James Bond Inspired Music Video on the 550D/T2i

excellent work, the lighting was great. The only thing the didn't jive perfectly with me was the slow motion singer for some of the vocals and thats mostly because it almost sounds like his voice is slowed down? I don't know why but it just reads strangely. However if that's the only thing even remotely negative that I can find with it then you're doing good! haha. Colour timing worked and I enjoyed the lens flares from the vehicles. The locations were amazing, looks like a LOT of work and it really shows, the beach scene at the end was very well shot, great transition.

One strange thing was the bullet shot of the last bad guy when he gets shot in the back, reads as a strange jump-cut an OTS onto bond's look of shock and then back to the same angle looking at the bad-guys look of disbelief would probably have sold that better.

Great job! You've proven you can emulate a style, i'd love to see what you can do using the same principals but a more original thematic.
 
that kicks ass man, excellent work, and great acting too. truly well done, inspiring, ... you rock, what else can be said?
 
That really was fantastic! the video was good too.

Haha, but seriously, excellent video work.

A couple questions:

What was your budget? (just out of curiosity)

And the flares seemed a little awkward to me because only the cars made them (I know that most people probably wouldn't even notice the fact, but I was just commenting) I am assuming that you added them in?
 
I honestly love the lighting style for the band, those scenes look fantastic and truly look like something you'd see endorsed by the major record labels. With the storyline, though, I want to say the lighting is too harsh and feels b-grade, too many things just look too intense in the lighting or blown out, and alot of the skin just looks very ugly (too sweaty, too shiny, too harsh). Overall it looks like there's some mega talent going on and it looks like you're extremely capable of huge ideas that feel like major label stuff, but I honestly just want to say that for this one, I think the intensity of the aesthetic during the storyline truly just turned me off and made it feel B-grade to me. I was loving the shots of the band and then the storyline kicked in and I saw the aesthetic of the faces and such and I was truly just turned off from feeling very into it, just to be honest and throw it out there.

Like in the beginning when the girl has the necklace or after a bit when that sweaty guy comes around in the industrial scene, or even just in the casino scene, I just kept noticing too much that the skin is just to me way too extreme in the shine and plastic feel, the thing is that you really have to make sure that your actors look cinematic and pleasing to the eye even if it's a 60 year old fat guy with warts on his head (*cough* The Tourist *cough*) - its a bit tough for some people to notice, but the psychology of the audience is tremendously important, and making sure that even you're ugliest actors are eye-friendly using somewhat soft lighting and enhancing looks is just so key to creating a look that all audiences feel at ease watching and can relate to with a bit more real life look. Like The Tourist or Mission Impossible III are extremely well done films in this respect, both of them payed so much attention to softening their actors faces and keeping a flat, film look without taking away a down-to-earth, action aesthetic, and I think that's the tone that would truly have done this music video the justice that reflects the very advanced talent you can truly tell was put into it!

Thing is I certainly couldn't have done a music video 1/6th as good as yours, so I'm just more keen to really pick out things and learn from them as I'm learning things - in this case, I have no idea how a different look would have been achieved or even if this could possibly be more of a ill-sided post-work effect, I'd love to ask the forum!
 
wow.. really awesome song and video.

only gripes i have are is that i am not too big a fan of the soft look effect. other than that. loved it
 
Chris, you've got a new fan - right from Singapore.

Could you please tell us about the lenses / gear used for each scene? It's great work and I can only imagine your next film to be so much better, epic and kickass.

Look forward in hearing from you soon.

Cheers,
David Liu
www.davidliu.com.sg
 
That was really good, and clearly shows that the equipment does not equal skill.

But... I have to ask... what was the thinking behind using the T2i? You spend tens of thousands on actors, lighting, insurance, etc and use a $600 camera? For the same price you could rent a Red one for the day and get a much better picture. Unless canon was paying for it, otherwise i'd love to hear the thinking behind that :D
 
looks good, mayabe a bit to many anamorphic flares, or just too many scenes with back to back anamorphic flares. Some of the lighting seemed a bit to yellow, as if the white balance was off. Of course these are minor things to tweak, it doesn't change the fact the work is top notch and very professional. keep up the great work, and let us know when you post your next vid.
 
Hi David,

I only used a couple of lenses. Two of them were old vintage lenses I picked up for next to nothing and then my run and gun lens.

Band - Helios 44-2

Casino/ Hand to hand combat - Tamron 17-50mm

Bunker - SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4



Kit wise, I used:

A Glidetrack - (Doubled up as a shoulder mount too)

Hague mini jib

Car suction clamp - Yes, we stuck the camera on the side of a DB9!

We borrowed some photography lights for the casino/ tunnel scenes, but we were so short of light in the tunnels we ended up using everything on hand from car headlights to torches! In other places we were just using cheap worklights or available light.


Hi, vagarob. The budget on the video (not including the camera, which I already owned) was just £600 (about $900). Definately not tens of thousands, I wish!


Thanks for the comments and constructive criticism guys, I'll take it on board.
 
dude, again I say you kick ass . People assume you had a big budget because you made a high quality production, that is the potential this new gear gives us. You have the other half of the coin, ambition,skill, and the vision to make art with these tools. for next to nothing. Sure It wasn't perfect, but I've never seen a movie that was,even ones costing millions. What you did was a success, and it made me smile when I watched it. cheers
 
This is a showcase of what MOST of us DVXUsers need to work on. Our cameras...are NOT the problem. Our problem, is our lack of production planning and focus. I've seen countless videos (especially my own) that lack SEVERELY in this area. This was VERY INSPIRING. WAY TO GO!!!!

Thanks for posting and good luck!
 
muroshi said:
What's the story behind the explosion?
Click to expand...

Did it for real!
That's actually Richard our actor driving out of the explosion!


I love the 550d! It's a brilliant camera!


I thought you might like to see some of the behind the scenes stuff (these were just taken with my iPhone 4)

These are just a few of the hundreds of storyboards I did to work out my shots.
Storyboardexample.jpg


Richard (The Spy) and myself in the bunker! I played a Russian Commander. I chase the jeep.
IMG_4159.jpg


Rich and the DB9...which he got to drive!
IMG_4188.jpg
 
Its realy great,please can you do me a favour and show it on this forum http://www.avforums.com/forums/camc...ing-shall-i-buy-digital-camera-camcorder.html there is a person who hates DSLR video to the point of lunacy i get flack from him saying DSLRS like the 550D i have cant take great video, mostly i am solo against the consumer cams, i still have a HV30 but am not as one sided as this guy, go on please.http://www.hv20.com/forumdisplay.php?8-Footage would also appreciate it for sure, anyway i sure wish it was mine.

Edit Vagarob you sound just like who i am talking about
 
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what I'd love to know because its what I struggle with most living in a small rural town, how did you find such great talent to work with you, and what did you bribe them with?
 
creative media said:
what I'd love to know because its what I struggle with most living in a small rural town, how did you find such great talent to work with you, and what did you bribe them with?
Click to expand...

lol. Didn't have to bribe them. We enjoy working together! They travelled from all over the UK to work on it. All the extras in the casino are my friends on Facebook!
 
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