My first music video + prosthetics and chainsaws

[Chicky]

Hey AGS!

So after many many hours editing it's finally up! This is my first music video, my band have just released our second album so i put together this to promote our track 'When the Dead Walk'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr2FtOvD544

Shot, directed and produced by myself on 550D with Kit and 50mm, there's some slider shots in there are a lot of budget steadicam work. It was 3 days location shooting and a few weeks on and off for the editing, please note that the edit was a little rushed to get it online for the new year.

Enjoy!

[Anian]

Hmm, first of all, as is, it's not bad at all. Practice makes perfect and for a first time and being a one man crew, I'd say you did a really good job. Lighting and the feel is good...for what I guess a metal video should have.

But to be honest (and I am aware that that the budget was not all that high) I think it could do with a bit more scenes from the "story" part and less of the band. And on that note, was there some kind of a "story"?  Cause I saw the doctor cutting the woman then touching wounds and then a guy in chains...which is kind of confusing.
The end I liked, the begining as well, though a bit more slide shots of the equipment and similar would add to the atmosphere.
On the band shots, there might be a bit too much zoomed in shots and not that many shots of the full band. Though I kind of guess that is due to the lack of space to place the camera in a good position.

[Chicky]

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, totally didn't have much space using a 50mm on a 1.6x crop sensor like the 550d. The 'story' bits were rather rushed, there wasn't much of a plan for them and this was a zero budget shoot. They seem a little spaced out but will fit a lot better in the radio edit of this track which is 2:30 shorter, that would be the mainstream video sent to music channels etc.

As mentioned it was my first attempt, i'll take your comments into consideration for the next edit and any future videos!

Thanks

[Wersus]

I think that was great. I don't think the closeups were a bad thing; you see a lot of them in metal videos and I think it works. But what's up with the shorts? They seem a bit weird. Also the legs look like they were shaven. Aaand there was like 3 shots of the bass player in the whole video(!), what's up with that?.

But all 'n all, I think the video was really good for a budget job. I hope my band will be able to make such a good video some day.

[m0ds]

Very nicely made, well done.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Very nicely done. Couple of notes (I'm currently working as an editor [haven't gotten a degree yet though, still trying to get into a film school for editing] and just did a good week of editing a music video as well, so that's why I'm still pretty fresh on the topic):

- The Canon EOS 550D/Rebel T2i/Kiss X4 is an excellent camera, I actually want to buy it as my first DLSR asap so I'm happy you used that. Why did you opt for 720p instead of 1080p tho? Did you need the 60p framerate?

- As far as the editing is concerned, it seemed to follow the beat a little bit too much in my opinion. This is a matter of taste, but - especially in the beginning - it really sticked out that you cut on every "1" of the beat. Sometimes it's better to be lead by the lyrics and mix it up a bit. Made the same mistake myself on the first try.

- It also didn't seem 100% in sync as far as the audio and video goes, looking at the drums and the vocalist's lips - maybe that's due to bad compression/uploading to youtube or it actually isn't edited absolutely tight. Same with the cuts on the beats, with some of them (again, most notably in the beginning), they aren't exactly on the count.

But it is a great semi-professional video, no doubt. Loved the lighting, the camera trucking and the doodads in the shots.

[Cuiki]

Not into metal so much, but this shit is goood!! Really nice solos, too.

And the video looks very professional to me.

No real criticism, I just wanted to say keep up the good work!

[Igor Hardy]

Great work with the footage, lighting, scenery, prostethics and chainsawa. Some very nice shots too.

However, if you want me to be brutally honest (and I know you'd want me too) I felt the editing didn't really fit in with the rhythm of the music piece, especially in the slower parts. The rhythm of the cuts actually made listening to the music quite difficult at times - very distracting. And there's way too many very samey guitar close-ups. Though I guess you didn't have that much footage to choose from to connect certain shots.

[Calin Leafshade]

Videowise I agree with what most people have said: The editing could be tighter and perhaps the shots could be a little more engaging at times but overall it's pretty well done.

Audiowise however this track begs for strings in the more anthemic sections. At the moment its sonically uninteresting and rather empty.
The vocals are well performed but often a little too bright and dry in the mix for my taste.

Having said that, I dont really like metal too much so take my suggestions with a truck load of salt.

[LupaShiva]

Really good job i like it  keep up the good work mate 

[theo]

Cool project, bet you had fun and learned a lot!

You pretty much nailed depth of field, light and toning. For a project this small, that's pretty impressive.

[Chicky]

Gee thanks! Great comments, very insightful points made there. I'm glad some of you picked up on the editing, it was a bit of an experiment for me but i uploaded it knowing it could be improved. I had a lot of issues with the video cache not lining up with the timeline markers so kept having to load backups and loosing a lot of previous improvements. Wersus, the bass track was the main offender 

Dhk, i went 60fps because i was planning some time manipulation in the heavier bits, slowing things down for dramatic effect. This is another thing that did not make it into this edit, a lot of people were waiting on the release of this video and i was holding things up with the editing. The 550 is a great buy, glass is the big investment though!

It's a relief that most of the problems are with the editing, it's not my forte and i am still learning the ropes, so lots of room for improvement there!

Anyone spot the CGI?

Thanks again guys.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Dhk, i went 60fps because i was planning some time manipulation in the heavier bits, slowing things down for dramatic effect. This is another thing that did not make it into this edit, a lot of people were waiting on the release of this video and i was holding things up with the editing. The 550 is a great buy, glass is the big investment though!

It's a relief that most of the problems are with the editing, it's not my forte and i am still learning the ropes, so lots of room for improvement there!

Anyone spot the CGI?

Ah that makes sense, yeah for time warp you definitely want to go 60fps, shame it didn't make it into the final cut.

I did notice some smoke/debris in the foreground that looked very much like CGI, was that it?

[Chicky]

Bullseye, that's the one. I wanted to add more as the song moves on but that stuff takes forever to render! My list for the next cut is looking pretty good now.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Very nice job there. After Effects I assume? What program did you use for editing?

[voh]

Looks good, but there's one thing that really annoyed me about the whole thing..

Other than the vocalist, the band is too timid... They're not rocking out, they don't seem to be very interested in the whole thing (especially the drummer).

For a next video, that's something to keep in mind - if you're gonna be playing for the camera, make sure you frickin' exPLODE.

Other than that, not bad at all, except for some of the things already mentioned, which make it (still) an amazing result for a first project

[RetroJay]

Hi Chicky.

As you said "my band have just released our second album".
Who the hell else has done this?

I myself enjoyed this. Fookin amazing.
Death, Metal and mutilation = EVIL = Makes Jay a happy bunny.

[Sam.]

This is a very big step forward from other songs I have heard of yours nath, very very good.

Video seems a touch over-performed vocally and drum-man seems a little nonchalant? Personally not a fan of fiddling with colouring to that extent, but it seems to have the desired effect of looking a bit like a Saw movie? MAkeup is very good and convincing, camera work is professional to my eyes. Set could be a bit bigger but overall a nicely professional looking vid.

[Chicky]

Hey team!

Another video from me has hit the interweb, this time i went for a studio shoot based on the client brief. I've stepped up from metal, to extreme metal  These  guys are going places so it was a great opportunity, lots of fun to film.

http://youtu.be/jFM45Q5s-bo

May or may not be your big blue cup of tea, but subscribe anyway! I'll have lots of content uploaded throughout the year, my next project will be something narrative based and funny!