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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Music video Would love feedback

Domenic Barbero

Domenic Barbero

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www.domenicthedp.sqsp.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVSNfq9h7ww

Just finished this up. Budget, 1k, my town is pretty small so there isnt much big money bands here, but i would love to know what you all would charge for a product like this, so i know what i would be looking at in a larger market.

Also would love some feedback. Thanks guys.
 
Just curious--budget $1,000 to produce, including production design craft everything that wasn't you? Or you charged $1,000? Either way you've aimed to make it look like a lot more than that and I think you've done that

In a larger market this would be made with more lights and electrics to position them. Maybe the underexposure works because of the theme. The thing is you have dark skintones and we just can't see them at all, often, and most people look at that as an automatic mistake when other subjects/objects are brightly lit. (I've done this too, thinking it's edgy and unique, but the response I get is "it's just hard to see.")

On the other hand you used darkness to make your locations look cinematic and raw--perfect. It's about the overall feeling of light and dark, things seem to fall heavily onto one word or the other without much gray area in between. Rimlight and spinning fans are awesome, and not seeing faces works for these characters, but there's a roughness to the lighting that feels digital, very clean. Again, totally fits with the subject, just observing.

The curved dolly shot is money.
 
whole video start to finish, including cast, crew, equipment, food, wardrobe, production design was 1k. I literally made 100 bucks on it maybe. all we could afford for lights was a 1k, 2 arri 650s and an arri 150 for over top of them. Wanted a little grittiness to it with the feel, but had i have had access to more lights i would have loved to have them. We had a nice mathews dolly. made it awesome.
 
plus caucasian victims and african american hero in dark areas, its hard to light both and find a good middle ground. thanks for the feedback ryan, that was just what i was looking for. :)
 
Real feedback? OK. For $1k, you have done a sick job. I've done two music videos, and they both cost me $8k each. Thats also cuz I'm insane, but still...I live in NY, and nothing costs $1k. So amazing job. This video looks like $10k to me.

Second. The visuals are great. Awesome. Very well shot, some awesome shots.

My only advice would be to consider next time promoting the rapper a bit more. To me, this feels more like a short with the rap song as your soundtrack, than a music video that promotes the rapper. He's almost secondary to your story in your cut. I would have like to have seen him more at the top, establish him as the artist, then go into the story. As it is, we get to him late, he seems less important.

Also, and this is less important, but if you are going to tell a story, I was so intrigued, I wanted to see more. Get more clarity. I know music videos are supposed to be mysterious, but you went and committed to the story angle, and you got me hooked, so I wanted more. The character at the top with the mask is so great, I wanted to see him again, more. He reappears at the end, but I wanted more of him. I get it that the rapper is him, but still...he's a great character, and he's established at the top.

Lastly, if you are going to go montage and blend that into the story, I would consider next time a couple of more "wow" shots. You have a few great ones, with a couple of more you woulda knocked me out. But again, that necessitates a second day of shooting probably, more money, so considering what you had to work with, you did a sick, sick job.

Amazing. Really.
 
Great work. Music videos are subjective on every level as is art, and there are no rules to music videos' treatments other than the guide lines put forward by the A&R manager or the Artist. So if you got the tick of approval to shoot as is than two thumbs up. Clearly you went for the cinematic vibe and achieved it. Someone mentioned above you don't see much of the artist... can I ask if this video was intended to develop the artist's brand?
 
Nice effort.


I guess my note is find truth and film it and leave tricks behind. I felt when I was watching that you pulled every "trick" you could to try to make the piece seem expensive. The result is I'm continually distracted by the flashing light, projection, plastic sheet, etc. instead of being taken by the performance. I know there are a lot of people who make good livings with tricks but I don't think pieces like that stand the test of time. If the artist doesn't have it and you're trying to make something out of nothing, my advice is to find another artist. You've heard what is said about lipstick and pigs. If you're willing to do this for 1k I'm sure you can have more options.

I see a lot of effort and some real care for doing good work and that you've been able to find more truth in other pieces that you've done. So I just want to reinforce the concept of truth not tricks.
 
the artist told me he wanted to do a video that was as heavy as the song. so thats the treatment i came up with. He said he wanted to do something that was different and that people wouldnt just throw away immediately and lump him in with other rappers. This was his first music video. I told him for the price we would have to do something that sticks all in one location and can be shot in less than 6 -8 hours. Which then became very hard to come up with a concept and a location that fit the bill. On a 5 minute song, its hard to not do something cliche by staying all in one location. Im hoping that this didnt turn out cliche. I do agree though after watching it a few times that now i notice the constant fan spin.
 
I understand the challenges, we all face them all the time. In this case I think you had to push too hard to overcome them, it shows and maybe didn't work.

I also think may have got caught up in how well you could solve the issues. Look, cheap video, crappy song, bad artist, but I made it look good - be impressed. I may be sensitive to you doing that because I have to stop myself from doing the same thing.

I still think you'd better serve your business if you used the time you spent on this piece searching for a better artist and doing a simpler video for them, even if you didn't get paid anything. A good artist is so special that there's no doubt of their talent. I'll never forget the first time I worked with Roger Daltrey in the rehearsal studio. He warmed up by singing "See me, feel me, touch me" it was so unbelievably special I'll never forget how much he drew me in. I use that experience as a standard in evaluating artists. I get the feeling that you hold yourself to a high standard, I'd suggest to make sure you hold what you're putting in front of your lens or what you're applying your creativity to that same high standard.
 
small town and company overhead leads you to do all kinds of crazy things. lol. I have a hard time, even if cheap, letting things go out that look super bland. especially if lots of people are going to see it. Thanks for the feedback though. Appreciate the kind words. John, what would you have charged for something of this nature?
 
Domenic, to reiterate. Dude the piece looks AMAZING. You could def get 7-10k for this. Possibly more. Even though there is no money in music videos anymore. I would be extremely proud of this video. Its 90% better than most of the crap out there. IT'S REALLY GOOD.

I hate being that guy who just criticizes (I've been on the receiving end, so I'm cringing at myself today). Which is why I want to say again this video IS AWESOME.

But you need to understand that visually YOU GOT IT. You are naturally talented. There are some amazing shots in here. That is hard todo. I've seen many indie music videos that had a fraction of the taste you naturally possess.

Having been down this road myself with two music videos, I understand the challenges. For example, in one of them, I have a "MONEY" shot at the end. Its a girl's ass catching on fire. Literally. But its the last shot of the video and no one ever sees it. It should have been at the top.

Structurally, music videos are interesting. In a YOUTUBE world, the first 20secs are key. They have to hook the viewer in. Two: to me, they are all about the artist; setting up the talent, selling them (read, closeups). Three: various setups so that the edit is varied.

The problem with this formula I noticed is that the edit was INSANE. It took me MONTHS to cut each music video, because essentially they were 3min mega montages and any momemt that wasn't "right" fell flat.

Which is my now if I ever do another I'd think of a VERY SIMPLE concept. Something easy to edit, but visually very arresting. Somethign that grabs the audience. Same budget. Less work. Possibly better?

Anyway. I totally relate. I've done two music videos now, both did well (top #5 on MTV.com), but they were also an exhausting, draining experience that i'd rather not repeat again. I'm still trying to "figure them out", so I salute you, I totally do.

Great, great job. If you keep doing these, you will reach the top of the mountain. Trust me.
 
In light of Nick's comments I feel like a bit of an asshole--here are a couple of things I should've said yesterday

1) the use of found footage and sound design. awesome. that's what transforms the video into filmic territory

2) I judge by lighting. I am a ridiculously harsh critic of my own work and everyone else's. The footage you have is powerful, and the intensity matches the story. the lights are also placed closely out of frame because you were making awesome product out of limited resources!!

3) I responded from a tone of "this is how it would've been done with $$$" because that's how the original post was framed. With a budget of $1,000 I think you got stunning footage, and your eye for editing is really what ties the whole thing together. You know when to hit us with a brutal cut and when to let the moment hang.

Sorry I was overly critical. Bad day yesterday.
 
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Ryan your feedback was just was a I needed. It's good to see things from a behind the lens feedback rather than viewer feedback. Helps the next ones that much more. Do u know if YouTube or vimeo darken during compression? Looking at my original to YouTube version, the upload looks about 15% darker all the way around. Anyone had issues with this? Started adding a mild s curve and now things are tending to look extra dark after upload? Any thoughts why?
 
For youtube upload especially, I would go to advanced (its there, just hidden), and upload the APPLE PRO RES ORIGINAL. They take upto 20gig files now. IE, let THEM do the compression. Give it them as high res as possible. Vimeo is another kettle o fish, although they generally handle compression pretty well. Hope this helps.
 
Domenic Barbero said:

Just finished this up. Budget, 1k, my town is pretty small so there isnt much big money bands here, but i would love to know what you all would charge for a product like this, so i know what i would be looking at in a larger market.

Also would love some feedback. Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

Did you shoot this as well?

I really liked it. I think it was a really good concept.
But as I have been criticized for my own work and been taught, you shouldn't have caveats for your work. "Good - for $1k video" etc...

With that being said, I think what the others have said are pretty on the head.
I would have liked to seen the artist maybe have been lit a little a better, so we can see him more clear. I thought the fan or whatever was spinning in front of the light was awesome, loved it, ala bladerunner.

The ending was meh. He goes to stab them but doesnt and then you added the fast cuts + some animation it looked like, then there alive to spread the lessons they have learned. That didn't really do anything for me.

I think you could have benefitted from maybe a couple more small scenes of just the rapper rapping to the camera.
But, I am nitpicking here. It's shot and lit extremely well, looks very professional and cine-like.

I really like the beat, I like the lyrics.

I think the weakest part of the video has nothing to do with you.
I just don't think the rapper is that good. He doesn't wow me. You know? I think the music video outshines the skill of the artist and I think you're kind of setting up yourself for failure at that point.

It's a great concept and well executed. If was Jay-Z rapping, you'd have 1,000,000+ hits already.
Haha.

Keep up the good work my friend.
BG
 
I thought the video was awesome, as someone who primarily does a lot of videos and have shot over 20 videos last year I think this is very good work. I don't even agree with most of the comments regarding lighting. I think perhaps only thing lighting wise is you could have used more color temperatures mixed in, everything was normal tungsten and seemed a tad bland. If you lit with tungsten then have the background geled up with cooler color temps like rap video greens/teals/blues etc it would have really popped more. Everything else was great, I thought the artist was great for a lower level guy.
Guys saying you can get $7-8k? No idea what they're talking about, whether they mean for total video budget or pay but those budgets don't exist at the low end don't fool yourself lol believe me I shot 20 "low level" indie videos last year in NYC, I think some guys here don't have much real experience with music videos
 
thanks again guys for the feedback. gonna put all this into account on the next video.
 
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