Hi Paul. What i thought worked well were the camera moves, the story (i like how the documentary commentary kind of ties in to the emotion of the film) and the comedy, it's so hard to make people laugh but i think you managed to do that no problem. What didnt really work for me was the pace, i felt as if i was waiting for a climax that never really came and so it left me expecting a big finish or punch line. Anyway theyre just my personal opinions, i really do like the concept and i think with a bit more attention to pace and maybe throw in some sort of punchline or climax this would be a winner for me. Congrats on getting it complete, must have taken some work :)

Pacing on this kind of thing can be difficult to manage, although the pacing may have a lot to do with setting the mood.

Paul, just a few suggestions on the audio for similar projects. The tv soundtrack overpowered the dialog for the most part. I try to get a mic in close to the actors, not always having a boompole person I usually use a sturdy lightstand with a boom attached and suspend the mic over and just in front of the actors, keeping it just out of view (and I learned the hard way you can't count on the viewfinder or LCD to show you this due to "overscan"). So a quick "test" shot played back on a laptop may be required. Shooting AVCHD on flash memory makes this a tad easier as one can just pull the media card out and run the file with a software player.

The background audio (tv documentary soundtrack) can be brought in and synched as a separate audio track and the level brought down as needed until the dialogue dominates.

Just my ideas.

The camera work and acting seemed to work well.

Hi,

I have used some elements of one of my posts awhile ago, "A Blade for the Dead", for a 2 minute short, entitled "The Bloodstained Moth". This was for a competition on the Horror Channel, which restricted the running time to 2 minutes. As such, the plot was revised, which completely changed the tone, and required some additional filming.

Anyway, I hope you like this new reconstituted version.

Stream:The Bloodstained Moth on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/1539288/l:transcoded_email)

Download:Free file hosting by Savefile.com (http://www.savefile.com/files/1732028)

Great film Mark! I love that you managed to pack a lot into just two minutes. I really liked the lighting (especially in the bedroom) and the sound was awesome too - good luck with the competition!

I put together a short video montage with some footage I've been filming down in a small canyon not far from where I live. The canyon itself contains a trail that leads down to the beach and this short video reveals the scenery one sees from within the canyon.
Shot with a Canon XH-A1
Carrotkid Films - Canyon Pathway (http://www.carrotkidfilms.com/canyonpathway.html)

Ok - plucked up the courage and posted my first 'short'!

A friend of mine asked me to put together a short promo for his company at short notice, so I had to utilise footage I've collected over the past view years from various locations. We didn't want to scare clients so I went for a more mysterious tone.

The colour and B/W footage is shot with my XM2 and VX2000 (still can't decide on my favourite!), and the IR shots on Sony single CCD cameras. Because of the nature of the work a lot of shots have to be handheld, and lighting is, er, what I can carry!

Just over 3MB .WMV

Constructive feedback appreciated!

Short promo (http://www.tsarskoe-productions.com/promo.wmv)

After the awards last week this film won best acting and best writing. It finished 2nd out of 36 teams.

http://vimeo.com/1540019

Congrats on the awards Jeremy, that's great! Just checked out the film and thought it was awesome - hard to believe you managed to put all that together in just 2 days!!! That is talent indeed. It had a very polished look to it and kept my interest throughout.

Say, what mic did you use to record the audio? I'll be in the market to buy a new mic soon and I really like the sound in this film.

We used a Shure boom mic. I don't know what model though sorry. It was about 3 inches out of frame at a 45 degree angle. We ran it to a mixer than out of the mixer into the camera.

I'm happy and excited. The writer, the executive producer and the lead actor are all from San Diego so I decided that it might be good to submit and hit the road locally. Anyway, here's a trailer for those of you who haven't seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAcG9qtYN48

Hey Everybody,

Here's a short, 1:45 video I created for Stephen Colbert's "Make McCain Interesting" Green-screen challenge!

Recorded with Canon XH-A1

Edited in Final Cut Pro

Composites created in Motion3

Credits in Vid

Let me know what you think! It was a decent amount of hard work :-)

Thanks,

John


McCainiac 08 on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/1573515) *Vimeo*

YouTube - McCainiac 08 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-et3wMEYE4I) *YouTube*

Started this 9 months ago... my first baby, I suppose...

The Beauvilles - Snow (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruLI2eK14pA)

Looks interesting indeed - when do you plan to have the film complete?

Wow, nice work. Footage quality was excellent, nice shots, smooth camera movements. I liked the ambient sound as well - very clean track.

Thanks for the reply! I hope to have it finished sometime in November.

This is a short film I made this summer with the help of a few friends.

"A young couple can't seem to find the right words to say to each other."

High Quality available:
YouTube - A Door in Between (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDhsyG6NMtw)

DVX100A - 4:02

Feedback is appreciated. :)

very nicly done. I like the concept you were getting at with the first date. I think we all can relate to that. well quality is very nice and the audio sounded good. shot selection was okay. i think you could hVE DONE little better with a few shots like the one with her leaving the bathroom. i think you stayed with it a little to long. and maybe the last shot of them driving way. would have liked to see them get into the car. maybe show him opening the door for her being even more of a gentleman since he got the rose for her..

But overall very good short film i liked it

i like the shots. looks like it going to be an intresting film. is it done yet

Just a bit of gentle fun for a client. The brief was to make a promo for a piece of scanner software - not the most interesting of subjects. Well, you can't say we didn't try!

www.videoit.uk.com/client_video/autostore_final_v500.wmv. Around 10Mb in WMV. V Lo res!

Canon XL2. Sony Vegas to edit. Cakewalk Sonar for music and some foley.

I liked it. The tracking shot was my favorite. I like the two different color schemes, whether it was on purpose or not. I know you probably hated the wind conditions, but it also added a sort of human nature effect. I agree with the bathroom opinion, but that's not a major issue. The sound was good except for outside, but it wasn't a big deal. I like the concept a lot. great job

CME

Thanks Derrick - this was just various shots I've collected over the years ... have a couple of projects completed and in the pipeline ...

Thanks for the comments. I didn't get anywhere in the competition which was a real disappointment. But I'm very happy with the quality and tone I achieved.

some background: former TV news anchor/reporter now working in government video, most of what I do is training, education, PR type stuff with the occasional documentary thrown in.

I recently contributed a sax part to a Canadian artist's song called "I'm that Man." We bouth thought it was ripe for a video, and he wanted to enter it into a contest, so I found a bit of time. Since he is in Ontario and I'm in NJ, I gave him ideas of what to shoot ( I have no idea what he used but a consumer mini dv camcorder) He sent me the tape, I found some public domain footage, shot a bit myself and dug into my archives for a few shots. I put it all together in Vegas 6, with one tweak in Aftereffects 5.5. It's up on youtube.

I'm That Man (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kmLW-qxC0Q)

um wow, the quality is greeaat. It's not very different, but hey why would it have to be? I liked it a lot, the soldiers playing the tamborine were off just a tad, but other than that it was very professional looking, sure this is your first one?

Yep, enjoyed that.

Particularly liked:
- the set up at the very start ('any last words' - nice touch)
- the authentic look (costumes, locations)
- the shooting segment - very nicely done
- the cinematography - some great shots and movement

Not so keen on:
- the tambourine playing soldiers (immediately removed their menacing quality, for me anyway), likewise the toe tapping.
- the sub plot with the girl etc didn't quite make sense for me - I expect I need to watch it again to fully get the story.

I would have:
- perhaps put a dialogue scene in during the middle eight - like when the case is being delivered to the man behind the desk - some menacing words then would have been great. I really love dialogue like that in a music video.
- considered using an old film stock look that would better position the piece in the 1960's Soviet Union. (or whenever/wherever it was supposed to be set!). You know, that desaturated cine film look that you see on clips of nuclear missiles being moved around Russia during the cold war - or the famous old yeti clips! Nothing wrong with the look you applied to your film, just observing what I might have done differently.
- I always think out of focus works well to increase the menace appeal of a person or people - I would have kept the firing squad out of focus every time (with the exception of the captain, perhaps).

Anyway, regardless of all the above (which are all subjective observations and not criticisms as such), I enjoyed it and will watch it again. I'm guessing that while this may be your first music video, this probably isn't your first time making a film?

Care to share some 'making of' info - which camera, NLE, size of crew, special kit you used etc etc?

Cheers,

Ian . . .

Lighting, sound, cinematography - all great. Nice and creepy. Didn't quite follow who did what to whom and why but who cares? It was still effective!

What NLE did you use?

Thanks!
This is the first music video I've directed. The band and I came up with the concept.

Tambourines and toe tapping were the band's idea... to let people know they don't take themselves too serious. The people playing the soldiers pretty much had no rhythm, which the band and I thought was hilarious. We shot that and the toe-tapping a few times. I figured since we thought the poor rhythm was funny, then we'd found what we were looking for - a little levity.

The last shot tends to be missed in the compression... but the blood soaks into the shirt, forming a broken heart... then a solid heart (lyrics "...nothing worse than a broken heart"...). I went for subtle, dark humor there.

The structure of the story is broken up so that all three "climaxes" of a larger story happen around the same time in the video.
Chronological order:
1. Guy and girl (spies?) running through forest with bag (full of secret documents?).
2. They are chased by soldiers.
3. They are caught by the soldiers.
4. They end up in a cell with the rest of the band. No one is in any serious trouble yet (they're given a couple of bottles of "Russian Whisky" - heh), they were just in the wrong place or something.
5. The bag is dumped out on the Commander's desk and he finds the secret documents.
6. The Lieutenant shows up at the cell with one of the secret documents. He orders the guards to get the girl out of the cell. Then all hell breaks loose.
7. The band, now kind of beat up, faces the firing squad...

- We talked about putting dialogue and other sounds in during the music, but decided it would distract from the music (the whole point of the project).

- I actually have a shot of the tambourines in the background, out of focus, from behind the lead singer as he's playing/singing. But we decided not to use it (the section in the video where the shot synced up would've thrown off the pacing of the video).

- As for the look of the video, I was aiming for a slightly warmer version of the look from the movie Behind Enemy Lines.

BTS:
- The firing squad scene was shot in a recently burned-down building in Tampa's historic district, Ybor City
- The jail scene was shot at the old trolley barn just down the street in Ybor
- The snow scenes were shot in Vermont/New Hampshire, in the area around Dartmouth
- HVX200 w/ Brevis35, Nikon primes
- Spider dolly/flextrak for jail; Matthews dolly/fixed track for firing squad scene
- Edited with Final Cut
- 11 man crew for the firing squad sequence
- 3 man crew for the pickups at that location
- 3 man crew for the jail sequence
- 1 man crew for Vermont

Thank you very much for taking the time to watch my film. I agree with your comments - the one thing I regretted most was the ending and how the boy wasn't as well mannered as he had been the rest of the film. Another shot of the car would have helped as well. All I had access to during the shoot was a shotgun microphone so the audio didn't stand much of a chance outdoors.

Thanks again :)

Hey guys...shameless plug here.
My low-budget Zombie flick hits DVD in the US on September 9th! Yippee!

We shot on the Canon XL-H1 and paid for the whole thing on our credit cards...so it is pretty amazing that we have made it this far. Thanks for all the great advice...these forums have always been a big help!

Http://www.zombieszombieszombies.com


J

This is the first draft (and hopefully the final!) of my Dark Matter commercial for MHP. Any opinions would be welcome.

In this commercial I am trying to differentiate Dark Matter from MHP's other new product Dark Rage and emphasize some of the science that goes into creating something like this.

MHP Dark Matter Commercial V1 on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/1596694)

Seemed a bit... slow at first but around half-way through it began to look more and more like a commercial, I liked it, you showed the actual product several times, which i liked, the customer now KNOWS what ther're looking for, I didn't like the atom graphic used more than once, the filmed portion inside the gym looked good, I think the last half was the real essence of the commercial, if you could somehow shorten the beginning some.

It also was a different spin on workout enhancers, normally I feel like when I see advertisements for post-workout enhancers, I feel like Chuck Norris is gonna punch me in the face multiple times. But with this commercial I feel like Frankenstein, I liked the theme.

If your going to change anything, my advice would be shorten the beginning, try and not use the same atom graphic more than once, and try and make the whole video seem like the last half ( fast-paced, giving good solid facts about the product back to back)

The biggest part of a commercial is the beginning, if you don't IMMEDIATELY grab their attention they're flipping the channel.

Don't know if you plan on making a 30 sec TV spot version, but if you do, I feel if you follow what you're doing now, it would be great.

Very Good.

CME

EDIT: As you mentioned, the giving of the scientific facts about the product, (in my opinion) is a good idea. Makes me feel as if t6he product is very legitimate, and better than the other products out there.

should i have used the "im only 20 on you" or the "mine is better than yours ;)

Thanks for the comments Ian. I purposefully left it open to interpretation and implication.

I used Sony Vegas Pro 8.

Okay,

the climax and the audio I understand and I think the fix is easy

but the pace - how do I alter that? should the sequences be shorter? should there be more edit points?

I'm assuming the pace is too slow but how do I speed it up?

In our recent entry with the 48 Hour Film Project we drew horror as a genre. Here is what we came up with:

http://www.vimeo.com/1605228

YouTube - Death For Rent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiR7ugMuMwQ)

Loved the closing pool shot! Very nice. The music was a little repetitive, but for a 48 hour fest I can understand that you were probably swamped since you shot a lot of coverage. The camera work was pretty good. How did you do in the Fest?
Horror is always fun.

PS- If you have a chance, please take a look at my latest. I would love to hear what you think. The Watchman (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/show-your-work/127047-watchman-short-film.html)

Thanks,

Mike

We'll know about how we did on September 4.

Yeah, with a 3 hour trip to deliver, our 48 hours was reduced to 45, and I did shoot a lot of coverage. I swear next time I do one of those, I will have someone capturing footage after every scene. That cost me about 4 hours with some capture problems that developed. I originally was going to capture everything in Cineform, captured one tape, and then it ran so long to convert, I finally captured rest via HDVSplit.

By the way, actually shot this with Z1 and Fx1 using--- Cineframe24 !

Hi All,

I've recently finished Episode One of my new 'NO BUDGET' sci-fi/horror web series called WIRED. You can view it here: THE VIDEO COMPANY TV (http://www.thevideocompany.tv), where I plan to show them all to everyone for FREE.

Since getting into video production around 7 years ago, I've mainly worked on weddings and corporate videos. However, I always wanted to start tv & film production, with WIRED being my first attempt.

Everything was done by myself, including the writing, directing, producing, camerawork, editing and a small cameo at the end. I know this has problems, but I do consider it a success as I had no money or experience of this type of work. The fortunate thing is, I've managed to purchase all the required equipment over the years, and should be able to practice my craft by firing these out.

As I'm a Rodriguez fan, this episode was done in the style of Grindhouse, and I plan to make the next one similar to Sin City. The next episode should give me more practice at writing dialogue, and experience casting people for the roles.

Anyway, feel free to watch and provide any CC that you feel will benefit myself.

Cheers,

James.

Just a couple of web videos we've added to our website. (Finally found some time to upload videos, hopefully more to come soon :)

http://www.madjavaproductions.com/RedBull_%20AirRace_Montage.wmv

http://www.madjavaproductions.com/Gouldings30secSpot_Aug_08.wmv


The Red Bull Air Race was produced in May 2007. And the Goulding's Lodge 30 second commercial was produced sometime in 2006.

Both shot on the Caon XL2, 24p, and edited on Adobe PP2.

Best,

This is a silly little thing we put together. Give it a look and tell me what you think.

The Joe Show Show Episode 2 on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/1587089)

I've posted the revised version of the intro, for anyone that is interested.

MHP Martinez intro V2 (Mini documentary) on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/1614842)

Thanks for your input Caleb! You are right, the beginning is a bit too slow. I was taking liberties with it because I knew that this commercial is going to be on a promo DVD and I felt that the viewers would be more inclined to sit through it because they are invested in watching it. Now I'm not so sure.

However, later we also plan to post it on the web and at that time I will definitely make some of the cuts you suggested, shortening the first half and increasing its energy.

My thoughts, from someone who produces hundreds of commercials a year...
It is extremely long for a commercial!
In my little world commercials are :15, :30, or :60 seconds.

This is a short film we just completed a couple of weeks ago. We were asked to make it as part of the opening of a theater opening in the area.

It was shot on a Canon XL HD1


YouTube - CODA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjpPDTiLqLI)


thanks for watching

Totally missed the silly part in your post...I was totally suckered in to the plot, and laughed out loud...

Good Job.

Mike Watkins

I thought it was quite good! Hope you make more episodes.

Thanks for the comments!

Yeah, that was the 2nd episode and we plan to keep making them until someone makes us stop. :-)

here we go again

Riley Harmon | Rush of Fools: Visual FX (http://rileyharmon.com/11_07/2008/rush-of-fools-visual-fx/)