New hip hop music video

lets go to the DSLR, hip-hop video checklist:

tattooed guy. pants down to his pubic bone. shirtless or wearing a wife-beater? - CHECK!
same guy. with a group of other dudes standing behind him, doing pretty much nothing? - partial credit. it appears they are actually in the group
same guy. talking about all his money. yet standing in a run down house. driving a $2000 car? - partial credit. car only shown. money not prominently referenced in lyrics
lyrics mentioning how tough, hard or o.g. they are? - CHECK!
repeated reference to bitches and niggas? - partial credit for "bitches"
gratuitous slow motion and/or low-tech effects? - CHECK!
 
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Terrible!!!

I whole heartedly agree with wgzn in his hip hop music video assessment. I don't no if I can stomach another one of these type of videos. Not saying you video production is lacking but there is little to no depth to these wretched videos. sorry to be so blunt but as a fan of all types of music I'm looking for more direction out of hip hop videos besides the normal 3 dudes, wife beaters and angry guys looking into and ranting into the camera. We as directors can do better but i guess you can only do so much with what you have to work with. The artist themselves are terrible so this dosen't help the video much. Sorry again for the bluntness but my opinion.
 
I liked the video, don't pay attention to the other users who do not understand the culture of Hip Hop music. Many of those stereo typed can be said for any genre of music. Also wgzn you said you have over 20 years of experience in this, can you please show us a proper Music Video you shot?


Keep working SUBTERRAINFILMS & don;t pay attention to the negativity. Most Hip Hop culture came from a very low budget mind set and we as Directors working with No Money usually film the artist this way. Instead of being a "Hater" maybe you guys should calm down
 
Ifocus said:
Terrible!!!

I whole heartedly agree with wgzn in his hip hop music video assessment. I don't no if I can stomach another one of these type of videos. Not saying you video production is lacking but there is little to no depth to these wretched videos. sorry to be so blunt but as a fan of all types of music I'm looking for more direction out of hip hop videos besides the normal 3 dudes, wife beaters and angry guys looking into and ranting into the camera. We as directors can do better but i guess you can only do so much with what you have to work with. The artist themselves are terrible so this dosen't help the video much. Sorry again for the bluntness but my opinion.
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Constructive criticism is always useful but can you possibly word it in a much less shitty way?
 
wgzn said:
lets go to the DSLR, hip-hop video checklist:

tattooed guy. pants down to his pubic bone. shirtless or wearing a wife-beater? - CHECK!
same guy. with a group of other dudes standing behind him, doing pretty much nothing? - partial credit. it appears they are actually in the group
same guy. talking about all his money. yet standing in a run down house. driving a $2000 car? - partial credit. car only shown. money not prominently referenced in lyrics
lyrics mentioning how tough, hard or o.g. they are? - CHECK!
repeated reference to bitches and niggas? - partial credit for "bitches"
gratuitous slow motion and/or low-tech effects? - CHECK!
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Patronising assessment of someone else's work: CHECK!
 
Its not that bad but i dont see any cinematography in there, just camera on wide angle.
Im not against harsh comments cause people by releasing something must be prepared for this, this is how real world is, if you think you are good and people will remind you that its still long way before you will be truly good then you will get shock and trauma, give up or try harder.
*Hey when i was practicing breakdance one year and i thought i was good (hey friends told me that i was great and i believed them !)i bought camera and i cried when i saw myself in camera cause it told me the truth, i was terrible and i wanted to give up after i saw how bad i really am but i didnt gave up, i fought with it and i fixed most stuff and i was happy, it wasnt easy but thats how it was for me, people need to be prepared that sometimes you need to hit the wall really hard to go into another direction.
Once when i didnt had good knowledge about something i was bashed and i felt terrible, i hated person who bashed me but now im grateful, very grateful and i would thank him today cause its because of him i started to learn and look up things myself.
People arent against him but are obviously tired by cliche rap vids, i dont think this one is so terrible but its very raw, maybe he wanted it to be like that and thats ok too.
 
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I really respect simon kyle from american idol for his bluntness to aspiring talent. In this industry to many people go on to waist valuable time and money feeling as though they have arrived because friends and family would not be honest with them.

However I do agree with philip in how we deliver constructive criticism, but my comments I guess was were geared towards the content more so then the actual artistry of the production itself. I guess in this since I should have reserved my heavy handed rant for another post.

There should be some sort of disclaimer for people with thin skin when posting his or her work, that it could involve some heavy scrutiny and sometimes less desirable feed back.
 
Patronising assessment of someone else's work: CHECK!
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patronising? crap. i was angling for facetious ; )

all due respect to the OP's video. which in itself, isnt particularly bad. i guess im just tired of seeing these formulaic, cut for cut, verse for verse copycat efforts coming out of the hip-hop community.

regardless of budget or how new you are to shooting. i just cant get my head creatively around why youd set out (AND PRESENT) something that was more or less a carbon copy of something somebody else has done. for me i guess its like cover bands. why would you intentionally simply reproduce something that someone else has already done?

now, im not saying that other genres are immune to it. and im not saying that i dont pay homage to my influences in my own work. but it really just seems like there IS some checklist that these cats are following.

again, no offense intended to SUBTERRAINFILMS or this piece in particular. id just like to hope people would hold originality in a a little higher regard than we are seeing in this genre these days...
 
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wgzn you said you have over 20 years of experience in this, can you please show us a proper Music Video you shot?
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i dont shoot music videos. because i like to pay my mortgage, buy gear and put my kid through college.

i would guess that right now there are probably -2000 people in the world actually making career money shooting music videos. and i dont mean these $500-$1000 local, go-nowhere things - there are only so many of those you can do in a given market before you run out of clients. im talking about successful, walk away with money in everyone's pocket music videos.

as much as i love shooting and love music. i have found far wiser, more lucrative and creatively fulfilling ways to make a living with a camera.
as i like to tell my clients. anyone can make a lamborghini look cool. to make a well fracturing process look cool? now THAT'S an ACCOMPLISHMENT!

tell you what vision-filmz. in the spirit of putting my money where my mouth is im going to do two things. in the next few days, im going to try to dig up (or capture from VHS) one of the about three music videos i did back in like 1994. and beyond that. im going to advertise in the local forums that i'll do a free music video for a local up and coming, budget-challenged hip hop artist. then maybe we can dispense with these back and forth, go-nowhere arguments.
 
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wgzn said:
i dont shoot music videos. because i like to pay my mortgage, buy gear and put my kid through college.

i would guess that right now there are probably -2000 people in the world actually making career money shooting music videos. and i dont mean these $500-$1000 local, go-nowhere things - there are only so many of those you can do in a given market before you run out of clients. im talking about successful, walk away with money in everyone's pocket music videos.

as much as i love shooting and love music. i have found far wiser, more lucrative and creatively fulfilling ways to make a living with a camera.
as i like to tell my clients. anyone can make a lamborghini look cool. to make a well fracturing process look cool? now THAT'S an ACCOMPLISHMENT!

tell you what vision-filmz. in the spirit of putting my money where my mouth is im going to do two things. in the next few days, im going to try to dig up (or capture from VHS) one of the about three music videos i did back in like 1994. and beyond that. im going to advertise in the local forums that i'll do a free music video for a local up and coming, budget-challenged hip hop artist. then maybe we can dispense with these back and forth, go-nowhere arguments.
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No argument, I actually like this post as it has a lot of truth to it. Thing is like I said, sometimes you have to do what you have too. I don't think every Music Video has to be something that's never been done before, many times the budget just isn't there. I think we need to live life and just be thankful for what we have. I'd rather do a $500-$1000 music video than many other jobs in life. Also of course I would love to do nice corporate jobs as well, I guess it's all how you spread yourself.
 
I'd rather do a $500-$1000 music video than many other jobs in life.
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there are a LOT of things id RATHER do. but one has to be wise about their decisions.

Also of course I would love to do nice corporate jobs as well, I guess it's all how you spread yourself.
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getting those kinds of jobs actually has more to do with how you PRESENT yourself and your ability to tell them the things they want to hear in the language that they speak. and THAT's why i always send people posts about grammar
 
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