More Feedback

1) Class rough cut feedback:

They thought that the shot with Rosie dancing in front of a white background was a bit tedious, and that there wasn't enough going on. However we thought that the lack of events in that time made the sudden fast cutting and active live footage straight after this scene more effective. Also, the band liked that scene very much, so we had to find a compromise for both. So we added the effect of fading Rosie in and out of the white background as she sings to make it more interesting to view.

When the main narrative character is in the bathroom, we were told that this section wasn't broken up enough, and that it was far too slow paced. We solved this problem by adding snippets of the life footage and breaking up the clips to the beat of the music (like we did near the beginning of the video when she was walking) so that they came over as more energetic and lively. The time cutting also added pleasing effects to the overall look of the video and scene.
We also had a lot more footage at the beginning of the video. We were told we had too many hair dying shots, they stretched out to almost fifty seconds without the music even starting, so we sorted out the most effective shots that got the point across and looked the best out of all of them before got rid of all of the other shots. This made it far more snappy and brings it down to a normal length of time before the music starts for a standard music video.
There was also a shot near the beginning of the video that didn't look right as it lasted too long. We cut this down and added a different line of video footage as well so it looked better.

2)Social networking feedback:

I posted my video with these three questions on face book and asked people to give me feedback:

In what ways does my video remind you of other music videos?
What do you think are the strengths of my music video?
What do you think are the weaknesses?
this is what was said...

In what ways does my video remind you of other music videos?

It follows the typical ‘narrative music video’ structure: it starts with the equilibrium which sets up the narrative before the song itself starts. It then progresses to follow-up the narrative interspersed with both crowd action and shots of the band themselves. The band then proceeds to dominate the video before the fade away. In addition to this, technical features such as the production companies and the title of the song and name of the band at the start of the video also make it seem professional.

It has a narrative behind the video with fast paced editing as engage the viewers' attention to the piece. Due to the handheld camera, it fits into the indie music genre of underground video like that of early Hadouken or more recently the band Hockey.

What do you think are the strengths of my music video?

Very good editing control: looks professional. Cut to the beat which I think emphasises the rhythm of the music. I particularly liked it when it cuts as Rosie motions with her arms in time to the beat, (just before the ‘drop’ is it?). Overall kept with the pace of the music, didn’t lag behind or move too fast. Good use of special effects with the fading in and out and the white-light backgrounds for Tom and Rosie. General look of the video seemed to be in keeping with the tone of the music and the narrative followed the lyrics fairly well. Camera work looked professional, not excessively slick, but in the style of music videos during the performance sequences especially. Being present at the filming of the crowd scenes I know how unresponsive the crowd initially was, and how they didn’t appear to fill the space. The camera shots don’t show this at all but instead give the impression of a packed venue.

Has continuity in edit and a variety of techniques.

What do you think are the weaknesses?

I think that generally looks very good; however, there are a few, subjective, issues that I had with the video. The narrative doesn’t appear to conclude fully which means that it seems unresolved, this is a noticeable issue as the setup isn’t fully explored. The title shot fades too quickly to see what the focus-pull has revealed. In one or two of the shots of the band performing the lighting is a bit excessive and washes out Tom’s face.

Could be argued that the camera work is handheld that it is not professional but could add to the charm. Is quite blurry in places though, but you mentioned that this was intentional.