Music Video Final

That's actually not too bad :) I like some of the camera moves and it looks like you have a fairly good concept of lighting. I'm not going to knock the music; I think it's silly when users on here start criticising songs that people do videos for - obviously you didn't have anything to do with the song yourself and in the real world you take the jobs you can get; unless you're extremely established, you wouldn't say, "mmm... your song is pretty crappy, I think I'll pass on your money." Anyway, my only bit of constructive advice would be to use less crossfades and more direct cuts. I didn't feel that most of them were warranted. Also, the random shot of the band laughing with each other felt a little out of place near the end given then content of the song. Other than that, I thought it was quite decent work, especially for your first video. Good job.
 
thanks for the input, ur the second person to mention the overuse of crossfades and I'll take that to heart. I alsways feel the need to crossfade unless the cut is perfect(actors in same position as last cut, but I guess thats not really necissary and I'll definately think about that for next time.

The idea with the band "laughing" shot was really more to be a shot of the lead singer being welcomed by his bandmates, and as corny as it really is, to show that the band was his escape from the troubles in his life and somewhere where he was accepted.

And this video was non payed actually although they offered to pay me. The lead singer is a friend of mine and has acted in quite a few things for me before, and this coupled with the fact that I'm still in highschool and it was my first vid, I decided to decline the money. Good news was that the band is pretty happy with the outcome, I gained experience and I have already been offered a job to shoot a vid for a much more experienced, professional band and get payed for that because of this vid.

Thanks alot for the input though, whats everyone else think?
 
I must say for your first Video it was very nice . The song was pretty good too.
I will agree that less cross fades and more direct cuts. My rule I live by is never use the same cut more than once ,If possible. Over all I liked the movement and the lighting was very good. Did you do any Color Correcting ? and Also what type of approach did you take to light the set ups Int and Ext ?
 
Yes, there was color correction on almost all the shots, if you search for it I posted my earlier cut with no cc a little while ago and you can see the difference between the two.

EXT shots I just used natural light, because i dont really have the right lights to properly light a daytime outside scene, and natural lighting ends up looking fine in my oppinion. I'm not too thrilled with the lighting in the mall shots because that was all available light. It was impossible to light those shots because I was stealing them and trying not to get caught haha. Also because of that I think I rushed it and should have done another take on the escalator scene but I was to buisy getting out of the area .... o well live and learn.

INT lighting I lit with my ghetto home depot lighting kit, which consists of a variety of halogen worklights and two flos(didnt use the flos in this though). For many of the story scenes, I used my homemade softboxes(which are modified plastic picture frames with paper in them, and which also melt when the lights are on too long). During the band however I didnt use the softboxes, I just tried to light each person best I could and give backlight to some of the people in the back so they were defined decently. One of my major problems was that the window and hole in the roof let in alot of sunlight which gave everything some blue hilights. To fix this I covered up the window with random stuff and kept playing with the white balance till I got something workable. Also, shadows can end up being problems when you are lighting a setup like this so you want to shoot the light at an angle so that the shadows go where the camera cant see and not onto the other players. And when other players are in shadows, you have to try and fill up that shadow with another light.

The lighting that I'm not too thrilled with in one place is the one shot where the two characters are on the bed. I really wish I could better light the guys face. I think that the lighting on the girl was pretty good and the lighting on the guy when he was alone was good but together he needed to be better lit. This was because I did the setup for him alone and didnt change it that much when they were both on there so it didnt work that great. If I had that to do again, i would have brought in another light and brightened up his face a bit, but o well.

Hope that description helps u better understand my cheap lighting solutions.

Did anyone else watch this, I really like hearing what you all have to say. I want to learn from this project as much as i can
 
Great job!

Great job!

For your first one it think it was great. What equipment did you use for dolly/crane shots? Camera movement was great. Hope to be able to do those shots one day.
 
I wasnt to excited about the song but I think the video was ok. One thing I think you should pay a little more attention to is the drums. Pretty much all the drum fills were off. And that may come from the drummer not playin the right **** while you were filming. But its something you have to pay attention to, and correct the musicians during the shoot or the video while you edit. All in all good job.
 
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