November 4, 2009
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The Look
About a month ago, I mentioned I was going to make another music video again, just for fun. It took a bit more work and time than I had estimated, but I finally completed it! It was fun getting it altogether, but it was quite frustrating at times. You can read about the background, process, and the obstacles after the video below:
Alright, so this idea started shortly after my friend Kevin and I finished our 1st video together. For the next one, we decided it should be one of Kevin’s favorite songs and it should have some sort of story to go with it. Picking and recording the song portion was easy enough. Kevin just came over one day and I recorded him playing the song in one take. However, the storyline portion was a bit trickier to take care of.
Initially, the storyline was going to be completely different. More or less, the story was going to be about a guy seeing this girl he falls for immediately, but before he could do anything about it she already have left. Most of the video was then going to be of the guy trying to find her, but with no success. Finally, after he had given up he sees her elsewhere and even finds out she was looking for him as well. They embrace at the very end and they live happily ever after (at least until the break-up song =P).
Unfortunately, those plans fell way side when the original girl I had in mind (a fellow Xangan) to help out told me she wasn’t able to do it. Because of that, I had to put the development of the rest of this video on hold for the next few weeks until I found a replacement.
The replacement ended up also being another Xangan, which was awesome. I met up with her Halloween day and shot her scenes around University of Maryland, College Park. Since it was just her and me, I changed the perspective of the storyline from third person to first person POV so I could shoot and act as the guy in the video (the guy in the video is supposedly Kevin, but at one scene where you see my hand you can obviously tell it’s not him haha).
Finally, I had all the material I needed to complete the video! I just had to edit it all together, which proved to be much harder than I thought. Apparently, iMovie doesn’t really allow videos to overlap while retaining another video’s audio, so I had to manually go through and splice the scenes and audio together. Ideally, I would have also added some more transitions between the singing and storyline portions throughout the video, but apparently that screws up all the syncing and audio between clips. Urgh, very frustrating!
Anyway, I did the best I could do with the material and program I had available to me, so I think it turned out okay. At the very least, Kevin sang the song wonderfully, no?
P.S. Here’s Kevin’s Xanga page. Sarah has one too, but it’s kind of private so I’m not sure if she wants me to give it out. However, she said I could link her Facebook fan page and YouTube channel. As it turns out, she’s an excellent musician as well (check out her rendition of Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden), so she might be making a future appearance in another video someday!
Comments (61)
It’s better than your 1st one… But you’re shaking too much with the camera and maybe you didn’t need to have Kevin in the video, just his song would be fine.. But great job…
Goodness he has an amazing voice. There’s just something about a guy and a guitar that makes my heart beat fast. Haha. I liked the video, it was cute. I liked the first person view. The girl in the video, Sarah, looks so cute after you hold her hand and she plays with her hair. Good job with the video and thanks for putting it on here for all of us to see.
Bonus for using college park, though it’s only beautiful around campus haha. I like it. : ) Good job.
videos are SO much work. this one came out pretty well!!! good job!
I posted a behind-the-scenes type blog just so I had something recent up in case anyone visited haha. Thanks for editing and stuff dude! I think it turned out well considering all the hurdles we ran into
@SuperRat - I noticed the shakes too afterward, but had to make do.
@TheRiverIsEverywhere - Glad you enjoyed it
. Did you noticed the timing of the music and when she grabs my hand as well? I didn’t notice that until afterward.
@XMechanicalxRainX - It was rainy too that day =( . I was gonna shoot some scenes at the mall had it been nicer.
@LadyLuck7 - Yeahh, I think I’m gonna wait a while before I make another music video haha
@ch10n9 - Update more!
@Roadlesstaken - The mall is the best place, you should have. The background on my phone is a picture of the mall at sunset. : )
@Roadlesstaken - I didn’t notice! Perfect timing!
the video is good! =]
a little shaky, but awww! i love it.
ive loved this song for 6 years!!!! lol
That guy has a really beautiful voice. Nice job!
haha pretty awesome! he sings really well!
@BabyGurlDragon88 - thanks!
@elelkewljay - I think what I was trying to attempt with the shakiness was to get the sense it was first person POV, but I may have overdone it in certain spots XP.
@jeannie_dot_com - has the song been out that long?
@silverlocket_88 - He’s a very talented fella
@Dobserver - I thought so too =D
Love love love this song. And you did a good job with the video. The hard work paid off.
An umbrella brought two people together eh? Wonder where I heard of that before…
@Roadlesstaken - yea. he sung the song when he was on some talent search show back in 2000. i dont think i heard the song til at least five years ago. he has gone a long way.
Aww, this is cute! (:!
Nice story along with it ^_^ too! (:
@CuaSo - Ahh, should I know the answer to that? Tell me!
Oh wait, are you talking about HIMYM by chance?
@phosphor_stars - Thanks! I wonder how it would have went had I gone with my initial story idea.
@jeannie_dot_com - Oh cool, did not know that!
@Roadlesstaken - Why yes sir, I am! A yellow umbrella would have most certainly sealed the deal.
You know, I was kidding when I responded to your comment on my post by suggesting you should do a performance art piece. And here it is! Nicely done. I’ve found iMovie not very useful when trying to overlay audio and video tracks from different pieces of video.
@christao408 - haha yes, what a coincidence. I found that out about iMovie the hard way -_-
His voice is great. He could be the next American Idol
(cough) Total girl bait (cough). I tease! :-p It’s a very nice video.
@Roadlesstaken - but i’m just not interesting enough to update that much! =P
Your boy has a great voice, video was pretty good too.
very nice =)
Awwww. The girl in the video has a cute laughing face. Made me smile
Good job, Kevin has a sweet voice. I wish I knew how to make and edit a music video!
hehehe cute~ but a bit shaky ahhaa *coz i get motion sickness really easily * hAHAHAHA lol yah the hand..totally didnt look like kevins lol!! but it was sweet
Story is nice too:)
Passby ~^^
woohooo! great song
Despite your earlier comments on my Pulse, I think it’s high time you move to Hollywood and start playing with the big boys! You’ve become quite the videographer!
@B1ANCACACA - I should convince him to go for it one day
@GreekPhysique - haha if it is it’s for Kevin, not me!
@ThePeterPanComplex - I’m sure he’ll appreciate that comment
@HeartLUST - @RestlessButterfly - thanks!
@CareyGLY - Haha I appreciate it, although if I had some better editing program I could have made it so much more as I envisioned XP
@d_ciao - It is, isn’t it? I guess now you know what I was referring to before.
@comingsssss - hi there, come back soon!
@PeaceSearcher - thanks, glad the impromptu story worked out alright (why the 1 eprop though? =/)
@luvs_u - I know, tried to make it as if it was first person POV but didn’t expect it to be that shaky =( . next time!
@Un_filtered - with the right program it’s not too hard. On iMovie though (the program I used) it turned out to be a bit of a hassle, but I made it work
Good job with the video.
hehe scratch my question about you posting your video.
I got a question for you, as a native of the Maryland area, what do you recommend I bring as part of my wardrobe for the weather from Jan-Mid March?
I am trying to shop for coats and winter clothes right now for DC.
@Shades_of_Athena - It’s gonna be very cold, so bring a heavy coat and a bunch of sweaters and what not. Scarves and glove is recommended.
Great video! Song was really well done.
@Roadlesstaken - but it came out good… good job..
You guys looked like you were having so much fun.
Xangaband would be a cool video game hehe. Not my type of music though
i agree he has a nice voice.. hehe
@MarnieAyn - thanks!
@Wangium - it was fun to make. Editing…not quite as fun haha
@Paul_Partisan - ah I understand
@discover_hienie - I know right? I’m jealous.
Cute video, Alex. I had never heard that song before. I really like it a lot and he sang it well
@everchanginglife09 - it’s sung by the lead singer of OneRepublic =D
@Roadlesstaken - Ok! thanks for the info.
I hope to be surprised by the cold.
@Shades_of_Athena - you’ll probably be missing SD weather pretty fast after experiencing the cold weather here haha
I liked the hand part
@strawberries_and_honey - I totally didn’t realized that timing until after I finished editing!
@Roadlesstaken - Are you laughing at me?
I am prepared to accept DC weather and embrace it! Might move there if I get a job in an important agency so gotta prepare myself.
I noticed you’ve been making a lot of videos lately. Are you making the switch to Youtube now?!
@sincerely_winnie - haha nah, I can multitask!
omg. that was super cute! AHH! and kevycakes has some skillzz.
@PiscesPhishie - oh yeah he does. I want some of his talents
ten ren, yum. awesome vid and song. I think the shakeyness works, except for the guitarist maybe.
@toadywonders - Yes, first compliment on the shaky parts! Haha…but yes, I can see why some people wouldn’t like that.
=oO With all that “free” time you would think she coulda been in the video! NEXT time!!!
@PineappleLurve - Oh, I was talking about someone else actually…BUT I could use you for my next video idea! I’ll let you know later.
@Roadlesstaken - 1 e prop is my style, nothing to with the post:)
I put this on my page of youtube hehe
@BigSarah - Yay just saw! About time!