Student Videos

I have also decided to look at some of the work of previous students to evaluate what works and does not work so well in a more realistic portrayal of what I might be capable of creating myself.

In this first video we see that all of the scenes are filmed at night with a poor source of lighting. Consequentially this affects the quality of the clips and perhaps is not completely necessary. One of the largest issues I feel this piece has is the lack of close ups on the singer, there were moments especially at the beginning of the video where it seemed to need some form of cross cutting with close-up shots to keep the interest of the viewer. Another weakness of the video is the fact that the camera is not moving that often. Around the end we see more variation in camera angles and movement, however for the first half of the video it is very static, something which makes the video drag on a little.
The video began by keeping the shot changes very solidly on the beat of the song. This worked nicely, helping it to match the pace well and establish a tone. Some clever editing techniques were used which included splitting the screen to have multiple copies of the main singer and having several still shots of him appearing on a different park bench. These shots worked nicely and added a contrast in pace to the other slower clips.
As a contrast, this student production is more successful. The shots change more frequently with a great variation of transitions and the camera moves with the singer. These techniques used to combine lots of shorter shots work far more effectively than simply using one long lasting shot. The variation holds the viewer's interest and we see a good use of story telling alongside the constant of the black screen in the background returning for parts of the verse and the chorus. The shots flicker and change to match the music, and this changing in pace does not only match the music but it also builds up the suspense to go along with the story being told in the background. There are a great deal of close up shots used, allowing us to see more of our singer and her expressions.