Music Video shot on HMC40 (My First Music Video Too)

S

Subtext_MEG

Member
Hello All,

Just finished working on this video a few days ago, would love some feedback, I alwys love when you guys and gals point stuff out to me that I may have missed - That said to save some time, I am aware of the following things :)

- Colour Balance Issues
- White balancing off in some shots
- Some shots clearly pushed hard with gain, CC, Gamma, etc.
- Shadows
- 2 shots where you can see my mohawk reflecting in a picture

Now, all that said (insert excuses here): I had 3 hours to shoot this video, from 2pm - 5pm, so light was a massive issue and it was constantly dropping off as we moved along - because we had no budget, light rentals weren't an option, so I used a 1000w construction light with some blue gels (ghetto fix) and tried to move as quickly as possible. Being that we shot scenes where the living room was empty last - which appear first in the final cut, you can clearly tell those shots have been pushed pretty heavy due to the fact that it was getting dark out - the shots with the room filled look pretty good to me.

If I could do it over again, obviously I'd change a couple things, but honestly for no budget and 3 hours in relatively low light towards the end - It could have been worse lol. All in all I'm proud to say this is my first music video. I'd love to hear what you guys think :)

Cheers,
Josh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXzdKfGmUfw
 
I thought the video was done really well. I had a few questions:

1) how did you shoot the various shots (individuals) vs. whole band and then sync the sound?

2) was only one HMC40 used?

3) was a separate sound recorder used or what the audio prerecorded and you sync after the video was shot?
 
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it :) And the answer to your questions are as follows:

1) I shot the song from start to finish about 10 or so times, each time focusing on either the individual members or wider group shots. I did about 4 or so takes of the lead singer with the room furnished and unfurnished as I knew he would be my main focus and I wantd to ensure I had plenty of footage on just him. I think on an episode of film riot the host mentions this as a good time saving technique - and I would highly recommend it, instead of worrying about blocking, moving shots, etc (I say this ONLY if you're on tight time) everything just moves faster and you catch a lot more (IMO)

2) Yup, only used the one camera - doing it over though , I won't lie - would probably use my 7D because of the light issues - That said, If I had more time, more light and a budget, I would've rented another HMC40 - If you give that camera enough light it produces such gorgeous images.

3) For sound I used my Rode Videomic Pro to capture room sound and in the room we used a Macbook hooked up to a stereo system. This worked just fine for me when syncing, the only issues I ran into were syncing drums just due to all the subtlties that I (a guitar player - not drummer) wasn't picking up on.
 
Here is a question from right field... There was no audience at the shoot (or at least that's how it appears)... yet the singer never makes eye contact with the viewer (the camera)... he seems to be going out of his way to avoid looking in the lens- an editorial choice? It is a little unnerving- but not as bad as those singers who are always looking for the camera...
On the other hand- no one will ever know what you shot on, unless you tell then- looks pretty darn good.
 
A few thoughts:

Overall, I thought it was great considering the time and budget constraints. I have been considering doing some music vids, and hope I can do as well. The following are suggestions and not meant to be critical.

Lighting was a bit inconsistant and in a few places underexposed. At times the backlighting overpowered the talent, some ND on the windows would have helped, or a different time of day. Your lighting constraints noted.

I am sure you were struggling with the lack of wide angle lens. There are several W/A add-on lenses for the HMC40.

The group had backup vocals and horns, you really needed a venue so the "entire band" could be seen at some point.

For me, there was too much scene flipping to the lead guitar-vocalist out of the band context. That was creative enough, but I might have used that for the intro and the fade away. That is very subjective as it did allow you to keep the scenes moving with a one cam shoot.

Grant
 
Josh,

I think this is great. My personal opinion is that in a rock style video like this, you can get away with some low-light (higher gain) graininess since it adds to the grittiness of the music.

I liked the long cross-fade effects, where the guitar almost lined up. My only issue (not an HMC40 issue at all): in editing, it seems like the second guitarist never really made it full frame much at all (as the drummer did).

Thanks for posting it!

Steve
 
My Sincerest apologies - I thought I had posted this response 2 weeks ago but it was auto-saved and not posted :s


Hello All, I truly thank you for your great feedback and call-outs, I will address them all in order below :)

@voxwerx: Great point, it was more or less a decision on my part to have him look towards my direction but avoid looking directly into the lens. I wanted the video to have a very organic, 'jamming in the living room' feel and try to avoid a by-the-books, 'look here' type video, in a sense shoot it as if they were playing and I wasn't there. If that makes sense? lol. - Fun Fact: the video that I drew the most inspiration from in terms of simplicity, editing, etc. Breaking Benjamin's "Sooner or Later"

@Grant: I'm with you 100% on the wide angle, I really should have factored in the little physical space that the room was, it is clear when watching that in several areas there werent WA shots when there could/should have been.

As for the full band comment; that ones very tricky lol. The horn section and other elements of the band itself were studio musicians - my biggest "miss" was that the keys player couldn't make it from Toronto in time for the shoot, as there is an organ solo and nobody on keys...that one still stings to think about lol.

And as for the stand alone shots, I really did only intend on using these at the beginning and the end, but as you pointed out, with time constraints, etc I ended up using them a lot more. They ended up being life savers in many cases if certain things weren't lining up properly. On the plus side - those were shots that I saw in my head that ended up looking and cutting (as originally intended) exactly how I wanted.

@Jeff: Thank you :)

@Steve: Thank you as well, I'm glad you enjoyed it - You've officially called out what I've been waiting for - Where's the bassist lol. Lucas (Bass player in video) is actually a stand in, there had been a change in line up prior to the shoot and the band technically didn't have a bass player, Lucas (an AMAZING guiar player) was asked to come in as a stand in for the video - he did an awesome job, but due to the fact he's not actually in the band, I didn't use too much footage of him - whereas the drummer has been in the band for 7 years or so now.

Thank you all once again for your feedback and comments, it is greatly appreciated.
 
I think you did a great job for a first music video! I would really like to make some music videos, and reading though this thread gave me some great insight on how to do it. But when you edit it, how do you sync the vocals? I'm thinking it's the "trim and re-trim until it's right" way, but I'm not sure.
 
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