DreamBIG Promo - Must Watch!!
 

I just finished up our brand new promo trailer (3 minutes & HD), and I think it's something special. Check it out and let me know what you think!

DreamBIG Promo Trailer on Vimeo

Travis,
You did an excellent job. Congratulations

Thanks, Jose. I had a lot of fun putting it together. Thanks for watching.

Thats not bad at all, some nice shots there.


Cheers.

Very very nice stuff indeed.

'Im lincoln' is great to edit to eh.

Awesome video, love the feel of it!

Just curious, what cameras are you shooting with again?

Thanks, guys. The cameras are Canon A1's, and the wide shot of the first dance from above was with a Canon HV30.

Oh, and I've been waiting a year to get to this project and use that track. I love the power behind it, but it has a quietness to it as well.

Hey Travis,

That was great! Some very nice stuff, well shot, blah, blah. You know you're good. I think there was one shot lacking contrast. I'll let you choose which one, hehe.

A few suggestions from what hit me:

I would slow down the zoom in of the titles. Too fast for the feel.

Opening four shots are awesome, except the end of the first steadicam shot, which is shakey. I find the cutting into the moving steadicam shots (:36-:40) a bit jarring.

The ring dropping at :53 happens too close to the start of the shot, so we don't really get it. Can you slip it over a bit?

The steadicam shot along the top of the wall is awesome.

I would slomo the dip at 1:18.

The low shot of the aisle at 1:41 doesn't work for me. Too much ugly rug and floor. Do you have a better frame? Cause it's a nice idea.

Unity candle shot is great.

Steadicam shot at 1:58 doesn't work. Not such a great shot. The preceding one is great (behind the bride). Could it go longer? It cuts away a little awkwardly during the boom down.

The dancing at 2:06 looks a bit lame cause of the room. Looks like an amateur band in some guy's basement. Do you have a better one?

The final shot is genius. Very jealous of that one...

In general, nice feel, looks great and high end, though you've been watching too much StillMotion. Well done.

Already fixing it before you mentioned it. Thanks, though. The problem with that shot was the area where the bride was getting ready had no lighting (really odd for a salon), so the original shot is really flat and has little color to it. Difficult to match it with the other shots that have decent lighting and bright colors on the walls from the lighting. Adjusting the contrast did help, though.


I totally agree.


Thanks for the input.


I originally had it that way and then changed it. I'll change it back and see if that works better.


Thanks. I was SOOO hoping I would pull that shot off. It had been raining that day so I had to walk quickly over uneven soggy terrain to get the shot. I couldn't believe I pulled it off.


I'll try it and see how it looks. A slo-mo version won't fit the entire dip in that time space, but it might look good. I was trying to minimize the use of slo-mo. Worth trying it, though.


I have another shot where she is halfway down the aisle and fills the frame more, but I liked the idea of seeing the doors open. I can see your point, though.


Thanks!


I'm curious why this shot doesn't work. Is it too short? Is the scenery not impressive? I was trying to use it to bridge from the ceremony to the reception, and then use the dancing figures to bridge to the first dances of the couples. It's not needed, but when I used just the shot you mentioned it felt too long.


Unfortunately I don't. It just wasn't a great room to shoot in. Really low ceilings, lighting in all the wrong places. This was probably the best shot from the dance. On a side note, the band was really, really good.


Thanks. I shot it several ways, and the shot I used was actually a mistake at first. The desk was uneven, so the ring rolled out of frame when it stopped, but I thought that was cool. The shot right before it was the shot I originally planned to end the video on, but I liked how the ring shot gave me a seamless transition to black, and I liked how it ended the video by "leaving the screen", much like the first shot "opens" the video. Sometimes we just have to get unlucky to get lucky, eh?


It's true I draw a lot of inspiration from StillMotion, but I hope my trailer doesn't scream "StillMotion". I watch LOTS of other studios and draw inspiration from them as well, but I'm always trying to make things my own and put a different spin on what inspired me.

I think sometimes people see a steadicam shot and immediately think "StillMotion" simply because Patrick and his team are such a aces with the gear. But the truth is that there are many places around the world shooting the exact same steadicam shots and they know nothing about StillMotion. I'll take the comment as a compliment, though. d;-)

Thank you SO MUCH for the detailed response. I really appreciate it!

Looks great, nice job. I hope it finds you lots of future bookings.

Me too. Thanks, Josh.

In my opinion, the promo does scream "Stillmotion" but you have a lot of great shots! However, "The Island" soundtrack has been used too many times already.

There were two shots that made me go "whoa"....
The first was the dress hanging from the sprinkler/smoke detector above the doorway. I would never hang anything from the sprinklers! Imagine the disaster if it did go off by accident.

The second shot was at the end where you had a closeup of the groom's genitals in the foreground and the bride looks up and thinks... "am I going to dream big?"

Sorry, I couldn't stop giggling at that one....
But good job overall!

Very nice promo, Travis! The only thing missing, for marketing purposes, is your contact information, particularly your URL so potential clients can see more of your work.

Travis, i hope you don't mind me saying this but i was so pleasantly surprised by this...not seen work of THIS class from you...i mean this is just excellent! beautiful imagery and colouring and great camerawork (gliding, exposures, details etc). Nothing tacky, or forced, out of this.

shame to see so many copies of ring shots like this nowadays, but hey, you did it well so we'll let you off :)

Why does it scream "StillMotion"? Is it the steadicam work or something else? I'm torn because it's an honor to be compared .. but at the same time it's not like I watch their stuff and try and go duplicate it. I want to make sure I'm on a different path, so if you could clarify what makes you feel this way I would really love to know. Thanks!

Regarding the music, I know it has been used a lot. I actually picked it out last year, but just didn't get the time to do the trailer until now. It's been used a lot since then but I had already fallen in love with the music. d:-(

About the dress shot, it was NOT my idea to hang it up there. It was the photographer's (my wife, lol) .. and I voiced my concern but on a stressful wedding day there's only so much I challenge her creativity ... d;-)

The other shot .. well ... I never even saw it that way ... funny how different minds/eyes can work. I just hope I can look at the shot in the future and not think of that, lol.

Thanks a lot for watching and for the comments.

This promo is targeted specifically for use on my website and at the wedding show, so no contact information is needed. If I ever use it for other purposes I will put my contact info on there for sure. Thanks for watching!

Thanks. I really felt like I had stepped up a notch with this production .. so I'm glad you noticed. It does help that it's a promo so I can choose from a wider variety of shots, but I've definitely made progress over the past year.

The ring shots .. I know others have done the "time lapse" look and I actually do it quite rarely (three times this year), but this piece is targeted towards new brides and not you guys and they likely haven't seen such a shot before. I haven't seen anyone do the ring dropping down the necklace before, but maybe someone has. I can't watch everything, lol.

Either way, thanks for letting me off. d;-)

The composition does nothing for me. And you are familiar with the setting, so you know where it is. From my point of view, having never seen the room, I struggle to understand the shot anyway. I mean, it's a doorway, I guess, but to where? It's not particularly pretty...The following toy figures dancing are great, though.


It wasn't actually the steadicam stuff, which, as you mention, is being done all over. It was more the little detail ring and earring cute shots, and the one with the moving light. Very StillMotion.

Thanks for the clarification. The room where that shot is leading is the reception for the wedding. I thought the sea of tables made that obvious but I guess not. It's hard when you're presenting an event that others didn't attend. Maybe a different reception venue shot would work better.

Definitely the light-and-rings shot is StillMotion. I mentioned earlier that I rarely do that shot (only 3 times this year). The only reason I used it in this trailer is because my brides probably haven't seen that shot and it will impress them. As for general ring detail shots, I've been doing those for a while now and pretty much everyone else is too I thought.

Anways, thanks again for watching and for the further clarification!

Concerning the StillMotion look... I think it looks fabulous, so why not use it? So WHAT if it looks familiar to something you've seen before, or even if it's been seen 1001 times. It works.

I wake up every morning and to the same woman laying next to me... she looks the same to me every morning - yet she is still just as beautiful. Should I change women? ;-)

That, my friend, is a very dangerous question. d;-)

The reasons have already been covered in previous posts so I won't repeat it.

Here are the reasons why I liked it; Off the top of my head, the 4 shots I loved were the one of the groom kissing her neck and making her smile, the high shot of the bride bending backwards, and the closeup of his hands around her waist showing the rings, and the spinning cake top. Oh yeah the ring shot at the very end was cool too!
Good job!!

double post

Thanks, Warren! That "cake topper" shot was actually a Cinderella toy on the B&G table. Looked cool from above, though. My wife thought it looked cheezy, lol. Funny how everyone can see things differently.

Just checked it out. I like the shots and the editing, worked really well with the song. Favourite shot is the hands around the brides waist with the rings, I like the b/w intro as well. the colour grading seemed too red for me some bits for my liking. Overall though its a great demo. Well done.

What should I say that has not been said already, oh well, I will say it again, FABULOUS!!!!

I really thought it was a great trailer and I really do think and hope it will help you get more clients. Overall, Very good piece.

Keep up the good work :).

Which editing software do you use by the way?

Karim.

Thanks, Peter. It's interesting to me how various people who have seen it have different favorite shots, which are different from my own favorite. That's a good thing, though.

Thanks for the comment on the color grading as well. I'm still trying to nail that skill down.

I use Final Cut Pro. Thanks for watching and for the comments!

Looked great Travis- thanks for sharing! What cams are you using? Also what are you using to color grade?

I definitely see a Still-motion influence.

lol .. I'm just going to roll with the "StillMotion" references and take them as great compliments. Hopefully in the future I can define my own style a bit more.

Glen, I'm using Canon A1's. Funny, I just asked you about this in your thread, but I shoot without presets .. I shoot flat. I used to use the 3-way-color-corrector for all grading, but I'm experimenting with a levels filter now. I still don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm making my stuff look better I think, so that's good. I think I need to take a color theory class or something. d:-)

The Still-Motion comment was a compliment. Patrick does exemplary work. Nice to hear you are on A1's as well. I thought the imagery looked great.

If you are going to grade it is, indeed, best to shoot flat out of the cam and tweak in post. As I described in the other thread, I do the exact opposite of this.

A lot of nice shots there Travis and nice Steadicam work. Do you wear a vest most of the day or are you going handheld with the stabilizer?

Also, there was no DOF lens used on any of these shots?

I just did my first event a couple days ago for my cousin (he had a professional there, but I got permission to shoot my own) and I wish I can get to this type of quality soon.

EDIT: I realized you are the one who posted in my topic about my first shoot, so you are a little more familiar with my situation.

Thanks then. I'm loving the A1's. Do you have your gain set to -3 usually? I have mine set to 0, but I know a lot of people set it back to -3 and I'm wondering if that really improves the image clarity. I thought your imagery looked a bit more sharp than mine (although I did diffuse mine in post a bit to soften it up).

I'm going handheld all day, and it's a back-breaker for sure. I don't own a vest yet. I'm not sure how well the Merlin vest works with the Merlin in terms of shot improvement. I know the Flyer and Pilot are excellent systems, but I'm not sure about the Merlin vest.

No DOF adapter on any shots. I try to use the space I'm in and subject distances to create DOF when I want it, and sometimes I enhance the DOF in post. Thanks for watching and commenting.

For anyone interested, the final version is now online on my website: DreamBIG Productions - A Different Kind of Wedding Film

The intro titling is now slower-paced and gold instead of white. I switched a shot out and actually reversed another shot, and adjusted coloring on some shots. Nothing major, but there you have it.

Why not use it?

1. because it isn't original, and originality makes our jobs more meaningful and our products more valuable

2. it is rather offensive to encourage copying our look just because it is 'fabulous'. I hope we inspire others and it helps them to find their own look- not simply imitate ours

3. we put our work out there to share with others and hopefully inspire many who view it. as it gets copied more and more, we need to hold more back, and as a result those who enjoy our work and our inspired by it lose out

4. as an industry, i think we will develop much slower and with much less diversity if we all look to imitate whats hot at the time

5. our shots are thought out to fit into the sequence, to mean something to the couple, and to add to the overall piece. all of that context and meaning is lost if you take a shot and try to replicate it in another scenario.

6. StillMotion wouldn't be StillMotion if they imitated Jason Magbanua everytime they went out. We have a great respect for his vision, unique style, and amazing talent but for us to imitate his look would have been a disrespect to both him and ourselves. Do you want to be the original or the knockoff?

For the record, I think your demo is awesome Travis. That second shot is something else. Personally, I can see that we have inspired you within that demo but it certainly doesn't scream StillMotion to me, it screams DreamBIG Productions.

P.

Hey Travis...very nice. I didn't watch this before reading the "other thread". I thought it was very well done. Very nice shots.

Patrick, thanks for saying that. If there's anything I've ever tried to duplicate with my films it is the "mood" that you guys create. You can't do that simply by duplicating shots or using the same music or anything like that. It's a full process, and over the course of time I've realized that the "mood" I'm trying to create is different than the "mood" you guys try to create. The biggest difference I see is in color grading. Your work tends to be on the less saturated side, whereas I tend to lean towards a more saturated look. I also think my editing style is different, since I tend to edit more with the beat of the music and you seem to edit more to the shot selection. This is why I was initially confused when people started saying my promo "screamed StillMotion". I'm just glad you know that I'm not trying to duplicate what you guys do.

John, thanks for watching and commenting.