Show Your Work 2008

[Dennis Murphy]

Here's a music video I did for a young Whangarei (New Zealand) couple who sing Phantom of the Opera type stuff. Shot with an XHA1 and Lex.
I wanted to try the whole speed the song up and slow the footage in post. Damn, did I f*** that up!
In retrospect, I'd need to do a three day shoot with something like this. Spend the 2nd day reviewing footage at the slowed down rate so I can pick up discrepencies and re-shoot what you need to on the 3rd day.
Oh well, you learn some things the hard way.
They're a very talented young couple. The music aint my thing at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx5AWqotTGI

[John B. Hazard]

Edited in FCP by my associate. Shot the week before Christmas ('07). It was nice to get out of the Indiana cold for a few days...
http://www.vimeo.com/644573

[Lorinda Norton]

Dennis, you’re right—they are both quite talented! I really enjoyed listening to them.

Had you tried that technique before? Don’t know how hard it would be to get them together again, but I would think it would be worth another shot, depending on what their plans were for this. Your lighting and other choices worked well, I thought. I hope you’ll consider trying again.

But I wonder, does this particular song/setting really need the "speed the song up and slow the footage in post?"

[Oliver Reik]

Well done, great promo!

Cheers,

Oliver

[Dennis Murphy]

This is the first time I've tried this technique.
I wouldn't be scared to use it again, but I'd definitely have to slow the footage down in post to check the shot list.
No chance of a re-shoot unfortunatly.

[John B. Hazard]

Thanks for watching, Oliver.
I appreciate it :)

[Mark Utley]

Looks really nice! My only suggestion is I think it would have been good to bring the music up slightly when you don't have interview dialogue.

[Aldo Visaggio]

Hi All
I put this together rather quickly to show a variety shots that can be achieved
with the EX1. Type of footage is 60i, 24p, 30p, time lapse, night time, interiors
etc....
Please let me know what you think?
Here is the link to my gallery, just click on "HD Demo" and it's about 2 min. in length. There are other movies there as well all filmed with the EX1.

http://gallery.mac.com/aldovisaggio1#gallery

Cheers, Aldo

[Cole McDonald]

Beautiful stuff Aldo! I really wish I was in a position to buy my next camera, it's an exciting time for it :) The 1/2" chip really cranks out nice footage.

[Aldo Visaggio]

Thanks for taking the time to have a look and commenting Cole. It's been a great camera to work with and has reignited my passion for video production.
Regards, Aldo

[Dylan Pank]

Just some opinions.

I understand you were really limited by your footage choices, but I have to say, the clip walked that fine line between highly disturbing and hilarious for me. My guess is that the audience for this will love it. You've kind of validated their sport as high art; even people who hate opera as music kind of defer to it as a signifier of "classy".

Also it's probably the youtube conversion, but the quality of the footage was washed out, and had almost a CCTV look to it. - maybe add some more contrast in the grade?

I know you were limited in your choices, but I think you might want to stick to some kind of theme. You have shots from all over the place. Maybe pick a theme like "the moment of triumph", "facing defeat", etc; choose the clips around that, maybe make it a minute rather than two.

[Glenn Chan]

1- What's the goal / what are you trying to communicate?

From looking at the site, I think you would be trying to get fighters to sign up for the site. In that case, they are already sold on the sport of MMA. It might be superfluous to show them MMA clips (they've probably seen a lot of MMA anyways).

It perhaps might be better if the content has a message that compels fighters to sign up for the site. It could be something like the owner of the site telling a story about why the site came about and its purpose (hopefully he/she is comfortable on camera!!). I think just seeing a person talk (without trying to do a sales pitch) would lend credibility to the site and encourage people to use it. Or a video could be something else entirely.

2- I think what Pride did with their videos is interesting. But then again, they lost their TV license and ran into financial difficulties. Compare that with UFC... which is pretty formulaic (oh snap they hate each other!) but UFC is doing very well commercially.

With Pride, they get into the fighter's personal lives and I find that interesting. e.g. Shinya Aoki dropped out of school (police academy IIRC), his parents weren't pleased about that, but now his dad is a fan of his. There are stories there that can be told. Of course Pride had a lot more time to go capture that kind of footage and follow the fighters around.

[Michael Pulcinella]

That's really great! Looks beautiful and communicates your message well. I want to live there!!

My only nitpick is that I don't particularly like the Dutch angle shots, but that's just me.

[Steve Zugelter]

Hey guys

I was hoping to get some good constructive criticism of my site & work. Because the majority of my current business is wedding videos, do you think my site theme is bride friendly?
As far as the samples go, just pick one at random and tell me what you think.

www.glasseyevideo.com

Thanks!

[Michael Wisniewski]

Sorry Steve, I don't think the home page video is bride friendly at all. Feels like you shoe-horned the wedding footage into a corporate video piece. And that music is too scary for something like wedding videos. The beautiful bride & father interrupted by the talking head was especially awful. The rest of the website is pretty generic. Please visit our Wedding / Event Videography Techniques forum, you'll find some really good examples of great wedding videos and websites. If you click on people's names in their posts you will usually get a drop-down option to see their website.

[EDIT]
Maybe try completely separating the wedding videos from the corporate video? Have separate sections on the website from the get go, and give them a different feel. Also at the beginning of the home page video, I thought you should be zooming into the first piece vs. flying away. But mainly, I'd make a separate section for wedding videos as the clientele is very specialized and is looking for very specific things.

Re: website
- the website colors are very "Microsoft Windows", safe corporate colors, but don't suggest wedding video at all.
- wedding home page - too much text, I'd put the main linkgs (screening room & packages) at the top of main-center-section, or better yet put them on the site's home page.
- wedding home page - the second thing under your wedding services description is "Cartoon yourself", it doesn't really say "I"m serious about your wedding video". maybe move the "cartoon stuff" and other "fun additions" to the side bar
- once again, I'd move your screening room and packages links to the home page, that's what your selling after all.