Previous Student Work

The XX - Crystal Castles (2011-2012) 

                          

Strengths

-Variety of shot types used, e.g, close up on guitars and lips, high canted angle of lead girl, birds eye view of lead singers lying on the floor

-The editing speed matched the pace of the song, especially at the beginning of the video with the nature shots and drum beat

-The performance/concept gelled well with the genre of song

-Interesting use of parallel editing at 0:11 with guitars being put on

Weaknesses

-Lip syncing is slightly out or not obvious, e.g. on the close up of the lips singing, should be more emphasized.

-Some shaky camera work 

-Quality of the footage isn't brilliant, some pixilation

On the whole, I really like the music video. It's very in-keeping with it's genre, moody and having the video set in a forest on a cloudy day reflects the music very well. I think the band are costumed well to the style of their music also, having them all in black and the girl in a white shirt shows the unity of the band and the music they represent. What I might do differently in my own music video, or be aware of, is the light quality that affects the quality of the footage, as some scenes are slightly compromised by this. Also the lip-syncing in this video isn't great, so I'll get my band to actually learn the lyrics and sing out loud to hopefully prevent this. I also loved how the band were actually playing (or looked like they were) playing the right music for the song, shown in the close ups. This is something else I'll consider greatly when filming.