Music Video

E

ExFilms

Well-known member
Ok, here's the thing. You guys give the greatest and most varied reviews and critiques on the net when someone posts their project. I've been racking my brain trying to think of an excuse to post my 16mm music video project here so I could pick your brains for changes before I hand it off as finished. Here's my best shot:

I just wanted to post some 16mm footage here so you could compare it to the DVX! :) I know, thats weak. Feel free to delete this thread if it's too off topic. No hard feelings.

Every minute of the shoot I wished we were using a DVX. I honestly think I prefer the look of the DVX over 16mm. I am also impressed with the color correcting you guys do and wanted to know if this needed anything. Anyways, here it is (right click/save as):

http://www.exfilms.com/downloads/alexboyd.mov
 
Re: Music Video

Ex, I think your footage looks great, albiet very interlaced, what's up with that? I personally still prefere the look of film to digital, but for a project like this, I can see how you could get away with either, as the DVX does add it's own flavor to the mix. As far as color correcting, there isn't much I could suggest, all of the shots look properly color balanced, with vivid popping colors. If there were some dramatic looks that you would like to use, that would have to depend on what you saw fit for the video. I did like what you did with the colors in the cut away scenes in order to separate it from the rest of the video. I definatly appreciate your lighting for interior scenes as it is very natural looking, yet allowed for the colors to be richly brought out.
There is an advantage to shooting 16mm to the DVX in some of the situations that were shot, and that is the greater latitude that film allows. For some of those outside scense the sky would have been very blown out on the dvx, unless you had really blown your talent away with some high powered daylight balanced lights. Other than that, I guess you could have shot this on the dvx and gotten a very similar look. It might have required more post production color correction, but hey, that's the fun stuff, plus it would have cost a lot less.
But congratulations on your video, and sorry if ths post sounds strange, as I have been going back and forth looking at your video while I write this post, just putting some ideas down, plus the fact that it's 4:30am, and I just got home an hour ago. (HEY FINALS ARE OVER, I GOT A WHOLE MONTH FREE). :D
 
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The video looks good colors everything cool no comments on how it could of been done! But I see where you're coming from in the look of the video some people have different taste I like the look of dv 24p!
 
Re: Music Video

Thanks,

The interlacing happened in the QT compression...not sure why.

Yeah you're right about the latitude. I guess we wouldn't have been able to get a couple of the shots on video. I still think the DVX version of this would have looked better, to me 16mm is history. Its 24p or (if you have the money) 35mm from here on out.
 
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i dont have any experience with 16mm film but i really liked the look of it. the color was really clear and bright. i liked it.
 
Re: Music Video

i would have liked to see some more wide shots of the singer..maybe a tracking shot from far away up into a close filmed in slo-mo..just a thought...seeing that you had a relative budget filming with 16mm, why didn't you guys get a jib for some sweeping dramtic shots?...Overall it was a decent video but it still had amateur feel...the color correction was right on...keep it up
What camera did you use for the shoot?
 
Re: Music Video

Well done. I noticed the interlacing too, but the cutting between locations was smooth...
 
Re: Music Video


Thanks for the comments!

Kyle we used an Aaton LTR 54 camera. A jib would have been awesome but we didn't have access to one. I have a Cobra Crane from Promax but it wouldnt support the camera. Aside from the cost of film and developing there was no budget at all. Everything was borrowed. Which is why I think it would have been a hundred times better on a DVX. Imagine the money wasted on film that could have been used on anything else.
 
Re: Music Video

EX, dude there's nothing wrong with shooting 16mm. Budget wise shooting on the DVX would of save you alot on money of course. Anyways, the music video was cool. Honestly, what keep me from tuning out was the cute girl. 95% of MTV,BET,VH1 music videos are boring to me, but when you have fine women in it, then its worth aleast watching it once just to see the cute girls of course. It's cool, keep it up and yes, I like that butt shot. ;)
 
Re: Music Video

You can tell it's film. The dynamic range and color have that organic aesthetic.

If you'd shot with a DVX, the cost of lights, etc. to allow you to shoot in those environments without overexposure would have offset some of the money saved. Still, it doesn't look that much different from very good dvx footage and looks very similar to some sdx900 footage I've seen. Solid overall, though.
 
Re: Music Video

I'm sorry this will be quick, untechnical, and perhaps too candid, butmaybe some of this you will find helpful:

I would have liked to see much closer shots of his hands working the guitar in the beginning. I love those kinds of shots. By not having a closer shot, I think you miss the point of the shot to begin with.

I think the editing over all could really use a little more juice, more energy, a bit more flash.

Singer was great. nice voice, always looked natural. Almost all the shots of him worked pretty well I thought, especially where he is sitting at the table with the flowers behind him and the camera goes by..nice.

I think there could have been a lot of room for better styling on this video. There was a lack of a "look" which is pretty important. The singer was fine, he pulled it off in all the shots..but the women were not. They really did not add much spark to the video. I think it was very unsexy that everyone was wearing so many clothes on the bed. ( though nice camera moves regarding bed shots ) Black socks? come on...

Everyone aside from the singer needs more edgy clothing or something. They were all wearing black and white?

Building shots with the singer were nice.
 
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The singer was fine, he pulled it off in all the shots..but the women were not. They really did not add much spark to the video. I think it was very unsexy that everyone was wearing so many clothes on the bed.
Click to expand...

hmm, I thought the women looked fine, or maybe it was the three beers I had earler.
 
Re: Music Video

cool vid ;D ;D ;D ;D
the song sucked just like the interlacing,
just another Justin Timberlake wannabe
the storyline however was ok
but the footage seemed like I was watching an actual movie at times, very nice.

do u have anymore shots of that ass, when she's gettin on top of him......

damn that courtain or shirt, whatever is blocking the full view of that ass on that shot.

two thumbs up!!
 
Re: Music Video

You really nailed it Pooh!  The video went through a huge change when I decided to edit it.

The original opening shot was a Mariachi playing the guitar in front of the apartment building.  An element left over from when the entire video was supposed to have a Latin theme.  It didn't fit at all, wasn't a pretty shot, and the Mariachi's costume was a couple sizes too small.  It looked ridiculous.  The shot I used of Alex playing was a back up shot we luckily had, I wish we had done it more than once.

Regarding the editing...I wanted it to have a lot of flash too.  I was really hoping the editing would make up for all of the shortcomings in the video.  We got this great guy to do it but for some reason he did a crappy job.  I don't think there was enough motivation for him to go the extra mile.  So I ended up cutting it.  I'm a good 'straight cut' editor and like to edit short films.  But I have no music video flash or flair.  I wish I could have done more.  I think I did a crappy job on the flash-forwards in the beginning too, very generic.

And you mentioned styling.  As in there wasn't any.  The producers came up with this horrible story line that goes something like this:

Hot Latina girl working in her dads restaurant.  Latino bartender wants her.  White boy Alex Boyd comes in to serenade her and steal her away.  Girl's dad gets really pissed, bartender gets really pissed.  Bartender follows Alex and girl back to his place.  Bartender calls girl's dad to snitch.  Girl's dad calls the girl while she's in the bed with Alex and they have an argument on the phone.  Cut back to bartender on the phone calling the thugs.  Thugs come and beat up Alex.  The flash forwards to the beating in the beginning were also written in.

They were supposed to have locations that evoked a hispanic feel, Mexican restaurant, hacienda (instead of a loft).  Apparently all of their locations fell through at the last minute.  And with no set designer the look of the video had no style at all.

To add to the overly complicated story line there were no actors cast.  The easiest and cheapest part of the production.  We could have easily had actors in there for copy/credit but no...we're pulling people off the street and using the producers family members and friends that wanted cameos.  The guy that they brought in to play the girls dad (you see him in one shot) was not only blind but didnt speak any english. Him and the girl were so bad I ended up cutting almost all of their shots.

So anyways in a music video in which the song has absolutely nothing to do with the storyline and there is obviously no dialogue, they had 3 people on the phone having conversations at the same time (one of them this blind mexican guy who had no idea what he was doing and was smiling in almost every take).  It was confusing as hell, it looked like they were on a three-way call with each other.  So I just cut it all.  Thats why there is so many shots of Alex singing.

The girl didn't want to take her clothes off and just about walked off the set when Alex tried to kiss her in one of the shots.  They wanted all the girls in the restaurant to be in uniform like they were preparing for work even though you could barely tell that the location was a restaurant let alone that they were employees.

So Pooh...excellent observations and my feelings exactly!


Now for the rest of you sickos:

gift.jpg
 
Re: Music Video

don't worry
I already made a 45 min sequence of that honey, and it's now playing on my calibrated monitor
;D ;D ;D


sweeeeet
 
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