Newbie with an a7s and rokinon cine t1.5 lens.

Blurr3d · Sep 29, 2014

I come from a painting background. So being like most artist I'm exploring new mediums. Filmmaking is very hard for me and proposes a new challenge that is not easy. That's it's allure. Also being like most artist I will never like my work entirely, maybe bits and pieces but never the whole thing. I will always find imperfections, but that's what keeps me going. I'm self taught, no film school, only google school, haha. With this music video I've posted below I like to not use the typical route which so many call "creative" but rather tell a story within the story of the music. This means no shots where the artist is singing or rapping verses. Seriously that's boring. I mean you are not def listening to a music video so do you need to see him sing it as well? That's just my opinion haha. Here are the links to the mini series, there will probably be six episodes.

Ep. 1: (shot with a t4i and pancake lens) http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lSicroxwV6A

Ep. 2: (shot with the a7s and rokinon lens) http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pbOuhhb-pS0

Blurr3d · Sep 29, 2014

Please critique these as much as you can find every fault please?

Thanks,

Anthony

KnightsFan · Sep 29, 2014

I like a lot of the shots by themselves, but both your videos feel very repetitive to me, especially the first half of Ep2 when it was just two shots alternating. Some of your editing tricks are cool, but when you use the same technique so many times (flitting between the person's position) it feels like a one-trick pony deal, and when we just move between different zoom levels of the exact same shot more than a few times it feels kind of gimmicky. I think that adding some color would be nice, too. Not a lot of color because I appreciate the dark aesthetic, but something to add variety and interest and draw attention to details, like how the dashboard in Stay Strong is dark but not as flat as some of the other shots.

This isn't my type of music, so that didn't help my personal experience, and it's quite possible that my inexperience with this music hinders my appreciation of your video.

This means no shots where the artist is singing or rapping verses. Seriously that's boring.

I have to disagree. If it's just showing someone singing in a studio, yeah, it's boring, but I thoroughly enjoyed the Piano Guys' Peponi video, and Greg Laswell's Take Everything.

cheeseandachallenge · Sep 29, 2014

KnightsFan kind of hit the nail on the head there.

I used to agree with the idea that the artist singing/rapping was dull. And typically I think that music videos are a bit unexciting at times. That said, there is a place to show off an artists talent on an instrument. If we didn't want to see their talent, their wouldn't be a market for live DVDs (or concerts in general) - I realise with a studio track/video it's obviously different - but it can still be satisfying and impressive. Further, with something like rap, which is so often about the artist themselves, or about addressing their audience, I think rapping to the camera can be a good thing. Pusha T's and Kendrick Lamar's "Nosetalgia" is a good example where I think just rapping to the camera works really well. Similarly, althought I'm not a fan, Lorde's Tennis Court is just her singing to the camera, and it again, works very well.

Apologies for going on a tangent/not giving much feedback.

Edit: seems youtubers disagree with me on Lorde's video being good :lol:

I think it fits the lyrics well at is nicely unnerving.

Blurr3d · Sep 29, 2014

Thanks for the feedback guys. Definitely fruit for thought. I would agree with you that in the second Ep.2 it is kind of boring. I was trying to convey thought but I guess I did that poorly. Anything else guys?

Thanks,

Anthony

A.D. · Sep 30, 2014

Blurr3d said:
Anything else guys?

Hi Blurr, just a quick observation - both vids looked very flat and grey to me. I could't tell if it was a stylistic choice, but it comes across as if your reference screen might be really contrasty and you're easing off the curves as result, or wether it could do with the white/black points tweaked to look more 'real' (due to the high DR capture maybe?).

So yeah, ignore my muse as I have no idea of your workflow and goals here,

but I think some lighting would make a big improvement to the look and to your freedom of exposure/compostion.

Cheese - Your second YT link (Lorde) takes us to the same vid as the first. Did you mean this one? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Ymd-OCucs

Blurr3d · Sep 30, 2014

A.D. said:
Hi Blurr, just a quick observation - both vids looked very flat and grey to me. I could't tell if it was a stylistic choice, but it comes across as if your reference screen might be really contrasty and you're easing off the curves as result, or wether it could do with the white/black points tweaked to look more 'real' (due to the high DR capture maybe?).

So yeah, ignore my muse as I have no idea of your workflow and goals here, but I think some lighting would make a big improvement to the look and to your freedom of exposure/compostion.

Cheese - Your second YT link (Lorde) takes us to the same vid as the first. Did you mean this one? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Ymd-OCucs

Thanks man. Yea as you can see I like to use natural lighting. As far as narrative what do you guys think? Please critique that as well. Tell me what your thoughts are? Thanks guys so much for the input.

KnightsFan · Sep 30, 2014

I like the narratives, but in both cases it is difficult to tell people apart because of the flat color and flashing people in and out. In the first one, I am not sure who wakes up at the end, and in the second, same thing where I'm not really sure who gets in the car. Basically, it's hard to tell what's going on in the absence of establishing shots. I personally like the ambiguity as a stylistic choice for a music video. Like music, the video is definitely about something specific but applies to broader issues. On the downside, it's difficult to pick up more than just the gist of the story, especially on a first viewing. I do like how you leave the order of events somewhat ambiguous. Some scenes logically have to occur before others, but the way you flip between scenes (especially in Ep1) makes time a little less linear, which I think goes well with music since music usually uses repeated motifs/choruses (not a linear progression from opening chords to final), but nonlinearity reduces the ease of intelligibility. And the repetitive shots take up time and therefore reduce the amount of narrative that you can put in.

Blurr3d · Sep 30, 2014

KnightsFan said:
I like the narratives, but in both cases it is difficult to tell people apart because of the flat color and flashing people in and out. In the first one, I am not sure who wakes up at the end, and in the second, same thing where I'm not really sure who gets in the car. Basically, it's hard to tell what's going on in the absence of establishing shots. I personally like the ambiguity as a stylistic choice for a music video. Like music, the video is definitely about something specific but applies to broader issues. On the downside, it's difficult to pick up more than just the gist of the story, especially on a first viewing. I do like how you leave the order of events somewhat ambiguous. Some scenes logically have to occur before others, but the way you flip between scenes (especially in Ep1) makes time a little less linear, which I think goes well with music since music usually uses repeated motifs/choruses (not a linear progression from opening chords to final), but nonlinearity reduces the ease of intelligibility. And the repetitive shots take up time and therefore reduce the amount of narrative that you can put in.

Wow thanks man. I'll definitely look into that. I want to take this far and turn it into a career. I'm definitely taking notes. I'll bump my color curve up for the next video. I'll see how that helps, and also more establishing shots. I really appreciate the advice.