Brutal - ID# 255
Neuqua Valley
Music Video
Entry Description
A mixed media music video animation to Olivia Rodrigo's song brutal. The story revolves around a figure skater and the "brutal" life she lives practicing, competing, and giving up her time and soul for such a brutal yet mystical sport. Our process included making a rough digital cut of all the clips, then taking over 850 frames--arranged to be at 5 frames per second-- and printing them all out. Afterwards I used various supplies such as acrylic markers, exacto knives, colored pencil, oil pastel, and paper to draw on each frame.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 3/3 12:33 pm - This music video demonstrates a highly creative approach by blending live performance footage with drawing directly onto the film. The combination of these two elements creates a unique visual style that feels expressive and artistic. The illustrated additions enhance the performance rather than distract from it, giving the video a distinctive identity and adding personality. However it could use something to draw in the viewer and connect with the performer.
Judge 1
Positives: The on screen animations and editing I really enjoyed, Really creative and next level. I also liked the talent of the skater, the moves she is performing seem really high level and entertaining to watch.
Improvements: I don't see any sort of narrative here, just a lot of ice skating. I think if you wanted to go the ice skating route, then the skating would have to be on pace with the music. Feels kind of hectic throughout. I get what you were going for with the low frame rate decision, but when you have animation mixed with that it becomes a little hard to watch. The color and lighting could be improved on. I just dont know what is going on in the video.
Judge 2
Positives: Starting with the obvious, the layering of images was very interesting and fun to watch. It certainly looked like it took a lot of work! I've seen this idea done in several different ways but your approach felt unique and personal. Like the artist's personality was on display as well as the skater's. Fantastic song choice for what you were trying to portray. Emphasizing certain lyrics with your additional art layer helped the cause.
Improvements: The transition from regular video to the affected video was really cool in the beginning. Synched up nicely with the song and made the art layer really announce itself with a splash. But the transition back to regular video at the end felt a bit jarring. Like we had been in art world too long and my brain wasn't ready to go back to the real world. And this is nitpicky... but some of the words you wrote didn't synch perfectly with the lyrics being sung. Some were just a little late. But overall, I really enjoyed this video! Great work!
Judge 3
Positives: Wonderful idea executed well! Camera work on the ice was solid - that must have been hard to shoot. For the most part the mixed media approach works great and you did a great job letting the piece evolve over its runtime with fresh and creative twists on the formula. The cutout shot at 57 sec and the end of the chorus at 1.40-ish were especially strong, also love the effect of the purple "movement lines" (for lack of a better word) on the skater around 1.25. Strong work and I hope you keep making films like this with outside-the-box approaches. It sticks with people!
Improvements: Whatever process was used to digitally scan the printouts needs a revisit in my opinion, as the scans seem pretty low resolution and unfortunately not in a cool lo-fi way. Another bigger picture thing, I think some of the shots could've held on a little longer for added impact. For instance, the main point you're making in the film is about the skater feeling isolated because of her brutal life - but we only get a brief moment to see those text message bubbles on screen where the isolating is actually happening (great composition there btw). A few moments like that held the edit back a bit. Also, the transition from the drawing world back to the real world at the end felt like it wasn't purposeful. Some sort of smash or match cut like you did at the start would've ended the piece more strongly.
Judge 4
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Judge 5
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