Have Mercy - ID# 108

Homewood-Flossmoor

Division: A

Music Video

Entry Description

Music video with a message.

Recent Teacher Comments

• 3/12 10:17 pm - I am very impressed with the narrative that is easy to follow here. I think there are many pretty shot and b-roll through the piece. The younger singer did a nice job of staying in character. The adult actors were not quite as good. This felt very real to me and matched the song.
• 3/11 10:29 pm - Powerful start to this video--and you have a talented actress here! I think your pacing at the start is perfect to set the tone of your video. Towards the end, your cutaways and pacing change a little. I think some of the parent shots could be a little more dynamic/cinematic to match the beautiful quality of your other cutaways/singing shots. Overall, nice work!

Judge 1

Positives: 1. Since your piece was mostly performance based, it was good to see that you shot the performance with many different backgrounds which helps give variety to the video. 2. When you cut-away to shots of the person that was abusing the girl, it was interesting you focused just their hands which were doing the violent actions. This focuses the viewer's attention on the actual action instead of the person itself - which made it more impactful for me.

Improvements: 1. Your music video is mostly performance based. It would have been interesting to see a more formulated story in your video. The character that you are showcasing in the story is going through some very troubling scenarios - yet it is hard to relate to them in the story since we see more shots of performance vs the story of that girl. 2. The performance pieces had nice natural light sources that were directional and moody. Yet, the scenes with the abuser were bright and didn't convey much mood. To create a greater sense of mood, try using single light sources to add more drama to the scenes. The audience infers a lot about the mood of the scene through lighting - and if the lighting doesn't mimic the mood, it is harder to believe the scene.

Judge 2

Positives: Unique song choice. Exposures looked good. For the most part, lip-sync was right on. Interesting location choice.

Improvements: A greater diversity of shots or varying focal lengths/angles would have gone a long way toward enhancing the performance-to-camera nature of this piece. It begins to drag for the viewer if we are only cutting between the same few angles of the performance. Additionally, the relationship between the scenes of the protagonist/performer performing, at the church and reading on the bed were unclear. At the very end I have no idea why she's walking toward a locked door and turning away. Introducing the cutaway scenes earlier in the piece would have gone a long way toward clearing up confusion. They did not get introduced until halfway through the piece so it was jarring and unexpected and took me out of the piece.

Judge 3

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Judge 4

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