Hi Sean,
Firstly, kudos for what looks like an interesting & well-made film.As far as the trailers are concerned, the second is much stronger than the first.The VO helped set the story up so the clips had some coherence that the first one lacked; I had no idea what the piece was about after watching the first one.

My only qualm would be the sound loop played throughout.It's a good beat but over-used & becomes repetitious It flattened the build of the story, IMO , rather than piquing interest as the crux of the matter, the scam of this pseudo-gear, got the plot ball really rolling.

In fact ,the only break I can recall in the beat came during the "cooking " segment.Not really the place I'd have used a orchestral strings ambient sound.
I'd try a variety of rhythms and emotive tones to more accurately reflect the texture of the flick which seemed to me to be less a Michael Bay thrill-ride than a character-driven caper/thriller parable laced with humor.

Also , finish with a flourish that will stay with the viewer, either visual or aural.Can be a stunning crescendo, a bit of humor, or a tantalizing cliffhanger.For eg, you started with that shot of the record playing.Maybe the cut to black should be on the sound fx of a gunshot/scream/"oh f**k" then the ambient soundtrack( which has built up to a climax in rhythm ,tone, and volume) ends abruptly with the needle screeching across the record followed by a quiet scritch-click-scritch-click as the turntable keeps spinning ...fade to silence......

Ok, maybe that's a little trite but I think the points of using music more judiciously to structure the trailer like a mini-short with a set-up,crisis, and cliffhanger are valid.Your film doesn't look monotonous but the trailer sounded that way.

thanks for sharing, they look great.

The only thing I felt like commenting on, is I'm not sure I'd have included their knees, unless you were trying to look as if they were sitting on a fence in the backdrop location?

Thanks for the kudos, Chris.

Very good point about the knees. I wouldn't have thought about it that way, but now that you mention it... makes perfect sense. I'll crop 'em tighter next time.

Cheers,
Brian

I am finding myself wanting to shoot scenes and such when I see them, even when I am not currently on a project. A perfiectly clear night as a crescent moon comes up through some winter trees. Sunset against snowy mountains, night time city traffic, stuff like that.
My "eye" is starting to notice them I guess now that I am staring to work with this stuff in the early stages of my hobby.
Do others tend to gather their own stock footage this way, as they see it, or would it be to hard to match look and feel of clips aquired out of context?
Just wondering what others do.

Nice Job.

I'm sure the client was thrilled.

I used part of this adagio in an AWOL comp and felt I didn't do justice to the piece - here is the full adagio, I still don't feel I have the images right so any comments would be appreciated

http://www.vimeo.com/770701

I just noticed an encoding error - there's a green line at the top and the image has some sort of flicker or jump - I'm sure what's doing that

Some friends who are gymnasts and parkour specialists invited me along to the gym, and I took my camera with me.

I wanted to test the slow-motion feature in the camera, as well as practice frame composition (with fixed and moving position), shooting angles. To see if I could make it look interesting and dynamic.

I took the footage, which was recorded on a combination of the HDR and tape, and then edited it together with some music. The guys featured loved it.

I thought it was ok. Nothing jaw dropping, just average. But then it is only the 2nd time the camera has been used. And the cameraman is still learning. The film is simple, short and a chance to practice :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJV9qNjsQjw

I am still working out the whole "compression" minefield, hence why the footage doesnt look as good as it should.

And yes, Im guilty of overusing the slow motion a la Matrix effect. In fight scenes its overused. With gymnasts, I think its different. Feel free to correct me if you think Im wrong.

I will be getting a 35mm adaptor soon, so will shoot some more with the guys soon.

I would welcome your comments on composition, music choice, editing, thoughts on overall improvement.

Thanks in advance

N

Here's me three cents:

1) The slow motion worked well and I enjoyed that.

2) I got tired of the same low angle shot every time. You need to break it up, choose a bigger variety of shots.

3) The Matrix music (Spybreak-Propellerhead?) is so overdone.

Not bad, very smooth. The low angles do get repetitive, just cut it down a little maybe?? I know you probably do not have a device to do this but some higher shots mixed in fading to low angles as like one fluid motion would be very very impressive. Anyway what program did you work with to edit your footage? What camera? Very nicely done...

Filmed on the Canon HV20

http://www.vimeo.com/user278515/videos

Makers is a short subject documentary, filmed at Austin's Maker Faire, 2007, about the people behind the do-it-yourself counterculture and their inventions.

You'll see a life-sized MouseTrap game, a live performance of the EepyBird Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments, and some amazing footage of inventions of all shapes and sizes - some of them going wrong in unpredictable and dangerous ways. Featuring Adam Savage

Makers is the first project of Blogphilo New Media. All subjects are filmed with full permission.

Threw this together this weekend. Tightened it up some last night.

Reel (www.day-vidsproductions.com/reelNCI.wmv)

Thought I'd share since I haven't posted any of my work on here before, I like to do a lot of work with non-profits etc... around my area because while it doesn't pay as much I feel like I'm contributing and making a difference. This usually means less money, but money isn't everything ( though it sure helps buy those cool new toys ), and I do for profit as well, I just have an affinity and nice discount program set up for for NPO's that folks around here know about.

I'm prolly not gonna post a lot, so enjoy what you can get :)

Great reel!

Some of the shots were really creative! There's a lot of post production in there (perhaps trending a little bit toward too much, for my taste) but still within the realm of reason, and obviously suitable for your clients.

Suggestions:

- Your photography, editing, and compositing are very good. WTF happened with the titling in your demo reel? It's a plain font with a cheesy LiveType built-in effect on it. The font is bad, the effect, is bad, and it takes away from the great work that is your photography and your editing. First, ask yourself if anyone who watches your shooting/editing demo reel is going to wonder if it is your shooting and editing demo reel. Obviously they got it from somewhere (you, your website, your post) that was referencing what it was... do you really need this text at all?

One of the things I evaluate photographer/editors on is audio... and you didn't have any. I'd appreciate (perhaps on a separate reel) a look at 10 second snips of finished programs, with the full audio mix in there.

Other than that... looked great!

Hey guys how's it going? We shot these commercials using the Canon XH-AL. Take a look at them when you get a chance and let me know what you think.

thx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM2nSJqyyNA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8m_nGG6QOo

great job on both, the export on the first on is sized wrong, it looks like it should be 16x9. Great comedic timing on the second, the ending could have a little more punch on the first.

Thanks for the comments Dylan & Nathan,

See what you mean about the low angle stuff, and the music.

I used Premiere CS3 to edit it together

Camera is a v1e, with HDR-60 hard drive recorder. The slow-mo only works to tape. :)

I will be going to the gym again soon, so expect to see another one at some point.

Was editing together computer game footage last night. Hardly worthy of showing here to be honest. It all looks the same, only thing that changes is the camera view.

Tell me what you think,
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=jI2X0YNe5SQ


thx!

BIG BAD WOLVES

A mash-up between Quentin Tarantino and The Brothers Grimm, fairy-tales will never be the same again....

This is probably old news to some, but I just wanted to let everyone know that after two years of doing the festival circuits and television airplay, my 13-minute long, award-winning, short film entitled "BIG BAD WOLVES" is officially online!

"BIG BAD WOLVES" depicts a conversation between five mobsters, passing the time drinking and smoking in a restaurant, which slowly leads to one of the gangsters suggesting that the story of Little Red Riding Hood is actually about the importance of sex education (in the same way Quentin Tarantino's character in "Reservoir Dogs" suggests that the Madonna song "Like a Virgin" is about a particularly violent sexual encounter). The other mobsters think he's out of his mind, so the narrating mobster begins to re-tell the story as he believes it originally existed, before it was "censored" and "cleansed" for young children. What follows is a dark journey into the mythology, fantasy and the heart of the human psyche, where pure evil lurks and waits to rob us all of our innocence.

"BIG BAD WOLVES" is a hilarious and disturbing experience that will have you alternating between laugh-out-loud comedy and thought-provoking questions on morality and the fabrics of our own society.

"BIG BAD WOLVES" was the director, Rajneel Singhs second directing project, after directing "The Fanimatrix: Run Program" (watch it) in 2003.

DOP was Marc Mateo, Production Designer was Annamarie Connors, original story by Chris Kerr, Script by Rajneel Singh.
Produced by Craig Parkes (co producers Rajneel Singh and Annamarie Connors)

The film was shot in 2005 and released to festivals in 2006. It costed approximately $10,000US and was shot on Mini-DV format on the Sony DSR-300s series. It was shot entirely on location in Auckland, New Zealand. Among its prominent awards were nabbing the "BEST DIRECTOR" award at the Ohakune Big Mountain Film Festival in 2006 and "MOST PROMISING FILMMAKER" at the Rotorua Magma Film Festival hosted by Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett), Jay Laga'ia (Captain Typho) and Cliff Curtis ("Sunshine", "Three Kings", "10,000 BC" and "Die Hard 4").

This movie has been rated in New Zealand as R16 - contains excessive offensive language, horror violence and brief nudity. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

WATCH THE TRAILER:

Low Resolution (YouTube) Big Bad Wolves Trailer - YouTube


WATCH THE FILM:

BIG BAD WOLVES on Vimeo

High Resolution (Vimeo - streaming and downloadable DIVX version)

thanks for the feedback, I have had a couple other responses suggesting some of the live audio in there as well, I may augment my reel to allow that however, I am currently offering this on a DVD which then has a full project that I've done as well. I'll look at taking out the text during the video, but do you have any font suggestions that would not be so... crap? thanks again for the input.

Dave

Just got word that we won the contest.

Nice job!! What did you win?

Folks,
Here is the latest product video that I've uploaded for my employer. I hosted, shot, and edited the video.

Thoughts?

http://www.stylintrucks.com/parts.aspx?category%7ccat_-25%7c286=Antennas&attribute_value_string%7cBrand=Frogworks+International&canned_results_trigger=&selected_prod_ids=3064

Nice job!! What did you win?

$500 bucks

PJ, Your footage looks great. I'd like to know more about the film. What did you shoot it on? What was your budget? What did you edit it on, etc.

Seconded.. I'd love to know more about this film.

Excellent work! I can see why you won awards. I liked the edits during the conversation, and the cinematography was top notch for your budget. The writers did a very good job of injecting humor without it feeling overwritten. The audio mixing and VO make it seem like a professional piece too. It's great when you get a good team together and it really shows in the final product.

The only glaring(literally) problem I saw was the balding gangster's head being overexposed compared to the other guys. I see that all the time though, shiny crowns end up looking like light bulbs on video. The brother Grimm who was wanking it at the end was a bit over the top, but I got a chuckle so no foul by me.

I like edgy humor in films and this has to be one of the better short films I've seen recently. Thanks for sharing it here.

A pleasure Chelton. As always, I have to put all credit to the awesome crew we organized, as well as few lucky breaks here and there (especially casting).

Bald heads and overexposure is something that's quite troublesome (especially when half of the gangster stuff was shot one day, and the other half was shot another day 5 weeks later!) but fairly unavoidable seeing as it was a DV shoot - if we had been shooting on a format with a little more latitude we could possibly have graded it out.

That was a pretty straight forward video. Good sound and video. Some background music or intro music would've added alot to it though.....

Jep, I liked it too - straight forward, containing all the important information, sound and light was OK, plus you seem to be a nice guy...
I don't agree with the music suggestion, however you could show your logo a little bit longer at the end.

Cheers, Oliver

We made original costumes, effects and music for this 40 second online ad:
http://www.w00tstudios.net/index.php?option=com_seyret&task=videodirectlink&id=103

My favorite part was getting the digital chorus (Voices of the Apocalypse) to sing "He-roes - Ci-ty of He-roes!"

It's in a contest. If you like it, vote! Thanks!

I`m still working on 3 short films I hope to complete by summer. The second one "Five Minutes Flat" is a short action based film following the main character who is out to earn his freedom from his captures (sp?) I am about the whole crew thus I've been working on them since last spring. ALot of this may get reshot depending on the weather and plants, but i thought I'd share it anyway...and ignore the "Spring 2008 ;) )

http://vimeo.com/793514

Everything I know about automobiles you could put in your eye. I didn't realize changing antennas was that easy. I can see those fancy ones getting stolen very easily!

thanks for your feedback Jay,

I appreciate it, I will check on that widescreen issue.

Thanks for the feedback!

I appreciate the mention of background music and lighting and sound. I'm really trying different things with each video to see what works the best. I'll be trying background music soon.

Thanks!

www.bloommovie.com

I made a Childrens feature movie and the trailer is on the website. The artist/animator/super genius (Christopher Dozier) that made the movie with me made the website. Check it out.

one of my very first shoots. done with jvc x5 in 2007.

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

You Web site says: "Bloom is a low budget independent family made movie. Bloom is not a big Hollywood production. This is something to keep in mind when watching Bloom."

Never, ever apologize for your movie! From square one you've "warned" me that something isn't up to par. Many people will stop right there and move on to something else.

Let the movie speak for itself. Build it up. Brag about it. Sell it. Give me reasons to buy it; to watch it. But for crying out loud, don't apologize for it!

Remove "Bloom is not a big Hollywood production. This is something to keep in mind when watching Bloom." Not only is it redundant, but it's going to kill your audience potential and sales.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0crNKu2xkQ

let me know what you think

I got a syntax error. Anyone else having luck?

This is my new film "mouth":
produced, edited, and directed by Austin R. Hartman
written by Cam Archer
shot by Jeremy Royce
starring & original music by Peter Wallner and Raya Heffernan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfY0THQop_g

for and questions please send e-mails to:
arhartman@gmail.com

thanks.
a

please try again

thanks

Hi everyone, well my first post of many to this forum. I have a F350 and wanted to share with everyone some fun footage from London on my website www.londonmarkfilms.co.uk Also I would like to take the opportunity to say a big thank you to Philip Bloom who has helped me tremendously a great guy and brilliant DOP.

Hey Mark, had a look at your footage, looks gorgeous . I've been seriously considering hiring the XDcam for my next feature, how do you find the post production workflow, are there any problems that you've ran into?.

Cheers
Andy

Nice work, Mark. I liked the way the colors popped on the Notting Hill Festival piece. Did you bump up the chroma in post?

regards,

-gb-

P.S. Mark, I see you started an identical thread in the XDCAM HD forum. DVINFO does not allow crossposting so I have removed your other one. This thread is fine in the Show Your Work forum.

I just finished a Film called Airflow, ant add it I'd Rather Fly on this basic wesite...
www.airflowtv.com
if you like it, get one!
Cheers

Thanks for the feedback Jay. I was a little torn on what to say there. Yeah, basically I was warning the reader it isn't up to par. The last thing I want is for someone to be expecting The Chronicles of Narnia and then feel like they got ripped off. But I also didn't want to be apologetic. I guess I didn't do too good of a job on that. I appreciate your objective input & will change it.

My latest short film. Produced for a competition which required the film to be completed in ten days, and include a list of ten items. The theme for the comp this year was "Y".

www.caliburnproductions.com/Brotherhood.html

I picked up "Best Use of Festival Theme" and "Best Director". I also somehow managed to get "Best Actor" for my performance in another person's film :-)

Cheers
Pat

Mark

Nice work, looks great.

Can you tell us more about the setup of the camera...lenses you are using etc.

I am looking into getting an F350, and would like to know how you achieved that nice DOF that you had in some shots. Im guessing a few were with the lense on full zoom?

Thanks

Niall

PS, lol nevermind its on your website :( DOH!

Might I ask from which company you purchased the equipment?

Thanks Andy, I can recommend highly the workflow no problems other than ensuring you NLE is compatible to read mxf. Greg Thanks for your comments I shoot flat on the day leaving more options in post, as this was interlace footage I used MB looks with diffusion set to soften the image with highlights set at 80% only and lifting the output bias just above normal (+0.478) to compensate. I only had the camera a few days at that time!

Hi Niall,

I purchased from Preston Media in the UK. Talk to Andy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj_n4XnNNz8

great job eddie, this was definitely one of those "to-watch" videos for a lot of us. you did a great job with the cinematography and I think the a phenomenal job with the editing and sound mastering. I'm not sure if you did this intentionally, but most of the shots were framed so close to your subjects, and during your conversations you had a lot of cuts that focused on each subject as they were speaking. My only creative criticism would be to explore the usage of wider angle shots during convos and to take off some focus on the subjects, but more of the 'moment' of the situation. Otherwise, phenomenal short, the use of color grading was great.