Low budget musicvideo on RED

D

danielfah

Member
Hi, i want feedback and constuctive critisism on a music video i just finished, I was the director/editor, and particepated in the grading and visual effects.
It is shot on red with a verry smaal budged, and very short time, som im not 100% happy with the result, I am least happy with the first minutes, i think the end is more good, but i would still like coments on what to do better :)





I made the light wall in After Effects using Videocopilot's Optical Flares, the keying and tracking was done in apple shake, and the editing was done in Final cut, the grading was done in Apple color.
 
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If Disney pop rock is what you're going for then you're in there. The girls can't really sing (nothing a little autotune can't handle) and the song's not all that good, but they're cute and do flips and are all very good at making faux rocker-girl faces into the camera. You even got a pillow fight in there. Question is do you know what you have here? If you can get this vid and a few more like it on Disney these chicks will be millionaires in the next few years. Try to stick close to them and try to edit all their vids and others like it and you'll make hard cash. Great TV teleporting there too. LOL. Good work. Do you have any input into the creation/marketing of this group? If not you need to try to get some, immediately.

-Nate
 
Thanks :) Yeah it was the disney popp look i was going for, so thanks for the compliment :) Yeah these girls are a bit famous in Norway already, i have a kind of deal withe them to do their next music video as well. And i wil also make some videobackgrounds for their concerts, so i think i will work more with them in the future.

Haha yeah the TV-teletrasporting was a bit cheesy, but i think the tweens who watches like it :)

Anything more to say about the production? Im pretty sure someone have something they think could be better :)

-Daniel
 
The production's up to snuff. You got a gold mine here. I looked to find some things but it all seems fine. I do find that first singer particularly cute, but there's not much more I could say about the vid. Maybe someone else might be more helpful.

-Nate
 
Nathyn said:
The production's up to snuff. You got a gold mine here. I looked to find some things but it all seems fine. I do find that first singer particularly cute, but there's not much more I could say about the vid. Maybe someone else might be more helpful.

-Nate
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Thanks for your feedback, its easy to forget that you got a gold mine when you work way to long on a production with a budget close to zero, so its good to get a reminder on that :)
 
Nice job on a low budget, thou I would have a second look at the flesh tones at 0:59 - they look a hair to rosy cheek - at least on my screen ....yeah I know it was cold outside ;-) but there is a big difference to the next cut.

my ct2, Frank

P.S. hmmm... somehow that lead gal reminds me of Vicky Pollard :D

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I AGREE
 
It strikes me that you didn't really need to shoot on the Red because the footage does not look particularly high quality (probably due to the budget limiting what lighting you had available). You could have shot on a lesser camera like a DSLR and spent more on set etc., and achieved a higher quality music video overall.

Some of the grading looks a bit off with the light wall, their faces look a bit too red. The rest of the lighting looks OK - nothing particularly stands out (which is good in a way, as everything looks right) - but for an upbeat music video I'd have expected some more vibrancy. Again, you'd have had to shoot it that way so it's probably budget.

I think there's an error with the shot where the girl disappears into the TV, though I can't be sure. Just before she touches it you can see a reflection in the top border of the TV, and when she disappears it's still there. It could be a reflection of something else, but it looks like it was her.

In terms of direction I think the whole thing falls a bit flat with the energy. The band are quite energetic-looking but their surroundings and the way they're shot aren't. So you just have some people dancing mid-frame looking a bit out of place. Prime examples of this are some of the light wall shots and where they're dancing on the stage near the end.
 
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Dave W said:
It strikes me that you didn't really need to shoot on the Red because the footage does not look particularly high quality (probably due to the budget limiting what lighting you had available). You could have shot on a lesser camera like a DSLR and spent more on set etc., and achieved a higher quality music video overall.
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Harsh dude. But I agree that he did not have to shoot Red to get the look he got. He could've pulled this off on anything from an HF200 to a HCM150. But now he does get to say he shot on Red. But I think the footage itself is fine.

-Nate
 
Nathyn said:
Harsh dude. But I agree that he did not have to shoot Red to get the look he got. He could've pulled this off on anything from an HF200 to a HCM150. But now he does get to say he shot on Red. But I think the footage itself is fine.

-Nate
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It wasn't my intention to be harsh, I just mean that the footage doesn't look like Red. I think you could shoot on a far lower camera (not even a DSLR) and get a similar quality image.

Though there is something I forgot to say in my last post, and that is that you can see the Cyc curtain in the background of the studio shots. Your DP should really have tried to avoid any light getting to that. It's awkard to avoid it, but the shots look so much better if you do.
 
funny

Winter city exterior is looking strange. First girl is making strange (unpleasent) grins and her walk in hi heel look so horrible. I guess in music video it should look elegant and sexy but this is not this case (if it doesn't look good dont use it or make it better). Sometimes less is more.
Yes and I agree that this video doesn't looks like its made with Red i.e. cinema camera. It lack compact look or style due cinematography, different ligthing if any (living room scenes - probably due to mixing lights with harsh outdoor light ...) and lack of unifing coloring and finish.
Try to work with shallow DOF in few shots.

That just my visual feeling from this.
There are probably also some other flaws in directing, choreography and makeup too...
 
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thanks for the feedback! The DP owns his own RED, so the budget wasent infected by that, even though it dosent look like RED, the r3d format was realy valuable when we did the greenscreenshots, in HD these greenscreenshots realy stands out, the hair is keyed great!

The winterscenes was really cold, it was shot in 18 minis degrees celcius, so the singer was realy cold and coudent do alot of takes, we was also planing to have a steadycam on those shots, but the steadycam was broken on another job right beafore this shoot. I not happy at all with these city shots, bud we coudent wait for better tempratures because the video had to be finishet beafore the CD-release :(

My dream is to become a director, i am only 19 years old and have still a lot to learn, do you guys have anythinge more to say about the directing? What could be done better, what does work, what does not work etc...
 
I like her little walk. I mean she's not a sultry temptress, just a pop rock princess. LOL.

-Nate
 
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