Haha, trust me I know my share of boring footage.

Although my sound is dead (just formatted and forgot sound-card drivers) it seemed to flow at a decent pace.

Although I will say the freeze-frame effect was a little repetitive but it may have flowed better with music/sound. I'd tone the sharpening/contrast filter back a little bit. So you can tell something is different... but it isn't as hard hitting as before...

Flow is the most important part imo. If it flows and keeps your attention without you having to focus hard, it's doing a good job.

I like it... boring footage is boring footage, but you made it pretty interesting. I like the freeze frame with the graphic effect, and the way it went together with the music/sound effects, and the voice over was pretty good too. You've given me inspiration for the next time I have to edit boring footage!

http://www.vimeo.com/377215

Comments appreciated.

Hi there

Don't know if there are any anglers out there, but I've been adding my video clips to You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjaG71ltQZ4

If you're into fishing especially for carp you might find them interesting.

cheers
Gareth

Video Clip for dutch band.

Info:

-Canon XL-H1 HDV 25p
-Various Tiffen 4x4 Glass filters
-Lupo fluorescent lights
-Final Cut Pro 6, also for colour correction



http://www.oogappel.net/maybees/

It was rather a lot to take in, wasn't it? Does anyone have any feedback for me?

Good or bad - I can take it!

-Russ

http://vimeo.com/378059

That is just AWESOME!

Nice work but some of the pages were on screen for too short of a time for me to get all the info.

Just an opinion.

Randy

Wow. That was awesome. I love the firework-esque styling of it :D

Carl

I didn't believe it when i saw it on youtube. I figured there was no way you could get that kind of pressure out of those bottles (I had tried it, and it went maybe 3 feet up). That's what i get for watching SD with youtube compression, i guess.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Yes, the pages do go by pretty fast. Maybe I should have eliminated one of the page turns, or altered the timing of them. I'll get the chance to revisit this spot for next month's Teacher, so maybe I'll tweak it then.

Thanks,
Brian

I didn't believe it when i saw it on youtube. I figured there was no way you could get that kind of pressure out of those bottles (I had tried it, and it went maybe 3 feet up). That's what i get for watching SD with youtube compression, i guess.

The trick: You need to decrease the diameter of the exit - they do that through those little nozzles. Also, for some reason, it works best with warm soda, not cold soda.

Well I finished up my first real, (meaning paid), project this week and threw together a preview just for fun....
I posted it over at the motorcycle drag race forum where the target audience hangs out....and the response was good.

So....I thought I'd share it here, with all you experianced guys and gals...

And as always...feedback is welcome and encouraged... :)

2WheelSpeed 2007 Trailer (http://www.baatfam.com/TrailerFinal.wmv)

Bob

Really funny!!

"Hot Women In Tiaras"! LOL!

Hi Bob,

Nice job for the first $$$ gig. Here's a few generalized suggestions:

- Assuming you're serious about making money, include both EMAIL address and phone contact along with URL.

- The font type and color could use some improvement; check out effective designs on other posts here, TV ads, other internet sales videos, magazines, etc. Try not to use so much titling that it obscures the video much of the clip.

- As you gain proficiency, add creative edits, camera work, and effects. Develop a shot list - during the shoot, be sure to check off at least 80 percent of the items on your "to-do" list. You can never take enough B roll cutaways (I didn't see much find it's way in the promo). The story telling shots should go wide, medium, close-up, ECU (avoid zooms except in rare situations). Incorporate dutch angles and gliding corkscrews, silouettes, moving foreground and fly-overs, reflection shots, point of views, over the shoulder noddies and pivot/reverse pivots, wrap-arounds, rack focus, effective framing, revers/compass shots (between 2 people talking), staggered shutter speeds, dolly shots, etc. and always be thinking John Cooksey's WALLDO acronym (Wide, Angled, Low, Linking, Depth of field, Opposites).

- Consider ways to enhance the story-telling, integrating the media (content, camera shots, audio/music, lighting/color, editing/pacing, etc).

- Focus on ways to enhance the audience's emotional involvement. Including the racer's sound bites was a good start. Your titling eluded to hot women, but it was unsupported with close-ups, creative shot angles, audio clips, color-corrected video, etc. Ditto with the biker racetrack edits; instead of editing biker racking left, biker racing right, back-forth, look for ways to build emotion and captivate interest by keeping the viewers eyes busy - consider top-bottom split screen, sequencing racers peeling left-right across screen, etc. (be sure to follow rule of thirds, too). Hopefully you got some angled shots in addition to the 2D flat 90 degree angle stuff.

- Find ways to promote sales by enticing promo for the viewers. The message doesn't work as well when you use titling like, "Secrets of the Winners" and then follow-up with them saying "we got lucky..."

BTW, I loved the puppy shot! Even better would be if you had the camera at "position 1" (same low angle as dog). Along this line, be sure to include a shot of kids, assuming you can find footage that will either get a laugh or emotionally touch the viewers/prospective buyers.

Hope this provides food for thought - thanks again for sharing!

Warm Regards, Michael

Hi Russ,

I seldom frequent "Show Your Work" but always enjoy sharing thoughts. Hopefully my feedback is focused on "how it is shot, its composition, editing, framing, and post production."

- The first few seconds start off well, but soon loses continuity. The rear-lot thug shot should come after the guys knocking on the door. I'm all for flash-forward time-sequence shots, but this doesn't seem to add interest to the story when the two segments are closely bound.

- The lighting was the first thing that caught my eye - could really use a reflector if lighting isn't available. At least go for a wider iris, more gain, or boost in post. Much of the video very, very dark. The silhouette shots near the end (foot chase scene) were okay, but on the first half, we couldn't see the subjects.

- The kidnap shot didn't seem to fit. The kidnappers weren't related to the scenes before/after the shot (clearly different guys). From an shot/editing sequence, this shot greatly needs establishing shots - walking to room, entering, shot from kidnapper's perspective (we have no idea who is being kidnapped), shot from victim's perspective, etc.)

- The rear-view shot going up the stairs could use improvement - what's going on here? Can we find a better angle to tell the story?

- The wide views would probably be improved with a much higher camera angle, looking down somewhat to improve the framing composition (rather than showing skyline). Also, try to vary the shot sequences of this scene - wide, medium, close-up, etc.

- Use linking shots, especially during action sequences. After the thugs shove someone in the car, take a shot inside the car - preferably a point of view toward the thugs.

- Try to avoid repeatly reusing shot sequences. Maybe it's okay once or twice, but that's it.

In summary, I agree with your assessment the content was difficult to work with, so the onus is on you to pull it off with superior camera work and edits. Fortunately, the music helped carry the video.

Thanks for sharing, Michael

Hey Russ,

I think you should try to differentiate between a story with a soundtrack and a music video. I wasn't sure if the guy with the gun was the lead singer, he mouthed some lyrics at one point. I think if he was lip syncing during all scenes with him in it, you'd have a music vid. Maybe a small drum kit etc. to cut away to, to distinguish it as a music vid. This looked more like a short with a suited soundtrack.

Keep shooting.

Michael...thanks!

The Tiaras thing is an inside joke....glad to hear it's funny to those not "inside"...

Michael number 2...also thanks! All valid points...

The finished DVD addresses many of those points....

I also race a bike in the series, so I was there for every race and ended up with plenty of footage, from many angles.....(although, between working on the bike and racing it, shooting tape sometimes became a run and gun operation)...

I do struggle with the rule of 3rds though....I know that.

As for being serious about making money...it would be nice, but that's not my goal.
I have a great job that pays me well...
This is really just a hobby for me, one I love, but still a hobby. Any money I make gets invested back into the hobby.

Again, thanks for taking the time to share your opinions..

Bob T.

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

Michael

I see what your saying about varying shots. You mention that the thugs change? they don't they are always the same two thugs. The composition was dark in the running scenes, but I did this intentionally as I like silhouettes against sky (!) Yes I did need more POV shots. However, the idea was to show flash shots, kind of snippets of action. Two people shadow a door, cut to present, two people burst open said door, cut to present, thugs walk upstairs, cut to present...etc. I know it was dark, but did you tell it was a woman during the kidnap and not the same kid tied to the chair?

Ken

That was the main problem - the band wanted a short film making comprising of three music videos, of which this is the ending. Lots of flash scenes. The band didn't want a direct appearance in this video, so they appeared as 'extras' in the street chase. The guy with the gun is not with the band, but it was meant as him telling the kid "if you want to play, you got to pay" the song is the guy with the gun lecturing the kid, so the lip sync towards the end was done to support that, although I agree if he was syncing the entire song it would have been better. That was the initial plan but he was rather nervous (friend of the band)

No professional actors were used in this shoot, it was just me, the band and a few friends. Apart from about a week planning from me it was literally who turned up on the day were in. Not an ideal scenario for a professional looking shoot.

Thanks for the comments guys, they will help the next shoot.

Russ

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.
Michael
I see what your saying about varying shots. You mention that the thugs change? they don't they are always the same two thugs. The composition was dark in the running scenes, but I did this intentionally as I like silhouettes against sky (!) Yes I did need more POV shots. However, the idea was to show flash shots, kind of snippets of action. Two people shadow a door, cut to present, two people burst open said door, cut to present, thugs walk upstairs, cut to present...etc. I know it was dark, but did you tell it was a woman during the kidnap and not the same kid tied to the chair?
<CLIP>
Russ

Rehi,

Yes, now that you've mentioned they are one in the same, I can make the connection. Perhaps it's just me who will miss that, however the thugs are otherwise very wide shots and with the dark scenes I didn't make the linkage. Yes, after several viewings and freeze frames, I noticed the woman in the kidnapping - strange, since it wasn't developed in a linear sense. You'll need a real cult following to have the audience maintain interest in catching many of your details - I hope it works out for you.

Michael

looks awesome.

Well done, great colors and tracking movement of some decidedly hard to follow subject matter. What software did you use for titling at the beginning?

That’s really nice, Oliver. I watched it several times, not only to study shots but because the whole piece has a great feel to it. The segment with the grass…even though it had nothing to do with the bikes it was very cool—especially when I slowed it down. I would have used it, too. :)

Thanks for sharing with us.

Top notch! I loved it. Your sense of composition is very strong. Every shot was beautiful. You'll do well at whatever you choose to do next!

It's called Ultimate Curse, and the trailer is here:

http://www.createspace.com/240220

Ultimate Curse is the story of an evil force that makes friends mutilate friends, and lovers eat the very flesh of their loved ones.

If you want to buy the whole 93 minute movie (and help me make another one,) you can do so by visting this E-store:

http://www.createspace.com/240220

Thanks!

Ok i am taking a digital video in school and next year we are doing a city wide contest type of thing. anyway for the previous year we did a 15 minuite western with a story taken from a shakespere play. we only had two weeks to make up the story and everything and shoot it, and it turned out suprisingly good, the western look i was going for was perfect, the location costumes and everything was great, the acting was the only thing lacking.
anyway for next year i wanna film all throughout the summer so we can get a good 20-30 minuite movie thats alot more well done.
we already have some great locations picked out, one is up in the mountains very far away from any towns or anything man made other than two small cabins. its very beautiful scenery, with a pond mabye 200 ft by 200 ft. very big open medows, and also heavily wooded areas, and also a pretty good sized river. another is a big lake, with a large glacier above it though its a smaller area with occasional tourists. the last place we found is in the mountains too, it is miles of rolling hills and mountains and a huge meadow miles long with trees surroinding it, and it has a large old house probably more than 100 years old in the middle.
there are plenty of other places around where we live in colorado, there are plenty of big lakes, mountains, woods, old mining buildings, houses, ghost towns etc.
i really like films that take place in a different time period, that could be from the 70's or 1000 years ago.
and keep in mind that we are all pretty young, like around 17-21, some of us could play it off as a 13 year old and some could play it off as a 30 year old but nobody too old. and we have like 3 girls. we got like 15 people total 5 that could do it all the time, and the rest would mainly be extras or have small parts.
we want something with a little action, some suspense, and drama, and mabye some comedy. but nothing that take amazing acting, we have mabye 2 or 3 people who are pretty damn good at acting, but thats it.

we already have some ideas, but none that we can agree on yet, and we want some more ideas, we want to know pretty soon so we have plenty of time to write a script, find costumes, locations etc.
so if you have any ideas that would be really great!

oh yeah and for equipment we have a vx1000, vx2100, some cheap handi cams, and some 3ccd handicam type camera, pretty limited lighting, 2 fluid head tripods, and two cheapo tripods. plenty of guns or pretty much any type of weapon from any time period, and a relative that owns a costume shop.

A quick look at your towns history shows a dark chapter from the past which you could re work, make it very sinister and evil, a good opertunity to add some ideas of your own and base it around the murder trials for example instead of poison change it to something more shocking. Plus its of local interest and might do well.

AVERY MURDER TRIALS

MUSEUM (GLENDURA) SCRAPBOOK

Article: "Franklin C. Avery's Impact on Fort Collins."

1890s

William Avery's death (Franklin's brother) in 1890 was thought to be gastritis, a stomach disorder. But twelve days after his death his wife, Mary, secretly married her lover, Frank Millington, in Hastings, Nebraska. William H. Avery was worth over $100,000. The lovers were acquitted on charges of feeding William enough arsenic which, according to one expert, was enough to kill 50 people. The strongest point in their defense was the fact that the prosecution could not prove that William had not administered the poison to himself, despite a chemist's testimony that 14 year old Pearl, daughter of the deadman, had purchased a box of "Rough on Bats," a substance which is one-third arsenic. Pearl denied she had ever purchased the poison, and the jury took her at her word. The lovers were acquitted.

http://history.fcgov.com/archive/Time_Line/museum/1890.htm

alternatively you could just go to your relatives costume shop and pick the most interesting costumes and base the story around them.

Andy.

"Delivery on Elm Street"

"Some friends order pizza, but have no cash. Somebody must pay."

I think our short works best when the actors play it straight in this parody of the horror/suspense genre. The comedy comes from the ridiculous premise, and a few well delivered lines - as well as the cellphone gag.

We deliver the ending straight up. Pure comedies rarely have good endings. A suspense film is nothing without its ending.

http://colonelcrush.com/movie/index/00230001

Nice job! Very entertaining. I thought the editing and sound were very good, and I like the way you kept the story moving along, all the way to the very end. The acting was ok, but overall a nice short story. [EDIT] I also enjoyed the other shorts on your site.

Thanks for the replies so far everyone! Gives me a bit of confidence in a move toward a medium I've never shot:)

The titling at the start was done in 3DS Max 5, many years ago though. I just want to keep logos consistent so have resisted the urge to update it to a more modern look.

Hello there. My short animated film called Tentacle's Heroes is finally online over at Atom Films. Please check it out, although it's the first time I have ever made an animated film, so please don't expect it to look great LOL. You can view it here:

http://www.atomfilms.com/film/tentacles_heroes.jsp

Thanks.

> "The acting was ok."

Agreed. I think everybody had assumed that the acting needed to be over the top to push the comedy. Looking at the finished product, the acting worked best when they played it straight and within the genre. For instance, the "Jesus" line was over the top, but within the genre, so it worked well. The transition from boredom to fear was weaker, since it wasn't authentic, nor cliche - just campy.

Anyway, these were some good lessons learned.

Myspace and FOX have this contest for a chunk of change and a
development deal with FOX for a TV series pilot. We had to submit 5-7
minutes of our pilot to convince them we're the onces for the job.

When I saw this contest, and already had a video shot and cut to submit, I
thought "why the hell not?"

We went and did some pickup shots a year after the initial shoot,
recut what we had, tightened it up, got a score done, and came out
with what I feel is a pretty nice little package!

So please please PLEASE go to the link below and VOTE "Thumbs up" on
my video if you don't want your whole family blown up in a boating
"accident".

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=21661723

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO ACTUALLY VOTE, AND NOT JUST WATCH, IF YOU CAN!

Thanks!
Nick Harris

PS: I apologize for threatening your families, I feel kinda bad about that. I suppose I could have asked you to vote for my video without threatening a high octane speed boat chase somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, which climaxes with two boats colliding mid air at speeds of no less than 85 mph (i don't know nautical terms for speed, but I'm pretty sure that's like 10,000 knots), and raining down stolen Vatican gold bars once headed for the black market, but now the bottom of the ocean. I apologize for that. It was wrong of
me.

Pretty funny. I liked it!

i thought it was really funny, entertaining and works perfectly, i especially like the lip synchin. What program did you use?

Okay, there were a few parts that still bugged me, and I ended up going through the whole thing looking for places to cut. Managed to lose another 2.5 minutes. New vox on the end song, too.

http://www.joshbass.com/alarmclock.wmv

wow, that was just knockout!
great video & sound work :)

Thanks for the comments.

I used Flash MX to animate it. Then imported the individual animated parts into Premiere Pro 2 and edited it. I don't have a sound studio so we recorded the voices by making a tent out of a duvet and recording the lines under it LOL. It kind of worked okay.

Anyway, thanks for watching :)

Not sure if this is the right place to post this or not.......

I am trying to find a HQ video clip of a fireplace. I want to turn my 42" LCD TV into a Fireplace :) By burning the video on DVD and playing it I might get what I am after. Anyone know where I can get a clip like this?

Google fireplace video .. I got lots of links to DVDs, clips, all that stuff, some in HD

Google fireplace video .. I got lots of links to DVDs, clips, all that stuff, some in HD

Yep, I did that... Just wanted to see if anyone here on DVinfo had one. Try keep it local ;)

Hello
This is a video of the Airbus 380 landing in Montreal
Filmed with Sony A1u, wide angle 0737y, but no foam mic.
Edit on Final cut 5

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv_SMNjz4N4

In the 80s a TV station in Montreal, used to have a fireplace on screen
when it was off the air.

<yawn>
u need to check your exposure. Things were pretty dark

Too much zooming, arbitrary pull-outs. Especially at the critical moment that the plane flew over, the camera pulls out wide for no apparent reason. Shaky handheld also. Editing could be a lot tighter as well. No reason to keep the location audio (which is primarily wind noise) in there all the time, just pull it down whenever there's nothing else on the track.

I shot my first short film a few months ago. PLEASE PLEASE give me some constructive criticism! I used a Canon XL2 on this project. As for lighting; I used natural light and a home built lighting system using florescent bulbs. The only thing that REALLY REALLY bothers me about this short is the slight venetian blind effect I got on the shots where there's allot of movement... next time I will be sure to clean the heads BEFORE filming! Anyway, please let me know your thoughts on composition, editing, lighting, plot.... and anything else I'm leaving out! All shooting, editing, scoring, and ADR work for this short was complete in two days.

Production time: 7 hours / Post Production time: 12 hours

"Chasing Ghosts"
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fusea...deoid=16218204

You are saying what I knew, but I did not think you would see.
the shakee is mostly because the camera is held with my arms extend
over my head because of the fence. overexposure because I was scared of being overexposure so I underexpose to much.

Justin,

Your link didn't work. I think it got abbreviated.

This should work: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=16218204

That "venetian blind effect" that bothers you is your video interlacing. Somehow your odd and even lines probably got switched somewhere in the render. I don't know what you edit it with, but you could probably go back and change that. Or just deinterlace the whole thing. Especially if it's just going to be for online distribution.

My constructive criticism would just say that you could probably tighten up parts of the edit a bit. It felt like I had to wait a little too long to get the reaction from the other person during the dialogue scenes.

Other than that, I'd say you were pretty successful at producing a "cheesy black and white horror film!"

You are saying what I knew, but I did not think you would see.the shakee is mostly because the camera is held with my arms extend over my head because of the fence.

Hmm, it looks eye-level to me. Perhaps if you had positioned yourself next to the fence, you might have had an easier time shooting the craft landing?

You set yourself up a little bit, Martin, by labeling your video "the definitive clip". This would imply that it beats out all others, including those done presumably by the local/national media who were there, so the level of expectation is high.

There are a few rules-of-thumb when shooting events, such as avoiding zooming and then zooming back out again unless new information is added by doing so. Even if you had this on tape, you can simply eliminate the repetitious part of the shot when you edit.

Outside of the actual landing, if you do choose to build up the piece with other footage, it should tell some sort of story. I'm not sure what shots of the cars driving along the highway contributes to that, but I might have liked to have seen some of the excitement and interest in the bystander's faces.