro
What's wrong!
I think I need magic bullet
is it a free plugin?
only for AE? is there one for FCP?
 
Sorry guys, it cut off after 30 secs cos I uploaded a new version, but it died halfway through. Final version is here:

http://www.pitchblend.com/v6/sirens_video.html


@ Kraken - That really is a compliment! Theres photos of the shoot on the home page at www.pitchblend.com - you can see the little HV20 there.

I shot in TV mode, settings were all normal except -1 contrast (was worried about big dynamic ranges etc). Shutter was at 120 for the daytime and sunset shots - i really like the juddery look of high shutterspeeds. I had to reduce that to 50 for night time, because light was such a struggle.

With the SG pro, i get a little vignetting. The lenses i used were 135mm, 50mm and 24mm canon FD. the 24mm has realy bad vignetting, so was only used for 2 shots, which took quite a bit of post to get looking right. You can still tell though. As for the rolling shutter thing - I've never experienced it before. I nearly didnt buy the HV20 because people complained about it - but I dont know wha the fuss is about!


@ filmman - a compliment, I think(?). We had the budget to get a semi known director to shoot the video, but it was out of the bands own pocket. We decided we could do almost as good a job ourselves for a lot less, so we just bought an HV20 and SGpro. Believe me, if a pro film maker had approached us before we started and said they'd do it for free, we'd accept, but as it stands, in the UK, half-decent videos start at about £2,000 ($4,000). I would LOVE you to do our next video... We'd pay the plane ticket.
 
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