FCP X & MUSIC VIDEOS

I just love how creative it lets me be. How flexible it is to try to experiment with anything almost on the fly.... I've been reading this forum for almost a year but haven't engaged much in conversation here, trying to learn stuff first and now I feel ready to share some of the small projects I've been working on.

All shot on dslr and edited in fcpx, please comment what you think about these...

vimeo.com/63500793

vimeo.com/56308235

Creative indeed! Thanks for sharing your films with us, Svngxz.

Scorpio Zeta

Very powerful piece of film making, myriad of visceral components here, you're truly an artist. Aspects remind me of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. The building tension you create is palpable, it's really quite a short film masterpiece on many levels. Almost a Charles Manson cult training video on others. There's a strange haunting horror quality that makes it rather frightening. Surprisingly natural performances you've captured from your actors, it's all very believable, which makes it even more disturbing. Your music works well here, or I should say you've visually rode those waves well. With the glorified macabre, skulls & growing sense of impending doom, there's a marvelous release as the hoods are removed, a kind of rebirth, or that this cult figure holds their very lives in his hands. It's creepy yet compelling, we can't look away!

Will probably have to watch it again to specifically look for technical details to comment on, but I just needed to share what I felt about the artistic vision while it was fresh on my mind. Thought a few scenes near the beginning were a shade too dark, but as the music amped up I loved the first few cuts to the main beats, was hoping we could have a bit more of that. At first I found the strobing a tad annoying, but I think you redeemed it later juxtaposing the animal skull with the wanton devotee.

Impressive work, I'm going to forward it to my friend who runs a streaming web TV Horror site, I think he'll like it.

* One last word to your cult leader's followers... "For God's sake.. don't drink the Kool-Aid!"



Looking forward to watching the second one now.
Thanks again.

::::

Tropical Terror - Suave

Ok, Svngxz, you had me, & then you lost me. Sorry buddy, all of the genius in the first film is absent in this one. We have a sort of perfect storm of unappealingness where varied minor negatives converge into a rather unpleasant experience. First, I don't think the music is as good as in the first track. However, it begins well & the sampled percussion of the female vocal is promising. We also begin with a lovely locale, but none of it seems to have any direction. We see a boat, then a man, but it all means nothing. The previous video told a story, we were engaged, here we just have random shots, yes, they're beautiful but why are we seeing them? Next you just start throwing effects at it, trying to up our interest level, this wears thin quickly. The believable performances you drew out of your cult followers are absent here, the girls, though beautiful, appear bored. If they're not interested in the video, why should we be? Further in, the graffiti set holds some minor interest but again nothing engaging happens to keep our attention. If the girls are going to dance, let them dance, same with your musicians, let it all out. There's no passion. As it stands, everything is done half way. So then we are subjected to strobing & camera jitters. This becomes extremely annoying & irritating. In fact, this video might be able to induce epileptic seizures (cartoons did it in Japan). There're a lot of responses a filmmaker may seek, vomiting isn't high on that list. Sorry buddy, but after the high praise on your first film, I'm hoping you can take a little bitter on this one, I gotta be honest. Likewise, where's the "terror" promised in the title? There isn't any. Which is to say, you don't need terror in every song. You had the perfect blend in the first video, choose a different track, take your beautiful babes & lovely tropical location & let's dream up something that's appealing, not off-putting.

Have to watch the first one again now, just to cleanse my palate.



Very much looking forward to more of your films...

Wow very impressed loved the shots the colors it was great

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to write up a proper review on both of them. I really appreciate to hear opinions like these. Actually, both opinions are equally important, as a filmmaker criticism is way needed. When you're starting and youre experimenting and trying to get your own voice sometimes its rarely heard so objectively as you did with both. Again, thanks a lot.

I'm really happy you liked Scorpio Zeta, worked really hard on that one. Pretty much running a one man crew for shooting it with the help of the band and other friends. Really DIY and short budget but I'm really happy on how it turned out. The idea came along as the band was creating the song and it gaves us the vibe of a theme song of a villain / cult leader. Took a lot of inspiration from 70s crazy films. A lot of Jodorowsky and Passolini and Kubrick indeed. Worked around with the limitations of shooting dslr, going for skipping much pan and tilt and camera movements, just working with eery stills to tell the story. Even though difficult, a lot of "magic" did happen on set, it was like a big combination of hard work and good vibe going on during the filming. The house location was an abandoned house my grandfather used to own, its right in the middle of the grimiest side of San Salvador... think of old beautiful buildings that are now squatted, graffitied and full of street vendors who've taken the streets. Lots of crazy people live there, like ex military, drag queens, drunks and people into occult type of shaman stuff. A lot of the vibe was inspired by that, there used to be lot of charlatans that would advertise in the news paper, like magicians, fortune tellers, santeros. There's even a street where they sell all types of stuff for witchcraft, right behind a gothic church!

I can definitely say, a filmmaker is as a good as its team and the whole dedication that is given to locations and making it right with the script. I'm really happy its slowly getting views and that I'm getting such good opinions.

About Tropical Terror... I can say for sure its not for everyone. It seemed messy at times and there's not such thing as good as a story as with Scorpio, but I was aiming with that one to create an experience similar to that type of music. It was a real challenge since humor is not my thing, and that genre has this certain ironic disdain towards itself. Checked out a lot of Diplo Videos and liked that epileptic style cause I thought it suited the song. Its pretty much a club piece, pretty genre stuff if you're not into rave/electronic scene. I thought it was a good track, which gave a nod to salsa and cubia, which are latin genres. Tropical Terror is a dj / producer who mixes that type of music with more crazy electronic dubstep type of stuff. Maybe I should mention that cause the name has nothing to do with the story. And about that...
well I also aknowledge it is very difficult to get the reference outside of latin america. In the 80's and 90s a lot of cumbia bands used to make these awful videos of cumbia bands playing their instruments at the beach. It was sort of a b-movie cheesy rendition of that. Not much else to it. I do have to admit that producing it was hellish and heartbreaking. I'm really happy with the way its shot, but the story could definitely be told in a better manner. It is not my job to have to explain my intention, that's what the video should do. But just wanted to share some background on the idea behind it.


Hope I haven't lost ya for good. I'm trying to get funding for working on more stuff. I'd love to keep sharing my projects with you. Please share yours as well...
As you can tell I'm into DIY filmmaking and also on traveling so who knows what might happen in a near future.

Again thanks for taking the time to see my videos.

Sal

Thanks for the update, Sal. Loved your description of the cult video shoot almost as much as the video itself. As much as I prefer Vimeo to Youtube, you might want to think about putting the vids on Youtube as well, you never know, they might go viral. Though I haven't watched it again yet, I still think the Scorpio Zeta is an astounding piece of work.

Thank you for the explanation of what you were aiming for with Tropical Terror. Even though I'm older, I actually enjoy electronica & rave style music, also I've traveled extensively in Central America & love the culture & music. Somehow the various components just didn't quite gel on your TT project for me, but if you continue to promote it, some will probably like it. The other one though... if you'll pardon the expression, I can see it gaining a cult following.


Anything else you share here will be much appreciated.

Thanks so much! Both are up on youtube. Actually the tropical terror one did good here in my home country. The other one is picking up better in other places than here. Anyways, I'll keep going at it. I want to move around and work with more people, that's my goal. Hope it works out somehow, cause its been rough as hell!
Thanks for the support, please stay in touch...

By the way, do you submit reviews in blogs or other websites by any chance? Cause you really should. I really enjoyed reading both reviews quite a bit.

Thank you for your support, Sal. Actually I had a very bad experience on another site, where a moderator began attacking everything I wrote. Odd how people can be. Pride is probably one of the biggest obstacles to free communication or art even. The reception here has been far more gracious, I attribute that to the way Peter runs this ship.

If you search, there's a ton of my writings here, perhaps you won't like all of it. There have been a few requests for blogs & one here asked for a book, but I've been so busy with other projects, I come by here from time to time as an outlet, especially when I find someone interesting. I haven't even had time to develop my own site, though there has been a request for a series of interviews, once I return to France. Those will probably go up on a site somewhere. Send me an email thru my site so we can keep in touch, Sal.

You know, just now I realized another attribute of your Scorpio Zeta film, I may have already mentioned this, don't have the time to read thru all the critique again right now. Even though I have a wide taste in music, I don't think I was particularly attracted to the song behind Scorpio Zeta, in that it's not something I would listen to on the stereo, and yet... thru the power of your filmmaking, you not only totally engaged me, but made the song appealing. That's no mean feat.

I hope you continue on, meet the right people to work with & your art grows exponentially.

I feel bad reviewing people as I don’t put myself on the level to say anything to anyone I rechecked the tropical terror
Looks clean very professional loved the coloring
Loved how it matched the music too many editing ignores the sounds of the music when editing
It really matched up what was going on sonically
Couldn’t get into the song so it was hard for me to get into the music video but all aspects some nice shots.
Really trippy taking us on a drug trip with the visuals watching this under the influence would be crazy
Some of the shots of people just standing did get a bit boring