Yet another music video by me

[datamies]

I haven't been very active here lately - if ever - but I thought I'd still share my third attempt at making music videos...

Someone might remember the earlier two videos I posted last year. Those videos were made for a band that two of my brothers play in. In January I was asked to visit the studio again as the band of my third brother was making their latest demo. Later they wanted to see if we could make some sort of video out of the material recorded in the studio.

Once again I found myself working on a video without prior planning. This time the editing was easier though as my brother did a lot of the basic editing like timing the clips. It became soon apparent that there wasn't enough useful material from the studio so the guys recorded some additional clips from their training space and from my brother's room.

The video certainly isn't of commercial quality, but I think there's improvement from the earlier videos at least.

I have no idea what makes a video 'not safe for work', so I'd better mention that there's a large vibrator visible on kitchen table for a couple of seconds. It's possible that some people wouldn't even notice it, but I mentioned it just in case someone finds it offensive...

Here's the link

As usual, any feedback if appreciated...

[BlueCross]

Oh...   :uneasy:  I thought it was just a pink microphone.

As to the music... uh... it's not really patterned after Chopin, is it?

[datamies]

Oh...   :uneasy:  I thought it was just a pink microphone.

You never know, it might be close to the truth. I hope so anyway. When I first saw that thing at the studio I thought it's better not to know what it was used for. Or by whom.

As to the music... uh... it's not really patterned after Chopin, is it?

I guess not. My brother (the drummer) has studied classical music quite a bit, but this particular song isn't made by him

It's a shame that most of you won't understand the lyrics as I think they work pretty well in this song. Also some of the clips have subtle connections to the lyrics. What impresses me most is how the singer can growl like that being such a small guy that only recently turned 18.

[Tank]

Singer + age/looks is what got me first. As for the movie, well, without the lyrics, it seems pretty random at times, and lacks a better flow. Then again, with lyrics, it may all come together

[datamies]

As for the movie, well, without the lyrics, it seems pretty random at times, and lacks a better flow. Then again, with lyrics, it may all come together

I agree it's somewhat random. Lyrics explain some of it, but not all. I guess the randomness comes from trying to have faster cuts with very limited material and no plan whatsoever. Next video should be based on some sort of central plot regardless of which band it's made with...

[Tank]

I tend to agree there, there were points that were literally annoying to watch, and the lack of any sort of "red line" through the movie made it seem more amateurish than than it needs to be, especially because camera-angle wise and shot-wise, the material was pretty good.

[Chucara]

Based on the material you had available, I think it was way above what most amateurs are capable off. If you to spend a few days in some sinister warehouse just mimicking the music, I'm sure you could come up with something really good.

Oh, and the music needs more cowbell.

[datamies]

I tend to agree there, there were points that were literally annoying to watch, and the lack of any sort of "red line" through the movie made it seem more amateurish than than it needs to be, especially because camera-angle wise and shot-wise, the material was pretty good.

It would be interesting to hear which parts you experienced as annoying. I watched the video again and tried to look at it as if I didn't understand the language and didn't know anything about the band or the guys before seeing the video. It clearly makes the video less interesting to watch.

There's a couple of clips that were more or less forced there as there wasn't any better options and some clips had to be made longer than originally intended. We could've used more clips with actual playing but there wasn't practically any footage of bass or the other guitar. The clip in the beginning with bass and guitar on it is actually from another song but with 140% speed. It didn't seem right to make a video that contains only two of the four band members...

[datamies]

Based on the material you had available, I think it was way above what most amateurs are capable off. If you to spend a few days in some sinister warehouse just mimicking the music, I'm sure you could come up with something really good.

Thanks. I think the next videos won't have much real playing in them. The studio videos are one thing, but trying to sync clips with live playing to studio version of audio track isn't something I enjoy much.

As for sinister warehouse, we actually already had a plan for a video with the other band last autumn. The video was supposed to be shot mostly at a mental hospital nearby. The hospital has been out of use for about twenty years and the area looks pretty creepy. It reminded me of Session 9 and we watched the movie a couple of times with different band members for inspiration.

We took a couple of trips to the area and took photos of suitable places for shooting the video. We made of list ideas for scenes and I drew scetches of many of them. Later when I started working on a dummy video that had the audio track and scene descriptions in the places where the actual clips were supposed to be, it turned out there had been a misunderstanding. One of the band members had thought that we were making the video for a song that wouldn't be recorded in studio until next spring.

We knew however that the hospital area was about to be rebuilt soon and taken to other use. Discarding the video project was a major disappoint for me after working with the plan for weeks, but you can't really make a video if one of the band members is against it. It was best for the band's internal relationships to just let it go...

Oh, and the music needs more cowbell.

 

[Tank]

Parts where you see the singer(growler) stand and scream down the mic, then he stops, but the singing continues in the song were something that I still remember. I'll have to rewatch it to give more feedback, I'll do it if I get time later tonight

[datamies]

Parts where you see the singer(growler) stand and scream down the mic, then he stops, but the singing continues in the song were something that I still remember. I'll have to rewatch it to give more feedback, I'll do it if I get time later tonight :)

That's an interesting point of view. I wonder if any of the others see that as annoying?

The vocals were recorded in several sessions. First the lines with clean vocals (in other songs) then basic growling and finally heavier growling, backing vocals and other stuff. In addition, the guy that recorded the demo isn't known for high quality for nothing. He makes you sing a certain phrase or section over and over again until it sounds optimal - within time limitations naturally. That could mean a dozen takes on a single phrase.

My original intention was to have a sort of documentary feel in the video. In the case of vocals I wanted to show some of the preparation for the phrase being recorded on some clips and a short glimpse after it. I thought it was a good idea and still do. I can't check the video again now as I'm supposed to look busy at work...

In some sections there are two or more vocal tracks overlapping. In gigs some of the parts are naturally sung by other band members but in studio recording it's a better idea to use the guy who can actually sing for all parts. I could've included singing clips for only those sections where there's clearly only one vocal track at a time, but I thought it would be obvious that there are several vocal tracks and didn't realize it would seem annoying. To me it seems that it's in line with other parts, as the other instruments are shown separately for the most part as well.

I hope this post makes at least some sense. Can't rewrite it as I should be really working with my work assignment :)

Thanks for the feedback anyway. It's also good to hear how the things can be seen in different ways.