Looking for input here... Music video.........

Jay Rodriguez

Jay Rodriguez

Coffee Member
Here's a hip hop video that I shot this past weekend. Came up with the concept in a day and shot it all guerilla a couple days later.

Please let me know what you think. Don't just watch it and move on fellas, I'm looking for input here. :)

Thanks.........

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Yo jay, this is the reason why panny has monopolized the market. I can't say it enough about that oranic look and colors. your dp skills are plain sick. This camera was made for you and your style of story telling.

On a side note. The grain everyones been talking about coming from the 170 is showing, but I would not have noticed it if the word had not gotten out. Anyway, excellent work.
 
I thought it was great. Loved the colors,composition and storytelling. You made a micrbudget look like far more.

Cheers,Adam.
 
I like it too Nice job.
this is a cool camera,and this is the kind of video I wanted to see with the Hpx170
that was all stock right ?
 
Good stuff. I was really liking the low light shots when he was getting his gun. Any chance of a 720p version on vimeo? also, how did you work around the noise? I'm guessing the compression minimizes it, but is it still showing up? Also, have you noticed that the noise shows up more in the midtone surfaces that don't have much light on them?

I'm shooting the second half to a music video this weekend so I'm hoping I can dial the HPX in so I don't run into the noise problem you posted earlier.

Once again, turned out great on such a short time frame.
 
Hey thanks everyone. I posted this late last night and forgot that I did that until I saw it again when I got to work this morning. It was nice to see your responses.

DM_rider, I'll post a 720 on youtube but how do you do it? I never posted anything there before. As for the noise, I can still see it at full rez and it drives me nuts! I think we all just need to learn the camera and its settings so that we can find that sweet spot where the noise isn't as bad or isn't there at all.

Gary Senda, thanks you for watching.

anthony jackson, yes sir, all stock.

Adam74, thanks dude. :beer:

reem12, wow, thanks my man! I consider myself more of a director but I LOVE cinematography so shooting my own projects allows me to "act" like a DP, lol. thanks again man.
 
jay,

i agree with everybody else...it really looks great--good job, man.

i noticed that you used 24p and not PN...why'd you choose to go with p and not PN?

goro
 
Nice work Jay. That little bump to the left at 2 seconds distracts me a little but top notch stuff. I only mention that because I couldn't find much to ***** about. Good use of slow motion settings too. Did you get to keep the pile of money?
 
INPUT:

Right off the bat, I'd pick up the pace. A LOT of the shots seem to linger too long. I'm not saying it needs a complete change of pace, because I like the mood it sets, but the editing seems a bit, sorry to say... sloppy. I notice it right when we cut to the actual singer. Those shots seem randomly cut, and linger way too long. At :16, it lingers. I'd show a quick half second shot of this, cut right into the following shot, then back to this one instead of just the 1-2. At :25.4, I'd cut right then. We stay on him, but really for no reason. If you only have a few shots to cut to and from, just go back and forth instead of lingering in one shot. It happens pretty much throughout the entire "performance" part of the video. I mean, at 2:12, we stay on that shot for a FULL 6 SECONDS. WAY too long. Ever heard of the "3 second rule" of music videos? I don't like to refer to it as a "rule", and I OFTEN break it, but for the performance side of this video, I'd try and not let any shot stay for more than the 3.

Remember to always try and "cut on action". It'll hide your cuts much better. For instance, the moments where he throws his hands up to the sides would be a perfect place for an invisible cut.

The flow of the storyline looks pretty good, and staying with the shots here is just fine. It sets the mood of the entire video.

There's a few places, as I'm sure you know, that his singing gets sloppy and either falls out of sync, or he just seems to forget the lyrics. There's nothing you can do about the shots you have, but you do have the ability to hide all these errors in the edit. Work around them, cut 'em out, come back to the shot when he's back on track, etc.

Overall, I think it's a pretty good start, but there's still work to be done. If it were me, I'd keep the storyline flow as it is, but really spend some time on the performance part of the video. Pick up the pace to give the entire video a good contrast of the slower story line vs. performance. Work on covering up some of his lip-syncing mistakes. Watch your edit points throughout, tighten everything up a tad, and it'll look and feel a lot more professional. Right now, to me, it feels like a strong first cut.

-brown

p.s. All the footage looks pretty great to me... just the editing side needs the work. Good stuff, Jay.
 
Jay, I thought it looked really good but I also think the same thing Ryan said. Its cut way too slow. If you ran out of footage I can understand because I always try to get 6 takes of the song at each angle if time allows and thats why I always say 2 days minimum. The color grading looks hot also.
 
Hey thanks fellas... I actually want to go back and re-edit it for quicker cuts just to see how it effects the flow of the video. I originally took that approach but the artist felt that it was too fast paced so, well you know how that goes. neko30, I did shoot it at 24pN actually.
 
ryan brown said:
INPUT:



There's a few places, as I'm sure you know, that his singing gets sloppy and either falls out of sync, or he just seems to forget the lyrics. There's nothing you can do about the shots you have, but you do have the ability to hide all these errors in the edit. Work around them, cut 'em out, come back to the shot when he's back on track, etc.
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i watched the video on mute because im watching a movie, but i see this a lot in videos ive seen on tv. where the lips would be out of sync with the audio. annoying yes, but it is pretty common. maybe it has to do with the dialect and slangs used in hip hop. as ive only seen it on those types of videos.
 
A few things:
The scene where he takes the money then puts it back I'd split with more singing in the middle. Put the part where he takes money earlier in the video so there's more suspense. Having it all at the same time really dulls the impact.

The color/contrast could use some work. The colors themselves are nice and accurate, but they need to be compressed a bit, your whites are way too glaring and here and there your darks could use a little lift. This may be as simple as dropping on a three way color corrector in FCP and raising the mids and lowering the highs, but the best way to do this is in COLOR (in Final Cut Studio 2) or any other program that lets you adjust the curves. THis will allow you to bring up the exact area that needs lift while leving your highs and lows alone to their own adjustments.
Finally, the whitepoint in your highlights could use to be tweaked slightly. Pure white does not always look the best. You can retain the nice colors in your skin tones, clothes and shadows while pushing the whites toward yellow just a bit for a more natural look. You may need to compensate by pushing your mids whitepoint in the other direction just a hair becuse each affects the other.

As for the fast slow issue, it doesn't have to all be the same pace. Some people these days go way overboard with the fast cuts till you can't see what's going on. That's unnecessary, and slow reflective moments are good, but what it looks like you have is not enough footage. Go out and shoot some random shots of the city to throw in there, then stagger the pacing so you have more cuts and quick changes but leave in a few nice long shots for mood and relaxation.
 
Jay... excellent work. I agree that faster cuts would improve the overall impact but you've chosen great locations, have done solid camera work and I thought the color grading worked well for the piece. I enjoyed the tune as well.

Mad skillz.
 
One other editing decision that jumped out at me is that there wasn't any fades just straight cuts. With the pace of the song there should have been more fades if not all fades between clips. Also this type of video is also great for a more specific color treatment. Try something like DMX slippin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX6N8Uj11Js
 
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