I’m not sure if this should be here or in Cafe Society. It is pretty mundane and pointless and I do feel the need to share it, so I put it there. If it needs to be moved, please do. Anyways, on to the good stuff. I took a film class last semester at LSU and out last project was to make a music video. I came up with the song and most of the ideas, so I feel pretty responsible for the film. It was shot and edited by five people who had never done anything like it before, so I’m sure it won’t stand up to much criticism. The acting, props, and shooting were nothing special. Still, I think it was a cool idea and the video came off rather well. I find it to be a very fun video. Taking all of that into account, please give me some thoughts. Most people on this board are well educated and rather free with their scathing comments, and that is why I wanted to let you fine people tell me how we did, what we did wrong, and how it could have been better. Thanks for looking.
Here is the link:
Another Postcard - Barenaked Ladies
P.S. We got an A on the project. 
I can’t speak to the technical aspects of the production but my main impression is that it’s simply too literal of a interpretation of the song. I mean, where’s the art or comedy in simply taking the absurd lyrics of the song and acting them out.
I suppose it depends on what the emphasis of the class project was. Is the goal to learn to frame, block and shoot scenes and then edit them together with audio? If so, it’s as well done as can be expected with a normal person’s resources. If the emphasis of the project was to do something creative and original, then I have to say that it’s a pretty weak effort. The goofy montage approach is so common that YouTube would barely exist without it, every amateur does that. The dude in a monkey suit might have been funny or inventive when the Three Stooges did it, but hell it was cliche when they did it in Trading Spaces 20 years ago.
The Barenaked Ladies always paint a very specific picture in their songs so simply putting that picture to film is a little lazy from an artistic standpoint.
Anyways, nice job! Not trying to be the piss in the punch bowl, but since you requested critique I figured I’d oblige.
Hey, it’ what I asked for. The main point of the project was to learn how to make a music video. We also had crappy cameras, no stands, and a $0 budget. The only way we even got the suit was because some random guy in one of the group members’ apartment complex had one from Halloween. Most of the ideas we came up with we couldn’t do because we didn’t have the budget, supplies, or tools to do it. LSU’s film department is severely poor, we just had no resources. So we took what resources we had and tried to do something fun with it. The only thing artistic we were going for was in some of the shots, which we mostly couldn’t do because of the bad equipment. Sorry if it sounds like I’m making excuses, I’m just explaining the situation behind the video.
Also, just a personal opinion here, I like literal interpretations of songs. Don’t get me wrong, I like the original videos as well, but you noted yourself that the lyrics were absurd, so acting them out, while not being especially artistic, should be absurd and hopefully comical. Wow, that was one hell of a sentence. Oh yeah, we also had only one day to shoot, that put a bit of a damper on our original brainstorming as well.
Based on what you had available to you it’s probably a pretty game effort, especially on one day of shooting. Seemed like it was a fairly fun time, the gorilla in the thong really seemed method.
Incidentally, I agree somewhat on the “literal” approach to music videos et al. Sometimes the directors of things like that take themselves WAY too seriously and get so abstract that it’s reduced to masturbatory nonsense. While you can be too literal, you can also be too abstract. I prefer when people err on the side of literalness since at least that way the viewer is more likely to figure out what the hell is going on.
As an aside, in the very beginning of the video when the guy walks into the garage/mail room why does he wave/raise his hand? I think I’m missing something.
That actually happens to be me. Another group member edited the beginning of the video and decided to use that shot. One of the other folks wanted me to act as if I saw someone I knew, so it would look “natural”. I didn’t think it worked that well, especially without the audio of me saying hey to someone, but the rest of the group liked it, so they went with it. :shrugs:
I like it. My husband took a film studies class in high school, and he’s taught me lots about technique and lighting and filtering and such. I think that, considering your nonexistent budget and time constraints, you guys did a fabulous job.
Why thank you. The lack of equipment was the worst part. We kept coming up with ideas, then we would realize we couldn’t do it. Oh well, we did the best we could with what we had. Thanks again for the compliment.
I think the editing was good. I am a sucker for good cuts - and monkey suits 
Not a huge fan of the literal interpretation of the song…some songs it works, some songs it’s weird (like in a “listing stuff” song such as this.) It would have been more fun if it was less literal and more of a unique story.
But, it was cool nonetheless!
Thanks for the comments and critiques everyone.
Oh, and who doesn’t like a monkey suit? 
I wanna know which one of our glorious mods played the one in the jackboots.
I really enjoyed the video. I laughed out loud several times, and the literalness didn’t bother me one iota. Great jorb, Walking Dude!
I almost forgot, I love the end, where you guys are friends and skipping and trading fishing poles. I want a monkey pal!
Thanks bufftabby. The end was a lot of fun. I really wanted to do a scene that involved me in a padded room in a straight jacket surrounded with postcards. We just couldn’t pull it off. Nowhere to shoot, no way to get thousands of postcards, and we didn’t have the video/editing equipment to do the shots I wanted to do. That is actually part of the reason we were so literal with the video. Being abstract is expensive! Anyways, I’m very happy you enjoyed it, thanks for letting me know.
P.S. Said mod only performed for the the video under anonymity. Sorry. 