YouTube - Walk With Me

[Mick Doobie]

Wow, post-apocalyptic living looks pretty sweet. They oughta splode shit up more often.

Very nice vid Chili. It definitely adds to the song/music rather than just appearing to be something randomly done for the sake of doing a vid. The vid compliments the song, the song compliments the vid....nice pairing.

 

[mixmkr]

I thought it was fantastic, all around. Good quality. If I had one nit, the guitar shots where a bit mild, but ya know, just listening to the music, it sounded great and fit perfect. No need to show impressive chops. You just created great music. I wouldn't notice the sync problems either, as the whole package got my attention and was just enjoying it for what it was... not looking for cracks and crevices.


final comments.. big thumbs up.

nice backdrops too, btw and you've got a lovely family.

 

[keem85]

This is some really good shit! I really enjoyed it! You just made me happy

 

[rayc]

Good song & apppropriate video to go with it - direct translation of theme works well.
You should've had a hat on as you walked away though - all other strands were pretty well tied up & sorted.
the young you did a sterling job.
Congratulations!!!!

 

[heatmiser]

Very nice job with this Chili! What, is this like your 2nd video ever? You are a quick study. The film and sound quality are great.

While there aren't a ton of different visual elements here, you had some nice subtle variations like switching from hand-held mode to fixed cameras, sepia to full color, normal speed to slo-mo, etc. All that stuff worked. I might have liked more hand-held stuff thrown in for contrast, but I imagine you didn't have anyone to run the camera to shoot you and your wife.

Good to see the whole family involved. I much prefer this to your other one with the cold war footage and stuff as this is obviously more personal while at the same time more professional looking. Excellent work.

 

[Chili]

Wow, post-apocalyptic living looks pretty sweet. They oughta splode shit up more often.

Very nice vid Chili. It definitely adds to the song/music rather than just appearing to be something randomly done for the sake of doing a vid. The vid compliments the song, the song compliments the vid....nice pairing.

Thanks man. I basically had this idea for a video when I was writing the song.

I thought it was fantastic, all around. Good quality. If I had one nit, the guitar shots where a bit mild, but ya know, just listening to the music, it sounded great and fit perfect. No need to show impressive chops. You just created great music. I wouldn't notice the sync problems either, as the whole package got my attention and was just enjoying it for what it was... not looking for cracks and crevices.


final comments.. big thumbs up.

nice backdrops too, btw and you've got a lovely family.

Wow, thanks Mix. The guitar shots were done a year ago when I was recording the tracks. Those were the actual guitar takes. I don't have any guitar chops to speak of. What you see is about as good as I get. lol

Although not a mountain range, the Texas Hill Country is beautiful in its own right and worked well for location.

This is some really good shit! I really enjoyed it! You just made me happy

Thanks much!!

Good song & apppropriate video to go with it - direct translation of theme works well.
You should've had a hat on as you walked away though - all other strands were pretty well tied up & sorted.
the young you did a sterling job.
Congratulations!!!!

Ah, you noticed the hat. My son and I didn't have matching hats and just did the best with what we had. Thanks Ray. I'll pass along the kind words to my son. He's a little embarrassed by the video. (poor kid, having to deal with dad's indulgences!! )

Very nice job with this Chili! What, is this like your 2nd video ever? You are a quick study. The film and sound quality are great.

While there aren't a ton of different visual elements here, you had some nice subtle variations like switching from hand-held mode to fixed cameras, sepia to full color, normal speed to slo-mo, etc. All that stuff worked. I might have liked more hand-held stuff thrown in for contrast, but I imagine you didn't have anyone to run the camera to shoot you and your wife.

Good to see the whole family involved. I much prefer this to your other one with the cold war footage and stuff as this is obviously more personal while at the same time more professional looking. Excellent work.

Hey Heat, thanks for the good words. This is the 3rd music video, but the first one was horrible and I never posted it up here (it's on my youtube page - don't look at it!!) I've done some family videos before and I basically make music videos out of them, using commercial songs or songs from people here. I've used Ciro Moreau's songs for several. So, I have a little bit of experience, still not much.

You're right about the hand-held stuff. Only me trying to do everything. My family was very patient (and cooperative) and that helped a lot. I learned something from your video, you can go far with just a little bit of footage/scenery/creativity. Thanks again!!!

 

[Chili]

Nice Chili nice.
I like how you got the whole family involved with the project.
Are you playing all of the instruments?

Oops, I missed yours, sorry. Thanks much, yes, I am playing all the instruments. I posted this song up here about a year ago... maybe last December (???)

I feel fortunate that my family worked well with the idea for the video. An older son and younger daughter to represent dad and mom.

peace,

 

[WhiteStrat]

Okay, finally got to check this out. Let me preface my comments by saying that I just now (like just before I clicked on this link!) finished editing a terminally boring video of a CEO "vision-casting" to about 500 sleeping employees. So as much as video is a part of my curriculum vitae, I get bored with the end result.

So...this was awesome! So much of what I would say has already been said, starting with Greg's comment to kick it all off. A great theme, perfectly wrapped around the song. Great job switching up the shots and keeping the video moving with the song. The variation among shots added texture and kept it all interesting.

On a technical/professional level, the only nit I have is with the framing of the mid-distance shots. (And I only noticed this because it was something I struggled with when I started in film/video). I always look at the heads of the subjects and move them up in the frame--almost touching the top, and in many cases touching/leaving the top.

We tend to do that naturally with closeups, because the face & head fill the frame, and with far shots, there's landscape or other background to focus on. But with those middle distance shots, we tend to treat them more like faraway shots, when they actually work better with the subject moved up in the frame.

None of that is a deal breaker though--this is great work. You did a great job of capturing the feeling--and that feeling was conveyed with enough conviction to cover a multitude of technical issues. I'm jealous. I work with top notch video gear every day, and I haven't done anything that approaches the emotional effectiveness in a couple years at least!

More videos please!

 

[dodgeaspen]

This was a fantastic effort for all involved. The song made sense but really came to life when I seen the video. I wouldn't change a thing at all. BTW I love the separation on the guitars because it really livens up the song.

 

[Chili]

Okay, finally got to check this out. Let me preface my comments by saying that I just now (like just before I clicked on this link!) finished editing a terminally boring video of a CEO "vision-casting" to about 500 sleeping employees. So as much as video is a part of my curriculum vitae, I get bored with the end result.

So...this was awesome! So much of what I would say has already been said, starting with Greg's comment to kick it all off. A great theme, perfectly wrapped around the song. Great job switching up the shots and keeping the video moving with the song. The variation among shots added texture and kept it all interesting.

On a technical/professional level, the only nit I have is with the framing of the mid-distance shots. (And I only noticed this because it was something I struggled with when I started in film/video). I always look at the heads of the subjects and move them up in the frame--almost touching the top, and in many cases touching/leaving the top.

We tend to do that naturally with closeups, because the face & head fill the frame, and with far shots, there's landscape or other background to focus on. But with those middle distance shots, we tend to treat them more like faraway shots, when they actually work better with the subject moved up in the frame.

None of that is a deal breaker though--this is great work. You did a great job of capturing the feeling--and that feeling was conveyed with enough conviction to cover a multitude of technical issues. I'm jealous. I work with top notch video gear every day, and I haven't done anything that approaches the emotional effectiveness in a couple years at least!

More videos please!

Cooool. So glad you brought your comments and that you liked the video. On the mid-distance shots... which in particular would those be?? The first shots of my son singing the first verse?? Me singing to my wife?? In those shots, I tried to frame it so the subjects (us) were waistline and up. Should I zoom in and fill the height of the screen with belt to top of head? It would almost be a close-up?? Or pan down and include my fat ass in some of those shots. ha ha ha....

Can I do anything about the smudge on the lens that is seen moving as the lens rotates near the beginning?? (It might be a bug crawling on the camera) What would be good to minimize the jerky motion when I was shooting the handheld footage?? I thought about making a weighted handheld camera mount from aluminum frame and bungee cords - lol.

Sorry for all the questions... you're the only videographer I know.

This was a fantastic effort for all involved. The song made sense but really came to life when I seen the video. I wouldn't change a thing at all. BTW I love the separation on the guitars because it really livens up the song.

Thanks man, I really appreciate it. There's about 5 or 6 guitar parts for the basic guitar stuff, then the one lead part.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Cooool. So glad you brought your comments and that you liked the video. On the mid-distance shots... which in particular would those be?? The first shots of my son singing the first verse?? Me singing to my wife?? In those shots, I tried to frame it so the subjects (us) were waistline and up. Should I zoom in and fill the height of the screen with belt to top of head? It would almost be a close-up?? Or pan down and include my fat ass in some of those shots. ha ha ha....

Can I do anything about the smudge on the lens that is seen moving as the lens rotates near the beginning?? (It might be a bug crawling on the camera) What would be good to minimize the jerky motion when I was shooting the handheld footage?? I thought about making a weighted handheld camera mount from aluminum frame and bungee cords - lol.

Sorry for all the questions... you're the only videographer I know.

In order:

1) The mid shots? I'll do some screen grabs and send 'em to you, but I think we're thinking of the same shots. You don't want to move in much, or then they become closeups. You just wanna move the camera down/subject up--so yeah, more of your fat ass on camera!

2) The smudge? Most anything you could do would be more destructive to the rest of the shot. It's a case of live and learn.

3) Smoothing out the jerky shot? I use some high end software that's capable of doing that, but it's way time consuming to create the motion and then rerender the video. Your home-engineered idea isn't far off? Ever heard of a steadicam? Their cheapest, most approachable unit is a "Merlin" but even that cost me like $700 used off of eBay. Google home made steadicam (or steady cam); there's a number of very effective (and affordable!) schemes for building your own out of basic plumbing pipes.

4) Elsewhere you mentioned that you might be doing a stop-action vid next? If so, let's compare notes as you go. Every year, I do a Christmas Video for my company, and this year's is gonna have a good amount of stop action in it.

 

[mixmkr]

Pinnacle 14 HD for $125 has a jitter correction in it as a tool. The demos look pretty good, but I haven't used it yet. Their other effects for what they are to this "new to video" person seem pretty decent too and not cheezy, so I might suspect the jitter would be in the same ballpark, quality wise.

 

[true-eurt]

Chili!...awesome awesome stuff...one of the best vids I've seen on here.

I love everything about it!

The intimacy you brought to it with your family, created an emotional edge setting it apart from so many blah videos.

I, as some of the others, really enjoyed the theme you stayed with rather than flashing around every five seconds to unrelated junk...and the couple of inserts of you playing the guitar was icing on the cake.


Congrats...you have a family jewel added to your treasure chest, Irish Pirate!

 

[groovyisland]

very impressive

 

[joeym]

This was beautiful, Dave!
It touched a very soft spot inside me (yeah, yeah, the heavy metal guy....), especially in the scenes with your kids. The filming and sound quality is fabulous too. Great work, well done!

 

[Anfontan]

That was just great Dave, especially having your kids as the 'past' part to you and your wife as the 'present' part. It was very well recorded as well. It looks as though everyone in the cast enjoyed it immensely!!!

 

[Chili]

In order:

1) The mid shots?
2) The smudge?
3) Smoothing out the jerky shot?
4) Elsewhere you mentioned that you might be doing a stop-action vid next?

Thanks Strat.

Chili!...awesome awesome stuff...one of the best vids I've seen on here.

I love everything about it!

The intimacy you brought to it with your family, created an emotional edge setting it apart from so many blah videos.

I, as some of the others, really enjoyed the theme you stayed with rather than flashing around every five seconds to unrelated junk...and the couple of inserts of you playing the guitar was icing on the cake.

Congrats...you have a family jewel added to your treasure chest, Irish Pirate!

Thanks so much, True. Arrrgh!!

very impressive

Thanks man.

This was beautiful, Dave!
It touched a very soft spot inside me (yeah, yeah, the heavy metal guy....), especially in the scenes with your kids. The filming and sound quality is fabulous too. Great work, well done!

I know you're quite the family man as am I. If I remember correctly, our kids are roughly the same age. I'm glad this video found a special place for ya!!!

That was just great Dave, especially having your kids as the 'past' part to you and your wife as the 'present' part. It was very well recorded as well. It looks as though everyone in the cast enjoyed it immensely!!!

Ha!!! You wouldn't believe... When I first broached the idea to my wife, she was not very receptive. She asked questions about how we were going to make it and she made comments about me being the director and having to follow my orders. She didn't like the idea that I had a vision in mind for the video and we were going to do it MY way and that there was no room for improv or other ideas. She didn't want it to be the case where I was dishing out orders and trying to get them to do everything perfect retry after retry.... And honestly, that was kind of the way I thought it would go, too. I thought it was going to be like pulling teeth to get them to do what I saw in my head.

It turned out to be quite the opposite. Whew!!! We planned the whole day as a trip. Went to a few wineries, stopped at one spot to shoot the video and continued on to another winery. We had a great time. So much, in fact, that when I told her I needed more footage she was so cool to go look for more locations. We had a great time, the kids loved it and my wife wants to do some more.

Thanks for checking it out!!!

 

[Llarion]

I'm still working on this one, suggestions would help. I know there are some lip syncing issues, but the kids were running around while taping and I was distracted. So, it is what it is in that regard. Too much work to go back and reshoot.



Thanks!!

OK, I'm jealous, and I hate you. You came up with a concept, SHOT IT, made it work, and it makes sense and flows well.. I so want to do videos for my music, they are in my head, but I can't shoot the things I'm thinking. Anyway. That rocked hard. Loved watching it, knowing the love that went into it. The kid did GREAT lip syncing... Way thumbs up!!!

 

[Bulls Hit]

Great song and accomplished vid too.

Connected on a lot of levels

 

[drstawl]

Great video idea/execution and props on the song and your vocals.

That note you hit @ ~2:47 is not that easy to do.