Popstar - ID# 335

Highland Park

Live Event Coverage Non Sports

Entry Description

This is Popstar, a drum solo from our variety show.

Copyright Info

Recent Teacher Comments

• 4/30 8:56 am - There are a lot of wild green screen backgrounds in this video! It is tough to have variation during a solo performance, but I would have liked to see some more creative shots. Camera movements whether zooms, pans, tilts, trucks would have helped break up the repetitiveness. There is mostly good cutting between camera angles, but there are plenty of times when we cut from wide shot to another, not really adding anything to the overall piece. The audio sounds fantastic!
• 3/3 2:24 pm - Good job of mixing the song with the actual playing of the drums- that natural audio sounded good, especially at the end when he throws his sticks and you can hear them hit the ground. The camera angles were good, although in a controlled shoot like this, you can always have more. Look for those extreme close-ups where we can see facial expressions and some really cool angles. This is especially important when you're having one guy, in the same shot, for 3 minutes. Shot variety is the name of the game. In your main establishing shot, the key is not great. You can see lots of his drum set "disappear" because of the shadows of the key. Better lighting always helps, but it would look much better if that key was clean. The moving graphics in the background gave it a nice touch, but not so much that it was distracting. Overall, a good shoot.

Judge 1

Positives: I'm glad you had sound of him throwing his drum sticks at the end of the video. Also, the graphics behind the drummer were really interesting with the music.

Improvements: There were some points where his drumming didn't match the sound of the video. He was hitting the cymbal but that wasn't the sound coming through the audio. Also, put a camera up closer to the drum set if possible, or show more of his face. I felt like you showed the same thing over and over and for two minutes worth for the view, after a while you might lose interesting because it's the same thing.

Judge 2

Positives: Nice job mixing the audio. Several nice camera angles -- tight shots and medium and wide, and a good mix for the right amount of time on each shot. I never felt like you sat on a shot too long, nor did it feel like you switched too quickly.

Improvements: One of the tight shots felt like it could have panned slightly to the right more. It was used several times and it felt like it was cutting off the drummer's right side too much (his right, our left, if that makes sense). Might have been nice to see his feet, but I get that you only have so many cameras -- nice use with what you had.

Judge 3

Positives: The audio mix of the drums and pre-recorded music was great! I like the idea of using a green screen. Timing of cuts flowed well with the music. You did a very good job using tight shots and not staying there too long.

Improvements: Although I liked the idea of using the green screen if you are going to do it you need to make sure you watch out for green spill onto your subject. Lots of things had the background showing through. Keying out a green screen can be difficult to do if it is not setup properly.

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements: