New Music Video

Re: New Music Video

WOW. That was really good. Those guys are crazy hardcore too. Awesome video.
 
Re: New Music Video

Great video Arkham! Very professional. No complaints here (well, except the music sucks the big one...)
 
Re: New Music Video

Finally. Something decent to me in music videos on this site!!! Woahhh. I liked it. The band needs a little bit of work to me though but all in all i loved the whole setup!
 
Re: New Music Video

CJ-

After I pressed the MUTE button, I thought that was an outstanding video.

I liked the following:

1) They band just walked on and started playing. Simple and effective opener.

2) Were you using a high shutter speed? The stutter effect was subtle but looked nice.

3) The location was cool.

4) You didn't overuse the dolly shots, and those you did, added to the interest of the video.

5) Was there more than one camera? If not, you planned and edited your cuts exceptionally well. Several times, you cut from a low angle to a higher angle on the singer, in mid-hair fling, that was very effective.

6) Lighting was a bit stark, but so is the band. You brought out some nice contrast there, I'd like to see some discussion of your lighting techniques.

7) You captured some eye candy shots that I liked, such as the blonde guy (with red guitar) flipping his hair up and down; I thought the texture of those shots was delicious.

Great job, inspirational. I'm going to unashamedly copy some of your style.
 
Re: New Music Video

I watched the first 30 seconds and totally lost interest. And I couldn't even stand the music, I had to turn down the volume. The shots looked nice, I just thought it looked very redundent. I did, however, like all the other short films and music videos on your site. They were very impressive, good work. This one just didn't do anything for me.
 
Re: New Music Video

Hi all, thanks for the feedback.

The music is what it is. I didn't personally like it at first, but it's grown on me. I have no idea what the singer is saying, but hey, I can't understand what most rappers are saying. It's a genre of music that does have a large world-wide audience. I just did the best I could with the limited budget from the artist and tried to capture their intensity.
Speedbump- 1) The opening of the video was a happy accident. Our person in control of playback had started the song early and the band just went with it. That was the really cool thing about these guys, they required little to no direction. They just did their stage performance as many times as I asked, without complaint.
2) I shot it at a 250 shutter speed, to help make the hair movement look a little bit more thrashing and violent. It forced me to be fully open with the aperture, but I think it came off nice.
3) I had stumbled across the place a few days before the shoot. It was a former artist warehouse, that was described to me as a firetrap. The owners were gutting it out and building lofts.
4) Thanks, the dolly was homemade, as for some reason, every doorway/pee-wee/Super Pee Wee dolly was rented out in the San Francisco Bay Area. So the gaffer came up with a pipe dolly that worked fairly well.
5) There was only one camera, as per it being on such a small budget.
6) The lighting scheme I came up with was just to accent and highlight how the warehouse was naturally lit. It had two large sky-light windows above where I wanted to position the band. I put ND over the first one to even out the band with the background, else the contrast would have been too drastic. We then mounted above a 300 lowel directly on the singer and 2 650's for the guitarists/bassist. We back lit it with a 1k fresnel from the left, and a 1k par from the right rear, accenting the drummer. I also used an open faced 650 to light some of the darker areas in the warehouse and a 4x4 Kino bank for close-ups.
In post, I used Digital Film Tools' Digital Film Lab to saturate the image.

Anyhow, sorry for the lengthy response. let me know if you want to know anything further of the vid.

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com
 
Re: New Music Video

I think Visually the vid looks amazing! It would not look out of place on Headbangers Ball. I hope those guys don't think they're going to bring back speed metal??? Let it rest in peace.
 
Re: New Music Video

Arkham

To be clear; I thought your work was a great job and I agree with the above statement that it would sit well on the Headbangers Ball. In saying I don't personally like Speed Metal I hope that didnt come across as any sleight on you.
 
Re: New Music Video

Although the opinions about the music will inevitably vary, I think you pulled off a quality feel for this music video. I'll agree that it seems a bit repetitive (only because I personally feel that way about most music videos featuring just the band itself).

My only criticism is that the timing seems off -- when I play it back, the video is slightly behind what happens musically -- which is exacerbated by the song's tempo. The whole music track seems to be a fraction of a second early to every key cymbal hit or body motion; wherever the delay comes from, it just stuck out to me as I watched it.
 
Re: New Music Video

John-
Sorry, I did understand, but it was filtered through a weekend of feedback critiquing the music more so than the video, outside of this forum. It gets a little frustrating at times. I apologize if I came off defensive.
By the way, I've posted a bunch of stuff up here and I just want to thank you all for letting me do so. I think it's amazing what we can do with this remarkable camera and even more amazing that we have an outlet like this where we can have open dialogues with our colleagues about our work.

Thank you, everyone.

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com
 
Re: New Music Video

You are right. Someone submits a piece of work and everyone starts moaning about everything BUT the actual photography!
 
Re: New Music Video

Nice video, but I went through your site, really nice work on Human, intéressant, kept me to the end and one add bookmark.
 
Re: New Music Video

Great photography! Probably the best I've seen from this camera.

Question, did you use an anamorphic adapter, the squeeze mode, or matted 4x3?
 
Re: New Music Video

That was just awesome! Loved the cuts and the coloration. Very professional.

I second the comment on the audio being slightly out of sync - but this video is sweet.

Keep up the good work!
 
Re: New Music Video

I think you are confusing out of sync with the 250 shutter speed. It's got that edgy jittery feel that you see in a lot of hip videos. The fact that I'm still thinking/commenting about this video is a testiment to how well I think it was shot/lit and polished in post. CJ - excellent work. You've really demonstrated what this camera is capable of in talented hands.
 
Re: New Music Video

Thank you all for the comments.

Shadow- Thanks, Human was my first film, although shot on an XL1. We're working on a new score and sound FX right now, for it.

Beeblebrox- I've never been able to afford to use an anamorphic adapter, so with everything, I just put a 2:35 matte on it, in post. It was shot on the original DVX100, so no squeeze 16:9.

As for the sync, I'm not sure what that is. In post in looks fine and dead on, but sometimes the compression gets a little screwy. I'll see if I can re-encode it to make it better.

Thanks again everyone for your comments.

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com
 
Re: New Music Video

Pseudo Hair Metal- Hardcore. I love it. Great video. Looked really polished. I'm really debating getting a DVX, I have the money, but I also have to pay rent... This work certainly makes me want to get one though.
 
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