Shot this with Canon T2i/550D and using Final Cut Pro 2

Hey everybody!

The following video was shot on a Canon T2i/550D. I wanted to rent a higher end "Red" camera but my budget wouldn't allow it. My director Brian Kim insisted that we use his Canon T2i/550D instead. He then added audio and edited using Final Cut Pro2. Please let me know what you think! Thanks for watching!!!!

I found the dead-to-the-beat speed cutting pretty annoying, but that's a personal taste thing. And I can say that given the song title, it's motivated this time. Still, I would have preferred a bit more "jazzy" rhythm in the cutting. For example, you can do a "triple stroke" instead of one-per-beat, or let one shot stay two or three times longer to break the tedium. I think it's a bad idea when the viewer knows exactly where the cuts will come after just 10 seconds of watching, and there's also the ever-present problem with letting music dominate the cuts, which is that not all the shots fit the rhythm.

I think my main issue with the video is that it offered literally nothing new to look at after 30 seconds or so. Endless fast cutting, but always to the same concept -- dead-to-camera lip-syncing. Costume changes are not interesting enough to sustain a music video. Also, it didn't help that you were always shooting from the same axis, and the girls' moves didn't look choreographed, just random shaking with no co-ordination to increase visual impact. I think you should have spent half as much time you did shooting lip-syncing, and spent that time shooting stuff with more personality and concept.


www.derekmok.com

Thank you Derek for taking the time to review. I truly appreciate your feedback. It will only help us the next time that we shoot and edit. Can't wait for you to review our next video!!!!

I agree with Derek on most of what he is sayin'. Tried to understand the motivation for shooting and editing this way...couldn't do it. The white cyc is nice and clean, but it should not be the only set. Change it up. I would have used this set only to feature the girls in a group. Probably would have shot them all in different locations / situations cutting back to the white studio shot to "establish" the power of the group. Add some compositing. Take one of your camera pans across all 4 girls then comp in another one right after it in totally different outfits...like you are panning across a huge line of girls. If this is an introductory piece, show each girl in a hot environment with close-ups / camera moves (steadicam) / etc.

The way it is, the camera doesn't move much / no background / no angles / no good CU's / no cutaways / no "BLING" = no interest.

I couldn't watch the whole thing...it was hard to watch the flashes and I kinda knew what was coming next.

All that said, I like the way the footage looked (the actual images captured). Nice contrast. The girls looked really nice is some shots. Could have been graded a little tighter...but you have some good bones there. Everybody does not need a RED to shoot everything these days - jeez. More and more peeps are doing commercials with the Canon DSLRs and the results are stunning.

Keep working!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Thanks Joey!

I must say that I'm truly appreciative of the feedback. This was our first ever effort. I will take the great advice to heart in all of our future endeavors. You gentleman have me really motivated to get creative right now Now I just have to find more funding....