watch Rocky Roads

[Swink]

I just finished my first video. Made dozens of mistakes throughout the process and learned a ton.

Would be interested to hear what you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDlj0MPhvts

Cheers,
Tom

 

[wheatgrinder]

Great effort.

Imperfectly finished is better than perfectly unfinished.

.. what are some of the thing you would do different next time?

 

[Swink]

Thanks for looking at it!

A lot of the flaws came from lack of confidence and lack of patience and nervousness. I think I needed to be a bit more of an active director. In the cafe the girl isn't quite expressing the right emotion. The cafe was open and we only spent $1.25. I didn't want to disrupt things too much so we shot it quickly. Generally I should have done more takes of everything, but we were cold and were in a rush to see the final product. I only have about 60 minutes of camera experience and I find I was a little too slow getting shots into focus, though I did partly want that look. Also, had to throw away footage that had the camera's shadow on the talent's face. There are a few too many shots with the tops of their heads cut off. Smoking shots are cliche, but I liked the lighting so I used them anyway. The list goes on ... Still proud of it though and had a blast.

 

[polfilmblog]

Well, you got me to watch the whole thing, even after my first impulse to just end it. That's in your favor. The song was pretty well mixed.

Here are my impressions:

1. Too limited, going back and back to the same one performance sitting on a wall or whatever. If you can play it on one wall, you can play it on six or twelve. Same cost. You had a whole city to play with.

2. Lighting color was botched. Those halogens are grim, but a lot of the time it worked for the feel of it. Some color correction could have minimized the saturation problems from the street lights, and the variations they have from one another in various angles.

3. All the int. lighting you can control should have been better quality light, instead of whatever incandescents were around.

4. Shaky cam ... sucks.

5. Might have crossed the line at the climax, better with a little less emotionalism.

6. Where's the rest of the band?

7. Why start with a cigarette?

8. The girl in the cafe, her cuts were repetitious, didn't go anywhere for most of the song.

9. 1980s posterized color effects. Just no.

10. Possibly get around the color issues by just converting to black and white.

11. More careful shot planning, tripod, jib if available.

12. A few more key images, so you don't have to repeat.

 

[Swink]

polfilmblog, thanks for the thoughts.

1. I agree.
2. Okay. I only have Final Cut Express so minimal color correction options. Is it over saturated or under?
6. There's not really a band. There's a songwriting team and they "hired" the singer and me. Songwriters didn't want to be in vid.
7. I agree..
10. I did look at it in black and white and found it kind of lifeless. Plus I like some of the colors. But maybe I should have pursued that option more..
11. More shot planning should have been done for sure.
12. I didn't actually repeat (if I understand what you mean), but if it looks like I did, that's just as bad.

I can't take any credit for the song. Mixing should be good, though. It was done at a professional studio. They paid quite a bit for recording. It was when it came to the video that they decided to go no budget.

 

[Dreadylocks]

I think it's kinda funny they spent all that money on the song but none on the video. The song was recorded really well, that much is obvious.

I have to say I liked the video, yeah it could have had more shots but I think it looked like a indie music video, in a good way.

It's a shame there wasn't a band to be in the video, it kind of was throwing me off to see him singing alone with his guitar and hearing a whole perfectly recorded band. I would have liked an acoustic version of the song or just keep the guitar out of the video all together and just have him sing or not sing...

So do you think you'll be doing more of this work? Sounds like you've been bit by the bug

 

[Swink]

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I knew there was no way I was going to make it look like anything other than a handheld, no lighting, no HD, no film indie thing so I tried to make the most of it, starting with somewhat interesting (but free) locations.

Also tried to be resourceful. Did do one shot on rollerblades to make it smoother when I swung past him.

They apparently had a pro lined up to make the video for $9000, but they didn't know if it was worth it for their first song and no album out yet. So they put an ad on Craigslist and found me.

Yes, totally bitten by the bug in the last couple of months. Just before the music vid, I put together an experimental doc for a CBC contest. It should be posted tomorrow. Also trying to get involved in any project I can to learn. Considering going back to school, but don't know if it's worth it.