So I've recorded a video... :)

[nervirasme]

Hey guys,

just wanted to share the video that I've made for a local band. The song is called "Dualism" and is performed by Aesthetic Empathy. They're insanely good, have an album but don't have a publisher yet (but I'm guessing it's gonna change soon)... As for the video, I'm aware of many little flaws, but this was done on a budget around 200$ (and 80% of that went to rental of dolly ramp). Since we didn't have a budget to go for a video with a background story, additional scenography, actors, etc., the idea was to make a maximum out of minimalistic approach that would retain and accentuate the raw energy of the band itself. It was shot with Canon 7D DSLR... Please leave a comment

If your interested in the band check them out at:
http://www.facebook.com/aesthetic.empathy
http://www.myspace.com/aestheticempathy

 

[Benqbasic]

Nice work the minimalistic vibe works.

Haven't seen video shot by a 7d before. Not too bad at all. What lenses did you use?

 

[Keregioz]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this video (as someone would expect from a $200 budget video), you did a great job.

 

[crillemannen]

It looks a bit cheap but also absolutely awesome considering that you had 200$budget as you said. I don't know if you can add a filter of some sort to make it a bit more "video" like because the video looks like you used a ordinary camera. But i know nothing about video editing and filtering haha.

Looks great though!!!

 

[nervirasme]

Nice work the minimalistic vibe works.

Haven't seen video shot by a 7d before. Not too bad at all. What lenses did you use?

Thanks! The lenses were: Primes: EF 50mm f1.4 and EF 85mm f1.8, and Zoom: EF 17-40L f4...

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this video (as someone would expect from a $200 budget video), you did a great job.

Thanks man!

It looks a bit cheap but also absolutely awesome considering that you had 200 as you said. I don't know if you can add a filter of some sort to make it a bit more "video" like because the video looks like you used a ordinary camera. But i know nothing about video editing and filtering haha.

Looks great though!!!

Yeah, I know it carries that "amateur" stamp, but as you said, given the budget it's the best it could be... As for the more film look - well, it's the same as in audio production - there's no magic plugin or filter that will make a guitar or drums sound huge - it's just a lot of technical factors that follow one another in the process of recording. For example and to be more precise - to get a better transition between frames (contributing factor to "film-like motion") you should use shutter speed that's double the frame rate you're shooting at (in my case it was 60fps), but I couldn't do that because the neon lights are to weak, so there was the first compromise, followed by many other. Then there was a lot of noise because of the high ISO (cause the light weren't strong enough)... You should see the raw unedited material - that just invokes deepest pessimism about any possibility of making something out of it

 

[nervirasme]

Come on guys, considering the view count, I really hoped for more comments/critiques...

 

[Plankis]

Yeah, I know it carries that "amateur" stamp, but as you said, given the budget it's the best it could be... As for the more film look - well, it's the same as in audio production - there's no magic plugin or filter that will make a guitar or drums sound huge - it's just a lot of technical factors that follow one another in the process of recording. For example and to be more precise - to get a better transition between frames (contributing factor to "film-like motion") you should use shutter speed that's double the frame rate you're shooting at (in my case it was 60fps), but I couldn't do that because the neon lights are to weak, so there was the first compromise, followed by many other. Then there was a lot of noise because of the high ISO (cause the light weren't strong enough)... You should see the raw unedited material - that just invokes deepest pessimism about any possibility of making something out of it

I've got no experience in this field and this was a very interesting read. How long did it take to shoot it? And how long did take to process it?
I thought the video was great.

 

[nervirasme]

I've got no experience in this field and this was a very interesting read. How long did it take to shoot it? And how long did take to process it?
I thought the video was great.

Well, we've filmed it in two days, each day was around 10 working hours. In the end we had 3.5 hours of raw footage, just for a 4.5 min. song! The post-production phase (editing, compositing) took about two weeks...

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

I don't understand a lot about video but it looks like some scenes were shot with different frame rates. Other than that it looks ok, I think it just lacks movement, as in, 90% of the shots are way too clinical, grab the camera and get moving around the drummer and the musicians and shit

 

[Joematthews]

Video looks great! Just wondering why you shot at 60fps? You probably already know that 24 fps is standard for film, and allows you to use a lower shutter speed. I dunno how that would affect this particular video though, it looks so good that it doesn't really matter.

 

[Lon]

the video looks really good, the lighting color correction and camera shots have a very "pro" impression, i always wondered how to get that pro - vs - amateur look, for example this

to my eyes it almost looks as having not enough frames does a great deal, and of course getting the colorspectrum narrowed and sufficient grain, but i would be very grateful for a little insight

 

[nervirasme]

I don't understand a lot about video but it looks like some scenes were shot with different frame rates. Other than that it looks ok, I think it just lacks movement, as in, 90% of the shots are way too clinical, grab the camera and get moving around the drummer and the musicians and shit

Nope, everything was shot at 60fps. I couldn't rely too much on hand movement because you need a steady-cam to have that professional shake, but the budget, unfortunately, prevented us from renting a steady-cam (regular hand movement looks way too amateur and shaky... But as you could see I managed to salvage some handheld footage because I had a tripod attached which acted as a counterweight during movement)...

Video looks great! Just wondering why you shot at 60fps? You probably already know that 24 fps is standard for film, and allows you to use a lower shutter speed. I dunno how that would affect this particular video though, it looks so good that it doesn't really matter.

Because I was planing on doing that slow-motion shots, and you can't do that with 24/25/30fps... The higher the fps the better will slow motion look. Also, I suppose that you know that it's always possible to convert higher fps to lower by an exact half (which leaves no artifacts) and it will look the same as if you had that footage originally in that frame rate. The final fps of this video (the one you're watching) is 29.97 (because the original was 59.94). Also, if I had stronger lights I would aim for higher, not lower, shutter speeds, because lower shutter leaves a motion-blurry image and takes away the sharpness... It also affects that film-like motion...
But anyway, thanks for your comments!

the video looks really good, the lighting color correction and camera shots have a very "pro" impression, i always wondered how to get that pro - vs - amateur look, for example this

to my eyes it almost looks as having not enough frames does a great deal, and of course getting the colorspectrum narrowed and sufficient grain, but i would be very grateful for a little insight

Well, yes, as I've said - if you leave the footage at high fps it looks really stupid and too "live" so to speak. As for the overall look, I'm actually a graphic designer and photographer, so I took few still shots from the video, imported them in Photoshop and did all the corrections and effects there (because to me it's a more natural workflow) and when I was satisfied with photography I just copied those adjustment layers to a video in After Effects
As in mixing an audio, there really is no one or two factors or elements that change the footage from amateur to pro, it's a chain of million factors all affecting each other...

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Needs more tits & ass

 

[StefTD]

prevented us from renting a steady-cam (regular hand movement looks way too amateur and shaky... But as you could see I managed to salvage some handheld footage because I had a tripod attached which acted as a counterweight during movement)...

A friend of mine who does lots of video got rid of this in the beginning with a (no clue how it's called) tripod with
just one leg (I hope you get what I mean) and put it on a skateboard, put gaffa around it so it had a fix point on
the skateboard and he could move the skateboard and just had to think about the height he's holding the cam.
Pretty steady movement, looked really nice - as a part time graphic designer, I really like the idea how you started
working with the color correction Only did one video (actually just stop motion with an EOS 400D of an art project
my gf did) and did it pretty similar, too bad that I still had to use a fuckload of automation because the room had
lots of windows and it took hours to do, so the light changes alot.

 

[Metal Overload]

I've seen more amateurish videos from Pro or Label bands, great work!!! and the band! Wow great song, really like the vocal arrangments.

 

[freakleashma]

Great work,especialy for 200$ budged

 

[StefTD]

the only thing that really bugs me are the fucking strings on that ibanez petrucci,
if you ever do a video again where something like that occures, cut them off