Cinematography : Music Video by Chris Bland

Overall, for a first vid. Great. My opnion, less is more. The opening is to long. The song is about will you love me. I'd make it more about the girl and guy , less about the guns and arrest. It's a love song after all. Make it romantic. Make him Sexy.

Thanks for the input..I agree with the intro..but the client demanded such.

If this is your first attempt at a video it's very impressive. Here are a couple notes I took: Use the quiet beginning to set up the story better. Show lead cop in a room with pictures of Chris Mac, the red car, and red car driver. These are the targets. Lose the fake smoke in the beginning or have it change from one shot to the next. Smoke from a smoke machine would allow you to do some real moody lighting. Lose the lens flares or tone them down a lot. They're distracting. Ask your client to not move forward and backward when you have a shallow depth of field. They go in and out of focus too much. The cops come out of nowhere which throws the tone of the video off. One second Chris Mac is singing about how a girl should love him, the next there are cops giving hand signals, getting ready to assault something. Everything gets confusing when the guns come out. Michael should wear a different shirt from one area to the next. Also have your clients wear colors that contrast with the background. They blend in too much on some shots. 0:58 You lose continuity when you cut from the exterior of the red car to the interior of the black SUV. 1:03 Who is that? Why is he only shown for half a second? 1:56 Use a different color shirt to stand out from the background. Use a backlight. Maybe put a worklight on the tracks behind Chris Mac. He wouldn't be able to move latterally as much, but it would outline him. 2:11 A backlight on Michael would help separate him from the background. Some light shining down the length of the wall would bring out the texture of the wall. Maybe use a red gel and a cookie to mix it up even more. 2:19 The main cop draws his gun and moves right. The next shot is someone else (another cop?) drawing his gun and moving left. It looks like these two are aiming at each other. Have main cop move right and away from the camera, and the other cop move left and away from the camera so it looks like they're moving in on the same target. Then have Chris Mac pull his gun, look left, look right, drop the gun and put his hands up. A cop would shoot someone if they pointed a gun at them. 2:21 Good shot. 2:27-2:36 This scene is confusing and cluttered. 2:39 The light on the bulding in the background adds depth. 3:24 The car lights in the background add depth. 4:11 Shine some headlights on the building in the background. Well done.

Appreciate the feedback Jordan!

It's shot and edited really well, but I agree with some of the other comments about "less is more." As a cinematographer, part of the job is to tell the client that their vision isn't the way the film should go. It can be very tricky to delicately tell a client that YOU are the cinematographer, and they are hiring you for your expertise. Everything filmed should be to the benefit of the song. It's a really good tune, but it gets lost in all of the stuff that has nothing to do with love. Just my 2 cents.

Ok. Very good melody. Here the but part. Where the drums looped? If so find a drummer of your choice and my suggestion is pump up the song with hot drum licks. Then you might consider getting a basist to drive the song harder. The beat is very cool but I personnally wanted to feel like dancing more. The video, just like in the movies everyone wants an action soon. In music videos often the same it true so, my recommendation is loose the sitting around smoking scenes. You guys are on the right track but think about how to engage your viewer quickly. Opening graphics with name are cool. Then it drags for a few second. Next, your shots are too long. Watch Thrift store music videos, he want on a face just .5 to 1.5 seconds. His longest shot is 12 seconds on one person. If I was redoing your video I would speed up the red car with the dude up a bit. If you are using Final Cut check out the special effects that can split the screen into three parts that come down from top of screen or bottom up. Check out the other transitions and you video much more engaging. The hold idea in my opinion is to keep your viewer for the entire length of the song. The first 30 seconds is all you have before they start deciding to stop watching so make your first 30 hot. If you are not using FCut. Sony Vegas Pro 13 or lessor version is very easy to work with. I have no financial interest in the software mentioned. Also, you can learn how to use any of them on YouTube. B Kool. very good first time out. So, in conclusion pump up the song some and improve your editing as suggested. Then do another song. Like this one.

Catchy song Chris, wish you good luck and great success and for your first time it's pretty impressive! Have a wonderful day.

A great success for a first video. Good song track. Very moody and stylish. My one crit would be that the story line is somewhat vague. I wasn't sure what the drive by gun play was all about. The song being romantic the video might had had a better feel it if had stayed away from the inferred violence. All in all a very good effort.

Very Very Nice!!!

Liked the slow Intro, building character profile, before the music sounded. Interesting and edgy. It's good he gets to keep the girl, as they wander the rail track in unison.

Great job!!!!