archived-videos independent music video FEEDBACK WOULD BE APPRECIATED

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BigE

Hi All,
I haven’t been online for a while. I have been working on a couple small projects. The first is a a hip-hop music video which I posted out on YouTube and would be curious to get some feedback and see what you think? Something’s I know are bad .. i.e. some video interference with the green screen and white backgrounds and the male vocalists arm gets lost in one scene due to cropping …

You can check it out at this link, let me know what you think

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ummqMM-3QP0

Thanks in advance .. and be brutal .. I can take it … What doesn’t kill me, can only make me stronger. 
Eric
 
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independent “No Budget” Horror Film FEEDBACK WOULD BE APPRECIATED

Hi All,
I haven’t been online for a while. I have been working on a couple small projects. The first is a a hip-hop music video which I posted out on YouTube and would be curious to get some feedback and see what you think? Something’s I know are bad .. i.e. some video interference with the green screen and white backgrounds and the male vocalists arm gets lost in one scene due to cropping …

You can check it out at this link, let me know what you think

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ummqMM-3QP0



The other is a short “no-budget” horror film I hope to submit to the AFI Dallas film festival (Now called The Dallas International Film Festival) I also posted it out on YouTube in parts (at least what I have done at this point) and would be curious to get some feedback and see what you think of this one too?

Anyway, let me know how you think it turned out so far, I am still in the editing process, so what is out there is only about 75% of the film and part 5 has no music, FX or sound effects, (and you will see the Pinnacle logo over sections where I have yet to purchase the FX used in the scene), but I figure I should get some feedback now, so I can correct, (if possible), while I am still editing.


Night Terror - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82k9bVG-lU8

Night Terror - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPFS9YX7_0g

Night Terror - Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGrGHl2Kf8I

Night Terror - Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PN3mVsz9ZU

Night Terror - Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EwpsO6L-ew


Thanks in advance .. and be brutal .. I can take it … What doesn’t kill me, can only make me stronger. :)
Eric
 
Being brutally honest. I would say do your homework more, critique yourself and make something that you feel good about before asking for other people's critiques. I only watched part of the music video and up till the end of part 2 of night terrors, but neither are in any sort of state to be asking others for their opinions on them.

You don't need me to tell you that having a "pinnacle" logo show up in the center of some of the clips is a bad idea.

How do you think the sound is?
What do you think of the lighting?
Did you like how the scenes were framed?

There are some questions that can be answered by you and fixed before asking others to spend their time watching and giving their opinions.
 
I'm going to be brutal.

MUSIC VIDEO

Besides the very low quality of it, it's hard to be constructive about it just because every technical aspect needs A LOT of work. But what might help you right now is that it was way too slow paced. It was slow and tedious, and hard to sit through. Get faster cuts down, and try to make it more 'flashy' cause the story line wasn't working out as it was so slow.


HORROR SHORT

[I'll critique as I watch]
Right off the bat I'm going to tell you to take out the countdown at the very begining, it's just very amature. And the copyright soundeffect from FOX SEARCHLIGHT.

It took 3 minutes to get to the actual film. As an indie, no one cares about the no-name actors and crew, just get to the point.

Get rid of the insert pictures, they are very tacky and amature.

A shame to admit, but the attractive girl in her underware made me keep watching.

-Zoom was poorly executed and should be seldom used if ever in a film.
-Effects were cheap, but hey I get it, no budget.
-Again, take those cheesy inserts of spiders and bears out.

I'm glad to see you at least lit the shots, and some of your framing is decent, but the shots don't flow well with one another, and get tedious using the same 2 shots.

Acting isn't too good... but i've seen worse. A lot of the lines came out as 'canned' or read. Sound is pretty bad, but, again, i've heard worse.

Music overlay was too loud, sometimes less is better.

You need to remember that you can't use labels you don't have the rights too like the vodka bottle. (And that girl is a champ downing like 6 shots in 3 seconds :))

I'm liking the inserts a lot better now that they arn't still pictures.

The end....

Was very very strange and made no sense. It seemed honestly like a bad spoof. All the effects were really bad at the end. The eyeball holding was decent but made no sense.


If you take some of the things i've said into consideration, I think your next film will do much better. Don't worry, we all started off bad, you only get better in time.
 
For the music video I got up to the green screen part before turning it off.
It was much of a force.. it was just really really really boring.
Even the intro was because of the constant one camera shot.
Now if you had anything to do with the music, that was excellent. My speakers weren't too loud when I listened but it sounded like it was mixed and recorded pretty well.

For the horror film..
I'm going to have to agree with the above poster.
The intro was very cheesy and is seen too much.. and the copyrighted music that everyone is familiar with isn't the best choice.
Now, I myself have used something similar in some short-films and the like.. but they were entirely family made and only meant to be shown to family and friends rather than entering it into some film festival.

I noticed right away that when the women was looking out the window.. it just didn't flow. The picture of the moon or whatever didn't fit in and it didn't seem as that was what she was looking at. Not to mention, the picture or video of the moon was dark.. while you could see light behind the blinds.

When I finally skipped through past the long sleeping scene with all the lame images popping up.. I noticed the dialogue was way too quiet compared to the rest of the film. That's one thing you need to work on.. getting the actual vocal part of the movie to be around the same volume as the music.

The dialogue was very boring.. and it was just two angles bouncing back and forth.. this is about where I turned it off.

Sorry =X

I'm sure you're not happy with the critiques so far, but every film you make will probably be better than the last so keep going at it =)

I'd definitely say you need to work on getting more angles.. possibly an actual camera-man would help.. but if you can't do that then just stop recording and change the angel before resuming the scene.
It's a tedious task, but if you do it right and edit it.. the scenes can flow together smoothly and look much more movie-like.
 
Well I'm not going to repeat what others have said. Being an indie cinematographer I know that critiques can get on ones nerves at times. Fortunately I've found people here at indietalk to be better at giving advice than other forums (ie:dvx forums..). Pretty much here they tell whats wrong and don't blast you for it (trust me people can get really nasty in other indie forum sites..)

Regardless here are some pointers I will give you since I always think that its good to give pointers and suggestions..

First off the music video should have a little more umph to it. The music is good, not too my taste but I recognize what is good. I could only watch it half way through but there weren't enough people in the shots. Use your imagination and use craigslist to get actors (make sure the sign release forms!). Keep special effects to a minimum. Just because you can Key a background doesn't mean that you should. Also switch more shots keep the story going in your music vid. Shots help progress the story and acting. It helps to have your actors get into the song too. Get them pumped up so that way they are in the zone when shooting.

Second the Indie film.... Alright so here your going to want to do some homework. It's not bad if your starting out or a little bit rusty. Cinema shots tho need to be more dynamic than what you have here. The shot of her shutting the light off is a classic indie shot. A close shot of her turning the light off does nothing to progress the story or her actions. Now if someone else turned off the light while she was in there thats a different story (kind of that whole psycho effect:) ). Now the camera is pretty shakey. I don't know if you have a tripod but it shouldn't shake like that unless your shot has to follow someone and you are walking around with it. If you don't have a tripod invest in one. If you do practice a little bit more with it.

The lighting for your film was also a little bit off however its not bad. I've seen much worse in a lot of indies so with some practice you can do really well in that area. In fact a suggestion would be to get some work lights from home depot or lowes. Next buy a large white card stock that you might use for a high school project. Also get a card board box thats about 2ft by 2ft open it up so the flaps are hanging, get some adhesive spray. Next grab some cooking aluminum foil crumple it up lightly and glue it down shiney side up to the box until its completely covered. This allows you to diffuse the harsh light and creates less shadows. Shine the light away from the actor and have the white project board or the tinfoil board you created bounce the light off of them towards the actor. This will cost from 10 bucks to a few dollars and ups the look to your film:)

Be careful of cuts (don't do any wipes just cut from one scene to the other). Sound can be hard to do so I suggest getting a cheap boom mic put it on the end of a painters pole ( a little bit heavier than the pros use but it will work) and practice using that. Cost for those should put you back $100. Keep in mind this equipment isn't gonna sound as good as the pros or the average good indie but it will get you started.

Finally if you want a cheap but really good editing system go for Sony Vegas Studios. Its similar to Final Cut Studios but at a fraction of the cost. The reason I'm suggesting this of all things is that you can create a film look for you movie. This ups the production value look on your film. See a tutorial bellow that will give yah an idea:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ITKkMy5kGc

Over all keep it up. No one has ever made the perfect film but your sill only gets better by actually making film after film:) Keep up the good work hope to see your progression!
 
I read all the replies to this and everyone covered what I was going to say.

Keep making videos, they'll keep getting better.

Rome wasn't built in a day.
 
Hey,

Good effort. The girl's heart didn't seem to be in it sometimes when she was "singing" (lipsyncing), but it's clear you know the conventions of the genre and you're trying them out.

Oh, and maybe too much of the car.

As others said, they'll only get better.
 
No copywrite material - the images came from google, and music from who knows, but - if its not from a friend, or something you made, then someone owns it.

Trim your edits - you've got lingering shots where the girl stops at the edge of frame and then continues on in the next.

The rest of the errors are aesthetic and you'll have to learn what looks good and what doesn't, just watch pro movies of a similar genre, and compare them to what you've got. Then you can see what works and what doesn't.
 
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