I'm a complete amateur at videography but I have bought the HV10 and, using Vegas 7, completed my first project which is of a few of the sights in London.
I Desperately need some constructive criticism so I can improve and would be Grateful if you could comment on the final video.

It's 3Min 30sec long, recorded using the cam's auto settings and rendered at 1440x1080 HD.

I dumped all the sound from the camera and used a BBC sound effects CD for all of the ambient sound In the video

the direct link is here:
http://uploadingit.com/files/10449/Sightseeing.wmv

or you can download it from this website
http://www.zudeo.com/az-web/details/WJ3HWBX3P3XDEQXEWGU3MEWODFGKSSOX.html

Many Thanks

Nick

Nick,

Upbeat music, interesting sights around town and clever matching of visuals with events in the soundtrack.

Many of the scenes seemed 'tilted' to me - I found myself repeatedly tilting my head to the side in an effort to see it all 'straight on.' Did you level the tripod before shooting? Also, I personally prefer slightly slower zoom/pan speeds. Although I only viewed it on my 20" computer monitor, I'd be afraid of feeling a bit seasick if I were watching it on a large HD screen.

Overall I enjoyed it. For a 'complete amateur' I'd say, good going!

Thanks for sharing, and keep it up.

I'm a complete amateur at videography but I have bought the HV10 and, using Vegas 7, completed my first project which is of a few of the sights in London.
I Desperately need some constructive criticism so I can improve and would be Grateful if you could comment on the final video.

It's pretty big at 160mb, 3Min 30sec long, recorded using the cam's auto settings and rendered at 1440x1080 HD.

I dumped all the sound from the camera and used a BBC sound effects CD for all of the ambient sound In the video

the direct link is here:
http://uploadingit.com/files/10449/Sightseeing.wmv

or you can download it from this website
http://www.zudeo.com/az-web/details/WJ3HWBX3P3XDEQXEWGU3MEWODFGKSSOX.html

Many Thanks

Nick

I liked it a lot, good use of music and clips. zoom/pan speeds could be inproved.

Luis

Nick: I liked the visuals a lot, I'm surprised you only used auto settings because it looked properly exposed for the most part and usually to get proper exposure you need to use the manual settings. I wasn't crazy about the first music track you used, I didn't think it matched the visuals at all. I'm not sure what kind of music I'd suggest - perhaps something more atmospheric, and less frantic - but that aimless guitar muzak didn't work for me. But everything looked great.

Thanks for all your input, it's been very helpful, I've noticed that alot of the shots are a bit off balance, must make sure to level the tripod first and my Pan and Zoom skills need to be honed.

Thanks

Nick

I really liked it.

I thought the pans were pretty smooth myself. The only thing was it would have looked even better if it wasn't so cloudy and hey, you couldn't do nothing about that on that day!

Cool shots...makes me want to visit there someday.

I think when you live somewhere all your life you forget to stop and look around, I suprised myself about how nice London can be!

Nick, I think it could do with a little contrast + color balance.

In this small example ('little movie' below) I have squeezed a little more life out of your footage, I sweep between the graded and ungraded footage so you can see the difference.

single frame before/after (http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7726/exmpleks5.jpg)

----------------------------------


little movie (http://www.filefactory.com/file/06fc1c/)

Click on the link above, then when the 'file factory' page opens - click on the blue text in the middle of the page (around a third of the way down) that says Download for free with FileFactory Basic

The page will refresh and now click the link that says 'Click here to begin your download ' which is again in blue and again in the middle of the page.

I'll go through again and see what i can do, It certainly seems to have more life in it.

Thanks

Nick

Nick, I think it could do with a little contrast + color balance.

In this small example ('little movie' below) I have squeezed a little more life out of your footage, I sweep between the graded and ungraded footage so you can see the difference.

single frame before/after (http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7726/exmpleks5.jpg)



Excellent job, Lee! Wow, that really perks up. Did you use FCP or other software?

lmr

Nick, I think it could do with a little contrast + color balance.

In this small example ('little movie' below) I have squeezed a little more life out of your footage, I sweep between the graded and ungraded footage so you can see the difference.

single frame before/after (http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7726/exmpleks5.jpg)

----------------------------------


little movie (http://www.filefactory.com/file/06fc1c/)

Click on the link above, then when the 'file factory' page opens - click on the blue text in the middle of the page (around a third of the way down) that says Download for free with FileFactory Basic

The page will refresh and now click the link that says 'Click here to begin your download ' which is again in blue and again in the middle of the page.

Outstanding Lee, I also thought that this grayish looking London scenes could take a little perking up with contrast and color manipulation.
Do you think it could be done on FCExpress ??
Thanks,
Luis

Elmer + Luis

I used After Effects - Using the 'levels' plug-in I made the blacks darker and the whites lighter then I simply pulled the gamma around in the three RGB channels a little bit until it looked better.

This was all done with only the 'levels' plug-in - so you should be able to do the same in any editing or compositing software very easily.

Does FCExpress have a levels plug-in ?

Actually... I also added a little bit of sharpness with the sharpen filter