Hip Hop Music Video

C

Cleavage2

Well-known member
Hey guys,

Here is a polished rough cut of my first music video, it's a hip hop artist from Melbourne, Australia. I was co-director, co-cinematographer, producer and editor. THere is a lot more I want to do with this clip, a few extra FX and some sick transitions etc, but I'm trying to find extra feedback from people about things I can do to try and improve this clip.

The video was always intended to be a very straightforward clip, mostly performance with a slight bit of narrative thrown in. We shot over 4 days, with a few different locations, shot on HVX200 with stock lens and a couple different lighting setups.

I did some very quick color correction on this, the stuff in this video is by no means 100% complete, so if there's anything you have issues with please feel free to explain. I have had both good and bad feedback from friends and strangers about this clip, so don't be afraid to speak your mind, even if it's bad!

Cheers guys, here's the link:

http://www.truerideproductions.com/wiki/darkness_bright-video.mov

EDIT: Updated link, higher resolution and a couple of small tweaks. Nothing major.

Let me know what you think!

- Dave.
 
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seems like the shots got repetitive, i couldnt really understand what he was rapping about all could make out was "tryin to get my grind on" in one verse, lol.....so it was hard to know what the theme was. i liked the beat by the way.

anyway, it'd be cool probably if you could get some slow mo footage of the argument that took place at the beginning of the song and sort of make that his flashback as he's driving, etc. maybe his argument was with his pregnant girlfriend about bills not being paid, or his lifestyle, etc. all this can be done with just images...make sense? i think that would offset the 3 or 4 scenes you have going on outside because after a coupla minutes i get tired of seeing him rapping in front of a white screen and a black background. the red corvette was pretty cool though. i'm assuming the theme was hard times so maybe show clips of him going through hard times and maybe at the end of the video after he comes back from his drive he makes up with whoever it was he was arguing with at the start of the video so he doesnt come off like such a bad guy, lol.

i don't know...just some ideas. good job on your first joint though. :)
 
FilmBoy, thanks for your response. There's no way I'll be able to get any reshoots done for this particular project, so unfortunately most of the ideas you threw out won't be possible to achieve.

We talked with the artist to discover what the song was about, and what he wanted the video to show. He explained that the song is about him and his music, it's what drives him and makes him feel alive. We tried to show this by going through a hard time at the beginning, but by the end his darkness has become bright (so to speak) because he's in his element, writing his song and creating music.

I'm aware the shots can get repetitive at times, but I don't know how to change it up anymore than I already have. I've tried to think of some smooth transitions or split screens or anything that can help provide some freshness, but I haven't begun implementing anything yet.

Thanks again for your feedback, I hope some more people start responding!
 
Looks good but could use a few more locations. The beat is sick and he can spit too. Take a look around your city there has to be some cool places to rock out. Even a small club or bar. You could do some split screen stuff for sure, flip some in Black and White and change the coloring here and there. Also get that dolly moving. Use a wheel chair if you don't have one. There is so much you can still do. Don't stop, get creative, you know what you're doing, now have some fun. I love doing videos, I am up to 22.
 
filthrich, not sure if you read the reply I made before you posted, but reshoots are out of the question for this particular project. So unfortunately extra locations won't be possible. The dolly is moving in a number of shots, but because the cuts are a bit quicker it's tough to notice it sometimes.

Thanks for your feedback!
 
I have shot 3 hip hop clips in Sydney all were stupidly low budgets, we used the 502 on 2 of them and the 202 on one. So I know the pain of trying to breath life into a low budget shoot to make it look like a 60k project.

Seeing as re-shoots are out of the question (shame cause $80.00 per day wolly dolly and or $150.00 mini jib would have made a world of difference) try the all to well known post digital crash zoom with an effect to mask the pixelization as a transition between shots. Another really good way to mask a low budget lighting setup is to de saturate the shot to B&W, you could also try coloring in only one channel and have only a few selected objects stay colored. Also use more of that shaky cam effect a very good distracter that comes across as a planned effect when timed with the singer's arm swing. One last thing cut away earlier during the last shot at the end, the pull back at the foot of the bridge when you expose the tripod in the left part of the frame comes across as a production screw up. Yes it is understood what you are trying to do but it doesn't work when the shot at the foot of the bridge comes in before the pull back shot in the studio.
 
Coldpizza, thanks very much for the in depth feed back and ideas. I'll look into some of those things such as the crash zooms and some desaturation/B&W's. Yeah I wish I could've got my hands on a minijib but I just didn't have the time or the extra cash to pull it off - when I do my next music video I'll definitely have some sort of jib shots.

I understand what you're saying about the pull back at the bridge, I never really thought about it but you're right, showing the tripod in that shot before the final studio pull back doesn't quite work properly. I'll cut it earlier and fix it up. Cheers!
 
Autism... that's his hip hop name?

"Spread vaginas like a gynecologist and get my grind on." wow. some of the rhymes could be a little less... on the nose...

The bending over in the corvette scene is as unflattering a position I could imagine, it makes him look like Quasimodo. I would use alternate takes.

Desaturating would be a good idea, maybe leave the corvette red in those scenes. But the black and white background scenes could go full black and white, which would add punch to the contrasting backgrounds.
 
Cheers seejay, haha yeah some of the lyrics are a bit full on hey?

I like the idea of desaturating and leaving the corvette red, I'll definitely try that. I'll see how the full B&W stuff looks for the background shots too. Thanks!
 
Good to see a couple of Aussie heads on here!

I wasn't a great fan of both the black and white background scenes, I would perhaps just use one or the other. Not sure why, but it just didn't work for me...

His movement was annoying ahahah

Enjoyed seeing a difference from the usually American music videos mostly featured here.
Good work for your first!
I too start shooting my first hip hop music video this week *stressed*

Experiment in post like suggested, good luck!
 
needs more coverage. cutting from medium to medium to medium = boring. gotta get those closeups yo. and more slomo stuff. if you can't reshoot, use twixtor and pop in some slow b roll.
 
cheezweezl, we did get lots of coverage but after going through all the footage many times, most of the decent shots ended up being mediums. A lot of the close-ups were shitty, just no energy to them.

And yes, I wish I had of got more slow motion stuff. This was a first attempt at a music video, so I've learned a lot and I'll know better for next time.
 
i pretty much have the same input in regards to needing more shots to change it up. what you can try to do is various types of CC'ing methods to switch things up a bit. It should help.

Off topic, he has a dope flow but I cant understand a damn thing he says. One thing an MC absolutely must master is clarity in their vocals. The beat is amazing though, who made that beat? I could make some money for that dude if his production is that dope.

J
 
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