Helped my roommate out with a music video he wanted to make for a media class project. He is in an awesome band and we wanted to make a video for one of their songs, but only he was present from his original band, so we swapped in another roommate on drums and one of our friends on backup guitar.

shot with an old, beat up lighting kit in our common room.... I am am COMPLETE amateur with lighting.... light was somewhat awkward at times but it allowed for super crisp images with minimal gain. shot at -3db throughout. haven't done any color correction yet. but it's close to done.

when we shoot his real video with the full band NOT in our cramped common room, we will have more movement from the camera/more variety.

our neighbors were hating us!

let me know what you think:

http://www.vimeo.com/690173

i dig the strike anywhere poster in the background.
cool song

Great Song and shots, but i would be a little careful because the lip sinking really shows. When you shoot it with the band i would either use the live audio, which is hard to use sometimes, or tell the lead singer to over exaggerate his singing a little bit, to match the emotion of the recorded song.

Thought the lighting was great though. Hope this helps.

I enjoyed watching it. lighting seemed good. two things caught my attention. I would not have shown the brand of the mic on the lead singer, (its a cheap brand) and the drummers eyes kept going to the backup guitar player. it made it look like the drummer was setting the tempo to the guitar player, and the drummer always sets the beat. it gave it an unnatural look. I am sure it was due to being a fill in drummer, and wouldnt have happened with the actual band. I cant wait to see/hear the real thing!

That was cool as hell. Good job. I can't wait to see the "real" version with the actual band. And the singer has a (no offense) dirty, gritty, Dave Grohl quality to him, so he should really go for it and show lots of emotion in his face.

Look at the way singers faces scrunch up when they're "really" singing and go for it.

Keep up the good work!

i would be a little careful because the lip sinking really shows.
Thought the lighting was great though. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the comments. the funny thing is that the singer in this video is actually NOT the lead singer in the real band. some of the parts of the song he totally forgot the lyrics and actually WAS totally lipsycning. so if we have the real band i hope the lyrics line up with the video better next time.

the drummers eyes kept going to the backup guitar player. it made it look like the drummer was setting the tempo to the guitar player, and the drummer always sets the beat. it gave it an unnatural look. I am sure it was due to being a fill in drummer, and wouldnt have happened with the actual band. I cant wait to see/hear the real thing!

You're absolutely right, the drummer in this vid just learned the drum part for the song about 5 minutes before and had trouble keeping on tempo with the song playing in the background, so he actualy WAS looking at someone for the cues and the tempo haha. he would have had slightly more energy if he actually knew the song haha.

and Will, i agree with you, we needed MORE ENERGY! like i said though, the singer in this video isn't the lead singer in his band. when his real band performs their lead singer is awesome and has tons of life and energy when he sings. funny you mention Dave Grohl because that's totally the look he is going for!

Morgan,

I thought you did a very good job. I like that song, too.

I really missed the bass player. Bass parts were prominant and I missed him. I echo the samson mic. Otherwise good. I like the OK computer poster in the background, so there you go.
BIll

I really missed the bass player. Bass parts were prominant and I missed him. I echo the samson mic. Otherwise good. I like the OK computer poster in the background, so there you go.
BIll

Thanks Everyone. like i said, this wasn't the real band, and was lacking in many areas. hopefully if we shoot a real video we will have a cool location to shoot on, and of course we would have the real, full band.

well, firstly, i love that mustang.
anyways, i'll be straight forward. the shots are framed fine, but i dont know if they suited the song, they seemed to be too rigid. the song's sorta fast and upbeat, the video should reflect that in its camera movements and editing. i really liked the profile shot with the mic even though the brand name was there, i cant see why people would argue against showing it but at the same time it's like, who cares? i mean, they're not a big successful rock band, right? so why should they even try to hide the fact that they don't have money to buy quality gear? in that sense, showing the logo is just sort of reflecting the reality of indie rock. ...but if you ever intended to release that commercially you wouldnt want company logo's in anything unless you have their permission, it could result in legal issues.

i realize it wasn't the real band or the final video or anything, but just make sure the drummer is playing with as much enthusiasm as it sounds like on the recording, get the whole band hyped up and loose. the less they care about the camera in the room, the better.

BUT you dont have to take anything i say to heart because i'm a nobody and it's only my opinion, right? hahah.

oh yeah, one last word: handheld. (take that to heart!)