a critique of my first "real" music video

[Guest EKC]

so this is one i made for under $300 bucks, that covers constumes and food for crew. it was basically shot over two days with about three days of prep...but enough excuses...

 

http://www.starwipe.net/videofiles/vandals-iamcrushed.mov

 

 

 

 

 

its 23 megs.. so be patient... and tell me whut you think,,, be honest!!!

[Greg Gross]

Hello EKC,

I think you're ready to start your own production company! Why don't

you call it "Music Video Works"? When you get estabilished I would like

to be one of your DP's as I'm just getting started, I'll work for food and

a place to put my sleeping bag,name on credits for DP. I really like the

use of the master shot in the beginning. It establishes story taking place

at school, I like size of school in image compared to our character. I see

your gaffer was "Roger", how did he give you the red color effects in the

Ext. night scenes? Did you use a type of steadicam as I liked the way you

tracked camera(moving camera) in the Int. hallway scenes and the Ext.'s,

walks outside building. Overall color not too bad for first production. I did

notice one character out of focus in hallway(he walked close to camera),

Gave look like "get that camera out of here!" Maybe you wanted shallow

DOF here? Of course with mini-dv its hard to track and focus. Have you

seen the movie "Elephant"? Has Int. shots of hallways in a school and Ext.

shots outside of school. The DP of this film was Harris Savides. You might

want to look him up on the internet and research. Best regards for your con-

continued success in filmmaking.

Greg Gross,Professional Photographer

Student Cinematographer

Edited November 12, 2004 by pd170user

[Guest fstop]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This was absolutely hilarious!!!!!! I've stuck it on my favourites already!!! LOL!!!!

 

VERY creatively shot- I think stuff like this is SO impressive- the characters and their cartoonish isolation just set the scene for an onslaught of funny gags- your director is VERY talented, and as for the cinematography, I don't CARE how it was done for the samne reason I don't watch The Simpsons conciously for the animation.

 

EXCELLENT and one of the funniest things I've seen in a while!!!

[jasarsenault]

Love the video. Love The Vandals

 

Jason

[Guest EKC]

wow... thanks for the insightfull observations greg...

 

1)as far as the red color effects... on some of it were we are dunning around, i was handheld and he held a 1k on a stand about 12 feet in the air about 45" from me. We put a diffusion and primary red gel on the light, and tried to make a make shift snoot out of black wrap.. but i dont know if that really worked..

but when we looked at the footage, it came out too red and too pink... the pink i could get rid of but the red was too much to fix... so basically we reshot some of it at differnt location ( in front of my house on my street} and clamped the 1k on the tripod with just diffision .. then in post ( my g4 in my kitchen) we just screwed with different filters and get a better red look.

 

2) we didnt have a steadycam type rig... i borrowed a doorway dolly from a production house and just hoped for the best

 

3) the out of focus thing is just on of those not having time to look at playback or having a monitor for other people to look at while i shoot...

 

4) its funny you mentioned "Elephant"... i was really ispired by the camera work in that movie and was trying to mimic allot of it sometimes... in fact, origanlly, this was susposed to by shot in a HS with HS students but we get turned down becasue of the lyrics (cuz they talk about suicide) .. so we just stole locations at the college i went to and said we were doing a art film

 

 

e casey.

[Greg Gross]

Hello EKC,

It looks like you're getting raving reviews on your production. I thought

maybe you used baby or less for that red effect at night,personally I liked the

red cast, for me it was a transition. No kidding you used a doorway dolly?

No wonder things looked so solid,stable. I really liked the way the girls

turned and looked at your character as they were walking down the Ext.

walkway, liked their facial expressions. I think shallow DOF was okay for that

guy close to camera. I just wondered if you wanted that look or if it was diff-

icult to maintain focus. Some people today will say thats the look I wanted,know

what I mean? I'd like to do a music video from the Beach Boys era. Highschool

cutesy stuff,but powerful images,story. Girl loves boy but all the grils love the

boy,she gets boy! Beach Boys music. I have yet managed to watch the entire

"Elephant" film but I'm going to,I like Savides's work. I always have high school

kids,junior college kids coming and going here, that want to be photographers.

I don't think that I will ever stop being amazed at the expressions on their faces,

when they see the images they have created for the first time. Best regards!

 

Greg gross,Professional Photographer

Student Cinematographer