Hi! And A little music video

**BigCat** · 10-03-2011, 06:21 PM

Hi everyone. New member here and figured I'd introduce myself with a video.

It's a music video for a hard rock band. Shot with a Sony HDU1000 and a smaller panasonic HD camcorder. I edit with Final Cut pro.

Enrage Personal Armageddon From The CD Nothing Stays Buried.m4v - YouTube

**Midnight Blue** · 10-03-2011, 07:18 PM

Ok, I made it all the way through.

8:33 is a long music video. To be honest I don't like bands who's lead singer sounds like Satan BUT if you survive the first 5:22mins it become a totally different song. Reminiscent of 70's punk/New Wave. Any way I thought I needed to let you know where I stood on the music as it must influence my opinion about the video. I
didn't see the connection between the band/song and the narrative you put in it, this may be because I couldn't understand a single word being said.

I think the B&W look suited the song and narrative.

I'm kind of in a mixed up thought pattern at the moment which may be due to the very very fast cuts you did. So I'll let my poor old head calm down and let others comment further.

**BigCat** · 10-03-2011, 07:31 PM

Thank you for watching and giving your opinion. Indeed the song is long and starts off very heavy. And the style of the video made it a very long complicated edit. Between the very quick cuts and long time length this video took me a good bit of time to finish. The song is about a relationship gone sour and deciding to become an independent individual because of it. My intention was to convey just that in the video, but I changed it at the end by having the guy commit suicide to add a little drama. I wanted to do something a little different. Something a little more compelling I suppose. I am definitely a novice and only do this as a hobbiest for now. But really enjoy doing it. I figured I would post it here because it seemed like there were a lot of knowledgable people on here that I can learn from. So all opinions are welcome

thank you!

**Midnight Blue** · 10-03-2011, 08:46 PM

Right, I've had a glass of red wine so I'm feeling calmer now.

I thought the camera work and editing was totally fitting with the song. I'm not a big fan of the hand held look but this video demanded it. Some of the cuts where just too quick for me. eg the shot of reading what the woman had written I had to pause the video to read it. I thought you captured a good performance from all the talent. The band shots where good giving a live performance feel and you captured all the important parts and stitched them together well. With
the narrative shots, I'm interested to know if you had a story board or if you just took some basic shots around the idea and stuck them together the best you could. I think you made a good job of it and a second, indeed third viewing has shown some very good work. I like some of the "original" camera work eg when the woman storms out at around 5:33 my natural instinct would be to cut at that point and then cut to a reaction shot of the guy but you panned the camera around from the door closing to him in one shot which I liked. I was even starting to like the song but that might just be the wine going to my head.

In conclusion, after three views I see this is actually a very good video and I hope the band appreciated it and the work involved in putting it all together.

**BigCat** · 10-03-2011, 08:58 PM

Hi Midnight and thanks again. I did not have a story board for the narrative. Not a formal one at least. I had written the story out on paper in order of how I would shoot it. Discussed and rehearsed the scenes with the talent. Then filmed. Some of the scenes were planned, some happened on accident

Thank you for checking it out! Cheers and enjoy your wine

**Gully Jewelz** · 10-04-2011, 06:11 AM

hEY I'm new here as well.. and EXTREMELY new to video editing. .. my first video clip project is located here.. BreadWinnaz dem VaBoYz :: Videos - ReverbNation .. I'd love to hear a critique ..
I agree with Midnight Blue about the song's satan like vocals.. so i muted the sound and just watched.. i REALLY like the story and the black and white .. and the clarity of the video .. my pc is showing that i can only play it at 360 p but it looks so vivid like 1080p.. wtf?

i could enjoy the song more if i only started it around 6 minutes or so when a more normal voice takes over and the lady starts singing - the group doesnt want to split the video into 2 seperate projects?

**TimStannard** · 10-04-2011, 12:55 PM

Being of a similar immaturity to Midnight, I also didn't like the satanic vocal (is this Rage Against the Machine type stuff). This is a great shame because I think the band's technical competence, sound and ability to come up with a good melody are superb. To me this wasn't punk/new wave, it was more metal/prog metal reminiscent of bands like Dreamtheater - almost te sort of thing pubk supposedly rebelled against! If they wrote melodies for the vocals and had a singer who could sing them well, then I'd be buying their stuff. (The second vocalist and girl were OK, but not up to the standard of the bands playing)

Still, commenting on the ban is not what we're here for, is it?

I thought the video was very good, just short of perfect. I think the fast cuts were fine and we saw what was written enough times to work it out. Occasionally I thought we had too long on the story without a break back to the band.

The acting was good, the shots were good, the edit was good, the story was good and the sound was a studio recording. What more can I say?

**BigCat** · 10-04-2011, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by Gully Jewelz

hEY I'm new here as well.. and EXTREMELY new to video editing. .. my first video clip project is located here.. BreadWinnaz dem VaBoYz :: Videos - ReverbNation .. I'd love to hear a critique ..
I agree with Midnight Blue about the song's satan like vocals.. so i muted the sound and just watched.. i REALLY like the story and the black and white .. and the clarity of the video .. my pc is showing that i can only play it at 360 p but it looks so vivid like 1080p.. wtf?

i could enjoy the song more if i only started it around 6 minutes or so when a more normal voice takes over and the lady starts singing - the group doesnt want to split the video into 2 seperate projects?

That song is in fact two songs combined. "Armageddon Act 1 and Armageddon Act 2"
I shot everything in HD. To keep the file size down but clarity up I just "Export for iPhone" from FCP. I noticed it is a great export setting for keeping high quality looking videos on youtube.

**BigCat** · 10-04-2011, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by TimStannard

Being of a similar immaturity to Midnight, I also didn't like the satanic vocal (is this Rage Against the Machine type stuff). This is a great shame because I think the band's technical competence, sound and ability to come up with a good melody are superb. To me this wasn't punk/new wave, it was more metal/prog metal reminiscent of bands like Dreamtheater - almost te sort of thing pubk supposedly rebelled against! If they wrote melodies for the vocals and had a singer who could sing them well, then I'd be buying their stuff. (The second vocalist and girl were OK, but not up to the standard of the bands playing)

Still, commenting on the ban is not what we're here for, is it?

I thought the video was very good, just short of perfect. I think the fast cuts were fine and we saw what was written enough times to work it out. Occasionally I thought we had too long on the story without a break back to the band.

The acting was good, the shots were good, the edit was good, the story was good and the sound was a studio recording. What more can I say?

This kind of music is definitely not for everyone. They're very heavy. This actually one of their mellower songs lol. But they do in fact have a decent following in NYC and have played with some pretty well known bands.Personally - I love them. But yeah most people do not like the screaming.

Thank you for your critic! It's nice to get opinions from people that are educated on the subject. I really truly appreciate it. thank you.

**Gully Jewelz** · 10-04-2011, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by BigCat

To keep the file size down but clarity up I just "Export for iPhone" from FCP. I noticed it is a great export setting for keeping high quality looking videos on youtube.

1) what is FCP?
2)I am using sony vegas software and hd cam .. I hope I can at least get CLOSE to the clarity you have ..