I Left My Heart In Amarillo on Vimeo

This is a short video that I made as kind of a tribute to my friends and family from the little city in Texas that I grew up in, as I am heading off to school this fall. I also tried to test the capabilities of the d5000, because I have had some trouble in the past with noise, soft images, and aliasing.
I am pretty content with the results, the footage is just a compilation of random shots that I have gotten after carrying around my camera everywhere, testing different environments and lighting. I feel that the d5000 holds up pretty well, but the image is a bit soft for my taste, and from what I've seen compared with d7000 and the various canon DSLRs, the d5000 has a difficult time with low lighting, anything past ISO 400 is noisy beyond repair and unacceptable. I used a 35/1.8 almost exclusively, but a 70mm/2.8 was used in a few shots. It is completely hand held and while I would love to have a shoulder rig, I am without one because I couldn't dream of purchasing one at the moment (hah!). The edit was simple, I was just looking for a feel good, short, simple video.
I would certainly love some constructive criticism and I plan on posting a few more of my videos and short films some time soon!

Hi Hayden - well I liked it. Loved the really enveloping sense of nostalgia you captured and the almost wistful quality it has. The hand held shots give a sense of 'being there' and the editing adds to this.

I dont really care about any perceived quality issues such as grain/noise - emotional content trumps all in my opinion and the visuals provided that, and the soundtrack underpinned it beautifully.

My problem was that there was too much nostalgia in this piece at 6mins long!

Nostalgia for me needs to be a fleeting thing. Thats the way nostalgia actually is in real life, it sneaks up on you, wraps that big warm hug around you, then dissolves again. If you could capture that, you'll have nailed it. I'd experiment with a shorter piece, start with a reality and then ambush the viewer with a big wet nostalgic kiss. And too many oof lights through car windows for my taste as well.

That said, I liked it - evocative, a good sense of place, well paced and carried well by the very natural performances of your friends/family.

Beats the hell out of many things I've seen posted online in video forums. If I see another 'video test' of a plate of pasta I'm going to vomit.

Thumbs up from me. Keep working and posting.

Good luck in school!

Thank you very much for your kind words and constructive criticism John!

I am glad you enjoyed it and I completely agree with you on the length, I realized the length of the piece after I finished editing but I decided to leave it. I even had a few friends that told me that if it were a video that I had not made, they would have stopped watching at around the two minute mark! This is totally understandable and it has taught me a lesson about editing a concept to hold the attention of the viewer.

On the technical note: I agree with you on the concept and how it should far outweigh the technical aspects of a video or film, but I think there is a requirement for a degree of quality that all storytellers must achieve to produce a polished, and well executed project. I am also trying to retain as much information about the aspects of production and how to implement them into projects so that I can create those more polished and well executed projects in the future. I will be studying film as a freshman next year (I know, some would say this is crazy and/or unnecessary but I feel that it is best) and I have no doubt that I will learn the technical skills I need.

Thanks once again! I appreciate the warm welcome into such a helpful community.