OT Feedback Desire - Music Video

Dach wrote on 9/3/2006, 7:29 PM
Vegas Users,

This is my first attempt in posting a video for review. I hope I do it right. Anyway, I always like to receive feedback and respect the opionions on this forum.

I have been working with a local band in producing their first music video. Having never done this before I took an opportunity to visit and watch the band perfom, at the same time I captured some footage to practice editing with. I will be meeting with the in coming weeks to do official shoot.

Please share any thoughts.

www.reamenterprises.com/18keystone.mov

Thanks,
Chad

Comments

randy-stewart wrote on 9/3/2006, 7:46 PM
Dach,
Enjoyed the vid, really catchy tune and the lead singer wails! I'm not a pro editor but what I noticed is too much focus on head shots. I needed to see more shots of the full band especially at the beginning. Camera angles are excellent on the instruments, couple of the cuts seemed under lit, but liked the variety of shots. Good for cut aways but put some establishing shots in between like full shots of the band at different angles, or catch the back-up vocal in action. Understand this is just practise. Overall edit was clean and camera shots were solid. I'm sure others with more experience will comment. Again, enjoyed the piece. Thanks for sharing.
Randy
grh wrote on 9/4/2006, 6:50 AM
Fantastic bass sound :-) Too bad this is QuickTime; quality is not good for the filesize.

Overall, good job. You've got a solid foundation here upon which to build, both improving this product as well as learning what can be done better next time. Since you're only "practicing" with this footage, note that the following comments are about things you could keep in mind when you do the real work.

Agree with the post above, and would like to see more angles on the lead singer. But there are lots of good shots as well. I like the shot of the kick beater through the drum (could be lit better), and the shot of the bass neck with the kick in the background. The shot of the kick face ("TAMA") might better be changed to a shot of the kick head reflecting a member of the band dancing around and posturing. Just an idea.

There's a sync problem with the drums during the first "yeah---, whoa-whoa" part. And with the bass at the beginning of the bridge. Drums here, too, and later on. Actually, lots of sync problems with the drums. Vocal/guitar sync is good.

OK, there's a shot of the drums, about 80% into the vid, where you can see a cameraman on the right side (wearing a green shirt) holding a camera pointed at the drummer. What's up with that? No biggie for a throwaway, of course.

This shot also illustrates the need for some color correction work, mostly to get rid of the yellow cast which results from poor/dark lighting.

The shot of the bass player with the open garage door in the background: watch your backlighting. You might try this shot at sunrise or sunset to get better light.

HTH. Looks like fun.
Dach wrote on 9/4/2006, 10:17 AM
Thanks for the feedback so far. Syncing the video with the recorded track was one of my reasons for wanting to get this footage. The band themselves have never made a vide and I found that after playing the song about ten times. There was always a slight variation in the length of the performance.

I agree there are lighting considerations to be made for our next shoot. We will most likely use the same location next time. The rear door will be closed.

The final version will also have some non-performance footage.

Thanks,

Chad
busterkeaton wrote on 9/4/2006, 12:00 PM
Chad, I don't know what the final video is intended for, but it's hard today to get an audience excited about a video which is simply a band playing music. Unless they are already fans of the band.

I would start looking to effects to spice up the video. I would go away from a realistic look. I would try gradient map, glow, newsprint and some others FX. It doesn't have to be overdone and it doesn't have to be on every shot. I would also try to get mutiple angles on screen at once. say a big shot of the singer across the top of the frame and then individual shots of the band beneath him. The intro of song might be a good place to do this since each instrument comes in at a different time. Then when the singing kicks in go to full screen.

I agree, that we need more shots of the full band. In terms of what is dramatic or interesting about this band, I would like to see more shots of relating together and vibing off each other. Since it's a video, I would try some shot where they face each other rather that the camera. I agree more of midshot on the singer rather than cu.

Are you able to control the lighting? If so, I would possibly try a version with darker lighting and one with high key lighting, so you can cut between them for more impact. I would try to keep the light off the background and possibly hang some fabric. If they are a garage band and the point is that they are a garage band. I would have a closeup of a hand opening a garage door, and maybe cords being plugged into amps and then begin.

Are you having them play to a recorded track?
Dach wrote on 9/4/2006, 12:11 PM
When we did our practice I recorded about half and half. Live and to a recorded track.

I see what you are saying about introducing some FXs, I will have to explore this. The final video will share some scenes of the band around a small fire, some what representing the scenes in the song. It is not intended to have th vocalist sing in these scenes.

The video's initial audience will be friends / family and they will use it to some degree for self-promotion.

Thanks again,
Chad