Outdoor / Golden Hour

[John Lofton IV]

This past weekend a group of my friends decided to have a political rally at a busy, mall intersection in Columbia, MD.

So, of course, I decided to show my support by shooting them!

...with my camera.

Anyway, here are my specs:

-Framerate: 60i

-Camera: AV mode (tried to keep it as wide open as possible at all times).

-HDV

-I've started to get the hang of the Instant AF button, that came in handy.

-Pana35 preset

-Edited in Avid Xpress Pro HD

-Compressed using Sorenson Squeeze ( +3 contrast added ).

I spent about 5-8 hours editing this. Let me know what you guys think!

*PS* One small error at the end, 2 Picture-In-Pictures have the same footage. Oops, oh well.

**Disclaimer: The views expressed by the individuals in this video may, or may not reflect my own. Please do not critique it from a political viewpoint. Thank you!**

Enjoy!

-John

http://www.LoftonFilms.com/Obama.html HD Version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUJ6L0DzjPU YouTube Quality

If you would like to download it in HD (Quicktime H.264 1280 x 720) to view later, follow this link:

http://www.loftonfilms.com/videos/ , Right click "Obama08.mov" - "Save As". Thanks.

[John Lofton IV]

260 views, 0 replies. Interesting...

I'll just take it as stunned silence. Yeah, that's the ticket!

I've uploaded it to Vimeo HD if anybody is interested:

http://www.vimeo.com/703314

-JDL4

[Daniel Alexander]

I really enjoyed that, seems you captured the mood perfectly. I especially like the way you put this piece together with energy, humor and nice visuals. The quality of this cam is very nice, the way you opted for alot of telephoto shots really bring the organic feel of this camera to life.

On a whole it looks like something i would see on TV, very well done.

[Trish Kerr]

I thought the piece had good energy - the excitement of the group comes across quite well.

from an artistic perspective it's a tough corner to be shooting from - hard buildings in the background and street corner poles tend to cut into the framing a bit - but short of picking a more artistically compelling street corner - you have to work with the space given

the coloring was a bit dull here and there, even though accurate, I might have stylized it a bit to punch it out - the hillary group shot had a nice warmth which contrasted with the gray tones of the obama supporters - it made me want to cross over to the warm side of the street - might want to watch out for that if you're not a hillary fan

one nit on the graphic overlays - you have two duplicated boxes that overlap each other for a couple of seconds - looks more like a mistake than something planned

overall you had some nice transitions, camera angles, played around with the depth of field, and mixed it up nicely. I think pushing it in the color arena would take it up a notch.

my ten cents
trish

[John Lofton IV]

Thanks for the comments!

Trish, the two picture in picture boxes at the end were a mistake! Oops..

I might fix it, but then again, I'm moving on to other stuff now.

*Oh and I agree that the Hilary side looks 'warmer'. They were lucky enough to choose the corner which the light fell against for the longest amount of time! :D

(Personally I'm Independent, but let's not get into political views :P )

Thanks again!

JDL4

[Sherman Wing]

I think it was very good on a technical level. Good angles. I did notice the double PIP footage but it was hardly noticible. The music was a little royalty freeish but other than than that it was good. The Hillary supporters standing alone was a good touch of humor without being partisan.

[Will Mahoney]

A really nice video. Plus, the the GMC Suburban you fade out on is nice. It's got a classic style cowl induction hood and an aftermarket billet grille. I video event coverage for my employer, Stylin' Trucks, so I certainly appreciate you throwing me this bone. Obama and a custom GMC Suburban? Nice!!

[John Lofton IV]

Thanks for your comments!

Will, I'm glad you found a use for it :). This was a 'Just-for-fun' project.