City of Stars - ID# 205
Metea Valley
Music Video
Entry Description
Starring Jason Snyder, City of Stars is inspired by the film La La Land. It follows a young man recounting the memories he has of giving up a relationship in search for his lifelong dream.
Recent Teacher Comments
- 3/5 8:02 pm - Great job of setting a mood. Nice camera work, your shot selection felt professional. I think the match cuts worked well. The story was simple and could have used a little more development. Also, there were a few lip sync issues in the middle that were a little distracting.
Judge 1
Positives: Camera/lighting: the movement, the framing, the focus, the exposures, the use of direct source light vs. indirect light, execution of camera moves, all excellent The editing is clean, decisive. Excellent use of match cuts from night to day.
Improvements: Framing: be careful not to shoot at a character's back too often. For the second shot in the piece, it's a nice frame. Overall though, it's hard to read a character's feelings when we can't see his eyes. Especially in a piece like this where there is no dialogue and the music and what we see are all that convey meaning and emotion, we needed to see into the protagonists eyes more. It's also simply less interesting to look at someone's back. Representative action: there is a lot of slow walking and still, pensive moments in this piece. I would challenge the filmmaker to identify additional visual ways to get us inside the character's head. Whether through flashback or day dreaming or whatever it is, give us a peek inside our protagonists thoughts. I get an idea how he's feeling in the moment of the piece but where did he come from? Where is he going? Build an arc. Or at least some abstract visual metaphors for what he's thinking/feeling aside from simply watching him mope. There is potential here for a very rich emotional tapestry to be woven and it remains only partially spun.
Judge 2
Positives: Great job on the darker, night scenes. You kept the quality clean, which isn't easy. Great camera work with slow pans, etc.
Improvements: I don't have much to say here!
Judge 3
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Judge 4
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