Thanks for all the feedback! I really appreciate it. Sorry for the delay in posting this, I've been busy looking for work which seems to have consumed most of my time.

Brandon,
I shot the video with a Canon GL-2 and edited with FCP HD with a mix of different plug-ins. The lighting was actually 500 watt halogen worklamps, practicals with higher wattage bulbs, and a 18" "china ball". It was an impromptu lighting kit due to the loss of the one we were going to use.

Since I posted the second music video I did (the other music video thread I started), I thought I'd post the first one I did for critique as well. This one was done for $10, even less than the other one. Anyway, I'm open to any and all critiques, so let me know what you think.

For Quicktime www.smrrecords.com/sweett/sweettmv.mov

Thanks...

The lighting could definitely be better, but the editing was just plain great. You have a real eye for it.

This is our version of the 48 hour concept:

www.instantfilms.tv

A number of familiar faces from TV shows and movies involved. I'm proud to see Jenna Fischer, who has participated in several of our festivals including the film I made for our 9th festival called "Girl's Guide to Summer (http://www.instantfilms.com/archive9.html), is now the female lead of the NBC series "The Office".

thanks for the feedback, yea i agree the lighting was messed up. the whole vid had a 0$ budget though, so best we could do at the time.

Hey everyone! I'm new to the forum and wanted to share some of my video.

The first is a music video in it's rough, I'm in the process of going back through all of the clips and re-edit, clean it up. This was for a local R&B artist Jay Storm, great guy and very professional to work with. It was shot with our GL2, the editing is Premiere / AfterEffects, and background animations are 3D Studio MAX. This was my first attempt at a music video, I shot/edited/animated everything. Jay Storm wrote and produced the music, co-directed video and sat in while editing.

Intro - 640x480 http://www.danielpatton.com/dv/IntroMicAnimation.wmv
Music Video - 320x240 http://www.danielpatton.com/dv/MusicVideo_JayStorm.wmv


The second is footage shot with an XL1S using an XL2 lens, from a motocross at Muddy Creek Raceway. The audio (temporary) was a good fit and was close in timing to the actual audio that is going to replace it. A friend of mine is a musician/audio engineer and wanted to do the soundtrack for this edit, I'll repost again later with his audio. This is just stock footage for us, the video was edited for fun and is not for profit… disclaimer is due to audio.

http://www.danielpatton.com/dv/MuddyCreekStreamVersion-360.wmv


Hope you enjoy them!

Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but it seemed to be. Please move it if you disagree.

One film festival wants a copy of our work to exhibit.

They'll take - aside from 35mm - BetaSP, VHS or DVD - all NTSC.

The film was shot in mini DVCAM, edited in FCP, and I'm generally sending out DVDs for screening copies which look pretty good.

I made a dub straight from the computer to a large sized DVCAM tape and have been using this to dub to VHS when needed.

I just sent this tape out to make a BetaSP copy for another festival. I can't view the quality of this BetaSP tape.

Anyway, my question is this: will a dub made onto BetaSP look much better than a dub to VHS - both coming from the same source tape?

VHS would be much cheaper, but I would rather it look good.

And if BetaSP does look much better in this situation, does anyone know of a good cheap place to get dubs made?

Thanks.

Paul

thanks brandon, I hope to have more to projects to show you guys soon.

peter

"I made a dub straight from the computer to a large sized DVCAM tape and have been using this to dub to VHS when needed."

Please expand on this a little more?

Paul,

The dub from DV cam to Beta SP will definately look better than the VHS dubs, and probably a little better than the DVD screeners.

Don't live in NY, so I can't tell you who the cheap production houses are.

Thanks Richard.

I realized I hadn't even been considering the DVDs as an option, even though they're listed.

I guess I have time to think about it, at least a month or so.

I could rent a BetaSP deck for a day and buy a few tapes, but that's money, too.

Ugh.

Does anyone know what the last word on online video distribution is? Supposing I wanted to share a video here, and I did not have sufficient Web space, what should I do? Has anyone used popcast.com?

I would be willing to host it for you if you are asking for it? Couldn't quite understand your question.

Let me try again. I want to share video files but I have neither the space nor the bandwidth. I presume there are many people in my predicament. Is there a free swarming solution, like Bittorrent, that is tailored to video?

Great job on your first video. You obviously have a firm grasp of composition. It all has a very professional "look" to it. I loved the running story behind Jay on the TV behind him.

I have a few comments:
What happened to the image of Jay on the Close up when he's singing into the camera. The left 1/4 of the screen was chopped off black. It's a little jarring.
The shot of Jay tossing in bed at night didn't fit as well into the look of the rest of the production. Different lighting?
There was a shot where I thought Jay was going to beat up the girl (he was standing outside of her car and lunged at her!) I was happy to see he didn't!

These are two minor adjustments/edits that'll calm the viewer and help the story come out more.

Great job!

Not really. I guess the closest thing would be the different film sites.

You can try releasing videos via the p2p infrastructure and I have done so myself a couple of times on the gnutella network - however distribution probably took about 4-5months to get a decent source rate.

Other than that you should probably look at just buying into a web hosting plan. They have rates with several hundred megabytes and 10gigs of transfer for not much more tha $12 a month out there.


And again if this is just a one off thing I would be willing to host it for you.

Thank you very much, Brandon. I wanted to share my next short with the community to get critiques. I will knock on your door when the time comes.

Emre,
This site:
http://rapidshare.de/ will host your clips up to 30M for free. All you have to do is upload them and post the link. I hope this helps.

Just to let you guys know that the final version of the Soul Searcher trailer is online at http://www.soulsearchermovie.com

I worked on this as the fight choreographer and did loads of Glidecam 2000 work on it. Most of the film is shot on a Canon XL1s.

I saw the final version of the film the other week at the Borderlines Film Festival in Hereford and I have to say that it is amazing. It really seems like a big film, helped in no small part by Neils lighting as well as the fact he hired a composer and a full 60 piece symphony orchestra for the original musical score!

This is one DV movie that will go places!

Thanks man, I appreciate the feedback/comments! I agree 100%.

The part where it is clipped on the left... It's a horrid shot and was shifted to the right to save the clip, hiding stuff on the right side. I have not decided what to do with that one, I think it's going to be edited out. It was NOT a planned shot, it started raining hard one day, we tried it, it blew.

The other clip with Jay tossing and turning is another horrid shot. Waaaay too much contrast. It's funny how you picked the two clips that I myself hate the most. That's a good thing I guess, it gives me more reason to yank them or spend the time and do them over again. I can suffer through the others, but those two are without proper lighting or setup, they look bad.

HAha! :) Jay actually lunged at the car door, not at her. He is such a mellow dude, he had to work at being angry for the sake of the shot. Maybe I better take a hard look at that area again regardless. We tried to show enough contrast with the two of them getting along as well as arguing, etc.. I'm open to any ideas for improving on this.

Worth mentioning, this was a low or no budget video. We have the hardware and applications, so the only cost was time. In the process we learned a lot, but In truth if I had the time I would re-shoot all of it and edit again.

FOUR EYED MONSTERS (www.foureyedmonsters.com) OFFICIAL NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE TOMORROW @ THE 2005 GEN ART FILM FESTIVAL (www.genart.org/x/filmfest)!

Tomorrow, Sunday April 10, Four Eyed Monsters (www.foureyedmonsters.com) makes its Official New York City Premiere at the 2005 Gen Art Film Festival (www.genart.org/x/filmfest).

Four Eyed Monsters (www.foureyedmonsters.com) made its world premiere as an Official Narrative Feature Selection in competition at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festivall (http://slamdance.com/2005/festival/film_detail.asp?film_id=585) in January. The film then went on to screen as an Official Selection at the
2005 SXSW Film Festival (http://2005.sxsw.com/film/festival/screenings/film/1979.html) in Austin last month. Having just finished two back to back regional premieres, Four Eyed Monsters (www.foureyedmonsters.com) is finally coming home to the Big Apple for two days of screenings!

********
Synopsis:

I want a relationship but I don't want a relationship, I don't want to be mediocre, I want the world to excite me, I hate the word soul mate, I want someone but I don't want a struggle, I want to be okay if I'm alone, I want to not have to want, I want to be able to quit if we get too close, is it okay if we just think about it as a collaboration and nothing more, can you please just talk to me. I'm looking for someone who is looking for the same.
********

"FOUR AND A HALF STARS!" - Film Threat (www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?Id=7127)

"Four Eyed Monsters is an uber-modern romance story that's powered with raw honesty and coated with wild imagination that creates a kind of fairy tale world... this movie is going to touch you in ways that’ll make you blush and laugh out loud... In the realm of modern romantic movies, this one hits all the right spots and it makes it hurt so good." - Eric Campos filmthreat.com (www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?Id=7127)

Shot with the Panasonic DVX100 with anamorphic lens and DVX100A, in 24P Advanced pulldown. The film is a unique blending of DV, animation, documentary, and narrative.

Gen Art Schedule:

On Sunday, April 10th Writer/Directors Susan Buice & Arin Crumley will be on a Panel Discussion @ Clearview West Cinemas starting at 4:00 pm.

The Official Premiere Screening will begin at 7:30 pm. Screening @ Clearview West Cinemas 333 W. 23rd (btw 8th & 9th)

Following the screening there will be an after party @ Cotton starting at 10:00 pm 105 West 27th St. (btw 6th and 7th ave)

If you can't make it to the premiere on Sunday (or just loved the movie so much, you have to see it again), you can catch an Encore screening Monday April 11th at 5:00 pm @ Clearview West Cinemas.

You can buy tickets online at the Gen Art website (www.genart.org/x/filmfest) or call 212-255-7300. The 20% discount code is: FCL05

Niiice! The story sounds really entertaining. Checked out the trailer as well, nice images. Is this a feature length movie or a short?

Hi Pasi,

The movie is feature length. It is currently seeking distribution although it will be showing at a few film festivals as well as being shown around Cannes (though unfortunately it was rejected being officially shown).

I think I can safely say that Neil has taken the XL1 DV feature movie to it's absolute limit in terms of scale. Its an amazing effect when you watch the movie itself. It just seems like a real film! The music really goes a long way to helping the effect.

The movie took a huge amount of organising, so my hat really goes off to Neil. I think he will become known as the Peter Jackson of the UK!

Great to see all that enthousiasm and passion in a project!
I wish you guys the most of luck!

putfile.com - will host your video for free I believe.

zed.cbc.ca - will also host your video. It's a TV channel. I think by uploading there they have the right to show your video on the Zed CBC show. They may take your clip down if it runs into copyright restrictions.

yousendit.com is good for sending clips where you'd normally use email.

Bittorrent is probably what you want if you want a P2P solution. You need to figure out how to put your video on a tracker, which shouldn't be too hard.

You can also get a website. Dreamhost.com has a promo going on for 120GB/month for $10/month (pay for 1 year). With promo code 777 it's $10USD for the first year including domain registration (you may want to transfer that away to namecheap.com if you want control over your domain). They are overselling and won't make a profit if you use 5GB/month, but nonetheless they should honor their deal as long as you don't violate their terms of service.

You should throttle the bandwidth to 100GB, as going over costs $1/GB.

Not much of an R&B fan so I'll pass on the first video...The moto-X video was cool as hell though. I loved the choice of music...Your composition was right on and the action was hot man! The only thing that would have made that video better is a little shot variety. And by that I mean some cut-aways...you know some crowd shots, maybe a checkered flag or a hot chick. I've been to these types of events several times and so I know there is a lot going on "behind the scenes". Try to capture that part of the story and you'll find your work even better than it already is. Good work!!!

I thought it looked great.

Who did the final edit? That was a pretty long segment to edit down all of the raw footage.

And agreed, the XL1 did very well.

The company that produced this show is called Film Garden.

www.filmgarden.net

Hi all,

Will be making a short film(7 min or less) documentary for a festival later this year.

As it's my first short film doco, i'm looking for any examples of work or weblinks to people's short doco's.

Any examples will be appreciated!

HA, sorry about that, I'm a little slow posting, I missed my own thread!

Brian, thank you very much, very supportive of you! And your right, some shots of other elements at the track would have only added to the excitement of the races that day. Although... crowd shots might have been tough (no crowds), most of the spectators simply did so while waiting to race. :) Not many existed. However I could have added a hot chick, It's the least I could have done! I'll ask the girlfriend to dress skimpy and smile next time for the camera.

Nahhh... she would never do it, smile I mean. ;) haha

As a proud owner of XL1s, its nice to see XL1s being used for pro-productions.
Kind of an ego boost.

I just wrapped up editing a little 3 min b&w short.

www.rch-e.com/films/encroachment.mov
It's a 5 meg quicktime.

It's also on triggerstreet.com if you'd like to leave me a review there. I would appreciate it.

The film is titled 'Encroachment.' I had written it, made a rough version that sucked, and then reshot to hone (sp?) in on my skills.

Tech Specs:
PV-DV953 (16:9 normal mode)
Adobe Premiere Pro

Let me know what you think, Thanks!!

hi,
so far from the common footages here in forum,
you can watch what i have "recorded" just on old digital camera HP photosmart, 380x240px video resolutions , 15 fps on one 128 MB card... :)

it was a 2-day trip to Paris (to visit my friend) and instead makeing snapshots i have "filmed" 30sec. clips..


edited in Vegas
streaming Sorenson for 1Mb connection speed... so, if your broadband speed is slower, you can press pause button, rew. and wait for a while to buffer the video...

http://www.40801.cz/paris


HW

I will be joining Heath McKnight this Saturday 4/16 at the 2005 Palm Beach International Film Festival (www.pbifilmfest.org/students_seminars.shtml) for a seminar on the new HDV format. We will be screening footage and offering our opinions on the format, the gear, and the possibilities for independent filmmakers.

SEATING IS LIMITED. Reserve your seats in advance by contacting Diane Litt at 561.233.1000 or dlitt@pbfilm.com. Palm Beach Community College, Lake Worth Campus is located at 4200 Congress Avenue, Lake Worth. Parking is available in the Rose Lot on 6th Avenue. The Gulfstream Hotel is located at 1 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth.

Hello,

I'm looking for any feedback for my website for my Travel DVD (for Madison Wisconsin)

www.madisonvideotour.com

The marketing launch date is May 10th (My 27th birthday!)

Any tips, suggestions or critiques would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jed

Hello Jed, while I am no Internet expert, i simply had some aesthetic suggestions, I hope you don't mind.

0- I have a calibrated Sony LCD, and your photos are a bit too contrasty, and the gamma is set low. The shadows in the trees are as dark as the black frame. They are also too small in size for someone to enjoy them. I would adjust the 'Levels' in photoshop, don't allow the shadows to get too dark, and set the midtones a little higher, to make a more pleasant photo, more fit for tourism. I would also set the size at 640x480 when viewed.

1- A white background for the website can be a bit bland and too bright, does not allow the eyes to adjust, and makes the photos seem even darker. A light color, like the light blue found in this site, may complement the skies better and make it easier on the eyes.

2- A title for the website, like the one here on DVinfo, should be found at the top so that folks know what they are seeing. Below that, some basic information about the site, its purpose, and below that, a large 640x480 sample photo, the below that, a "Click here for Gallery" button.

3-In the Gallery, you can include a caption for each photo, or embed it into the jpeg in white text with dropshadow, describing what we are seeing.

4- A coouple more photos with people's faces in them. Most of the photos need more life, smiling kids, happy couples, a dog running on the beach, stuff like that. You have to look at it from your audience's POV, and make it so they can imagine themselves there.

Here are some suggestions:
http://www.flausa.com/
http://www.iaruba.info/
http://www.tourismsaintjohn.com/
http://www.touryukon.com/

While they may be more complex, they have great examples of color patterns and placement of text.

I hope you the best of luck, and good tidings with your enterprise.

rush.

http://www.bigelement.net/odenvzilla.wmv

Awesome stylee.

Hehe... I liked that!

The style is very "David Fincher". I like it.

If you've ever seen the music video for the A Perfect Circle song "Judith", you'll know what I'm talking about. Even if you've seen Fight Club and Se7en, you'll probably know what I'm talking about.

Here's a few good ones.

http://www.coudal.com/slowtron.php

Wow! What was the final budget on it, do you know? It looks like a big budget Hollywood production. Except for the voice over guy in the trailer, that is. He really doesn't have the voice the piece calls for. My two cents.

LOL

Loved it. Great stuff.

I too would like to know the budget on that one. Very nice.

And can you speak open as to why it was "rejected"?

The Forger (http://phicophilms.com/theforger)

Maybe take a look, drop a few comments?

Thanks

okay, so I'm sure it was bound to happen sooner or later, but here is a test for a possible sin city fan film I might make. This short test was created in after effects. This entire scene is digital. Aside from the picture of the building I used. Mainly I did this test to try out matchmoving with rain particles.

Lemme know what you think, Thanks!

Sin City Test - Windows media - 1.2 MB
http://www.rch-e.com/tests/SinCity-Test.wmv

EDIT: I also decided to create a logo for the "company" (hehe) based on the sin-city look

Windows Media - 2 MB
http://www.rch-e.com/tests/LogoTest.wmv

I know there are some perspective problems and oddities, but all that was done with a 2d image of a building. And to prove I made these, here is the original image:
http://www.brorson.com/InfrastructureWalk_3-14-2004/DSCN2414.jpg

I loved it! Well done. Needs some work; but for a conceptual test it was great. Keep us in the loop!

Here's the trailer for a movie I'm directing called Adrenaline Hunters - The Movie. It was shot on various formats, but is being edited on DV for output on DV, Betacam SP and DVD.

My Editor is in L.A. I'm in Paris. We're editing with FCP HD.

Check it out: http://advaloreminternational.com/videos/ssroadshowtrailer.html

Loud Orange Cat Productions's highly anticipated second installment in the "Bad Cat" trilogy is now online for you to download. In this chapter, the human finally gets the upper hand in this futile battle of wits.

Click here to visit the download page:
http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=opensource_movies&collectionid=badcat2

As a reminder, the first chapter in the Bad Cat trilogy is available here:
http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=opensource_movies&collectionid=Bad_Cat

Here are our competitors for the first DV Challenge, for those who haven't been following it. This is the appropriate thread to comment on the films.


Lorinda Norton
www.bluejeanvideo.com/clip.htm

Barry Gribble
http://www.integralarts.com/trapped/trapped.htm

Mitchell Stookey
http://zed.cbc.ca/go?c=contentPage&CONTENT_ID=238499&user=mitchellstookey

Jon Jones
http://homepage.mac.com/lunarparcel/Lunarparcel_Movies/iMovieTheater102.html

Aaron Koolen
56K version = http://www.aza-n-dee.net/trapped/footagemodem.html
256K version = http://www.aza-n-dee.net/trapped/footage256K.html
1MB version = http://www.aza-n-dee.net/trapped/footage1M.html