New Music Video looking for feedback at DVinfo.net

Nathan Troutman · November 12th, 2008, 04:52 PM

Wanted to get some early impressions from the best experts I know on the planet - the blogs!! Please take a look and offer your comments. We haven't done any color correction yet but the edit is pretty close to done. So basically this is a polished rough cut that we'll tweak for color and clean it up a bit.

Please keep in mind that the song is owned and protected by Woodtone Entertainment and the video is the property of Chalkin Studios. Neither can be used without our permission. Thanks and enjoy.

Your Site Name - WHGBL Music Video

Ali Jafri · November 13th, 2008, 01:17 AM

While we wait for comments from the best experts in the world I thought I should add my own views :)

Liked the overall look and feel of the video although I thought headroom was somewhat compromised here and there. Also, in the slow part of the song there's a tracking shot pulling away from the singer, the camera visibly shakes and shudders during this. You may want to adjust that.

Otherwise, nice job. The edit was nice and complimented the song. Performance was good and draws the viewer into the singer's world.

Now lets see what the best experts think about it too!

Mike Gorski · November 13th, 2008, 02:03 AM

My first impression was that the beginning or initial shot lacked a captivating or compelling start. It wasn't horrible, however I didn't feel engaged at the start. Something a little less abrupt that would transition to the shot of her on the couch singing. I think the BW shots of her singing on the couch seemed on key with the style of music being performed.

I think all the shots with the wind blowing fabric in the background doesn't fit in well and is almost awkward in my opinion. It just feels impersonal and detached from the singer. I think this also goes with the some of the cuts that are "downsized" almost as if it gives you a feel that your the b/f videoing her when she was rolling around in bed or on the bridge ect.

Lastly, it looks like there is a lot of noise in the video and I think that might be from all the compression to put it on the web. It seems the colors are flat. Maybe crushing the blacks on some shots might give it more pop.

Overall I dug the song and the theme you were going for I think it just needs some rearrangement and tweaking.

Tunde Anjorin · November 13th, 2008, 11:15 PM

I think the music video worked and captured the mood of the song in my opinion. I really really like the song.

Nathan Troutman · November 25th, 2008, 04:35 PM

Thanks for all of the responses so far and sorry I haven't responded back sooner. Just a few things.

The windowed shots are actually supposed to be the b/f shooting the video. In fact we just gave a camera to them and had them shoot some stuff. We wanted to make it different from the rest of the video visually so we shot with a lot of gain and then decided to window it as well. We didn't like the look of doing the REC red blinking light and viewfinder thing.

The video is fairly flat because it doesn't have any color correction. That should hopefully add in some pop.

I'm actually encouraged that nobody thought the video was boring because that was one of my worries. There's not a WOW special effects or fancy editing with this video and I was afraid that people would just be YAWN. It is fairly straight forward with it's concept. Mainly because of the budget. We wanted to simply try and make her look very good - and have something that was shot professionally. The goal was to let her personality do the work.

Ali Jafri · November 25th, 2008, 11:53 PM

Yes Nathan, her personality does come across and that's what makes the video watchable. The videographer's job is to capture the essence of a great performance, one with feeling and soul. A lousy performance can't be saved even by the best directors, editors, special effects team, etc. etc. So I think you don't need to add anything to it really, it just might be distracting.

Nathan Troutman · November 26th, 2008, 03:11 PM

Here's a new version of the video with color correction and a few other small changes. And as always please feel free to offer your comments. This is a H264 version and hence much better quality.

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Just jump through the megaupload hoops and download the video.

John Stakes · November 26th, 2008, 06:43 PM

pretty good overall. I agree the opening is a little weird. Did you use bluescreen for some of the shots? You can see something at :33, I don't know if it's abberation, or reflection, or if that's how you want it to look? You can see it on the left side of her face.

Thanks for sharing!

Nathan Troutman · November 26th, 2008, 10:16 PM

I'm not sure what you saw but we didn't do any bluescreen. We shot with a Redrock M2 and a Nikon 135mm F2 wide open and moved her physically as far away from the background as we could (that background was blackout cloth hung on C-stands and Christmas lights provided the twinkle.)

We did try a different beginning but they liked the setting up the camera bit. The idea being that she's shooting her own little music video with the beginning and the home video style shots.

Thanks for watching everyone.

John Stakes · November 29th, 2008, 10:22 AM

The background came out good. As far as the abberation, or whatever it is...funny thing is I'm seeing it in my footage now. Not a huge deal I just get nit picky sometimes and think I am going to get my footage exactly like film ; ). I think it has to do with the focal length, but I am not going to spout out any info until I do my own research.

JS

November 12th, 2008, 04:52 PM	#1
Nathan Troutman Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: Hoboken, NJ (New York metro area) Posts: 105	New Music Video looking for feedback Wanted to get some early impressions from the best experts I know on the planet - the blogs!! Please take a look and offer your comments. We haven't done any color correction yet but the edit is pretty close to done. So basically this is a polished rough cut that we'll tweak for color and clean it up a bit. Please keep in mind that the song is owned and protected by Woodtone Entertainment and the video is the property of Chalkin Studios. Neither can be used without our permission. Thanks and enjoy. Your Site Name - WHGBL Music Video

November 13th, 2008, 01:17 AM	#2
Ali Jafri Major Player Join Date: May 2008 Location: Karachi, Pakistan Posts: 210	While we wait for comments from the best experts in the world I thought I should add my own views :) Liked the overall look and feel of the video although I thought headroom was somewhat compromised here and there. Also, in the slow part of the song there's a tracking shot pulling away from the singer, the camera visibly shakes and shudders during this. You may want to adjust that. Otherwise, nice job. The edit was nice and complimented the song. Performance was good and draws the viewer into the singer's world. Now lets see what the best experts think about it too! __________________ Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit // i7 2600K // 16GB RAM // ASUS P8P67 Board // NVIDIA GTX 470 Sony Vegas Pro 13 // Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 // http://vimeo.com/alijafri

November 25th, 2008, 11:53 PM	#6
Ali Jafri Major Player Join Date: May 2008 Location: Karachi, Pakistan Posts: 210	Yes Nathan, her personality does come across and that's what makes the video watchable. The videographer's job is to capture the essence of a great performance, one with feeling and soul. A lousy performance can't be saved even by the best directors, editors, special effects team, etc. etc. So I think you don't need to add anything to it really, it just might be distracting. __________________ Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit // i7 2600K // 16GB RAM // ASUS P8P67 Board // NVIDIA GTX 470 Sony Vegas Pro 13 // Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 // http://vimeo.com/alijafri

November 13th, 2008, 02:03 AM	#3
Mike Gorski Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Hermosa Beach, CA Posts: 163	My first impression was that the beginning or initial shot lacked a captivating or compelling start. It wasn't horrible, however I didn't feel engaged at the start. Something a little less abrupt that would transition to the shot of her on the couch singing. I think the BW shots of her singing on the couch seemed on key with the style of music being performed. I think all the shots with the wind blowing fabric in the background doesn't fit in well and is almost awkward in my opinion. It just feels impersonal and detached from the singer. I think this also goes with the some of the cuts that are "downsized" almost as if it gives you a feel that your the b/f videoing her when she was rolling around in bed or on the bridge ect. Lastly, it looks like there is a lot of noise in the video and I think that might be from all the compression to put it on the web. It seems the colors are flat. Maybe crushing the blacks on some shots might give it more pop. Overall I dug the song and the theme you were going for I think it just needs some rearrangement and tweaking.

November 13th, 2008, 11:15 PM	#4
Tunde Anjorin Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: atlanta ga Posts: 52	I think the music video worked and captured the mood of the song in my opinion. I really really like the song.

November 25th, 2008, 04:35 PM	#5
Nathan Troutman Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: Hoboken, NJ (New York metro area) Posts: 105	Thanks for all of the responses so far and sorry I haven't responded back sooner. Just a few things. The windowed shots are actually supposed to be the b/f shooting the video. In fact we just gave a camera to them and had them shoot some stuff. We wanted to make it different from the rest of the video visually so we shot with a lot of gain and then decided to window it as well. We didn't like the look of doing the REC red blinking light and viewfinder thing. The video is fairly flat because it doesn't have any color correction. That should hopefully add in some pop. I'm actually encouraged that nobody thought the video was boring because that was one of my worries. There's not a WOW special effects or fancy editing with this video and I was afraid that people would just be YAWN. It is fairly straight forward with it's concept. Mainly because of the budget. We wanted to simply try and make her look very good - and have something that was shot professionally. The goal was to let her personality do the work.

November 26th, 2008, 03:11 PM	#7
Nathan Troutman Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: Hoboken, NJ (New York metro area) Posts: 105	Here's a new version of the video with color correction and a few other small changes. And as always please feel free to offer your comments. This is a H264 version and hence much better quality. MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service Just jump through the megaupload hoops and download the video.

November 26th, 2008, 06:43 PM	#8
John Stakes Major Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 558	pretty good overall. I agree the opening is a little weird. Did you use bluescreen for some of the shots? You can see something at :33, I don't know if it's abberation, or reflection, or if that's how you want it to look? You can see it on the left side of her face. Thanks for sharing!

November 26th, 2008, 10:16 PM	#9
Nathan Troutman Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: Hoboken, NJ (New York metro area) Posts: 105	I'm not sure what you saw but we didn't do any bluescreen. We shot with a Redrock M2 and a Nikon 135mm F2 wide open and moved her physically as far away from the background as we could (that background was blackout cloth hung on C-stands and Christmas lights provided the twinkle.) We did try a different beginning but they liked the setting up the camera bit. The idea being that she's shooting her own little music video with the beginning and the home video style shots. Thanks for watching everyone.

November 29th, 2008, 10:22 AM	#10
John Stakes Major Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 558	The background came out good. As far as the abberation, or whatever it is...funny thing is I'm seeing it in my footage now. Not a huge deal I just get nit picky sometimes and think I am going to get my footage exactly like film ; ). I think it has to do with the focal length, but I am not going to spout out any info until I do my own research. JS