Bonnie Gross: At first I was not sure about the music video “Our Deal,” but in the end I really enjoyed it. I quickly realized that the story was a modern day version of West Side Story. I thought it was a little bit corny until I got to the twist at the end. Overall I thought the story was basic, but well put together. There was barely any dialogue, but you knew everything about the story just from the images. Although the story was one that has been over done, it was a creative twist and was done well through cinematography. I really loved the cinematography in this short. My favorite shots were when they would film a close up of a person and then follow their eyesight to another person. It was cool to see the interchange between the two people. Another shot that I really liked was when the main girl and guy are looking into each other’s eyes. The shot starts with the guys close up, zooms out to an over the shoulder and goes all the way around the couple. Then it moves to an over the shoulder of the girl and into her close up. The whole circular motion was very cool and interesting. This short also had very good composition in their shots. The music video followed the rule of thirds very nicely, and the placement of every object made sense in the scene. The characters were placed in good locations and had good deep backgrounds for most every shot. In every shot you can tell a lot about what is going on just from the backgrounds alone. You can tell that each shot took a lot of planning. Overall it was a very good music video.
By the name of the music video, I was not sure what to expect. When I saw that it was directed by Drew Berrymore, my first thought was "Charlie's Angels." The story of the short is very basic. Gang vs. Gang has been used in numerous plots. I was intrigued by the names of the gangs and the representations. Night and Day battling each other is pretty original. When the night girl meets the day guy, it is very sweet and romantic. A cute puppy love. Their story seemed to be very predictable. It was inevitable that the gangs would meet to have a huge royal at the end. I knew something was a little fishy when the night girl ran away and the shot of the day guy came up after he sprayed, "I CANT." The twist at the end made me really emotional about my girlfriend. It is sad to see a love like that be destroyed by a small assumption of the night girl. The short is very powerful. I thoroughly enjoyed the cinematography and the costumes of the characters. The locations and attire of the crew really created a world apart from reality. Nothing bad to say about this video. I am going to show my girlfriend to see her reaction.
I really enjoyed this short. I was surprised that Drew Berrymore directed it. It kind of made me ifie. I was excited that it was Best Coast music. I really enjoy their music and I feel that their music worked well with all the scenes. The settings, costumes, makeup, and hair where awesome. The retro-ness made the story cute and make the characters pop. I thought it was cool that there were very few speaking lines. The shots were what really captured their story. Along with the messages written on their hands and the final message written on the wall. Which made me a bit disappointed that Alia Shawkat character spoke when she was upset about her sister was beaten. For me it made the short seem less driven(?) powerful(?) The shots had built us up this far and then they add in this bit of script. Which what she was saying wasn't memorable or powerful to the scene. Also, I liked how the fight scene was of them fighting but in brake dance style. Brake dance karate. I honestly wasn't expecting Lucky to die. When he did die, the story felt like Rome and Juliet-ish so it made since that he did. I thought the ending shot was appropriate with Lucky's message on the wall above them and Lucky and Veronica laying underneath it. It left me feeling a bitter sweet ending. More on the bitter side considering Veronica over reacted and killed Lucky. If she had just been patient and stuck around to see what Lucky had written. But also it was his fault for starting his sentence off with "I can't"
From the beginning, Our Deal had a very prominent style. The bold words that explained what was going on were very minimal and powerful and I think really added to the story and didn't take away from it at all. Although the story itself was pretty cliche I suppose, I thought it was done very well and that aspect didn't bother me a bit.
I've seen West Side Story before and although I don't remember much I can see how this video was sort of an adaptation of it, which I thought was pretty interesting. I thought the acting in it was fantastic, spot on with the style, and very believable. The music changes at first bothered me but as the story went on they it became a great mood setter for the story and I thought it was very cool how it was basically a silent film for the most part.
The cinematography in this video was absolutely gorgeous, I thought. Every shot or camera movement and all of the lighting was very symbolic, meaningful, and had a purpose. It's a story we've all heard before, whether through West Side Story or Romeo and Juliet or anything else, but I think this video really made it its own and put a modern spin on it in a very tasteful way. I enjoyed the consistency of the style throughout the character development and storyline.
This extended music video is a good depiction of what a modern day west side story and romeo and Juliet would be like. The big red titles of the film helped give it direction and gave us all the necessary information needed to carry along the story. I liked the fact that between the images and the music, we knew what was going on, the emotions being portrayed, and we knew all the information needed to follow along with the film. I thought that the small speaking portion of the film was unnecessary. I think that if they would have left out the speaking the film would have provoked more emotional feeling.
I loved the location of the video and the colors that were used. Choosing an area around train tracks with a lot of walls and hidden alleys is a great place to display gang activity. I loved how the day trotters wore brighter colors with jean material to show they day time aspect of their gang and the night creepers had wolves on the clothes and they word dark black clothing.
The ending of the video was very nice yet unfortunate for the girl. I like how the battle or rumble incorporated breakdancing with the actual physical fighting. That was very creative and the music in the background helped the scene develop. I also like the ending shot of a zoom out of when the girl was laying across the body reading the graffiti on the wall. That scene was nice because we first were focused on the couple and then the writing and then the couple and the writing both.
One of my favorite scenes was when the couple was by themselves having a good time with each other. What made this scene better was the portion of the song singing about being her boyfriend. The lyrics really set up the dialogue and basically all the verbal information we needed and it let the actors really play out the scene.
As far as story goes, being a retelling of an extremely popular work, there really isn't much to say. I found the cinematography to be overall appealing, if somewhat uninspired. For being a music video, the camera work was definitely above and beyond what I expected, although I'm not sure it'd be too thrilling to watch a feature film shot like this.
What really interests me about this piece is the simple question of why it was made. As a film, it's extremely short, light on narrative, not particularly well written, a little bit unclear, and honestly, a tad boring. As a music video it's hideously long, overwrought, and poorly representative of the music it goes with. As such, it seems to fall somewhat flat, being strung out between two genres, never really committing to either. I just can't say I would ever watch something like this of my own free will, let alone something this cheesy. It seems far more like a commercial tool than a genuine artistic medium, and that irks me far more than any shortcoming in the writing or cinematography.
Our Deal was a pretty well-done music video. I was hesitant to put much stock into a music video, but it turned out to be pretty good. The acting isn’t stellar, and the “fight” scene in the end is ridiculous, but the acting and the fighting helped give the music video an almost unearthly feeling which I enjoyed. The plot was simplistic, somewhat of an abridged Romeo and Juliet, told almost entirely through visuals, with very few actual spoken lines of dialog. However, the plot twist at the end left me unsure as to whether I should laugh because was so ridiculous, or cry because it was so tragic, an interesting feeling, to say the least. I would not normally be interested in the music, but it’s eerie ethereal quality, supplemented by the short’s other elements, made the entire short feel like it was something from a dream. Despite that, the visuals are what really stole the show. Overall camera techniques, such as lighting and camera angling and movement were ambitious and innovative, and they made the locations for the short really shine. The locations shifted from back alleys to the tops and interiors of abandoned buildings throughout the music video. The short managed to take those locations, which would normally be seen as gritty and unsavory in most circumstances. and made them seem like something out of a fantasy using lighting, camera work, and the overall quality of the music. Of the short videos we watched so far this semester, I would have to say this is probably my favorite.
I LOVED this video, West Side Story is one of m favorite movies and I felt that Our Deal did well to capture a more modern day version of the story. I also loved how it was easy to follow the story line even with the limited amount of talking, however the music was perfect to help communicate the messages throughout the film and set the mood perfectly. I loved the camera composition of the entire movie, but I especially liked it at the end when the camera curves around the wall to reveal the entire message painted on it, I didn't expect that at all. The Rumble scene was also very interesting how the decided to use break-dance within the scene, which also reminded me even more of West Side Story. The setting of the film was great and made it feel more like we were watching some 1950s gangs, in fact I'm pretty sure that one of the settings was used in the movie GREASE. Another one of my favorite shots is when the gangs are on their way to the rumble and it shows a silhouette of one of the gangs, and finally I loved the costume choice for the gangs, like with the Night Creepers blacks and cool colors were used, while the Day Trotters wore white and warm colors. Overall the film was excellent.
Rebecca Bynum: Our Deal by Drew Barrymore had a West Side Story sense of feel. It captured the story of two gangs in their hatred towards each other. On the other side of the story there was a love story between the gangs running parallel in between. I really enjoy films that have two stories running parallel but in the end, intertwine with each other to make one story. I didn’t feel like the music fit well with the story line though. I felt as if you could have taken out the music and put any other music in and it would have been the same story. I loved the setting of this film with a 70’s feel to it. I thought running around in dark ally’s and in abandon buildings with the bright clothing and big hair really brought out the cinematography. With that said the lighting worked well with each scene and gang. It captured the day gang with bright lights whereas the night gang had a much darker tint to the lights and shadows. The best part about this short film was there were not many actual lines of dialogue. That being said, I really liked the words written on the hands, “will you meet me later?” and “will you run away with me”. I thought this really helped the story by putting a little mystery into it. Over all I really enjoyed this short film.
Joel Jarvis: I have always loved music videos that can tell a story when you don't play the music with the video. Of course the West side story vibe was a little cheesy It was enjoyable to watch. Throughout the video I noticed myself paying more attention to all the shadows. The darkness helped to dramatize the fight scenes as well as lengthen the reveal of one of the night Creepers' injuries. I was surprised to see familiar characters in this like Donald Glover, Chloe Moretz, Miranda Cosgrove, and Alia Shawkat. However I should have known many would jump at the chance to be on project with Drew Barrymore in any way possible. Needless to say I downloaded this album from Best Coast and it has been on loop for about a week.
I enjoyed this music video. I thought the font and color of the titles were really cool. I liked all of the different colors with the graffiti and costumes and the cinematography. The camera work is great. My favorite shot in the film was the silhouette shot a few seconds past the seven minute mark. I thought the fight scene was kind of cheesy and the big sister's acting wasn't very convincing. She didn't seem angry enough. I enjoyed the music but I'm not sure how it fit the video's story. Overall, I really enjoyed this music video and Donald Glover is on my list for top ten coolest people alive.
Spray painting scene adds aesthetic to the “turf war” feel Each song conveys over-arching feel that even goes along with what the camera is doing. The scene in which the “night creeper’s” sister dies is raw, lots of emotion that is only furthered by cutting to and from the girl dating the “day trotter” and the speech that is emotionally firing up the gang to go to war. Music is allowed to continue but there is still communication when Tyler Posey spray paints “I can’t” on the brick wall to answer his “night creeper” lover’s question that she wrote on her hand- “will you run away with me. Good choice of music, the “buzz” the bass makes at the start of the fight is climactic. Best directing/photography moment: girl knocks guy off roof, regrets it, follows him to help as the camera pans past the wall he used spray paint on to reject her. Immense irony. Then the lyrics are clamoring “you’ll never tell me the way you feel”- the viewer knows they are “in love” but can’t have each other which is why he doesn’t yet tell her. Then the camera pans to the other side of the brick wall which continues his “I can’t” sentence with “wait to spend my life with you”.
Kaitlin Smith: My first thoughts of this “extended” music video was that this didn’t seem like your “typical” music video and that’s probably why I didn’t like it. That is probably why I liked “Wasp” the best still. However, I did like how she included a story instead of just showing the band singing the song. I hate that, because most of the time it’s not effective and it doesn’t make sense. I was also surprised to see such well-known screen actors playing roles in this music video.
What I didn’t like about the music video was the red text that broke up the acts and different stories/parts that were involved in the music video, since it was a long song. I thought it was very cheesy and didn’t fit the film. I understood the red color choice because was indicating the gangs were out for blood, but I would have just chosen a softer text that wasn’t so “in your face.”
Like I said earlier, I liked the plot for this video, taking the ‘West Side Story’ and making a modern twist to it. Especially the love story, it made my heart warm at the end because I like new ideas in film. I don’t like when you stick to love letters – so old school. They decided to spray paint on the wall and I thought that was so romantic for a film!
The location in which this video was filmed was very realistic for the story. Definitely when your dealings with gangs your not going to see them in a populated area it’s going to be abandoned and emptied. I thought the location manager did a great job finding a place to shoot.
The make-up and costume designers did a great job in the their roles because I thought the actors at first were unrecognizable. But the make-up and hair made them look very 80’s and the jackets were very nice the way they distinguished the two gangs.
The lighting in this video was great too. The night scene where both gangs were confronting each other had beautiful lighting. Also, the part where he fell off the building and she went to go see him at the very end; both actors were lit well. Like a spot light on them and on the wall to look at the spray paint he had wrote the message to her. Very nice lighting!
I enjoyed the short for this week. It was somewhat surprising to me that Drew Barrymore was the director, but overall it still as a great product. I really liked the way the story was told in the along with the choice of shot location and decisions. I also like how in some scenes the music would still be playing or minimized somewhat and actions or words were being communicated, but it still did not take away from the points getting across.
The choice of camera angles and lighting was tremendously handled with a great amount of planning. The different variations of contrast between the darker more dramatic shots and the somewhat more calm shots were lit well and the subjects were able to bring that out as well, which made everything complement one another.
Overall I enjoyed the video and would like to commend the DP, Director, and crew on a job well done!
Steven Hiott I thought the video was interesting. I liked the choreography and the visuals because they were so aesthetically pleasing, they held my attention and even though I didn't really like the type of music that was in the video. It did tell a cool story. The shot locations made the video flow well, and the actors did a great job conveying the mood of the video.
Although the different scenes flowed well together, I found the transitions somewhat distracting, and to bold for how the video was. Some of the more unique camera angles helped move the story along along with the dramatic shots.
I also thought it did a good job conveying a story without that much dialogue, just using the music in the background. The lighting helped a lot in portraying emotion, especially the darker shots.
Bonnie Gross: At first I was not sure about the music video “Our Deal,” but in the end I really enjoyed it. I quickly realized that the story was a modern day version of West Side Story. I thought it was a little bit corny until I got to the twist at the end. Overall I thought the story was basic, but well put together. There was barely any dialogue, but you knew everything about the story just from the images. Although the story was one that has been over done, it was a creative twist and was done well through cinematography.
ReplyDeleteI really loved the cinematography in this short. My favorite shots were when they would film a close up of a person and then follow their eyesight to another person. It was cool to see the interchange between the two people. Another shot that I really liked was when the main girl and guy are looking into each other’s eyes. The shot starts with the guys close up, zooms out to an over the shoulder and goes all the way around the couple. Then it moves to an over the shoulder of the girl and into her close up. The whole circular motion was very cool and interesting.
This short also had very good composition in their shots. The music video followed the rule of thirds very nicely, and the placement of every object made sense in the scene. The characters were placed in good locations and had good deep backgrounds for most every shot. In every shot you can tell a lot about what is going on just from the backgrounds alone. You can tell that each shot took a lot of planning. Overall it was a very good music video.
Calvin Ross
ReplyDeleteBy the name of the music video, I was not sure what to expect. When I saw that it was directed by Drew Berrymore, my first thought was "Charlie's Angels."
The story of the short is very basic. Gang vs. Gang has been used in numerous plots. I was intrigued by the names of the gangs and the representations. Night and Day battling each other is pretty original.
When the night girl meets the day guy, it is very sweet and romantic. A cute puppy love.
Their story seemed to be very predictable. It was inevitable that the gangs would meet to have a huge royal at the end.
I knew something was a little fishy when the night girl ran away and the shot of the day guy came up after he sprayed, "I CANT." The twist at the end made me really emotional about my girlfriend. It is sad to see a love like that be destroyed by a small assumption of the night girl. The short is very powerful.
I thoroughly enjoyed the cinematography and the costumes of the characters. The locations and attire of the crew really created a world apart from reality.
Nothing bad to say about this video. I am going to show my girlfriend to see her reaction.
Ellen Schwartz
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this short. I was surprised that Drew Berrymore directed it. It kind of made me ifie. I was excited that it was Best Coast music. I really enjoy their music and I feel that their music worked well with all the scenes.
The settings, costumes, makeup, and hair where awesome. The retro-ness made the story cute and make the characters pop.
I thought it was cool that there were very few speaking lines. The shots were what really captured their story. Along with the messages written on their hands and the final message written on the wall. Which made me a bit disappointed that Alia Shawkat character spoke when she was upset about her sister was beaten. For me it made the short seem less driven(?) powerful(?) The shots had built us up this far and then they add in this bit of script. Which what she was saying wasn't memorable or powerful to the scene.
Also, I liked how the fight scene was of them fighting but in brake dance style. Brake dance karate.
I honestly wasn't expecting Lucky to die. When he did die, the story felt like Rome and Juliet-ish so it made since that he did.
I thought the ending shot was appropriate with Lucky's message on the wall above them and Lucky and Veronica laying underneath it. It left me feeling a bitter sweet ending. More on the bitter side considering Veronica over reacted and killed Lucky. If she had just been patient and stuck around to see what Lucky had written. But also it was his fault for starting his sentence off with "I can't"
Lauren Musgrove:
ReplyDeleteFrom the beginning, Our Deal had a very prominent style. The bold words that explained what was going on were very minimal and powerful and I think really added to the story and didn't take away from it at all. Although the story itself was pretty cliche I suppose, I thought it was done very well and that aspect didn't bother me a bit.
I've seen West Side Story before and although I don't remember much I can see how this video was sort of an adaptation of it, which I thought was pretty interesting. I thought the acting in it was fantastic, spot on with the style, and very believable. The music changes at first bothered me but as the story went on they it became a great mood setter for the story and I thought it was very cool how it was basically a silent film for the most part.
The cinematography in this video was absolutely gorgeous, I thought. Every shot or camera movement and all of the lighting was very symbolic, meaningful, and had a purpose. It's a story we've all heard before, whether through West Side Story or Romeo and Juliet or anything else, but I think this video really made it its own and put a modern spin on it in a very tasteful way. I enjoyed the consistency of the style throughout the character development and storyline.
Nia Barnes
ReplyDeleteThis extended music video is a good depiction of what a modern day west side story and romeo and Juliet would be like. The big red titles of the film helped give it direction and gave us all the necessary information needed to carry along the story. I liked the fact that between the images and the music, we knew what was going on, the emotions being portrayed, and we knew all the information needed to follow along with the film. I thought that the small speaking portion of the film was unnecessary. I think that if they would have left out the speaking the film would have provoked more emotional feeling.
I loved the location of the video and the colors that were used. Choosing an area around train tracks with a lot of walls and hidden alleys is a great place to display gang activity. I loved how the day trotters wore brighter colors with jean material to show they day time aspect of their gang and the night creepers had wolves on the clothes and they word dark black clothing.
The ending of the video was very nice yet unfortunate for the girl. I like how the battle or rumble incorporated breakdancing with the actual physical fighting. That was very creative and the music in the background helped the scene develop. I also like the ending shot of a zoom out of when the girl was laying across the body reading the graffiti on the wall. That scene was nice because we first were focused on the couple and then the writing and then the couple and the writing both.
One of my favorite scenes was when the couple was by themselves having a good time with each other. What made this scene better was the portion of the song singing about being her boyfriend. The lyrics really set up the dialogue and basically all the verbal information we needed and it let the actors really play out the scene.
Mike McGee:
ReplyDeleteAs far as story goes, being a retelling of an extremely popular work, there really isn't much to say. I found the cinematography to be overall appealing, if somewhat uninspired. For being a music video, the camera work was definitely above and beyond what I expected, although I'm not sure it'd be too thrilling to watch a feature film shot like this.
What really interests me about this piece is the simple question of why it was made. As a film, it's extremely short, light on narrative, not particularly well written, a little bit unclear, and honestly, a tad boring. As a music video it's hideously long, overwrought, and poorly representative of the music it goes with. As such, it seems to fall somewhat flat, being strung out between two genres, never really committing to either. I just can't say I would ever watch something like this of my own free will, let alone something this cheesy. It seems far more like a commercial tool than a genuine artistic medium, and that irks me far more than any shortcoming in the writing or cinematography.
Our Deal was a pretty well-done music video. I was hesitant to put much stock into a music video, but it turned out to be pretty good. The acting isn’t stellar, and the “fight” scene in the end is ridiculous, but the acting and the fighting helped give the music video an almost unearthly feeling which I enjoyed. The plot was simplistic, somewhat of an abridged Romeo and Juliet, told almost entirely through visuals, with very few actual spoken lines of dialog. However, the plot twist at the end left me unsure as to whether I should laugh because was so ridiculous, or cry because it was so tragic, an interesting feeling, to say the least. I would not normally be interested in the music, but it’s eerie ethereal quality, supplemented by the short’s other elements, made the entire short feel like it was something from a dream. Despite that, the visuals are what really stole the show. Overall camera techniques, such as lighting and camera angling and movement were ambitious and innovative, and they made the locations for the short really shine. The locations shifted from back alleys to the tops and interiors of abandoned buildings throughout the music video. The short managed to take those locations, which would normally be seen as gritty and unsavory in most circumstances. and made them seem like something out of a fantasy using lighting, camera work, and the overall quality of the music. Of the short videos we watched so far this semester, I would have to say this is probably my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED this video, West Side Story is one of m favorite movies and I felt that Our Deal did well to capture a more modern day version of the story. I also loved how it was easy to follow the story line even with the limited amount of talking, however the music was perfect to help communicate the messages throughout the film and set the mood perfectly. I loved the camera composition of the entire movie, but I especially liked it at the end when the camera curves around the wall to reveal the entire message painted on it, I didn't expect that at all. The Rumble scene was also very interesting how the decided to use break-dance within the scene, which also reminded me even more of West Side Story. The setting of the film was great and made it feel more like we were watching some 1950s gangs, in fact I'm pretty sure that one of the settings was used in the movie GREASE. Another one of my favorite shots is when the gangs are on their way to the rumble and it shows a silhouette of one of the gangs, and finally I loved the costume choice for the gangs, like with the Night Creepers blacks and cool colors were used, while the Day Trotters wore white and warm colors. Overall the film was excellent.
ReplyDeleteRebecca Bynum: Our Deal by Drew Barrymore had a West Side Story sense of feel. It captured the story of two gangs in their hatred towards each other. On the other side of the story there was a love story between the gangs running parallel in between. I really enjoy films that have two stories running parallel but in the end, intertwine with each other to make one story. I didn’t feel like the music fit well with the story line though. I felt as if you could have taken out the music and put any other music in and it would have been the same story. I loved the setting of this film with a 70’s feel to it. I thought running around in dark ally’s and in abandon buildings with the bright clothing and big hair really brought out the cinematography. With that said the lighting worked well with each scene and gang. It captured the day gang with bright lights whereas the night gang had a much darker tint to the lights and shadows. The best part about this short film was there were not many actual lines of dialogue. That being said, I really liked the words written on the hands, “will you meet me later?” and “will you run away with me”. I thought this really helped the story by putting a little mystery into it. Over all I really enjoyed this short film.
ReplyDeleteJoel Jarvis:
ReplyDeleteI have always loved music videos that can tell a story when you don't play the music with the video. Of course the West side story vibe was a little cheesy It was enjoyable to watch. Throughout the video I noticed myself paying more attention to all the shadows. The darkness helped to dramatize the fight scenes as well as lengthen the reveal of one of the night Creepers' injuries. I was surprised to see familiar characters in this like Donald Glover, Chloe Moretz, Miranda Cosgrove, and Alia Shawkat. However I should have known many would jump at the chance to be on project with Drew Barrymore in any way possible. Needless to say I downloaded this album from Best Coast and it has been on loop for about a week.
Matt Leddo
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this music video. I thought the font and color of the titles were really cool. I liked all of the different colors with the graffiti and costumes and the cinematography. The camera work is great. My favorite shot in the film was the silhouette shot a few seconds past the seven minute mark. I thought the fight scene was kind of cheesy and the big sister's acting wasn't very convincing. She didn't seem angry enough. I enjoyed the music but I'm not sure how it fit the video's story. Overall, I really enjoyed this music video and Donald Glover is on my list for top ten coolest people alive.
Spray painting scene adds aesthetic to the “turf war” feel
ReplyDeleteEach song conveys over-arching feel that even goes along with what the camera is doing.
The scene in which the “night creeper’s” sister dies is raw, lots of emotion that is only furthered by cutting to and from the girl dating the “day trotter” and the speech that is emotionally firing up the gang to go to war.
Music is allowed to continue but there is still communication when Tyler Posey spray paints “I can’t” on the brick wall to answer his “night creeper” lover’s question that she wrote on her hand- “will you run away with me.
Good choice of music, the “buzz” the bass makes at the start of the fight is climactic.
Best directing/photography moment: girl knocks guy off roof, regrets it, follows him to help as the camera pans past the wall he used spray paint on to reject her. Immense irony. Then the lyrics are clamoring “you’ll never tell me the way you feel”- the viewer knows they are “in love” but can’t have each other which is why he doesn’t yet tell her. Then the camera pans to the other side of the brick wall which continues his “I can’t” sentence with “wait to spend my life with you”.
andrew wallace
Kaitlin Smith: My first thoughts of this “extended” music video was that this didn’t seem like your “typical” music video and that’s probably why I didn’t like it. That is probably why I liked “Wasp” the best still. However, I did like how she included a story instead of just showing the band singing the song. I hate that, because most of the time it’s not effective and it doesn’t make sense. I was also surprised to see such well-known screen actors playing roles in this music video.
ReplyDeleteWhat I didn’t like about the music video was the red text that broke up the acts and different stories/parts that were involved in the music video, since it was a long song. I thought it was very cheesy and didn’t fit the film. I understood the red color choice because was indicating the gangs were out for blood, but I would have just chosen a softer text that wasn’t so “in your face.”
Like I said earlier, I liked the plot for this video, taking the ‘West Side Story’ and making a modern twist to it. Especially the love story, it made my heart warm at the end because I like new ideas in film. I don’t like when you stick to love letters – so old school. They decided to spray paint on the wall and I thought that was so romantic for a film!
The location in which this video was filmed was very realistic for the story. Definitely when your dealings with gangs your not going to see them in a populated area it’s going to be abandoned and emptied. I thought the location manager did a great job finding a place to shoot.
The make-up and costume designers did a great job in the their roles because I thought the actors at first were unrecognizable. But the make-up and hair made them look very 80’s and the jackets were very nice the way they distinguished the two gangs.
The lighting in this video was great too. The night scene where both gangs were confronting each other had beautiful lighting. Also, the part where he fell off the building and she went to go see him at the very end; both actors were lit well. Like a spot light on them and on the wall to look at the spray paint he had wrote the message to her. Very nice lighting!
Brandon Brown
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the short for this week. It was somewhat surprising to me that Drew Barrymore was the director, but overall it still as a great product. I really liked the way the story was told in the along with the choice of shot location and decisions. I also like how in some scenes the music would still be playing or minimized somewhat and actions or words were being communicated, but it still did not take away from the points getting across.
The choice of camera angles and lighting was tremendously handled with a great amount of planning. The different variations of contrast between the darker more dramatic shots and the somewhat more calm shots were lit well and the subjects were able to bring that out as well, which made everything complement one another.
Overall I enjoyed the video and would like to commend the DP, Director, and crew on a job well done!
Steven Hiott
ReplyDeleteI thought the video was interesting. I liked the choreography and the visuals because they were so aesthetically pleasing, they held my attention and even though I didn't really like the type of music that was in the video. It did tell a cool story. The shot locations made the video flow well, and the actors did a great job conveying the mood of the video.
Although the different scenes flowed well together, I found the transitions somewhat distracting, and to bold for how the video was. Some of the more unique camera angles helped move the story along along with the dramatic shots.
I also thought it did a good job conveying a story without that much dialogue, just using the music in the background. The lighting helped a lot in portraying emotion, especially the darker shots.