Judge my newest music video

N

Neutral

Active member
Howdy everyone.

A music video I directed, shot and edited was recently released. I would love to get some feedback from everyone here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMRVU-ZXN6o&t=65s

To be honest most people are more stoked on it than I am. Just like every project I direct, EVERYTHING went wrong, and nothing turned out the way I wanted to. But I'm still curious to see what you guys do like about it and more importantly what you think could be improved.

It was a 2 day shoot. 1st day was performance in a studio, 2nd day out in the desert. Very small and minimal crew. I shot it on the RED Scarlet with Rokinon primes. What I really didn't like about it and what I hate in most of my videos is the lighting. It's always the after thought. The set was built and everyones scrambling cause we're running out of time and I had the crew set up some pretty basic lighting and started rolling. I need to learn more about lighting and I am, but it's difficult with out actually being able to practice in real life and take the time to dial stuff in in person. I don't own any lights either :(
Oh and the storyline day in the desert, all our vehicles got stuck in the sand, spent most of the day getting them out, and had to condense a 12 hour shoot into 3 hours, so I had to cut the majority of what I planned on shooting.

Anyway, let me know how s*%tty my video is or if you liked it.
 
I assume you're disappointed because you have very high standards. That's also why the video is good.

Nice job...ambitious and I see nothing to apologize for.
 
You have directing chops. I liked the overall look and feel of it. I didn't find the lighting bad just not especially interesting. Most of the issues I see have more to do with the treatment and script than the technical issues. Most of the music videos that impress have something interesting or clever to the storyline, something that grabs the viewer and makes them not be able to look away. I see performance video and I see a group of people running through the desert, motorcycle and horse riding. With the little square talismans. To me, there is not much to grab me and make me want to see what happens. No offense to the band, they are obviously talented musicians but the song and their stage presence is sort of generic, at least in this song with this video.

Most of the best music videos I have ever seen were for great songs that really stuck in your head. This song doesn't do that. I shouldn't be critiquing this, you are obviously visually talented and technically, none of your concerns above jump out at me. It was lit, shot and edited professionally. But the story concept could have been more memorable and the song could be stronger. It's just sort of generic metal to me, it's not edgy or innovative, just competent. Probably the closest I could give you to compare would be to check out some of the videos from Foo Fighters, in their day. They were funny, weird and interesting. or Beck's "Where It's At", totally ultra low budget, trashy, lo fi, but there was something super engaging about it. So it's not a matter of budget or scale, it's a concept that grabs you, matched with a song that sticks in your head. Very difficult combo to find, it's kind of that lightning in a bottle thing. Check out Kimbra's "Settle Down" video. There is a tension there with the little girl being married to the mannequin like husband and the burning dolls. To me, those concepts and treatments have something edgy and unexpected that make me keep watching. The story part of your video didn't do that.

Hopefully I am not being too harsh. I think music videos and directing them can be an extreme art form and 98% of them fall short of the mark. It's also tougher these days because the million dollar budgets of the 80s and 90s are gone and almost all music videos are done on a shoestring. But that doesn't stop a few directors every year from creating something iconic and memorable. If you explore the music video database, https://imvdb.com/ you see that even the best music directors from the golden age of music videos like the late 80s and early 90s like Mark Romanek, Floria Sigismondi, Kevin Kerslake, Joseph Kahn, Hype Williams, etc. all directed a bunch of average music videos before striking gold and making something that really captured everyone's attention. You can also see what the best and most innovative music videos of the year were. Keep at it, keep making them, get better on each one and you will eventually make something that is genius. I totally understand too that you have to please the band, the record label, the fans, etc. a lot of people who have their hands in the pie who can screw up your vision for the video. It's a tough business.
 
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Neutral,

Allow me to pass word of wisdom given to me by my music teacher "Don't people you are bad, they will believe you".

First off, I liked your studio lighting and how it came out. You are doing discredit to yourself by dismissing it as poor work. You are also setting up judgment by other people to have prejudice even before they have seen it.

As far as learning how to be better at lighting is much easier today with all the online access to material; look at this great music video for Zedd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-gyZ35074k

And now watch the making of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6dqo7Z3p6Q

Every frame grab is an insight into what they did and creating the visuals and 90% of the work is simple practicals with ingenious approach to creating the fx. Take that information and throw it into your bag of tricks, copy it!!! as time goes by you will add things to it and make it your own.

Looking forward more of your work. Cheers.
 
Thanks for the input guys.

Yeah the storyline is the weakest part for me. Like I said, I had a lot more planned but things were working against us that day and I had to condense my entire shoot into just a few hours. Total nightmare.

emretufekci thanks for showing that behind the scenes stuff. I always love learning from those kinds of videos. How do you think they did the lightbulb infront of the lens effect, by just moving it around really fast infront of the lens?
 
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