Mmm. Tightly edited, short, to the point, with good-looking footage. I would have loved to know more about the organization, but that perhaps would have been a deeper story than you were looking to tell.

Nice.

What was the music, by the way? It sounds quite familiar.

Michael

The music was Garage Band.
http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

Its a loop based music program. I created the tracks myself. I often hear loops in national ads that are Apple's Garage Band/Soundtrack loops. So you might have heard them used somewhere else.

There was more info in the wraparounds for that package.
If you want to learn more go here: www.speedcreep.com

Thanks for the compliments!

Nice shooting Ben.

How did you like the HVX?

I use the HVX almost daily. Honestly, I'm not crazy about it. A lot of what I need to shoot relys on a camera's point-and-shoot capabilities as I end up running and gunning a lot. I find the HVX's autofocus is way slow and its ability to handle contrast is terrible.
I don't like that the headset output is too low either. The LCD is dim and not representative of the actual video.
It's also VERY heavy even w/out gear on it, add gear it gets way worse! And the lens is not wide enough for my liking meaning it needs a wide adapter (which will make it heavier.) It ends up being so heavy and bulky I put it back and grab a full size Ikegami 75W.

We got them to replace an aging PD170, but the truth is I find myself still using the PD170 for quicky shoots because its so easy to get good results with without trying. The Sony is a lot tougher too. Recently it survived sandstorms and an Improvised Explosive Device in Iraq!! I'm not kidding!!!

With that said, the HVX shoots amazing shots when conditions are right. And I like it because it shoots real HD. But, I am so-so about it otherwise, though I wish I really liked it.

Hi,

Just a cheesy little thing I put together a few years ago with my first camera (1 chip Canon ZR 60) and about 1 hour of filming and 8 hours of editing...

its about 30 seconds long and lame but my neighbors always get a kick out of it.
www.tahoestarr.com/jedijeff.wmv

Jeff

nice lightsaber effect! What did you use to achieve it.

Shot with my Vx2000 on manual.

White balanced.
0DB F2 and 0DB F2.5

Soft Focus and rack focus shots done with VX2000 (no DOF adapter or post processing to achieve the effect).

Put together in Vegas 7.
Music from podcast safe site.

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=a472bab522d1b7532ccae20e2cca9927.1571510

Enjoy.

Alex.

I recently shot some footage of the local band Nutria performing at a club. One camera (DVC 80), no additional lighting, and no prior clue of the slightly awkward layout of the club. I hope to get at least two videos out of it before I use up all of the best coverage. Here's the first, I'd love any input you folks might have:

http://karatemedia.com/nutria/tied.html


(BTW, for some reason, the Quicktime version looks a little more washed-out than the Windows Media version)

Thanks!

Its very real, I like how it forces you to be a part of the experience and doesn't apologize for the situation, very real, i liked it. you felt like you were an observer right there watching the dynamics of the threesome, very cool.

extremely well done, real professional quality in it from everything from the acting down to the music and the final sound mix, well done

CLICK HERE to see the whole clip from my upcoming educational video series, the 2nd, and last free one: SHOT TYPES (http://www.brandyseymour.com/video/shot_types.wmv)

It's a 15 meg WMV file, 640x360

This is aimed towards complete noobs and will be marketed to High School and early colleges for sales with this type of video in a series on DVD. Remember this is for the absolute BEGINNERS...

We shot in HDV with the JVC HD110 camera in both 24P and 30P modes and I edited in Avid Xpress Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 along with some work in After Effects. Mike Tavares was the shooter for me and the BMW was on loan from Buzz Productions.

Thanks all.
Peter John Ross
www.sonnyboo.com

Just wanted to share my film noir animation/live action film "The Crimes of Mr. Lowry". Been working on it for 3 months and currently still a work in progress. Shot with an XL2 and entirely on green screen.

http://www.citizencine.com/films/crimesofmrlowry.mov

There is a formula that I got from theforce.net where you import the footage into after effects and basically paint a light saber on each frame over a stick that I was swinging around.

I thought it was well produced, well lit and very clear on the net. Good stuff.

Very good quality all around. Great information for beginners.

Wow Andy! That looks awesome! What are you plans to get it founded?

That Cablecam system you have looks/works nice! I would like to make myself one of those. Do you think you could post a parts list of it? I would really like to make one... And yes, I know someone who can weld.

Best of luck! And thanks for the fun Trailer!
~Gabriel

The cable cam shots are sick. Excellent production.

Alrighty, at the peak of initimidation factor since I usually feel like a mouse among lions when I view a lot of material on here, I'm diving in with my first post for critique-time. I was primarily an audio guy and computer guru before jumping into the Video Production arena, where I've just passed the 2 year mark. I'm wanting to start having a more polished, higher-quality flow to my projects (primarily cable TV spots and corporate video) and am ready to take your perceptions and suggestions to heart.

This is a :30 second spot I produced for my company's economic development department to air on our local cable systems...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ubfrrG58Ya4

Alrighty, I'm ready for the brutal yet educational experience from you, woohoo!

OK.

Kill me guys.

Put together some footy from some of the gigs I did this fall. But it is so much harder to kill oneself than others.

Yep. I know... There are images that have to go, and I do have others to put in, but this is where I landed for today.

As this is a preview for comments, I'ts kinda hard compressed.

When I'm done I'll release it in 720 as well as SD

Please rightklick on the link and download.

http://www.vulture.no/reel/autumn2006-640.mov

And KILL me!


Gunleik

This is about "how such a thing is supposed to look", isn't it.

Didn't like the dissolve to whites too much, though.

Gunleik

Informative.

Gunleik

I thought it was well done, and fairly similar to regional spots I might see for Georgia Power, or a similar business.

I actually liked the white dissolves. I felt they fit the "bright new beginnings" theme of the spot, and seem to go well with the motion of each shot - fading from the kids on the train to the pan across the warehouse, for example.

So, how long were you waiting to get that shot of the flock of birds flying past? Or was that just a happy accident?

The only shot that I didn't like was the one with the guy in front of the computer. I didn't like the way he was awkwardly moving in his chair as he pushed it back. And something about a guy in front of a computer didn't have the same warmth as the other shots. Perhaps a more "friendly" business shot to match the VO? Maybe a teller/clerk/business owner having a friendly business transaction with a nice old lady?

A few of the typical questions: What sort of equipment did you use (camera, lights, editing, etc)? What kind of crew did you have? And was that first shot from a bridge or from a crane?

Good spot, though. I think you should be proud of it.

Peter -- great job, though I would expect no less based on what I've seen you contribute here. I also checked out some of the Horrors of War Indie Film Tips -- even better. Great, informative stuff, the Horrors of War tips work well because they draw from your real-life experience making the film, yet communicate some pretty universal knowledge.

In all of the clips I looked at, you communicate the concepts clearly and efectively, and maintain the viewer's interest. Yes, they look great, too, but your ability to communicate is impressive. Great work.

very nice was the opening shot with the road a jib shot

I thought it was very well done. A lot better than many of the regional commercials around here.

However, I do agree with the post about the guy with the computer.

i thought it was good.

I assume it wasnt shot on RED, coz its not out yet. But why did you put it in the credits?

Hi & thanks!

Nope. Not shot on Red. -;)
The Red part is just to inform clients & prospects that we're building a workflow around Red when it comes out.

All shot on HVX-200, mostly p25.

Gunleik

So, how long were you waiting to get that shot of the flock of birds flying past? Or was that just a happy accident?


Pretty much plain luck. Usually are quite a few geese on the creek I shot that at, and they just happened to decide to take off from their usual spot while we were there.


The only shot that I didn't like was the one with the guy in front of the computer...


The longer I worked on it in post, the more I kind of felt like that shot didn't tell any type of story. However, it's footage that was suggested due to the story behind the individual used, nevermind that the audience has no clue of a backstory for it. Long story short, I probably should have axed it and asked for forgiveness instead of permission afterwards, but didn't pick and choose that battle. I may produce a couple more spots with different industry/employment footage in the middle to highlight various employers, at which point, I'll be a little more selective with what is added.


A few of the typical questions: What sort of equipment did you use (camera, lights, editing, etc)? What kind of crew did you have? And was that first shot from a bridge or from a crane?


Camera - XL2, used the stock 20x lens (we have the 3x wide-angle but not utilized for this)

Lights - Used none for all shots (although the computer guy was stock from in-house footage and most likely some of our Lowel kit (we have some Tota- and Omni- lights). I did discover the beauty of using the whitecard and white balance feature of the XL2 with this spot and wondered why in the #(*@ I never knew it existed before, heh.

Editing - All done with Final Cut Pro. The "Vapor Across" transition came from the Eureka! Free collection. Applied a Custom Diffusion filter from the free TMTS Stylize batch to try giving it that softer feel. Would love to eventually get Magic Bullet to help streamline some of the look/feel workflow instead of playing with color correction and diffusion all the time.

Crew - There are two of us in the media production department; however, this was all shot solo by myself (except for computer guy, that footage is from before my time here).

Overhead shot from an overpass just from the tripod. Have a porta-jib, but I haven't ventured to utilize it by myself yet for my solo work. I figured as I get my camera-work tweaked and tuned somewhat, I'll start implementing it on some of the higher-profile projects I work on (something like this spot).

Thanks for the feedback so far. Like I mentioned, I feel incredibly fortunate to have access to these tools and an open canvas most of the time. My goal is to take full advantage of it and develop into a level closer to many of you.

I liked the look and was surprised by certain shots. I did get a feeling you were
trying to emulate looks like Sin City & A Scanner Darkly, but was glad to see
you also went your own way.

I had a hard time following and enjoying the story though. I felt the acting was
rough in spots and sometimes hard to follow what was being said (might be
partly due to English being my second language).

Good luck with the movie, good your making stuff!

I'd suggesting deleting that ballerina with the grungy filthy ballet shoes. Yuck!

Ballerina replaced with one with better looking shoes -;)

Took away the Red part. I'll do a separate thing for that.

But I can still take more bashing! -;)

Cheers & Thanks


I have uploaded a Youtube version because of some demand.
Personally I feel it's a bit counterproductive...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c5ZJibjLas


Gunleik

Everyone...

I shot footage of some community events for the Avondale Arizona Police Department back in December 06 for use by the local HD News Channel. Due to unforeseen circumstances (their newsroom doesn't have HDV Decks only DVCAM and I didn't have cables) they were not able to use the footage.

Having what I thought was some heart touching footage I opted to do a quick montage which I presented to the chief of police, they were really blown away and are actually showing it this week during their city council meeting.

That said I down-converted it to H.264 and posted it on my server, the video is the 1st choice from the top at www.lauderdaledj.com/video and as it says on the page, please save locally I don't have the bandwidth allocation or ability to stream. There is some other work up there so feel free to view if you like, just don't expect much <grin>.

Miguel Lombana

I liked the look and was surprised by certain shots. I did get a feeling you were
trying to emulate looks like Sin City & A Scanner Darkly, but was glad to see
you also went your own way.

I had a hard time following and enjoying the story though. I felt the acting was
rough in spots and sometimes hard to follow what was being said (might be
partly due to English being my second language).

Good luck with the movie, good your making stuff!

What spots did you think the acting was rough? Maybe I have alternate takes that are better.

its a style that I'm gonna start messing with. check it out!

http://www.myspace.com/distastefulgarbage

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner ive been workin, thanks for the feedback sheldon, Gabriel the cable rig is a very simple design that you could easily copy. I used the low mode from my glidecam to mount the camera but any similarly shaped piece of metal would do. You will get a part list at this thread http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=76948 . Make sure the pulleys you use run on bearings or it won't go anywhere.

As for funding like i said in your thread about funding we have never tried to get funding before, we wanted to work out all our problems in a safe environment so when we get funding we don't screw it up. I have spoken to people who have applied for funding and done a lot of homework but we'll just have to wait and see.

Good luck and let me know if you succeed. BTW luckily there are no welds in it.

Andy.

G'day all,

I thought I would post some clips from my two films in Post production that I shot on a Canon XM2. All Clips are Quicktime H.264. I am interested in gaining some critical feedback on the material.

Both the films are in Swedish. The fist clip is from my film Försäljaren (The Salesman) . This is a black comedy/social satire about a multinational company which actually feeds off its loyal customers and employees.

It was filmed entirely on a Canon XM2 using the dreaded "Frame Mode", the XM2's pseudo verson of 24p:

http://www.janssenherr.com/TheSalesman.html

The next clips come from my film Hämnden (The Revenge) which deals with domestic violence. I shot in interlaced and use a Sony VX2000 as a 'B' camera.

Link to the films official website teaser trailer:

http://www.janssenherr.com/Hamnden/Trailer.html

(24.9MB, 2min 16s, Quicktime H.264)

The above site work best if viewed on Mozilla (Firefox) or Safari.

The next link is to a clip of very, very beta test scenes. The sound is only an experiment of what the final design will be, at times it is a bit noisy. The CC is an experiment also. And the material here is only a 1/4 of the takes I have available. I should say to those who are not comfortable with violence that there is a vivid domestic violent scene (no blood) towards the end of this clip:

http://www.janssenherr.com/therevenge

(75.2MB, 6min 32s, Quicktime H.264)

Sound recoded via a Røde Video Mic to Sharp MD. Edited Final Cut Pro. Sound edited on Sountrackpro, Sound Design on LogicPro.

Cheers,

Janssen Herr

Between this and Junipero I'm very impressed by your work!!!! I really liked the little twist at the end of ... MR. Lowry. I don't think the story was to hard to follow (my opinion), and the acting was not too shabby either.

What matters the most was the story was decent. We see bad acting and poor storytelling in hollywood all the time....

I agree with what Rob said about the look and all that good stuff....

Thanks Tunde, I'm glad you liked it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zzLDVmzjH4

please check this out and comment. I was bored with three of my crew members one night and we came up with this. Written and filmed in the same night. Enjoy this one. MORE TO COME!!

Here's a rough draft of a doc i got hired to do.

i know some shots aren't focused but i'd like to know if the message is coherent.
it's a 7 min video.

http://tinyurl.com/yeh6ew

OK, I've been putzing around with this for a while but I thought I'd put up whats done so far. There are three commercials in here: 1) 60 National Acura spot 2) 30 second local Acura spot 3) 30 spot that's my take on the theme.

As you'll see, the national spot is one of the best I've seen for Acura since the infamous "Hot Wheels" Integra spot. Our local commercial was filmed by director James Serreno. He combined elements from the national spot into his commercial along with some local talent. He used a digital SLR shooting about 5 frames/second.

My take reuses two clips from the local spot (showroom scenes), a few from the national spot, plus a bunch of odds and ends that were sitting on my hard drive that I shot for my videos. I only filmed three new sequences and they're the two time lapse sequences at the beginning and the one at the end. The music on my clip is stock audio footage from the Acura media kit.

What do you think?
http://www.satoauto.com/video/Three_commercials.wmv

Hey Everyone ! :)

This is my first thread over here at DVINFO :o)

So to begin, the Company I work for (Eden Games, creator of "Test Drive Unlimited") organized a Karting Session with all the employees 3 months ago. I was over there to shot them in action and then later do a montage of this afternoon.

It has a certain MTV style that pretty much sums up all the fun we had
So there it is! and let me know whatr you think!

------------------------------------------------------------------
DOWNLOAD THE MOVIE (110mo, 6:29min, divx) (right click + save as)
http://sebastien.laban.free.fr/karting/KARTING_EDENGAMES_2006.avi
------------------------------------------------------------------

http://sebastien.laban.free.fr/cgtalk/karting.jpg

Enjoy!!!
ps 1: there's a CG Mario on his Kart! Will you find it? :o)
ps 2: filmed in DV with a Panasonic NV-GS400 camcorder.

Promo video I did for "Project Twenty1" www.projecttwenty1.com


http://www.psynema.com/phillycrew/clipshare/view_video.php?viewkey=6fa44e1ed0ff613f563b&page=1&viewtype=&category=mv

I thought the third one fit right in. Well done.

I'm putting together my first reel, promoting myself as a low-budget writer/diector/editor/producer, and would like to get some advice on the best way to present my skills. Most of the reels I have seen are from cinematographers (an area I am not incredibly proficient in), and include chopped shots set to a soundtrack. This won't work if I want to highlight dialogue I have written, or showcase the overall feel of a specific scene/section I have directed. I could just put section-to-section, back-to-back, but I feel that may be too long-winded. I want to show my work, but do it efficiently.

I was thinking on picking a few of my best scenes/sections that range from 3-5 minutes, letting them play in their A/V entirety, separating them by title cards in which I describe my contributions. So...

1) Do you think this is the best way to showcase wherein the goal is to provide a look at the overall work rather than just a technical aspect?
2) How long should a reel like this be?
3) Most of my work is action sports stuff, but I do have one cable commercial under my belt. Unfortunately, the quality of the commerial is not on par with the other stuff I have done. Would you include it to show diversity, or leave it out to maintain a certain level of perceived production quality?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Shane

This is a music video I shot for a hip hop group called "Libra Project"
The song is entitled "Bridge"

Directors: James Naish and Jethro Rothe-Kushell
Director of Photography: Nick Harris (myself)
Edited by Jethro Rothe-Kushell and Clayton Woodhull

http://harrisfilms.com/videos/bridge.mov

Also, here is my DP Reel. I'd love any feedback you guys can throw at me!

http://harrisfilms.com/videos/dpreelsm.mov

Nick:

You have some really strong stuff on your reel--ballsy use of color and shadow.

There are a few shots that jump out at me as being weaker than the rest:

:15 Mirror shot--the back of the head draws the eye away from the reflected image as it is hotter and seemingly sharper--dilutes the overall image.

:45 hands with gun--although the red/orange cast is more interesting than if it had been white light, it's otherwise not a particularly strong image (especially coming from the one preceding it, which certainly is).

1:23, 1:28. 1:32: the sequence of the three peeps sitting against the newspaper wall doesn't do much for me, a bit murky and flat.

Again, these are just the images that I picked out as being not up to the high standard you set with your other work. You might be able to mix things up a bit more, especially in the first 30 seconds--knowing that most people who might hire you will make up their minds during this period, it's best to stack your strongest and most diverse images up front.

Great work, look forward to seeing more of your efforts! What camera (and I'm guessing, 35mm adaptor?) are you using?

95% of the shots were done with my XL2, on the stock 20x lens with no filters. All color effects you see were produced with gels and in camera settings... No color correction whatsoever (with the exception of the greenish night shots with the Mexican guys sitting aroudn a table drinking... one is on a jib). I did my best to learn how to make it most look like film, and worked within those limitations. Each of the projects on that reel were shot super, super low budget. I don't know if that knowledge helps or hinders the work, but it's an example of what I can extract with minimal funding (i suppose my hope is that a producer will see it and say "I want to see what he can do with a REAL budget!").

Yeah, in retrospect, I actually have a much better shot from that scene in the mirror which doesn't have his head in the foreground. That shot, along with the dolly-in preceding it (same actor), and the two shots of the indian girl in the park were done on my HVX right after I bought it (first project I shot on that camera actually).

http://www.box.net/public/mb3nj4lhs1

just a preview of a film we're almost done shooting



(this was deleted cuz i had it double posted in the letus forum.. i took out that post and put this one back because theres more non-letus shots than letus shots in this preview. thanks)

3 free Filmmaking educational videos for beginners

SHOT TYPES
http://www.sonnyboo.com/onlinemovies/shottypes.htm

180 DEGREE RULE
http://www.sonnyboo.com/onlinemovies/180degree.htm

FAST & SLOW CUTTING
http://www.sonnyboo.com/onlinemovies/fastslow.htm


These are aimed towards complete beginners and will be marketed to High School and early colleges for sales with this type of video in a series on DVD.

We shot in HDV with the JVC HD110 camera in both 24P and 30P modes and I edited in Avid Xpress Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 along with some work in After Effects. Mike Tavares was the shooter for me and the BMW was on loan from Buzz Productions. The crane shots come courtesy of Sean McHenry & Deep Blue Edit, plus TJ Cooley helped a lot on the shoot.

Thanks all.
Peter John Ross
www.sonnyboo.com

feedback on the shots.. anyone?

Hey folks,

A quick short I threw together with a couple of friends over a free weekend last summer. There's some obvious things I'd like to fix . . . however, since it is a mock-infommercial we wanted to retain that cheesy feel. This certainly made for a lot less pressure in the trying-to-make-it-look-really-cool department.

Would love to get some feedback. Here's the link. Thanks.

http://medialab.ifc.com/film_detail.jsp?film_id=2450&list=1

Hey I've written, produced, and directed lots of infomercials. Comedy is the hardest thing. I think this would be better if it was about half as long. I liked the notion of connecting him to the vacuum cleaner. and i appreciate that you didn't find the need for graphic vulgarity.
Kudos to whoever picked the music--it's perfect--we use to spend days mulling through that kind of generic garbage. It makes my skin crawl hearing it.

Here's an opening for a infomercial i did for a recliner. I was trying to be funny.
http://tinyurl.com/ye7qbp

And here's a mock infomercial by the morris brothers that I think is funny/silly.
http://tinyurl.com/yc6anx

They've got a REALLY funny one on that sight called reginald santori. I think the guy who stars in these videos is a genuine comic talent with potential hollywood chops.

How did you render it? file size? resolution? etc