Road to Nowhere - ID# 229
Homewood-Flossmoor
Music Video
Entry Description
Music video about a man trying to get to Chicago, but something is stopping him...
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/14 10:14 am - STORY: You did a great job visually telling your story! You use great sequencing to show where the character is going and what they are doing! Great job! SOUND: Your audio is mixed appropriately. Your music track does not peak. CAMERA: You include a variety of different camera shots and angles. There are some shots that appear to be out of focus like your shot at 0:22 or the shoes and at 1:24 of the bike. I think you did a great job with your shots of the car moving in and out of frame. It works well! There are some shots, like at 2:14 where they are slightly blown out. The sky at 2:14 is white along with the skin on the character’s neck at 2:27. You want to make sure to bring down your exposure. If you were filming on auto, the camera is doing the work for you, but it may not always turn out to be the best. You want to think about the exposure triangle which includes your aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Typically your shutter speed will stay the same (depending at what FPS you are filming at). Most likely you will be changing aperture and ISO. Something else to pay attention to is how clean your camera lens is. You always want to check it to make sure there are no specs or dust on the lens. You can see you had something on the lens at the top middle of your frame at 0:38. LIGHTING: I think overall you do a great job using the available light in your video. The lighting is pretty harsh at 0:28 when the character walks outside. Consider filming later in the afternoon or evening. Shadows at that point may be a lot softer and less harsh. I really like your addition of the green screen. However, the lighting appears to be slightly off. It does look like the lighting is coming from below and to the side of your character. Usually, you want to make sure that you are matching the lighting with the background that you are using. That is a difficult task and can take some time. Most of the backgrounds you use have lighting that is harsh and/or comes from above. You also want to make sure that the color of your light matches your background. For example, at 2:07, the lighting in your green screen background here is much more yellow. The lighting on your character at this point is more blue. The lighting on the character during these green screen moments also seems too hot and almost starts to blow out the whites on the character’s face. EDITING: You have some really nice sequences throughout your music video. One thing that can be improved is the pacing. Specifically when we see the car going in and out of frame. A quick and easy fix would be to edit and cut to the beat of the music during this part. For example, we see the car coming in from right to left at 1:09 and the car doesn’t come back into frame until about 1:14. There is a beat that you could cut on with the song at 1:12 to have the car come into frame faster.
- 2/18 9:20 am - You did a great job visually telling a story, effectively using imagery and sequencing to guide the audience through the narrative. The structure of the video is engaging, and the visuals complement the music well, helping to establish a strong connection between the song and the on-screen storytelling. One area that could be improved is consistency in the lip-syncing. At times, the singer is actively lip-syncing, while in other moments, they are not, which can be a bit confusing for the viewer. Maintaining a more uniform approach—whether fully committing to lip-syncing or intentionally choosing moments of silence for impact—could create a more cohesive experience. To further enhance the visual appeal, consider incorporating more dynamic lighting choices to add depth, mood, and contrast. Lighting can dramatically influence the atmosphere and emotion of a scene, helping to make key moments stand out. Additionally, utilizing depth of field and advanced camera techniques such as panning, tracking shots, and intentional movement could elevate the cinematography, making the video even more engaging and immersive for the audience. Overall, this is a strong effort with a clear narrative direction. With some refinements in consistency and cinematographic techniques, future projects could be even more visually compelling. Keep up the great work!
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