We created Music video. Criticism?

Hello,

We are a Japanese band, and we have been trying to make music videos, and that is hard.
We uploaded a new one. Watch it. Any criticism welcome.

Your statement that making a quality music video is difficult, is a tremendous understatement. Indeed, producing any kind of art that's memorable (for the right reasons), is a rare talent. But well worth striving for.

A lot of music video attempts come across my desk, the vast majority fail. The first thing I tell everyone with this goal, is start with an appealing song. If the song is going nowhere, no amount of video production will improve it. So the good news is, your song isn't bad. It's fairly melodic & seems to be a reasonable representation of your artist. Unfortunately that's the end of the good news.

Did you utterly ruin the song by matching it with those visuals? Well, I won't go that far, but you certainly made the song less accessible. Maybe you're rebelling against the traditional Japanese minimalist philosophy on art, but perhaps you need a bit of zen here. Forever I'm telling people; Less is more. Never is that more evident than in your visuals. Here, more is much less.

The majority of your effects & archived footage, along with that cutting & FX style would be more suited for some industrial machine techno music, not the little songbird you're featuring. Granted, even though I've produced a TV special for Japan's J-Sport channel which was viewed by 18 million people, I can't speak Japanese nor know what your song is about. However, one thing I do know is that to build your brand we need to feel a connection with your star. We only ever see her from a medium long shot where she's often out of sync & continually obscured by over production. Throwing everything & the kitchen sink at your video in post doesn't add value, it detracts. We want to be drawn into her story, to feel an emotional connection with her, you've completely obliterated any chance of us making that bond.

Study winning Western videos that have become global sensations. Please understand, I'm not telling you to copy a Western style, I'm merely suggesting you study in a mentorship or (Senpai / Kohai relationship) the masters of the game. Sure they have a bigger budget, but the rules of audience/artist connection I've outlined above are prominently featured. Most often a music video is representing the song in the form of a conceptual presentation, or the artist in a performance style piece. Sometimes a bit of both. Here we seem to have neither. Get off the tripod, get closer, let us meet her, allow your audience to fall in love with her. Then you can begin to build a loyal following & a marketable product, which brings financial & artistic success & freedom.

Thanks for sharing...


PS: Did you make this video with FCPX? If so you should post it in this forum . Also, some of your archival footage looks interesting (though not so much for this song), please share where you found the footage.

Finally, take heart, EJ. Not so many years ago, a Japanese song became a global sensation , even without a video! How was this possible, how can you get the whole world singing your song while topping charts in many countries, all with a song that nobody understands? Like I said, it all begins with the song. An infectious melody with a solid hook, supporting quality vocals can never be lost in translation, it always holds universal appeal. That means it works at any time in any language. Be encouraged, tremendous success is possible, work for it, make it happen.







J. Matthew
Global•Watch•Media•Consulting
www.GWM2.com

@GlobalWatchM3