This is a first-time music video for all of us: nephew Evan Joyce wrote and performs his song; my brother Joe found the location, produced, and schlepped equipment; I shot, directed, and edited. It's also my first time with the Canon 5D Mark II and the Kessler crane.

I'm always looking to improve, so please offer comments, good and bad. Or just enjoy Evan's song :)

Music video, Happy Decay by Evan Joyce on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/5907574)

YouTube - Evan Joyce - "Happy Decay" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmHWH4qHDuw)

More info, if you're interested:

Evan Evan Joyce (http://www.evanjoyce.com) is also the bass player for the NYC band Flying Machines
FLYING MACHINES on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads (http://www.myspace.com/flyingmachines), which recently signed with EMI and are starting a tour.

Joe publishes Amplifier Magazine: Indie Music Reviews, News, Interviews and Free MP3 Downloads (http://www.amplifiermagazine.com) and runs VIDDYSHOOM: Independent Music Licensing for All Media: VIDDYSHOOM (http://www.viddyshoomusic.com)

Except for minor tweaking on a few shots, the video is not yet color-corrected.

Gear:
Canon 5D Mark II (pre-manual control); Kessler crane, Zoom H4N, available light, Final Cut Pro

Trashed font downloaded from Download Free Fonts @ Fonts4Free.net (http://www.fonts4free.net/)

Special thanks to Chris Yule of Yule Development. Shot on location at Abbot Mill, Westford, MA.

Greg:

Generally, some really great shots in this. The camera and your skill really make the video shine. The comments following are intended to help make it work better:

1. Runs longs. The video is to long, I think because of intro. I think you need to speed the intro up.

2. During the intro, there were a couple of camera "jerks" that jarred me out of the feel into thinking "that was a camera bump". The POV window shot near beginning also showed that, and I think the zoom in one of the shots was also distracting.

3. The jib shots were great, but they seemed to be repeated too many times with the same move. Just a feeling I had.

4. Split screen shot was a bit off balance, I think, probably due to way talent was placed. You may need to zoom and recenter. Also, I think your talent also needed to interact with himself more in those shots... probably a more scripted approach needed there. I recognize a reshoot is probably not in cards, so that is just something I would do next time...

I like the way it was shot but I agree that it is too long. I would stick to the music and take some of the intro shots that look nice and put them in where the split screen is paced too slowly. I'm not saying to make it overly-edited and jumpy, but this is a medium for a short piece showcasing the music.

Greg:

Generally, some really great shots in this. The camera and your skill really make the video shine. The comments following are intended to help make it work better:

1. Runs longs. The video is to long, I think because of intro. I think you need to speed the intro up.

2. During the intro, there were a couple of camera "jerks" that jarred me out of the feel into thinking "that was a camera bump". The POV window shot near beginning also showed that, and I think the zoom in one of the shots was also distracting.

3. The jib shots were great, but they seemed to be repeated too many times with the same move. Just a feeling I had.

4. Split screen shot was a bit off balance, I think, probably due to way talent was placed. You may need to zoom and recenter. Also, I think your talent also needed to interact with himself more in those shots... probably a more scripted approach needed there. I recognize a reshoot is probably not in cards, so that is just something I would do next time...


I like the way it was shot but I agree that it is too long. I would stick to the music and take some of the intro shots that look nice and put them in where the split screen is paced too slowly. I'm not saying to make it overly-edited and jumpy, but this is a medium for a short piece showcasing the music.

--- ---


Chris and Marcus:

Thank you very much for watching and making comments. I have to say, the things you point out are pretty much the same ones that concerned me before I let the video go: length, a few too many jib shots, a jerky shot or two (though I was hoping its being a POV shot would help alleviate the sin of jerkiness -- haven't mastered the monopod yet); split screen pacing too slow at points.

So, that was very valuable feedback. I'll apply that -- and all the rest of the lessons learned on this piece -- to my next video. And maybe revisit this one again in the future. Again, thanks a lot!

--Greg

I agree with many of the comments above...
I like the song however the intro is definitely too long... especially for a music video.
My personal approach would be to get rid of the whole intro and start the video where the guitar starts playing... @ about 2:15 minutes.
It would have been nice to see the whole band playing instead of focusing only on the harmonica player/lead singer.

Also the audio playback is not synced to the video...
It seems like the audio playback volume on the set was too low for the singer to get into the performance.
Blast the music whenever shooting a music video lip-sync performance...

I agree with many of the comments above...
I like the song however the intro is definitely too long... especially for a music video.
My personal approach would be to get rid of the whole intro and start the video where the guitar starts playing... @ about 2:15 minutes.
It would have been nice to see the whole band playing instead of focusing only on the harmonica player/lead singer.

Also the audio playback is not synced to the video...
It seems like the audio playback volume on the set was too low for the singer to get into the performance.
Blast the music whenever shooting a music video lip-sync performance...

Thanks for the comments, Alex. Actually the harmonica player/lead singer IS the whole band. :-)

Some really nice shots in there, solid first attempt.

The one thing that bugged me was the first shot of the artist inside. Up until then It felt like a thriller short film. There was tension and I was thinking "oooooohhhh somebody's watching him, something bad's going to happen!" And then all of a sudden it jumps to the shot of him looking out the window and my first thought was "how did he get upstairs so qiuckly? Oh wait... he was watching himself." I reckon if you built and kept that tension the whole way through the intro by not showing who the 'watcher' is it would work alot better.