Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 27, 2010 Members Share Posted September 27, 2010 WRPauvLWIPE This is the first video where I really put serious effort into planning and execution. The result made it all worthwhile; I'm proud of it. Special kudos to Bunny, who acted better than I could have possibly expected. I'll tell you more about making it sometime later, but first watch it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 27, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 27, 2010 By the way, you can watch it in full HD here, if that's appealing to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted September 27, 2010 Members Share Posted September 27, 2010 Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudcat007 Posted September 27, 2010 Members Share Posted September 27, 2010 I really like this, both the video & the song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted September 27, 2010 Members Share Posted September 27, 2010 shhhh.... bunny freaks me out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 27, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 27, 2010 Thanks, people! I tend to do half-assed things sometimes, and it's easy to justify it, when I don't make a lot of income based on music or video things. But there really are more important measuring sticks in life than what makes your bank account balance higher. I think in the case of both the song and the video for "Falling Down", this is something for which I make no excuses or apologies. It's the best stuff I can do. A life devoid of art would be a meaningless existence for me. I think we put a little real art into the song and the video... and neither would be a fraction as good as they are without the help of my great friends. I'm thankful for all of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 27, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 27, 2010 shhhh.... bunny freaks me out. Then the result was as planned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted September 27, 2010 Members Share Posted September 27, 2010 A life devoid of art would be a meaningless existence for me. I think we put a little real art into the song and the video... and neither would be a fraction as good as they are without the help of my great friends. I'm thankful for all of them. Amen Brother. I appreciate all you do Zak/Jeff... putting ones own creative ideas out for the world to easily tear down is a brave thing to do. Sometimes, our art resonates with more souls besides our handful of friends and family and it makes our efforts all worth it. At the end of the day though, we simply need to express ourselves through what form our art takes. So, you`ll always get my . That goes for any brave souls out there. Keep rocking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 As I mentioned elsewhere, it looks effin' fantastic! The video both looks great and is interesting to watch! And of course, I like the song. GREAT job!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 28, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Thank you! What I did going into preparation for planning this vid was to watch music videos, a lot of them. Seems obvious, right? But I also looked at a lot of different things I liked from films. For example, the scene from inside the trunk of the car? Yeah, that's a straight rip-off of every nearly Tarantino film. But what I found was that I tended to like videos where there was some storyline going that wasn't necessarily 100% in line with the lyrics of the song, and you had to infer what was happening. Just in the same way I never tell the listener of the song what caused the "falling down" to happen, I leave it open in the video as well. I also leave Bunny's role open to interpretation. Is he some kind of demon, or perhaps a manifestation of my own thoughts? That's for you to decide. I like things that make the viewer/listener ponder a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Some striking images. It's a very pretty spot. You did a really good job of shooting around the facilities there. The greenscreen stuff was fun... some of it may have slipped past me but when the color you in front of the B&W cliff came up, I flashed that it was screenwork. The fact that it's mixed with location keeps the viewer guessing. The blimp added a nicely surreal touch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 28, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 The blimp added a nicely surreal touch. We had some very nice surprise cameos between the blimp, various ocean wildlife, and unidentifiable random background "extras". And yes, if you see color/saturation differences between subject and background, that's a good green screen hint. I liked the look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Another argument in favor of starting the "SSS Show 'n' Tell" sticky mentioned in the "Paging Ken" thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Putting ones own creative ideas out for the world to easily tear down is a brave thing to do. Sometimes, our art resonates with more souls besides our handful of friends and family and it makes our efforts all worth it. At the end of the day though, we simply need to express ourselves through what form our art takes. So, you`ll always get my . That goes for any brave souls out there. Keep rocking. A most excellent statement, my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members John Sayers Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 sorry I'm late - that was great Jeff, wonderful song and yup - Bunny was great, but so was his concept in the excellent video. well done guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Phait Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Muuuuch better than I expected, I really liked it. And I'd never heard your music until now - good song I guess the only 2 things I'd prefer to have seen are - no green screen use when you're "on the beach" singing to the camera and playing guitar, doesn't look natural - use an acoustic instead of electric as all I hear is acoustic (but I was listening on a laptop -- sorry ) Really dig the direction and style though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 28, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Again, many, many thanks to all of you for watching and commenting. I'd like to share a couple of details about the making of the video as well as some interesting observances from the musical perspective. The Making Of "Falling Down" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 - use an acoustic instead of electric as all I hear is acoustic (but I was listening on a laptop -- sorry ) At that part in the song, there is a strat in the song... at least thats what I heard on my studio monitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boosh Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Good Stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 28, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Yeah, if I had one knock... I`m not a fan of artists looking into the camera. Yup, that's a judgement call. Truthfully, as those of us who are old enough recall, videos were once just captures of performances. When the Stones did the vid for "Start Me Up" (1981), it was just the guys playing their non-plugged-in instruments while Mick stared into the camera and swiveled around the room while singing to you (as if you were the audience). Apart from a few cases, it wasn't until the mid-80s that it became trendy (and expected) that musicians "act" in the videos. Unfortunately for me, I'm not a terrific actor, so I went the old route. Sometimes it works for some people/songs, sometimes it doesn't. The positive thing I can say about looking into the camera is that perhaps there's a sense of direct connection between the artist and listener that way. At that part in the song, there is a strat in the song... at least thats what I heard on my studio monitors. While it's an acoustic-based song, there are two or three layers of electric guitars in there, including a Gretsch on the arpeggiated rhythm and a Strat on the solo (as Ernest hears correctly). It was another thing about the vid that was consciously done... having me strumming an acoustic guitar felt like it would be too literal and the visual felt too clich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Another argument in favor of starting the "SSS Show 'n' Tell" sticky mentioned in the "Paging Ken" thread Yeah... a good show-and-tell thread can help focus things. It's a trickier situation over in the songwriting forum because, on the one hand, we're trying to encourage folks to feel comfortable posting the songs they're working on for critique and feedback, but, as anyone who's been around songwriting forums knows, an open posting policy will sooner rather than later result in a forum full of one-post-no-response threads of the Check out my tunes! type. We instituted a works-in-progress-only rule -- and that worked pretty well, but every once in a while, almost everyone has something they want to show their friends in the forum. So we created a Monthly Showcase Thread that is pretty much wide open: old songs, videos, career news, blatant self-promo. And then we put a link to an index of the monthly threads in the top of the forum's Rules/Resources sticky thread so people can quickly find both the current as well as old ones. (It takes a couple minutes a month but it saves the long-suffering mod quite a bit of effort through the course of that month.) Now, to be sure, newcomers often miss the Rules/Resources sticky, despite the fact that the words read this before posting are in all-caps in the title... but it's given me (as long-suffering mod) a chance to work on my mostly non-existent people skills. (Many fewer newbs race away in tears these days. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goobers Posted September 28, 2010 Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Another argument in favor of starting the "SSS Show 'n' Tell" sticky mentioned in the "Paging Ken" thread Whenever I visit this forum, there is always some sort of Zak Claxton announcement on page 1. If Zak Claxton announcements become hidden in some sort of group Show and Tell, how will I know I've landed in the right place?! (That said, kudos to you Zak for your webby tenacity). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 28, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 28, 2010 Heh heh... well, I don't have to announce this stuff here, but it would seem that I've seen "how do you make music videos?" posts on a number of occasions. Like, I don't announce what shirt I put on this morning... I'm sure there's a Shirt Forum somewhere for that. Since a lot of us seem to be musicians or people vaguely involved in the creation and distribution of music-like stuff, I'm just sharing what works for me. Your mileage may vary. Video is generally getting great reactions everywhere... once again, my thanks to you SSSers for checking it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lukenskywalker Posted September 29, 2010 Members Share Posted September 29, 2010 Weezy, that song is one of your strongest...good pick for a Vid... The opening guitar is the ultimate 'grab you by the earlobes and don't let go'....' way-minit, I'm getting your song mixed up with a girl I met in Antwerp in the 80's.... but I digress;) Bunny plays the whimsical Foil quite well, and I can see there is beaucoup 'Mojo' workin' between you guys after your lenghty collaboration and friendship...and yeah, he's a good actor in a 'Lou Albano' type of milieu... He's a damn good musician too. Your harmonica work is just major 'Ducky' on that song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted September 29, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 29, 2010 Thanks Luke! Bunny is indeed a one-of-a-kind guy, and I do count him as one of my best friends. Like you imply, it be would very difficult for me (not a professional actor) to stay in character if my co-star wasn't someone with whom I was very comfortable. That having been said, I have some great outtakes where I couldn't keep a straight face with all of his antics going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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