Music Video

Fingercuff · #1 (**permalink**) 10-06-2008, 05:21 PM

Hey guys. After watching a lot of the videos posted on this forum I think its only fair that I step up and getting something on here as well! I would be interested in what you think:

YouTube - Zuby - Too Many (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

This was the first time I had worked on a complete green screened video so it was quite a learning experience!

Nikosony · #2 (**permalink**) 10-06-2008, 07:35 PM

Very impressed with your video, a lot of work certainly went into the production of it. I'm not into that style of music but the 4 minutes of the video just seemed to go in very fast. The effects are great, hard to believe you can do all that just using a piece of green cloth. Good sound, good effects, professional camera work and a good talent in front of the camera make a winning combination in my book any day. It's great when all the elements fall into place and I believe you can see it in this video. Have you done work for tv before, as it has very high production qualities?

Fingercuff · #3 (**permalink**) 10-06-2008, 07:58 PM

Thanks for the great feedback! We just recently started our own production company to make low budget music videos for small record labels / unsigned artists. We shot the whole video in my living room against a very basic green screen frame. Don't think my neighbours enjoyed hearing that same song 40 times that day (come to think about it neither did I!). I've never worked in TV but, hopefully, that will change one day!

Shortly after filming, the rapper Zuby was on the front page of many national papers due to a bad case of mistaken identity. Check out this link:
BBC NEWS | England | Rapper writes of gun arrest

I guess it was good publicity!?!

clay_9 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-06-2008, 10:16 PM

Like Nik said, very high production values for what you were working with, good editing and flow. I'm not at all into this sort of music, but as an example of the music video genre I think it's spot on.

Fingercuff · #5 (**permalink**) 10-07-2008, 07:17 AM

Thanks Clay! Much better response than the usual crap we get on youtube!

Nikosony · #6 (**permalink**) 10-07-2008, 08:26 PM

Have you approached any local tv stations to see about getting some publicity for yourself or some of the bands/singers you've done work for? Or what about getting a reporter from a local newspaper to come to your next shoot and maybe do an interview afterwards?

I did a video presentation for my local council at the end of July and there were a few reporters at it, they interviewed me and they wrote half page spreads about this one presentation I did, I couldn't believe how much they had written as it only lasted an hour (must be doing something right), so I got a lot of publicity out of just that alone.

Fingercuff · #7 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 08:46 AM

Some of our short films have been covered in the local press.

Smalltime Filmmaker Lures Big Fish To Snare Hollywood (from News Shopper)
Love the smalltime bit! They sure do rub it in!

A few of our videos have been broadcast. This one was shown on Channel U and we did get on MTV for our first video (which sounds great to say but in truth it was broadcast at about 2 in the morning!). The great thing about making music videos is that the artists tend to do a lot of the promotion for the video themselves. Which means less work for all of us videomakers!

Jerry Hill · #8 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 05:28 PM

It's a superb video and all of the above is right, but like anything there's going to be a gap somehere for a viewer asked to review, and I watched it keenly until something sprang into my mind that began to nag a bit. So this is a personal suggestion for enhancement for the future as something I'd like to see, rather than a difinitive 'ahh but you should have done this'. With me?

I became conscious of the camera position. The thing for me with this approach is that it gives a feeling that you're looking at the subjects through a hole in the wall. Being a hole in the wall it can't move, so the only dynamics that occurred looked to be through motion control in post and zooming, so perspectives remained consistent throughout.

I personally would have liked to have seen some camera movement. Imagine a crane shot starting from above the singer gradually coming down with a simultaneous tilt up, so that the subject stays central, the opposite elsewhere in the vid, 'tilt' the background images and text to match, or maybe oppose for an added dynamic. Maybe a pull zoom, or something or other to give the video the third dimension of depth through perspective shift, rather than foreground/background aerial positioning which gives a visual impression of layers rather than defined depth. Difficult to explain really.

For the record I liked the track sonically, the genre thing is irrelevent to this. The fact is it was a good mix, good EQ and engaging in tone. Good stuff!

Fingercuff · #9 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 05:59 PM

You are completely right Jerry (thanks for the feedback

). Apart from the 1 continuous hand held take everything was tripod based and motion controlled in post production. Unfortunately space was a bit of an issue during the shoot which did limit us to a degree (a lot of the wides had my fridge in it which had to be cropped out in post!). I did want to do some low angle 'hero shots' but we just didn't have enough space to make it work. I would definitely love to try some of the camera work you mentioned when you shoot another green screen vid. It would give it a 'real' quality to the look of the piece.

Jerry Hill · #10 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 06:43 PM

Fascinating photo. I'm a great believer in the idea that it's the result not the means that matters, and few people would think the vid was shot in a domestic setting.

For that space a simple crane with adjustable Tilt/Rise can be made for under £50 with no more than a saw and a drill, so if you have a DIY inclination you could have a crane in an afternoon after a trip to B&Q.