Great work! I think it's great that you fashioned this after the Thunderbirds! When I was a very little kid (maybe 4 to 7 years old) the Thunderbirds were my heroes! (you know, some kids like spider man, others batman...) Keep it up, man...let the Thunderbirds live on!

Hi guys, this is my first post to this forum, I think, may have posted once before but anyway I'm calling this my official first post. I submit to you a short I recently put together shot on DVX100 for your enjoyment and critique. The piece can be viewed at

http://redzonefilms.com

Though the site is not completed, the film link works fine.

Thanks, and happy to be a member

Very nice; simple and effective. The narrative relates well with the imagery. I'd do some color grading on the scenes to connect them more closely and to add some warmth. The whole piece had a calm, serene feeling, and I would have liked to see the images warm up just a tid bit to help communicate that feeling. Also, it would have been nice to have a streaming movie because the download on the website took a while even at about 200kBps. Keep up the great work Michael!

Congrats guys on getting into Entertainment Weekly!

Michael, great work. Very skillfully put together documentary-style piece. It seemed perhaps very correctly balanced, but it could use some warmth.

Hi, Michael. Welcome!

I really enjoyed your film. It reminded me of my "special place" where I grew up in West Virginia.

There were only two things that I found distracting. The first was the narration coming out of the right channel only (why?). Then, toward the end of the film, the narration's tone changed a couple times--very distracting.

The second thing that became apparent rather quickly was the lack of camera motion--pans, tilts, zooming, tracking--I think this would have added more interest and variety to the shoots. Don't get me wrong, they were beautifully shot. Had the water not been moving it would have felt like a slide show. Some shots could have been more dynamic with the addition of camera movement.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for the wonderful input...When you say warmth do you mean more color saturation? or a gamma setting to lower contrast and lower black levels?

I was aware of the slideshow effect and as a new budding filmaker It is something I am steadilly improving on, my first video looked like a powerpoint presentation.

Thanks.

the audio on one channel only was due to the fact that I recorded narration using a wired lav and an sm58, one on each channel. The Lav picked up a stronger signal and I never got around to mixing the two. Learn from it I did!

Warmer in terms of color. As I said, it's probably a pretty perfect image the way it is, but it could be a little warmer, a little orange tint to it. Very little. Very technically sound.

my first film part of something bigger..this short will be shown in a longer film as a breifing from one of the main CEO of a big corporation.

seems the film grain 'Noise" look disapered when I uploaded it. shot with xl1

hope you like

spencers secret.wmv (http://www.zippyvideos.com/153219062700005.html)

Pete

That was awesome.

I loved it and the 'Payoff' was not at all expected; made me go 'Ooohh!' for a second. Bravo.

Creepy fun. Thanks!

-Matt

Hey,

Friends and I put together a short a few weeks ago. This is our first attempt at a movie. Here is a little something I put together today while waiting on some microcrystalline wax.

Enjoy!

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=Quats-Preview

Thanks Steve!

Yeah, that was an unexpectred surprise...

The Entertainment Weekly folks really got into the whole Channel 102/101 experience I guess. I'm just psyched we got profiled in the same side-bar graphic as Jack Black.

COOL!

We screened episode 7 on MOnday, and it got voted back, so the series finale will be in September.

Anyone who's interested can check out the first 7 episodes on our website, www.cowboyandjohn.com in the media section.

I agree; the acting does seem very natural, sincere. I found that I was "in" the story; many lower cost films have acting that simply doesn't allow for the viewer to relate. Your's was done very well. Great job for your lower budget!

~Clint Grant~

The acting IS nice. Couple of scenes where things seemed a bit dark, but that may be the compresion.
good work.

http://www.undergroundfilm.org/films/detail.tcl?wid=1017865

What is crappy about it? What do you like about it?

Does the discoloration in the middle accent the snippet where she takes out some condoms?

For your destructive or constructive criticism

THE GOSSIPER

http://www.undergroundfilm.org/films/detail.tcl?wid=1017865

You could have add a more dynamic shot flow, but it's not bad.

I thought the chic was really hot, but you could have done a bit more with the story. From what I understand you're calling her an hypocrit? Maybe you could have added some jokes or irony.

I tried to find the short, but the only content on the site seemed to be a teaser ... one of the cast performing a solo bit suggesting a rising action to follow ...

Painful anticipation of the camera to move.

Where's the movie?

You could have add a more dynamic shot flow, but it's not bad.

I thought the chic was really hot, but you could have done a bit more with the story. From what I understand you're calling her an hypocrit? Maybe you could have added some jokes or irony.


I didn't have a dolly or a crane so I had the DP keep it more or less static.
Yes, she is a hypocrite.

What language was that?! And i could swear to god that I heard some english in there too.

colloquial Cebuano. That's why there was some English.

In the Philippines we're more literate than anyone in Asia. Although we also have "accent". when we speak.

It's a great Foreign film isn't it? :-b

LMAO!

I have been working with a friend this summer on a small video project. We are making several short scenes that will eventually comprise a "teen drama" type series. We just finished up a scene recently which posed some significant challenges on our VERY limited budget.

The scene was shot at night inside of a car parked in a driveway. We lit the entire scene with only 4 cheap work-lights and the available light outside of the house we filmed at. I was impressed with the results when I got to the editing. It increased my confidence in my XL2's low-light capabilities. Let me know what you think.

http://www.sweepinghalo.com/theford/scene1.mov

I think they should make an America 24/7 DVD like the books only moving images. Ask videographers from all around to submit dv tapes, beta, etc etc to be used in an edit showing america!

What do you think?

I just sent them an email.

That would be an awful lot of video to wade through, and I'd bet the vast majority would be pretty bad, to boot.

It would have to be by invitation only to those videographers who you knew would provide only top quality footage.

Jay

Considering what you had to work with, I'd say it turned out pretty well.

Jay

The only thing I didn't really like is when you cut to the back of there heads. Didn't really seem like it added much. Also you can see the two lights you had shining into the car in the rear view mirror. Did you get the shots by just rolling down the window and shooting like that? Acting was pretty good to.

I thought it looked very good for the limitations.

DV cams bring a whole new meaning to "being afraid of the dark".

I'm horrified.

The only thing I didn't really like is when you cut to the back of there heads. Didn't really seem like it added much. Also you can see the two lights you had shining into the car in the rear view mirror. Did you get the shots by just rolling down the window and shooting like that? Acting was pretty good to.

The edits aren't final, and there are a couple of things I'd still like to fix (that being one of them). I liked the angle from the back seats a lot, but I may find that there's no place to work it into the scene. Oh well, can't always include everything.

Those lights you see in the rear view mirror are actually the interior lights from the car. We had them turned on to fill in the interior a little more (in addition to the blue-gelled light coming in through the sunroof). I guess I missed those when I framed up the shot. But then again, if I remove that angle all together, it won't be a problem.

And yes, all those two shots were done by just rolling down the windows and shoving the camera as close to the side mirrors as possible. I was dying for a wide-angle lens to make a lot of my shooting easier, but you can't always get what everything you want. ;)

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I was in the Uintas this past weekend doing a little climbing. While there, I couldn't help but notice how the forest service is now charging for just about everything. Parking, fishing, hiking, breathing. And they put a time limit on it too.

In the midst of my observations, I overlooked one of their fees and got slapped with a $50 fine, which inspired this video. Vid is 2 minutes-5mb and safe for work, unless you work for the Forest Service.:wink:


Forest Service Fee Demo Program Video (http://pitonproductions.com/fee.wmv)

I'm in CO and I've never seen anything like that. We pay for parking in a couple of the parks, but not all of them. I don't even think I mind paying so much, but it seems so crass to charge for every little thing like they do at 6 flags or something.
ick.

I was checking out some of the music videos posted here and not only is the video work great, some of the songs are great too!

So I down load them and show them to some one and they say "who's that?" and the movie title is "MB_Edit_Final2.mov" or "jhf_manoverboard.mov" and I forget what the band name is!!! (that happens when you get old ya know)

PLEASE PUT TITLES ON YOUR PREVIEWS AND WHERE WE CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE BANDS!!! (And if I made a great videos like these I would make sure I got credit too, but that's the way I am.)

I would go see some of these bands if they came close to me, but I guess that's what a good video does...

that's enough ranting for now, I have to google some bands....

Well Kevin,you do have a good point. However, in my case, the files I uploaded were for the band and their lable, who are clients of mine. The final version of this project, at least for the web portion, was the 2nd version of the web movie I made, thus the title, MB-EDIT_2_final. The name is so they can tell between that version and the older version. Their web people didn't change the name of the file before they uploaded the file, which I have zero control over. So, thats how that happened.

What I do think you're right about is posting some more info about the band, which I will definately do in the future.

Also, thank you very much. I'm glad you liked the video and it inspired you to find out more about the band. That's what they are designed to do, isn't it.

Good suggestion, point taken.

You have a point about the file naming. But I think he is also asking that in the video itself that there is a title. You know at the very end:
BAND NAME
"Song Title"
Directed by Me

True, but again, the video had to be title-less as that is what all networks ask for when you submit a video. On the web, the titles barely show up anyway. Aside from that, when people watch the video, generally its from the Bands site, or my personel site so they already know who the director is and the band. When you download it from this board, the post is by me, I said I was the director, and it also said the bands name and song name and you can see my site with the video on it if you click on my name which is right to the left of your screen. That's pretty clear, right?

I personally think that was funny..LOL~

What camera did you use?.
I like the picture of the roses (I think).
Are this still pictures you took from shots or what?

Very very nice Brent if I must say and yeah, I think Patrick is right, the back of the head shot did not really have much significance, I think you going a lil bit to the right where by the guy's side (face) view can show would have been better than the direct opposite back view which was showing the back of the girl's head. Also, showing at least the guy's side view with the girl's hair out of focus and the guy's face on focus would have made the shot a panasonic (meaning HOT!). Don't get me wrong dude, the movie clip was hot but I just think you should have utilized some out of focus effect which the xl2 has.

What Mic did you use?.
I think the sound would have been way perfect if the hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (highway kinda noise) sound was eliminated or replaced with a cricket or owl or some sort of animal that makes sounds at night. It would have also made the actor and actress voices much more clearer.

Good job!~

I really did not get the movie but I like the sound.
What mic did you use?

Here's a practice shortfilm titled "Ako To" in our dialect, which means "T'was Me", am not sure though. I've tried to make it, a sort of, as a reflection of the Philippine politics in general.

http://www.savefile.com/files/8525046


Have nice day.

The USFS is hard to figure out. In north Georgia they dropped fees completely on many dayuse areas that they historically have been charging $3.00 for. I tried to understand the P.R. in the bulletin board but it was confusing. Something about legislation that resulted in dropping some fees and increasing others, especially at high-end campgrounds.

Here is a another tid-bit for you. The Corps of Engineers which is the 2nd largest recreational provider in the US is also struggling over user fees. The ironic part is they have never had user fees they collected returned to the lakes they manage so improvements could be made to thier recreational facilities. Instead they are deposited directly with the US Treasury. With the war on in Iraq, Corps budgets are being slashed to support it since they are part of the Dept. of Defense. As a result we will likely see many areas being closed to the public.

Regards,

Mark

we used a senn MKE300 on a boom. filtered using BIAS soundsoap and a lot of eq. it is still really tinny, however.

looking back, this clip is a little confusing, ya. the story is just about two kids who need an ipod but are a little out-to-lunch.

The movie was nice. I liked it, but you should have used some of the camera's features like Manual Focus and twinle the color settings, etc but nevertheless, I like the drama, and that girl in the last shot, she sure is damn fine too and she can act~.

i shot this "off the cuff" at a concert some time ago for the band.
part of it might be in a promo package someday, but that's about it...

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~spahrvideo/

anyone ever hear this song before (in the mid eighties done under another band name)?

wish i could show some of the other songs, but copyright issues...

It has a beautiful aesthetic to it especially when the movie complicates.

Gitape ba nang footage nga gikan sa GMA, RPN, etc?

And also, what software did you use to animate the titles?
Lastly, was this color graded during post?

Thanks! I thought it was brilliant in execution and this should be shown in Handuraw, IMHO.

Everything was done in Vegas, the titling and colorgrading. The news footage was actually a live news taken from the different tv channel during the state of the nation address of the president of the Philippine Republic.

Vegas titling seems so crude to look at but you can really do more with it if you dig deeper on its functionalities.

Hi everybody...today we just finished editing a short, no dialogue, black and white video and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I apologize for the sometimes too shakey camera...the director wanted some crazy long tracking shots in the vein of Gus Van Sant's "Elephant"...and the closest I have to a steady cam is a metal pipe with a weight on it.

http://www.savefile.com/files.php?fid=4282487

All opinions welcome...be brutal.

edit: Perhaps I should put a warning...it is quite violent.

the message is removed.

Matt, the server where the file is located is painfully slow. Can you post the file anywhere else?

Jay

Matt, the server where the file is located is painfully slow. Can you post the file anywhere else?

Unfortunately I don't have my own website up and running right now, and the size is too big for putfile. Does anyone know of other file hosting sites I can use?

It's not bad, you could see your feet in the shot where you're walking with the camera low to the ground looking following the actors feet.

When you show the guys face when he gets beaten up and the other guy is still swinging his punches aren't even close to the guys face, I would have made him stop swinging, spit on him and walk away or something like that and then while he's walking away show the face of the guy that got beat up.

Not bad other than that though. I liked the long tracking shots but like you said, a little shakey.