Show Your Work 2002

[Mark Austin]

We are still story boarding so I'll try not to be too vague even though I'm not sure what we will need yet.

Basically I'm looking for funeral footage, cemeteries, veiled people (in the context of death, not middle east etc), seasonal changes in cemeteries ie. flowers, fallen leaves, snow, shots that portray solitude and loss. I know it's still pretty vague, but I'm going for (conceptually) dark images

I hoped that people will conjure up their own images and submit something that portrays any of the aforementioned. As I said before I can send out the music, and let people plug in their own visual perceptions. I have an idea of what I want the finished project to look like based on my interpretation of the music. I'm very interested in what you talks to you folks, visually, when you think of the story.

The songs are from a novel that is based on a true story. It's about a man who accidentally kills on a friend on a hunting trip when he was young. In his later life he puts on a veil and his face is never seen again. The story talks about his guilt, loss, and desperate search for meaning. It’s very dark, and really touched me. The basic audio tracks are amost done for the songs, guitar and vocals but that's all. The songs will probably end up sort of in the "Oh Brother" genre, but will be much darker and not so cheery.
Thanks again,
Mark

p.s. the angry snowboarders might work for another punk video eh?

[John Threat]

i liked it, you got some nice coverage so that you could cut stuff.

A few thoughts, keeping in mind it's a vibe thing, not a music video for broadcast.

- It's in web video, so I couldnt tell, but it was a bit dark. Even on some of the insert shots. THats a hard call when you don;t get a chance to light the place. I might be nice to have a obi-light or on-camera light that you can use from time to time. It's not the best light source ever, but it's fun and useful.

- A few face close-ups make good insert shots on action. I mean nice tight ones. You had some mid-range reaction shots that were cool.

- Cuts on the beat always entrance the viewer!

good work!

[Mark Austin]

Thanks!! It's a shame really, it's a pretty dark peice, sort of intentionally. That being said, the copy I have posted is way dark. I made a copy to VHS from FCP and although it was dim it had more contrast, and was therefore easier to see, had a lot more punch, and was more what I was shooting for. The place only had like 4 or 6 60 watt bulbs so you get an idea of how well the GL2 looks in very dim light. It was pretty grainy but useable for this sort of thing. I may have to go back and bring up my output, everyone says it's too dark on the web, and I aggree. A small simple camera light is on my next up list, it won't be a Mole Richardson for sure but it may make for an interesting effect in a very dark room.
Thanks again for writing your review,
Mark

[Mark Austin]

I started reviewing the songs, and realise I need a more effective way to storyboard. I found some links here on some software that should help a lot. I'm going to be working on it over the next couple of weeks and will update as the project progresses.

I completed the basic audio tracks yesterday, and have the three songs in MP3 format if anyone is interested in previewing them. Keep in mind that these tracks are just the raw framework tracks (unmixed / unmastered) and will have more instrumentation added as John gets the arrangements in order.

After talking about the project in depth yesterday we decided on a slightly different song list and order. It's now; Rise again (bridge of ghosts), If I tried to tell you everything, and Black Veil.

The MP3's are about 5mb each.
www.markaustin.com/mp3/black veil/Rise Again.mp3
http://www.markaustin.com/mp3/black ...Everything.mp3
www.markaustin.com/mp3/black veil/Black Veil.mp3

[John Threat]

That was great!

That was better than video's i have seen on 3 chip cameras
and even higher end DVCAM ,etc.

The reasons you win is because, you have good shot composition, you use handheld where it is justified or make sense. You also use availible light to your advantage.


The Victim
-------------

I liked how the video knew where it was going.

- I loved the car , it has so much character and there was a point, where the light reflected off it's side so nicely.

- There is a point, where the protangist enters the scene from the door, there is a chiascoro effect over her and the door that is so pleasing, a tear nearly came to my eye in remeberance of things past.

- The effects were excellent. I see you have a thing for future technology. You must have loved Minority Report.

- The acting while they are kidnapping the protagonist is a little weak, also, you might want to get some close up of action shots to inset, such as when he grabs her: an insert shot of him grabbing her arm closeup, will make that scene come alive.

- While the ending was cliche for me, it was well done, Unforuantely the protaginst had reached the end of her screen time, just as her clothing had become see-thru :)



The Metro
------------
You have some really great shots to compose this peice with. The haunting track was nice. There are points where the focus belies the weakness of the camera, but you got the most out of it.

- I thought for sure , the signs were going to start dancing for some reason.
- I would have like to had the last shot of the narrative been a little better composed, either we dont see them at all, or we see more action after they get in the train, the hybrid for me was a little weak.
- The ending surpise at the end of the credits was very nice.


What? I will strike it down!


Good stuff1

[Ivan Wynder]

Thanks for the feedback JeepBastard ! I really appreciate it and i need it :)

Ivan

[Jeff Donald]

Nice work, Ivan, it shows a lot of thought and effort. Thank you for posting it and poviding the link. I hope we get to see more of your work.

Mac users, download DivX for Mac http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=12844&db=mac to view the files.

Jeff

[Zac Stein]

Heya All,

I have been doing some test footage for a short in pre-production with the two actors who will be in the production.

So i thought i would slap some temp music to it, and get you guys/girls opinions. My biggest attempt to capture the look of the mid-70's bad movie/tv show.

The footage was done at 3am, with a lot of pre-christmass drinks.

Total time spent on this was 32 minutes and 8 seconds of shooting. Editing took around 30 minutes.

Anyways here is a direct link http://www.motionaftereffect.com/disco/discosmall.mov (9 meg)

(this seems to work much better if right clicked on and selected as save as, or whatever mac users do, as i did not prepare it for streaming, and played at double size)

The actual site [motion after effect] is currently being designed, should be up in around a week, i would pay someone in control a lot of money for a 35 hour day, where does the time go!!

Thanx All,

Zac

p.s Btw Chris, if possible, can u change my name from Kermie klien to Zac S. Thanks.

p.p.s the clothes the stars are wearing are actually hand me downs from my father, every piece shown was purchased between 1974-1977, and if you can see the hat the character Russle is wearing, it was actually purchased in LA in 1975 and was a real prop from the Jackson 5 variety show, we don't know which one wore it, as they all had one.

[Imran Zaidi]

Hahaha! That was very entertaining. But then, I'm a sucker for some good ol' fashioned pimp humor set to disco backbeats...

I'd love to see where this is going...

Out of curiosity, what type of equipment did you use? (camera, lighting, software, etc.).

[Zac Stein]

Out of curiosity, what type of equipment did you use? (camera, lighting, software, etc.).

Camera - A pal Sony pd-150 on a manfrotto tripod.

Lighting- this was a very specialised and scientific setup, it consisted of a badly parked car with it's high beams on. (grins)
Otherwise was ambient street lamp light with an off white balance to skew the colour scheme.

Software- It was cut with vegas video, titles were done in adobe after effects, with a film fx plugin to creat the dirt, I also shifted the red slightly, and de-interlaced.

Not sure what else there is to say, the music atm is just temp music, i really want to use all original stuff, but as i said this is just test footage.

Zac

[Joe Carney]

Nice, even remembered the pork chop side burns.

This looked/sounded an awful lot like an intro to an infamous John 'Johnny Wadd' Holmes porno flick. (Yes, I saw it, back in my mispent 70s era youth).
He played a detective in that one too. Did your dad role some old 8mm films to inspire you? (just kidding).
Pretty cool stuff.

[John Threat]

It's was a fun romp.
thanks for sharing.


(dont be afraid to turn up the gain at night for test footage like this! movement in the dark is lost!)

[Mike Rehmus]

I just finished my first television commercials (OK, cable TV).

Interesting. Used real actors, a Hollywood actor as the director, a DSR-300, and a AT835B shotgun on a boom pole. Easy setups with 2 locations.

Voiceover was recorded on an AT4043SE studio microphone through a Shure 267 mixer and into a Sony MD recorder.

In making the master tape on DVCam for transfer to BetaSP, I set tone at -6 dB as shown on my DSR-20 VU meters and then kept the audio just under that.

Everything transfered very nicely to BetaSP with the audio right where it should be.

DV would have worked just as well and I could have shot it on my PD-150 for all the good the higher-quality DSR-300 will do by the time the commercial hits the viewer's 13" TV set. Still, the customer liked the camera size.

There appears to be a lot of potential business for small-town business commercials. It doesn't pay a lot but I think it can be fairly steady work.

The cable network (AT&T) said they didn't care if I brokered air time for my commercials and that I could sub-divide the 30 second spots into shorter lengths for clients that couldn't afford the longer commercials and air time charges. Since AT&T charges $1300 for a 30 second commercial, that leaves a lot of room for a small operation like mine.

So after the 1st, I'm going to try selling 10 second commercials to the local folks. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Zac Stein]

Mike you can do what i did to land my first job ever.

I got a 12 year old HUGE s-vhs camera, got the job, then used a pd150 :)

heh heh

Zac

Then again, i didn't get payed, it was a thing for closed circuit uni tv.

[Patrick Coker]

... U know that had to be the most right on footage of the 70's I have ever seen!!!! LOL Reminds me of Starsky and Hutch