Producing my second music video. Need feedback.

[Renderz]

Hi folks,

I'm about to embark on filming my second music video. It will be an acoustic piece. However my first and only video, filmed 6 months ago, was a massive learning lesson about lighting, composition and editing. Could you kind people have a look and give me feedback ON the Youtube page please?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMjpVnmtY_8

Please be kind, it's just a hobby right now. I love music, I love cinematography so I do it for free and for fun.

Cheers!

 

[mickbab]

Good first job!

I don't have any experience in any filming whatsoever, but here is two suggestions:

- Looks a bit overexposed and blown out. Try making it not so bright next time.
- If possible, try filming a bit of different content. I thought it was a bit much just looking at him the whole time. See if there are any scenes or moments which relate to the song itself (or just look cool!) which would help break up the video a little.

Good luck with your next video!

 

[Renderz]

Thanks for the kind words Mickbab.

With regards to your points I was trying to get a clean white background but clearly didn't have enough lights to do that so I tried to overexpose it in Final Cut. Secondly, it was all organized in a week and very little time with the band so I decided to do a straight down the lens shot.

These aren't excuses, I had immense fun shooting, directing and editing but I'm keen to do the next one because I know I can do much better having learnt so much from the first experience.

Thanks again.

 

[kernkraft]

I don't know whether it's the overexposure or something else, like the colour theme, but I don't really like the colours. They are too mellow and boring. Was it Professional Widow by Tori Amos with a white background and overexposed colours (or distorted?) that was pretty cool? My memories might be wrong.


I like the white background, I like some of the shots. You appear to have some attention to detail. I haven't got any serious experience in the area, but I saw commercials with worst shots on main TV channels. The skill is there, but is it enough?

If you want my honest opinion...

You really have to experiment more and if you stick to this path, you'll only get better at studio photography with moving images. The song is kind of nice (although a bit long and wee bit boring), the man is handsome, but God, when these things come together, this kind of wedding photography theme just doesn't work. I suppose, the primary purpose of a music video for an unknown band is to raise profile. What you have there is just far too plain, conventional and a bit unimaginative. It might be suitable for a local channel, where mature people might like things like this.

You have the basics, it seems. Why don't you try something creative, something with a twist? If it turns out to be a failure, you can always use a safe take on it like you did with the first one. You need to watch music TVs, commercials, films...

Often, slow folk songs (that actually made it to television screens) have animations or some striking and creative music videos. I know that at least the animation bit is not helping you here, but you really have to try to make a music video exciting. In the end, you can compare The Blair Witch Project with big budget horrors and what really matters is not the 'trade' knowledge, but the creative input.

I didn't mean to offend, I spent my time writing this to help.

 

[huntercr]

my thoughts

ok take this with a grain of salt... I won't be offended 🙂 All in all I liked it. The video doesn't have any surprises in it, but then the song doesn't either, so it works.

OK ... so I've watched the video a couple of times now, and here's what I see:

1) Nothing wrong with the overexposed video on the guy. The two different outfits for the guy however ( white striped singing, black playing guitar )is bad. Oh I don't know maybe it works. Nothing you can fix now, so don't worry about it.

2) The girl on the other hand needs to give us some sense that she's not in the same scene with him. Not sure what that should be. At one point you put her in B&W, which might work, but then you do it later to the guy at 1:57 which seems WAY out of place... his clip is our mainstay... It has to remain consistent.

3) Everything is so tight. The camera is always close. I get it that you want to give that personal connection, but I'm thinking maybe we need a little relief from it at times. We get a tiny bit of relief from this when we see the guitar, but its not enough. You know maybe a far half or full body from-the-side shot or something for one of those guitar strumming shots ( maybe at 1:26, since that's not lining up with the music anyway 🙂 )
Well, maybe not there because you have the shot at ~1:40, but you get the idea

4) When we see the girl, you're even tighter, which could work, but the most important thing about her is her eyes, and right at 1:00 you cut her eyes off, and you do it again at 2:29. ( and remember if you end up having to respect TV safe areas for whatever reason, this is going to be even more pronounced )

5) speaking of eyes, the fading eyes thing at 2:51 - 2:59... at 2:56 or so you've got to make her right eye ( audience left ) fade out at the same time as the other eye. It's creepy distracting otherwise.

6) nitpick... matte out her stray hair at 0:43 ( just fade it into the white )


Hope this helps!

 

[Berit Moller]

Liked the video but

I liked your video and think it is amazing that it is only you second work in the field of music video, but I think, like others, that it could do with some colour grading. Also I don't like that you have a white background in some shots and a black in some (I does not look as it was planned like that – like an intended design).
Is the guitarplayer the same person as the singer? If it is, he should have the same shirt on in all the shots (you are going for a very 'clean' simple look). If it is an other person you should present his face very early in the video. The viewer gets confused.
And what is the girl doing there? The shots of her are not corresponing to the lyrics. If we wanted to se her at all, we would like to se her doing the things that make him sing about her - and these shots would be great as superimposed wide shots (it is a bit confusing that she is closeup as the singer). By the way you have a great shadow on his face which I really like.
Berit