"Same Drugs" Music Video; MMEA - ID# 95

Waubonsie Valley

Division: A

Music Video

Entry Description

Music video of Chance the Rapper's song, "Same Drugs"

Recent Teacher Comments

• 3/12 10:24 pm - This is very well done. The framing and the color of all the shots was outstanding. I felt this was a very realistic music video and not at all amateur. I liked how the singer stayed with the lyrics even when they were difficult.
• 3/11 10:38 pm - Great shot quality and talented actor- very convincing performance. Great camerawork! I would have liked to see more consideration to the narrative as he treks around the city to give the storyline more purposeful direction.

Judge 1

Positives: 1. You have a natural eye for framing and composition. The camera height and angles are good when framing the talent. Also, you picked building backgrounds, that when framed, became graphical in nature. That takes a special eye to frame for. 2. The editing was smooth and you cut on the beats well. The pace overall was nice

Improvements: 1. Your music video didn't have a storyline - which isn't particularly necessary in a music video - but it can help keep viewer's engagement. However, if you don't have a story line, it would help to have a consistent theme. With that said, the performance shots of your talent in front of the purple-lit backdrop feels out of place. I would have suggested to keep all scenes of the video in the city landscape. Also, if you don't have a story line, you should think to add visual motifs or gimmicks to your idea. These motifs help to create a consistent visual theme. 2. The day you shot in millennium park was overcast which resulted in flat lighting - ie the lighting wasn't able to add contrast and depth. When shooting outside, do your best to pick days that will have good daylight, and pick your time of day and locations based on the position of the sun. When the sun is lower in the sky it can be more flattering - either as a key or an edge. Also, look for interesting ways the sun interacts with surroundings and bounces off buildings. The shot of your talent walking along the river when the sun was going down looked much more dynamic than the others because it helped your subject pop off the background and give the frame dimensionality. And good lighting has just as much to do about shadow as it does the light itself.

Judge 2

Positives: Shooting downtown at various locations in Millennium Park and along the riverwalk, etc added a lot of production value to the video. The diversity of locations used were the strongest aspect of this video. There were various flourishes of b-roll (slo-mo chicago flag, shallow depth of field railing) that added some needed breaks from the performance-to-camera elements. I wish there were more

Improvements: There were a number of instances (in the pink room, along the riverwalk) where the subject in the shot would go out of focus and it didn't seem like there was a reason for it aside from a lack of focus pull. There were a couple shots where it seemed like they were simply out of focus. Take a few extra seconds to check your focus before shooting to avoid this in the future. Unless it's a stylistic choice to have the subject intermittently in and out of focus, it is distracting and frustrating to the viewer. This video could've used more breaks from the performance-to-camera pieces. Simply having the subject perform to the camera is only interesting to watch for so long. If the subject is incredibly engaging or adding other elements (dance, story beats) to the performance then it remains interesting for the viewer, however, those elements were lacking from this video and caused it to drag in several places.

Judge 3

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Judge 4

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