Wow, great visuals! Well done...

Very impressive!

Great work!!!! How difficult was it to key out the white background?

Entire video in HD here:

Rush of Fools - Wonder of the World on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/1577886)



ash =o)

What camera did you use? And how much footage did you shoot? Did you go into it with a fairly well thought out story, or did it just kind of hatch and present itself to you?

There is a lot of fantastic indie music out there, and this generation has produced some really first rate song writers.

Good start Bill! Is there a particular audience or angle you're taking this video? If you want critical feedback, well, that's what I can offer!

The concept comes through, the shots make sense, the editing is well done, and the sound is good. This feels like a video made in the last 80's/90's with a matching-era Hi8 camera. With the abundance of cheap HD digital cameras available, the older camera-look detracts from the video; it could just be the lighting, but I think it's more than that. I'm sure it would have helped had you been able to be the shooter.

That said, if he shot this himself and he's not a trained videographer, it was well done (stable, clean shots that are quite usable).

The sax shot looks cleaner/brighter than the rest - perhaps colour correcting the other footage would assist in bringing together a more uniform look. The still photos that are colour are far more punchy than the footage of the singer.

Good job!

Thanks for the look and comments. Funny you should mention Hi-8, the shots of my sax playign were done with a Sony VX-3. I don't know what camcorder he used, except it was mini-DV.

He shot the clips of him singing, well I believe his wife did most of the shooting, and the lighting was horrible. I corrected it as much as I thought I could, but there was a lot of grain.

the stills, yes, they are pretty clean, I did pump up the contrast a bit, but we were getting close to the contest deadline so I made it "look done" as we used to say in TV news. ;-) I could probably go back and drain most of the color from them. hmmm.

I've been eyeing a Canon HV30 and actually held one the other day and my goodness it's TINY! A long way from the TK76's and Ikegami's heck, even a long way from my DSR250 (at work). Not sure I can deal with something that small, but the budget won't go for anything more "substantial" maybe a used PD150 or GL1 but that is staying SD.

well, I got a bit off topic there didn't I. LOL

Thanks again.

Nice! Thanks for the explanation and detail into your process. It does look done, so that's good.

I own an HV20 - no joke, it is as good as everyone says it is. Get one - I have mine on rails with a matte box, 35mm adapter - the added heft makes it very workable. I've used it without the rig, and it's a bit light, but in stable hands it produces shots that people can't believe it shot. The music video I shot in this Forum area was shot with the HV20 (comment too if you'd like: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/show-your-work/127001-my-first-music-video-alt-rock-performance.html )

I've used the DSR-250, PD170 and, I can highly recommend the HV20!

This was the 2nd film I made for the Zone Horror Cut! competition, the 1st being "The Bloodstained Moth" (posted earlier). Again it's a 2 minute horror short. It was made principally to give a run out for my new camera, the Canon HV20. In contrast to "The Bloodstained Moth", it was shot very quickly with little light setup.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Blind Sided on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/1639620/l:transcoded_email)

What camera did you use? And how much footage did you shoot? Did you go into it with a fairly well thought out story, or did it just kind of hatch and present itself to you?

There is a lot of fantastic indie music out there, and this generation has produced some really first rate song writers.

Thank you for your interest! The camera I used was a Canon XL2. The film is not yet completed, it's actually about halfway done but we have about 50 hours worth of footage. We had no story at all to start out with, we are basically forming a plot based on what the interviewees say, which to me is a lot more exciting.

I agree that there is a lot of great music out there, and that's what really inspired us to make this documentary. It's basically three people making it, a musician, a photographer and me.

Thank you again for your interest!

I made a video for my high school film group. We all just graduated from high school last semester and I decided to do one last production for them. I edited clips into a unfinished "Apologize" music video and it turned out to be a great little final project before I hit college. Read the description that is provided on the page as well. Comments are welcome!

The inVISIONit Projects: 2006-2008 on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/1663156)

Very cool - I wish I had experience like that coming out of high school. Very nice reel.

This short video started out only as a weekend exercise in following movement with a tripod but I had a few "happy accidents" along the way. I'm so pleased with how it turned out that I wanted to share it with you.

Chincoteague and Assateague on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/1645340)

Very cool - I wish I had experience like that coming out of high school. Very nice reel.

Thanks Philip. I didn't know if anyone checks this section anymore.

yo howd u get those letters there where hes pointing them out 02:57. thats sick

I liked the video. I think you could've done more with the whole mad scientist/horror movie concept. For example when he's outside with all those people you could've made a everyone look like zombies ala Thriller (no sequence dancing).

Thanks Aron.

I loved the spiderweb, and the raccoons and that shot of the leaves right before the snail which was also quite nice.

I loved Baked Apple - wonderful short. Weird. Funny. And inventive.

Nice work all the way around.

something I've been working on of late, hopefully it's worthy enough for display...
it may take a few minutes to down load


http://www.starwarsresurrection.com/Resurrection%20Trailer/Resurrection%20Trailer.mov

something I've been working on of late, hopefully it's worthy enough for display...
it may take a few minutes to down load


http://www.starwarsresurrection.com/Resurrection%20Trailer/Resurrection%20Trailer.mov

Pretty cool! I think the beginning could be spiced up a bit with more than just text. Maybe on the "beats" you could flash the text and it could change. I didn't see much in the pacing, perhaps add more of your own sound effects to make the shot transitions more "active". And last I think that a quote or multiple quotes from the production would help bring the teaser a little bit more perspective. That's my two cents! Good work.

As with most things Star Wars related, I simply get an overwhelming urge to look and it has to be said that I was pleasantly suprised. I'm not convinced by the western music, for the want of a better description, but the rest of it looks promising.

i really enjoyed that, looks very well produced. I would have liked to have seen less text in the begining though but other than that i thought it was excellent.

I really enjoyed that, the quality was very nice too. Bloodtsianed moth is still my fav tho :p I wish i heard about this horror competition, sounds like fun. Was it just a one off do you know?

Hi Mark,

I really enjoyed that, and I can see what you were getting at when you said that you didn't spend as much time on it.

In my very humble opinion, it would be even better if you did the following:

- Loose or change the 'shine' type effect. It looks bad, and devalues all the hard work you've put in, and the obvious talent that you have.

- Spend a bit more time on the skin displacement. It's looking good, but I honestly think YOU can make it better. You done a great job on the end effects in Bloodstained Moth, and are more than capable of doing it.

- Eye replacement at the end would seal the deal. From how you shot the piece, I certainly was expecting it and was suprised when it didn't happen.

These are only my suggestions, but I seriously think they would enhance a good piece of work.

cheers,

James.

Well we typically stick with real estate tours but one of our clients needed a commercial shot (very low budget) and I had the time, let me know what you think.

http://videomemoriesinc.com/kriegel/agave%20edit%201.wmv

Just looked at the wmv myself and I noticed my voice at the end is out of sync, I will look over that, it also doesn't look as smooth as the original. Hopefully a web thing.

Comments on the shoot would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Todd

I thought the video was a good, I've watched a lot of your videos and have seen you progress. How did you get the letters to swing like that, very cool effect. Keep it up!

Hurricane Gustav Aftermath on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/1686015)

Nothing special or fancy here. Just a collage of damage footage shot on a Canon HF100. Shot it on the lowest setting and used just a B&W and brightness/contrast effect on it in Vegas. Very simple.

This was more about getting footage of it rather than making something really spectacular.

I was just there last week shooting a doc on the aftermath. Spent a couple days on location in Baton Rouge. I can't share the work because I don't have the rights to it. In one shot, I have a traffic light dangling a few feet off the ground.. twisting in the wind.. with the red light flashing.

-gb-

The radio station WJBO was really all we had to get info. Phones and power were out, along with the net of course. We got hit exceptionally hard and it's the worst I've ever been through. Worst our area has had.

President Bush was landing at the Baton Rouge Metro airport when I was waiting in line for 6 hours to get MREs from the national guard equipped with fully-automatic machine guns.

Sounds fun, eh? =/


Let's hope you won't have to come back for Ike :|

Thanks for all the comments. I’m really pleased you enjoyed it.

Daniel, this is the second year of the competition. The first was two years ago. The organisers have stated that there will be another.

James, thank you for all your points. They are all on the money and I completely agree. In particular, I intended to add some special fx to the eyes but I ran out of time. Maybe now the deadline has passed I will work on the fx.

I agree that the sci-fi theme stopped kind of suddenly. But you definitely have an eye for shots. And nice work with the letters, I assume done in After Effects.

I thought generally it was very good, however there were a few things i would change if I could. The first thing is the opening shot of the bar where u zoom out from the tv to the bar, i feel it ends to abruptly which ruins an otherwise nice looking shot. I'm not quite sure but i think i see the brightness changing on the shot of the live performances which isn't major but it is noticible. But on a whole i think you captured the life of the bar very well and i like the variety in shots to match the description, i know you've mentioned the audio out of sync so i'm sure you'l sort that but again i think if you tightened up some of those shots you'd have agreat looking ad. I genuinly enjoyed viewing it.

I'd reverse the zooms out from the sign and from the television so that they read as zooms in. I'd avoid mixing the crane downwards shot with the two pans.Just pans will do.
Hire a food stylist or study some TVC's. The food probably tastes great but it looks very amateurishly styled. Finally, even though natural & ambient light are nice to be in, for a TVC it helps to help nature a bit. Some rim lights here and there would have added a bit of sparkle to otherwise rather flat looking shots. Also, I try to shoot for mood. Rarely between the hours of 10AM and 2PM for outdoors stuff.

Thanks for the input it is much appreciated

Thanks Lori, glad you liked it.

Thanks for the replies.

Daniel I agree with both of those items, I change the zoom out from the tv to have a definite ending. Also I inserted another clip where the brightness wasn't changing on the band. Thank you for the feedback!

Paul thank you also for the feedback. I reversed the sign shot so that it would zoom in as the name is said. I realize a food stylist would be great, but for the price I was paid ($350) I probably could not even afford to talk to a stylist on the phone. And to boot the owner wasn't making anything special for the commercial; everything was shot before it left the kitchen. Yes I am serious, as food was ordered that night it was brought out to the counter and I filmed it before it went to the table.

That night no one ordered a burrito while I was there so the kitchen made one for me, after I was done with my shot I saw the cook take the burrito apart and put the rice back with the rice and shell back in the container.

I agree the outside shot could have looked better, it was later in the day around 7:00-7:30 but it was a dreary day with no clouds or bright blue skies.

I had my tota light set with me that night and used it for all the shots, any idea on how to get the shot to not look so dull? Maybe I need to look over in post, or maybe I am approaching the limits of the gl2?

Here is the updated version:
http://videomemoriesinc.com/kriegel/edit2.wmv

Thanks all,
Todd

I don't do commercials, but I liked it a lot. Considering as you say, "low budget", I thought It was great.

Its posted below. I know its kinda long but I dont care ;)

Giuseppe Palumbo Reel 2008 on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/1641325)

The editing is snazzy in some ways, but you aren't giving me anything to sink my teeth into. since I don't know what you do, it's hard to tell if you can tell a story from that reel. The images collide beautifully, but I don't know where they go and they aren't enigmatic enough to hold my attention as it is.

I think I see technical skill, and certainly some artistry, but I don't see storytelling skills. And I think focusing on communicating your ability to tell a story, might enhance our perception of your technical skills.

For what it's worth.

you couldntve said it better :)

I liked it very much too, nice colours and overall cinematography.

Please check out our latest film FALLOUT. From the GRAND PRIZE WINNERS of The Weinstein Company’s/George Romero’s “Diary of the Dead” DVD film competition comes our latest film, FALLOUT.

Director Paul Del Vecchio's Blog: Horror-Movies.ca Article on FALLOUT! (http://www.pauldvblog.com/2008/09/horror-moviesca-article-on-fallout.html)


Click on the link for information and CLICK ON THE THUMBS UP TO VOTE:


Thanks for the support!

Hello,

I've got this cam around one month ago, and until now was making tests. This is finally something "complete".

The idea was to make a really quick cake recipe, and make it look dinamic. There are issues with the focus on some shots, and maybe some weird movements, but hey, it's my first work...

Beside all the errors, I hope you like it!

Fast.Breakfest on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/1725808)

All comments are welcome!

Jordi.

Agree with pretty much everything said already - overall good for low budget (I know how that goes!). My main critical comments would be:

- the food presentation was very uninviting. It was lit fine but tinfoil and plastic sauce pots look kinda cheap and nasty. To be honest, it was the initial pizza and sandwich shot that looked extremely weak to me and that made me want to find fault in the other shots! (Sorry!!).

- personally I like quiet bars, but this place looked almost morgue-quiet - especially the early shots - the garden was empty and the pan from 0.02 to 0.04 only had a few clients in shot. As the v/o is describing the unique atmosphere at that point it kinda suggests 'unique' = 'empty'. I think the issue was shooting during the day - I appreciate you can't always control these things but if it were me I would have looked to shoot at night. A bit of ambient bar noise foley (glasses clinking, laughter etc) would also lift the atmosphere somewhat.

But again, overall impression was good for a low budget commercial.

http://www.videoit.uk.com/client_video/autostore_final_v502avnet.wmv

This is a slightly updated version that is being used in the UK (the other version is for the US and Canada). There are a couple of other improvements, mainly timing, colour and foley corrections.

Would welcome some criticism! One comment that a couple of people have made is that the 'white office' section is a little too long. I fully agree. Client decision I'm afraid. I managed to cut 70 seconds from the original version, after much debate, but they wouldn't agree to further cuts. Hey ho, I got paid . . .

Hey all,

I recently produced/filmed/edited a 10 minute Promotional Video for this UCLA kids camp that I volunteer for every year, using a Canon XH-A1, Rode NTG-2 microphone and edited on Final Cut Pro. The target audience are potential donors (from college students, families, to corporate sponsors)

My big problem is this: The people I would generally ask to give me constructive feedback are actually a part of this organization, so it's difficult to be objective about it having gone through this experience.

The main areas I feel I need to develop include the pacing, the ability to convey the themes clearly to an audience with no prior understanding of the camp, and overlaying of general footage over the interviews.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, from detailed comments to high-level thoughts. This is an extremely important organization to me and the people involved with it, so I want to do whatever I can to portray this camp as accurately as possible.

Here's the link: Promotional Video : 9/14/08 edit on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/1735150)

Thanks so much!

Randy, it's nicely done.

I would have approached the opening a bit differently. I mean, there are many ways you can do this, and everyone will have their own approach.
I always want to grab the viewer in the first few seconds. get their attention, then hold it.

I might have started with the closeup of the stream and the nat sot, then clashed that with a downtown shot of noisy traffic, and done that for a couple of quick shots, then gone back to the serene woods and use the soundbite about "it's so quiet here, you can hear the river..." and gone into it from that perspective.

I think the interviews are woven together nicely, I might leave a bit more space and nat sot in between some of them. One interview says something about the campers having fun, but the shot is a large group of them standing around. I would replace that shot with something that matches the voice a bit better.

Beautifully shot, I think you have captured the serene, natural area perfectly. I have a meeting so I have only been able to watch about half of it. will watch the rest later.

Thanks Bill! I agree about leaving more space in between some of the interviews. Let me know your thoughts on the rest of it. I'm interested in getting as much feedback as possible.

Nothing? I'll like some comments, even if they're bad.... :_

Too many calories. I enjoyed it, but it made me hungry. :)