Lost Video Island

[rbexter93]

Don't get me wrong, see my first video with a cp was great! I got a silver and understand the outline, it lacked originality. But what could I have changed to get a gold pick? Is it alot or not? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW6G8xLWeos
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[thefilmchick]

If you were addressing this only to mods and not random Joe Schmoe members, my apologies for replying!

Also, keep in mind I am speaking from the position of a bunch of silvers and only one gold thus far (go go 'Lost and Confused,' heh), but here's a critique - I'm a better critic than a vidder anyway.

What struck me as very good:

- Any Sayid is very good. You chose some nice-looking clips too, on a purely aesthetic level.

- The general lyrics of the song were not mushy/sickly-sweet. Similarly, the vid itself did not strike me as mushy/sickly-sweet, and to me, speaking as someone who throws things at the sickly-sweet vids, that worked well.

- The song had a decently strong beat and wasn't too whiny or emo or something.

- The start with the fire kiss was well-clipped and set to the instrumental intro and pretty captivating, and this is coming from someone who generally dislikes 'ships.

- You didn't seem to have a problem with the length of the clips - nowhere was I like 'Grar, change it already.'

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Things that could have been improved:

- Certain shots are too dark to be visible. Granted, this is Lost's fault, but a brightness/contrast duo filter on WMM (not sure what would work on Vegas or whatever) works wonders.

- Certain things seemed a bit too heavy-handed: 'Going out of my mind' with Walt pushed the envelope a bit for me, as well as 'broken' with the knife on Sawyer - these parts sort of seemed to defocus the vid from Sayid and Shannon. I would have chosen for those two shots maybe something of Shannon panicking because she sees Walt - not Walt necessarily - and maybe a shot of Sayid torturing Sawyer with Sayid in the shot all the time (something not too grisly, though, or that will introduce a tone into the vid that you don't want to be there.) Keep your focus a bit tighter on those parts.

- The clips went back and forth btw widescreen and squarescreen a bit too much, and the distortion that put into the clips twigged me a bit.

- The 'pictures' thing, while creative, just didn't do it for me. Absent a repeat of the technique later in the video, it felt out-of-place and just there for its own sake, versus for the sake of the vid.

- 'Take what's left of this man' was particularly confusing with the shot. Whom is that about? Sayid, presumably, but the shot you chose made it seem like 'this man' was Shannon (sorry) or maybe Jack, as he comes into the shot. It's a striking shot, absolutely, but it felt misplaced.

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Again, I could be completely in error, could be completely misguided, and certainly didn't vote on the vid. Just my thoughts though, so there you go.
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I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.

[rbexter93]

thanks, I appriciate it
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[Hobbes]

First let me say I really liked this vid when I saw it. I see it as an abstract take on the whole Shayid relationship.
That said, there are some things that could definitely change a bit here to make this better, and hopefully get a gold, or at least a really strong silver, next time.
1. Length - you have to keep a video interesting throughout it. The longer the song, the harder this is. If you're finding yourself just repeating some other part, and not really needing any more dramatic cues, then perhaps it's time to cut down the song, or else use...
2. Originality - this grabs attention, and can keep people interestied throughout the song. Even something as small as linking some good lyric to a scene (such as the "going out of my mind" thing you used I liked that a lot!) does SO much more than simply a montage of random Shayid scenes. If you go with enough of this, you could even make it into...
3. Story - where the entire video kinda a plan, when you start at one point and work your way through things chronologically (still fitting to the lyrics perfectly, might I add ), and then crashing down with an awe-inspiring climax (like this song had buy you didn't really use it much ) To take advantage of a climax, you're gonna need...
4. Beat Use - A lot of your clip transitions were fades, even when it got to a point where you could totally let loose and make it all dramatic with some fast beats. You could disagree with this of course, but I personally think it could look a lot better with some fast, hard beats at key moments.
5. Aesthetics - I personally don't really care about this part, and it's usually the least of what I look for in a vid, but a lot of people, and judges, do, and it's hard to ignore if a vid just doesn't look all that pleasing (Conversely, a vid that looks realyl really good probably doesn't even need much in the form of everything else lol. It could be random and nobody would care ). Aesthetics would be a lot of what TFC said: brightness, aspect ratio, the pictures thing (though they weren't really hurting or helping the vid much IMO, they were just there, and looked okay). You could also put in a few effects (AT KEY MOMENTS) to make it a bit nicer looking. That falls under originality too btw lol.

Above all, what we look for in a vid is just how much of it really had any significance to the story the vidder is trying to tell. A bunch of random clips of Sayid and Shannon, even if some of them manage to fit to the lyrics, just don't have much of a point if they don't at least wrap up into a story in the vid... And without some big goal that the vid is trying to accomplish, then what's the point of the whole vid in the first place? Without focus, even a well-done vid might not even get a Silver.
What TFC said is very true, but I'd say they aren't as much the reasoning behind the grade as much as the fact that us judges had trouble seeing you had enough focus in the vid. Even if you did, it didn't come across enough in the vid, and that's why we came to that conclusion.

I hope that all helped your understanding of a mod's POV on what constitutes a Gold lol . Hopefully I wasn't harsh or anything

[rbexter93]

yeah I asked, I'd rather have critisism than no comments.
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