My first post to Vimeo

[Sam Mendolia]

Okay, after seeing all the great works you have all put out, I tried my hand at it.

http://www.vimeo.com/4726138

It is a bit long at aprox 15mins, and I know that alot will have to be cut, but this is my first attempt, and I was experimenting with software, mostly the music and natural audio.

My tripod technique needs work, as I have never used one for my videos before.

So, head on over to the above, address, and of course, I will be interested in what you think, so that my next attempt, will be better and much shorter.

Thanks.

[Jason Davis]

sam, cant view it, says we need a password???

[Sam Mendolia]

Sorry, I forgot to change the settings, so that anyone could view this.

Please try it now, as I tested it on a friend's computer, and he can now view it.

[Dale Guthormsen]

Sam,

I was doing some rendering so I put your clip on to play on the other computer.

first effort is pretty good.

At the 2 minute mark or so you have snow way to bright and then it jumps to a much better shot and exposure. I would go back and cut down the brightness by ten percent or adjust the luma a slight bit to make a smoother transition to the new image.

I am not sure what you are using for a tripod, but you are right, this is an area you need to work on!! the shakiness in pans is apparent.

you have a real aptitude for nice images and compositions.

the zooming needs to be smoothed out. i would time stretch them to slow things down and it should help a lot. You also could use deshake or mercalli to stabilize them a bit better.

the audio changes from loud water sounds to none or vica versa were to harsh I thought. I would deal with that by making a J cut removing some of the video with good water sound leaving a few seconds of the audio. The new cut remove the same amount of audio and slide it over with the video overlap. then I would take the audio and fade the water sounds as they new image is going.

I enjoyed the background music, very suitable. I would not ever fully remove it so when you are emphesizing the water sounds it is still residual in the back ground, then when you raise the volume back up slowly ti is not a surprise.


anyway, these are just a few thoughts.

Oh yea, I liked the water image at 9:50

also, the spattering of water to the choppy end music was clever!!


Seems to me you should start participating in the uwol competitions!!



Keep up the good work, look forward to your future work!!

[Sam Mendolia]

Thanks Dale,

I know I have some work to do work the tripod, I am hoping that it was the fact that the unit hadn't been used in years, and with the combination of the cold weather that day, that the lube in the tripod got sticky. Now that the warm weather is here, I will pull out the tripod, and practice. Hopefully the lube will be more fluid, and I won't be as jerky in my pans and tilts.

I know the zooming really needs work, so I have been looking at how the rest of the group here, and on some other forums, are acheiving the look I want. I guess more planning of the shot, and not rushing, for this would definitely be a help.

I am interested in "time stretching", but haven't been able to figure it out, in the software.
More that I will have to look into.

"Deshake and Mercalli and J cut" are new terms to me, so I will have to look them up in a glossary, and figure out how to apply them.

The audio effect I was trying to create, was something like what I have seen on Great Canadian Rivers/Parks..., thanks for the tips, on that issue.

I have thought of the uwol competitons, and was ready to try my hand at one last year, even signing up for one, but Murphy showed his face, and took out both my camera and my camera at work.

Well that's it for now, thanks for the comments.

I'm heading home, and had planned on doing some work in the yard, as my wife's garden is looking very good, and had planned on playing with the tripod and camera, and trying my had at doing some macro, and manual use of the camera features.