"What the Hell!"

I love that line.

Well, if you like, but don't hold me to it... well you can... but yeah

I could wip up a simple flash type interface on an interactive cd-rom and inbed the movies into it. Then put bio's and so on.

I could burn it with a toast iso, so it will autorun on a mac or pc.

We can see, sure would be cheaper, can just put little plastic slips and ship out like that...

Zac

movie posting
 

Hi everyone,
I'm posting a small (real small) short that we're submitting to a festival and wouldn't mind getting some feedback on it. The file is an MP4, and is nearly 25 megs long. Love to hear what people think. The password is "smokers."

https://www1.ibackup.com/L/QMDL?U=ma...DSYXWSL3373718

Interesting, but I'm not sure I get it. It was shot well, and the audio came out nice though.

Hmmm. The scene is actually an excerpt from a feature-length film called "Smokers" that we are still editing. We were planning to test the waters with a short, feeling that this scene was well enough self contained to stand alone. But if it feels incomplete or confusing, maybe this isn't such a good strategy. That was one of the reasons I wanted to get a reaction from people on these boards before sending the thing out to festivals -- to find out if this excerpt is able to stand alone.
Thanks.

These are just some picky things I picked out that you can remember for in future projects you do, i'm just trying to criticise it as much as I can, so that you can make your stuff better, so don't take it the wrong way:

Let me start out by saying it looked very good, and the audio was good also.

Anyway:

1. Continuity, when the girl in the pink was coming out of the stall, and going to the sinks, that cut stuck out like a sore thumb.

2. This is perhaps too picky, but from what I know, the colors of clothing they had on weren't good choices, white isn't good for dark skin tones, and pink/red is just bad for DV, period...

3. When you edit, instead of cutting back and forth between them on every line they say, try overlapping the audio with a shot of the other person, you'll notice this used in most cuts in movies and TV.

4. IMO, I don't think it was self contained enough to stand alone, it does feel incomplete and confusing.

I'd be interesting in seeing the final movie though, also, i'd consider re-editing that to make it have better pacing (shorter) for the feature length.


Good work.

I'm at work right now so I can't view it till later- what's the plot?

The clip is basically a dialog between two women in adjoining bathroom stalls, with one teasing the other about her experimentation with lesbianism during college. To me, the narrative has an arc, with a definitive conclusion, and that was why I had hoped it would stand alone. Still, as a writer, I’ve learned to neither take criticisms too personally, or disregard someone’s comments even when I don’t agree. There’s a reason people have the reaction that they do. The comment about the cut when Robin (the girl in pink) stands up and walks to the sink is interesting. This cut was the biggest point of contention during editing, with the director wanting to cut away sooner. Maybe she was right after all, and I was trying too hard to keep the titillation factor (the actress’ dress rides way up on her thighs when she stands up). You can also see that she still has the tampon in her hand, which is a continuity problem.

"I'm with Busey" shot on XL1S
 

I'm surprised I"m admitting I watched this show on Comedy Central but if nothing else I got to see that they shot it on XL1's.

You can see some of the secondary camera men from the shot being shown racing around with XL1s.


Uh... other then that I really don't know what I can say about the show...

Gary Busey. Some kid host of the show. They do stuff and it's shown on television.


I'm just jealous I didn't think of it first.

"Get insane actor. have him torture some kid on camera... shoot it... put it on TV."

I watched through it briefly on my computer monitor but one thing that did strike me was that it's really bright in that bathroom, especially in the stalls.

I liked that when they came out even though the tiles were shiny you couldn't see the reflections of the set lights... but still it was very bright.

Is this the final? Are you going to do anything to it in Post?

If so, you could probably kick up the contrast a little bit and take care of it... then again, it's my first impression and sometimes filmmakers obsess about the strangest things.

;)

I haven't done any color correcting yet, mainly because I don't have a TV that I trust, and I figure that I'm as liable to make it worse as fix it. Odd that you found the in-the-stall shots too bright. They seem way to dark to me. I do plan to color correct the footage before releasing an official version.

Lady X: Episode 07 Released!
 

Having carried out her mission in Istanbul, the paper trail leads Lady X back to North America to carry out her next assignment in Orlando, Florida, USA. Opposition crops up in the most unexpected of places leaving us to wonder...who can be trusted?

To find out for yourself, go to http://www.ladyxfilms.com and click the "Current Episode" link.

The Lady X Crew

================
Episode 07 Details:

Directed and Produced by: Ali Imran Zaidi
Written by: Ali Imran Zaidi
Radio Address Written by: Gary Loftis

Cast: Robb Bennett (Agent); Beth Masi (Lady X); Fred Zara (The Mark); Jamey Lewis (Jim), Gabriela Aparicio (Receiving Agent); Gary Loftis (The President)

Principal Crew: Michael Satornino, Fred Zara

Music: "Under," "Crossing," and "While the Nation Mourns" courtesy FreeplayMusic.com

Special thanks to: Mike Hinn for use of the Lexus bat-mobile, Robb 'Lo-Rez' Bennett for his Flash skills, Michael & Cinthia Satornino and Fred Zara for their support.

Very well done! I think this was probably the best story, although it really makes you wonder what side Lady X is on. Shot well, and even acted nicely, the only flaw was some out of synch dialogue. That may have been due to compression and playback. Good job!

I've watched the show. Not sure why Busey is doing it,,,must need some easy cash.

Hey, thanks!

I had some issues with audio, so the synching may have been my fault, or maybe the compression may have made it a tad worse.

I'm glad it made you question who's good/who's bad. I really was hoping people would do that... much like current politics and the situation in the nation today. Being the first US LadyX, I wanted to get across the feelings of polarization spreading in our country today, with everyone questioning everyone else's intentions.

Thanks again!

Nice work!

Just saw the movie. It has an interesting idea, but it just ain't
my kind of movie. So therefor it was a bit hard to watch. Didn't
like the lighting...

I was going to watch your short until I saw it was in Real format.
As a lot of people the Real software is going nowhere near my
system. This together with the fact that you have to be a
triggerstreet member is probably hindering people to see it.

Is it possible to host it somewhere in another format like QuickTime?

I think there are a couple of people here that had their documentaries
bought so to speak. Did you try the search here?

Thanks for taking the time to watch it. What was it about the lighting that bothered you? What are your kind of movies?

Well, the lightning looked like no lighting was used at all. Some
scenes washed out with too low contrast (not that much difference
between the highlights and the darker areas).

I never understood or enjoyed action figures so that easily gets
into the way of watching such a short (no offense to you!).
Personally I'm quite fond of thriller kind of work I think [or just
plain dumb action <g>]

Does this answer your questions?

I love the cell phone salesman, the scenes in the car are great! A bit overexposed though. Also I think you could shorten the bit where the rich aristocrat's wife is talking about the action figure, it went on far too long IMO.

young love
 

Hey,
I've been having trouble with this video on triggerstreet. I sent in a hi and lo bandwith version. both realplayer rendered with Vegas. The low I did with the 56k selection and the hi with 512k. I could watch the lo, but the quality was pretty bad. I couldn't watch the 512k version with my dial-up connection. I went to my parents house and watched the hi on their computer with cable and it worked fine. Recently, I got DSL. When I tried to watch the 512k video, it wouldn't work, it was just still images with audio. According to some of the reviews, other people had the same problem. I guess my dsl isn't quite fast enough.

Anyway, on to my new problem. I made a quicktime version for you and put it on my geocities website. Then I got a message saying my data transfer limit was exceeded or something. Oh well, here is the link, if the page comes back up maybe you'll be able to view it.

http://www.geocities.com/freakyfamil...ts/shorts.html

By the way, triggerstreet wants videos rendered at 15fps. The only choice I see for the higher quality versions in Vegas is 30fps. Is there anyway to get it to 15?

Thanks

Direct download link: http://us.share.geocities.com/freaky...younglove5.mov

Thanks for putting it up. I thought the concept was nice, but the
execution was not very professional looking. Can you tell us a
bit more about the story and shooting etc.?

In Vegas you can set the framerate for a real movie in the following way:

File -> Render As -> select RealMedia -> Custom -> Audiences -> Edit

In this screen you can fill in your framerate amongst other things.
Might be wise to base it on one of the presets you want to use.

Alex, thanks for taking the time to watch CELL PHONES & ACTION FIGURES and for the great feedback.

Commercials
 

Hey guys, I've never shot a commercial before and I'm needing to know how long (exactly) is a 30 second commercial. Also, if I'm wanting to give this to a local TV station, what format do commercials have to be in? Doesn't there have to be a count down on this thing? Thanks,
Josh

When I was shooting and cutting local spots about 13 years ago, I used the guideline of 29:25 for run time, which gives just a breath of black before the next spot starts.

At the head of the tape, lay down 30 seconds of bars and tone, then an ID slate followed by or incorporating an accurate countdown with a 2-pop.

<<<-- Originally posted by Charles Papert :s.

At the head of the tape, lay down 30 seconds of bars and tone, then an ID slate followed by or incorporating an accurate countdown with a 2-pop. -->>>

Excuse my ignorance- what is a 2-pop?

I just finished shooting my first commercial a few weeks ago. My only background in video for profit has been wedding videography. The format my local cable company uses is Beta-cam and my client already has someone in the wing to do the conversion.

So I'm assuming you add the color bars to allow the cable company (or whoever is going to be broadcasting) to have a standard by which to adjust the colors of the peice?

my tv show
 

hi, i've been lurking here for several months now and thought i'd show you guys my sketch comedy show, The 15 Minute Show. you can visit the website here: http://15.bloop.org

the video section has the first two episodes and a 5 minute short we made in a 24 hour video contest. everything is shot on my gl2 and edited in vegas video. we definitely aren't doing anything too sophisticated on the technical side, we're really focusing on writing i guess.

anyway if you like mr. show or kids in the hall this is sort of in the same vein. let me know what you guys think.

The bars are a reference for the station's engineers to calibrate the output of the deck through a time-base corrector to make sure that the spot will represent as intended.

This brings up another point, that one must pay close attention to the video levels when submitting for broadcast. DV cameras deliver a lower black level (0 vs 7.5 IRE) which has been discussed in various threads here before, which is not broadcast standard. Likewise, beware of over-saturated colors and highlights above 100 IRE. If your editing software has a mode that checks for all of the above, run your piece through that first to check your levels before delivery.

The 2-pop refers to the last number on the countdown which will have an audible "beep". It is another venerable standard for both film and video production that allows for correct synchronization of picture and sound.

If you are able to generate timecode upon output to tape, it is also a good idea for the spot to start at a round number such as 1:00:00:00. Again, this helps the broadcaster dub the spot into their system.

Re: Commercials
 

Hi Josh, sorry long reply!

The 30 sec commercial should be 30 seconds long but audio is slightly offset. See the below explanation from the Australian Broadcast Standards:

"Standard Audio to Vision Start and End times

Where vision starts at the first frame of any material produced for broadcast, ALL audio should begin twelve frames after the first frame of vision.
This means a twelve frame period of silence at the beginning of all product, programs, segments, promos, clips and commercials.

The end point for all audio should similarly be twelve frames before vision end. Thus leaving twelve frames of silence at the end of the program.

Typically in a 30 second promo/commercial
Vision start is on first frame, Audio start is on frame 12
Vision end is 30seconds 0frames, Audio end is 29seconds 12frames.
Total audio duration is 29 seconds."

I work at a broadcast station, and I have seen many times this rule not being adhered to and audio got clipped/faded as a result which sounded bad and most of all annoyed the commercial client. This is not a major problem if the audio in question is only background music, but is a major problem if it is the actual audio of the voice over.

Example, if your commercial is sitting at either the start or end of a break, most stations dip through black (fade in fade out) between program and break. This takes time as any transition would (apart from a straight cut), and thus would clip/fade the audio of the commercial if (for example) you had someone saying something right at the head or the end of that commercial!

Many times I have seen this problem in this scenario: Voice over on the commercial was right to the end with the last words being a phone number... if at this stage the commercial was faded, the person at home would have missed the number of that phone number.

BUT, In the end it really depends on your broadcaster and how they transmit signals :)

Hope this helps!
Jack

I watched the first episode and think you did a very good job.I especially like some of the beats in the soundtrack.Did you produce those? Is that a SP1200 im hearing?

yeah my friends and i did the music, but it's all done on the computer. if you hear any sp1200, it's all sampled.

Hahahahahha, nice.

I watched both of them. I liked the way they flowed, it's different then any "sketch comedy" stuff i've seen before, because the whole 15 minute show is in a way one. I don't know really whatelse to say other then I enjoyed it, maybe work on setting up the shots a little bit better because I saw the boom in a few, and some shots needed a tripod.

By this time next year, I hope to have a finished hour long video with about 6-8 different little short comedy videos on it. It's going to be very retarded, but I plan on putting lots of time into shooting all the stuff. If I pitched some of the ideas for the videos I have so far, you guys would probably think I am smoking something.

yeah, after the first episode we were a lot more careful about the boom mic. you don't see it on tv but the computer doesn't cut you any slack.

Chorma key'ed skateboards. :D
 

I was checking out this skating video the other day, and towards the end they had a segment with "invisible skateboards", where basically they painted all the skateboards green and had the camera movements repeated with a motion controlled camera system (atleast I hope thats what it's called). Anyway, it was very cool.

I posted a couple screenshots:

http://www.l33test.com/upload/Image513.jpg

That doesnt do any justice for the whole segment though, it's really good, if you don't mind watching a bunch of skateboarding, then check out the video, it's called "Girl - Yeah right".

I'd like to try something similar, heh, except there wouldn't be any camera movements though.

IDEA! I might do a whole short video around this concept, nothing to do with skateboarding though. Just have some kind of super-human who can float around, hehehe.

I might have to watch that video. It was directed by Spike Jonze. It's interesting that he got into the film business by making skateboard and music videos. Now he's a bigtime director.

Looks like the footage was shot with an XL1.

Black/White captures for period movie
 

We are an Austrian based group of filmmakers. Our new film "Die Stimme / The Voice" will be a period movie about a young actress reading poems to poor people in an old factory. Shooting starts next week. We will use our Canon XM2 for the whole shooting! If you like, you can have a look at our pre production stills on our website at:

www.8ung.at/gruppe_filmkunst/voice.htm
(Please forgive me for the bad translation. It was the best I could do...)

Greetings from Austria

Hannes Schobesberger

Amazing location! Very very beautiful. I wish you luck with your
project. Making a feature length film is quite the undertaking.