New Music Video Shot With An Xl1

[Waheed AlQawasmi]

Hi all,

I just got done with the second video of the music videos Trilogy that i have been working on. Hoping this video will start playing on MTV, VH1, and BET soon.

The video is for a Soul Artist (Tye Brown - Soul Street Records), the song is very powerful and has an amazing tone.

I shot the entire video in 11 hours. Took me about 14 hours to edit, add effects, and render out everything. Basically a one man band thing. ??I hope you like and enjoy it. Any feedback is welcomed, actually please give me feedback on what you think of the video and of how its all put together.

http://wafilms.com/music%20videos/tybrown.html <-- Music Video

http://wafilms.com/ <-- My webpage

please check it out after you are done and let me know what you think of my work.

Sincerely
Waheed AlQawasmi
Film Director
WAFILMS.COM

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Hi Waheed, you should ask one of the moderators to move your post to our DV for the Masses Board, that's where people usually present their work.

My comments on the clip:

the music was nice, not my thing, but it has something relaxing, but I understand you don't want to know what I thought about the music ;-)

About the clip: very nice cinematography, nice color correction, and shows that an XL1, although several years old, can still make very nice footage.
Editing is very professional and good to. Camera movement, everything, nice and professional. Especially when you all did this on your own (nice to see on the set pictures too, I always love those).

My only complaint would be that the substance of the clip is not that original, it's in that aspect a very 'usual' music clip, but one that's very professionally shot or at least makes a very pro impression.
But I like it when clips have something surprising, something original, and I think your clip really doesn't have that.
Having said that, I think 99% of the clips don't have that, so I think it's very hard too, to make an original video clip, because in essence, your just there in service of the music group.

But, sincerely, very nice shot and very well edited. Congratulations!

[Waheed AlQawasmi]

Thank you so much for the complement on the video. Back to the originality of the video, I agree with you. But with this video, I wanted it to look like all the stuff you see on MTV and VH1, because we are using this video to actually get a bigger investor intrested in the project. Please look at my other film work not music videos and let me know what you think. here is my webpage

WAFILMS.COM

also how do you get them to move you to the DV users section???

thanx
waheed

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I don't have time now to look to your webpage, at this moment I'm writing something for school, but I'll look into it later.

I think you can't move it, unless you double post it, but they don't like that here because it would get confusing. you could just email one of the moderators to move it, they will do it quickly without a problem.

[Jerome Terry]

Waheed,

I really really liked the video and the artist. The film look you applied to the footage really matched the urban look I that I took from it. Great camera moves, just like the videos on BET, VH1 and some of the MTV stuff. I also checked out "B Ok". The best part of that video was the women.

Peace, Jerome
www.ejtmediaproductions.com

[Gregory S. Ouellette]

sorry, this got posted post- haste.

[Greg Boston]

I agree. This thread is headed into the 'DV for the Masses' section. Good to see someone still cranking out that XL-1 quality stuff.

-gb-

[Gregory S. Ouellette]

heres the deal from my pov. full agreement with the opinion that this shows that even a 5+ year old video camera like the xl1 (i have one and just got an xl2) is capable of producing phenomenal results..IN THE RIGHT HANDS.

i replied just the other day to someone who was fretting/stressing over nuances btwn several of the latest/greatest cameras. my comments to him were to get any one of these remarkable tools, then GO OUT AND CAPTURE AMAZING IMAGES WITH IT. i agree that this particualr video is a box stock formula, but that was your want- so you are sucessful in your goal. if you had chose to go full on creative you would have the same, in my opinion,stunning quality imagery- as well as a fresh approach.

this reinforces my belief that the best equipment in the world in the hands of the unable/uninspired is meaningless next to a basic high quality setup in the hands of those who have vision and ability. trust me, after spending the last 12+ years in medicine, i would rather be operated on by a top gun with a dull scalpel than a newly certified techie surgeon with all the latest toys. unfortunately there seems to be a lot of that going on.

many peoples time would be better spent working on the concept above instead of ruminating on some individual feature of the newest technological flavor of the week. remember, these manufacturers main goal is to sell product. to do that if you already have competent equip. is to make you feel yours is somehow obsolete.

sorry about the rant, but i think this is one of the most important points to keep in mind these days. the xl1 started a revolution and is still an amazing piece of equipment in 2006.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I think the camera is even already about 8 years old, it was released in 1998 I think.
It doesn't matter, just to extra prove your point, Gregory.

[Waheed AlQawasmi]

Hey all,

thanx for the complements and your feed back. You guys are all right, You have to have the following to make a great director or shooter or anything

1)you have got to have a vision and the creativity of coming up with a good
product.
2)how you handel your self on a shoot and knowing how to use any kind of equipment
3)having equipment that you are comfortable with.

This was my first shoot with an XL1, i shoot with more expensive cameras like a DVCPRO 700. It does not matter if you have new equipment to shoot with or not, if you dont know how to shoot your not gonna produce anything good even if you have the latest camera.

Although it would have been nice for me to shoot this with like Sony HDW-F900, but its all good. The XL1 worked great.

KEEP THE FEEDBACKS COMING, I WANNA HEAR WHAT YOU ALL HAVE TO SAY

WAHEED ALQAWASMI
WAFILMS.COM

[Dean Orewiler]

I think you did a great job. Even the lip sync is pretty good!! He's a great artist and I like his sound.

But, on to you, I like what you did. Yes, it looks like other videos on TV and I think that is your point. It's very straight forward - not overly creative, but maybe this is the message you want to show. It's a very relaxing song, so you edited it in a way that reflected that....slow cuts....I like the overlapping dissolves - the panning past the photos and the artist walking the alley in opposite directions was the most dynamic effect of the shoot...well done.

What post production editor and capture device are you using?? I would like to find out this because I'm in the market for one.
P.S. What presets did you use to get the film look?? It looks a bit overly sharp (I would of personally knocked it down a few notches) but the tonal quality matches film pretty well. Did you have particular preset? I would like to know what they are. I'm still wondering where to put my setup levels at for the shadow detail at.....some people are telling me to -3 notches to darker, but I'm finding that the shadows are too inky...I think +1 notch from centered toward lighter shadows would look more like film.

anysuggestions would be helpful.

[Waheed AlQawasmi]

Dean,

Thanx for the complement. This video was ment for me to get more money into my company. Its three guys here in memphis, my self and two others that own a film company and a record company combined. So me doing this video is going to bring money into my film company eventually. We made this video like most of the stuff you see on BET, and MTV because that is what we want the video to be played on.

As for the color correction and effects, I used After Effects 7.0. I do not use any preset film looks from after effects. I have my own little tricks and tweaks that i do, to give it that film look. If you notice i like the soft blown out look, you can see it on most of my work. And I cut the video on after effects. To tell you the truth, not much Post work was done to get that film look, its all in camera effects, my original footage looked pretty darn close.

Regards,
Waheed AlQawasmi
http://wafilms.com/

[Sean McHenry]

I liked it a lot. He does indeed have a nice clean sound.

I am worried that the images (stills) you used may be proprietary and that may keep you from getting it on the air. Unless you have permission from the photographers I am wondering if this can be used anywhere? I think there is some leeway if they are reprints from Newspapers and other public medium but even then, unless you took the photos, someone is going to be holding copyright to them.

I hope that doesn't kill it for you. Let us know how that part works out. I'll be following the thread.

Overall, not totally original. But I understand the point you made about that and it makes some sense. I just got a bit tired of references to doors and then you see the person walking through a door, etc. I like to make subtler reference these days, or perhaps a metaphorical door of some type. if you literally translate the music into imnages, you leave the audience nothing to digest I suppose. Just a thought. You can safely make a split between what you show and what you are hearing. Just don't be distracting about it.

Overall, again, mighty nice. And it is the guy behind the camera, not the camera.

Thanks for sharing,

Sean McHenry

[Waheed AlQawasmi]

We do have premission to use the photos, and i dont think we will have problems with them. If we do i will let you guys know how it goes and how we solve it. Thanx for the feedback.

And indeed its not the camera.

[Jonathan Stanley]

Waheed:

Very professional--amazing quality from the XL1 with the stock lens none the less. A valuable lesson for everyone here is that the equipment is not what makes a good video, it is the skill and knowledge of the cinematographer.

Keep up the good work.

JStan