Show Your Work 2008

[Brian Maurer]

So, I just purchased and built a new computer, and was looking for a project to work on to test the system when I was randomly contacted by a smaller film group in town. They were running a 24 hour film contest, and contacted me 3 hours before it started. We were to use a prompt they gave us, an object they gave us, come up with a script, cast, shoot, edit and produce a DVD in under 24 hours. This is what I made in 13 hours:

Revelation, on Vimeo

Comments are welcome, but I already know I'm in desperate need of a steadycam, and the acting is... well we had 24 hours, so go with that :).

Sony HDR-HC9, Premiere Pro 3, Magic Bullet Looks (there's one crazy yellow shot in there somewhere).

There were 8 groups that participated, and mine was selected as the winning entry.

The Genre as "Apocalypse", the theme was "We're gonna die tomorrow", and the object we had to use was a "Box".

I sort of went the religious route, despite not being religious. Anyway, enough nervous blabbing from me.

[Chris Barcellos]

Great job !! Amazing what can be done under extreme pressure....

[Brian Maurer]

No kidding! I was amazed that it turned out the way it did. I was terribly worried. Anyway, thanks for watching. I greatly appreciate it.

[C.S. Michael]

Max, I'm sorry to be so late in replying to your question, but I just now noticed it! For some reason, this site doesn't send me email updates to thread discussions.

Anyway, to answer your question, after over 25,000 miles and 85 videos, we've had ONE problem -- the security guys at Warner Bros. in LA didn't want us filming on the back lot. I guess it's a little ironic that the one place we had a problem was an area dedicated to filming.

To date, all of our video has been shot with small HDV cams like the HV20 and HC3. They are such low profile cameras that they don't attract much attention. Most businesses don't care, and many actually enjoy the attention.

[Paul Mailath]

Thanks Mike - It was shot as a last minute thing and I want to send it to the organisers of the race and get invited next year.

I take your point about the music - they had a band playing a lot of current stuff but I was looking for something with light and dark to compliment the quiet of the snowfields in the morning with the madness of the race itself - I'll have a hunt around and find something that's a better fit. I do have some reasonable audio, so I'll include a bit of that.

[Frank Reco]

Please view this video on Vimeo

I have seen other video samples on this site. Most of them show the prep work like make-up, the chruch, the brides house etc.

This video is more of a preview. Is it considered to be more novice work? Also, I have noticed that not many video intros have any special effects, but this one does. Are special fx novice also???

(video not finished. in the beginning where the high heels and other b-roll is shown there will be titles)

suggestions and criticism are encouraged

[Tom Hardwick]

It would help if the video wasn't encoded as private. We can't see it.

[Frank Reco]

Here is the link on Vimeo

sorry about that.

[Tripp Woelfel]

I don't generally do weddings so I won't comment on the content but what I did notice effects. I think the blur frame was too strong. Softening the edges will help. You also have great variations in lighting which you'll need to fix as best you can.

I did like the moves at the very beginning over the shoes and the like.

[Matthew Craggs]

I agree re: the blur around the edge of the frame. I'm not against a little vignetting, but it goes quite a bit into the frame and is distracting. When I use effects like that the point is to draw the attention of the viewer to the centre of the frame, and when it's that strong it draws the viewers attention away. The movement in those shots is good, though.
In response to your original post, I don't consider effects novice. In fact, 99% of shots that wind up in my stuff is effected in some way, if even a little white balance correction. Cheesy special effects are a different story. I wouldn't say the effects you used are cheesy, just need a little adjustment.

The shot that begins at :40 - I wouldn't include it since there are some heads cut off and I'm not quite sure what the focus of the shot is supposed to be. The camera then just drifts off to nothing. If you include the shot, I would cut away before the movement at the end. Maybe slow it down a bit as well, along with a few other clips. I like realtime footage but I often find myself slowing my own stuff down to as slow as 25 percent if there is very little movement. Let's you cut a little bit of the shakes out.

Finally, I recommend paying a bit more attention to the storytelling part of the edit. It looks like when you finish this is the introduction to their main feature? The shot choice seems random. Here's a shot from the photo shoot - here are some detail shots of the bride's shoes - here's a shot of the couple posing. I'm not sure what to suggest since I'm not sure what you shot the day off, so I suppose I can just suggest that you consider how each shot ties into the other in terms of the timeline of the day and the timeline in your story. I really wish I could find the words to describe what I'm trying to say better, but until then I'll leave it as a vague statement :)

One more quick thing - I noticed some combing in the video near the end. It's not a bad idea to deinterlace your video when you're exporting it for web use. On the DVD that won't be a problem

Sorry if I sound discouraging in any way. You said this video is a novice piece of work and my first couple of weddings turned out much worse so you should feel proud. :) I do encourage you to keep at it.

[Matthew Johnston]

9 Minute webisode from Lake Superior Rally last weekend, and the build and debut of our new rally car.

Let me know what you think!

YouTube - Matt Johnston Rallysport Webisode #1

[Ivo van Aart]

Hi everyone,

For filmschool I had to make a short film about passion, this is what I made:
In de wolken on Vimeo

Please let me know if you liked it or not!

Kind regards,
Ivo

[Mark Williams]

I liked it. A little predictable as I knew where the storyline was going. But it was still a nice story and filmed very well.

[Paul Whittington]

Wow, that was great Ivo! You have some really nice shots in this film, the ending was perfect and I love how the title has a double meaning. It reminds us of what it is like to be a kid again and to dream the fantastic which I myself did a lot of when I was young.
Great work!

[Carole Holli]

I did a little vlog on the last minute happenings on the way to the film festival-- you can check it out here :-) Hope to see you tonight if you're available!

There’s always a last minute thing-isn’t there? Witt’s Bits

Carole