Not My Typical Highlights - Mark & Elizabeth

So this is a big departure from my typical cinematic style. I wanted to create a much more dynamic piece than usual, but keep an element of my cinematic style as well as strong emotional visuals. I think it turned out pretty good. In fact, I'm stoked at how it turned out. Here's the link:

Highlights for Mark & Elizabeth on Vimeo


Enjoy!!

[John De Rienzo]

Hi Travis,

I like more dynamic pieces, and therefore I liked this. Some solid, and great footage,nice tight editing and cutting to the beat. There is a good mix of cinematic and dynamic. I do think you do this extremely well.

Only one thing that jarred for me slightly was the overuse of the reverse forward shot. It lost its impact after a while. I think if it was used a couple of times it would have more effect, and maybe the slide down transition could be done differently with the church shot.

I thought this was otherwise an excellent and very creative piece.

Cheers,

John De Rienzo

[Louis Maddalena]

A few things.

First: WOW!

Second: There was some pretty impressive Steadicam footage in there for it being shot with a merlin, I would have guess pilot or flyer. But maybe thats just because I use the pilot and I find it difficult to operate a merlin because of its small form factor.

Third: How did the client react to the new style of yours. I personally love it, but not sure what they would think since its so different then what you usually post up here. Also what are you planning on doing as the longer version, or are you only sticking with that style for the short form.

Fourth: I noticed the reception footage was a little dark at times. What are you using in terms of light if you are using light. Although at one point your subject was standing right below one of the high hats, the lighting on his face looked great.

Fifth: Again, I loved it.

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by John De Rienzo

Hi Travis,

I like more dynamic pieces, and therefore I liked this. Some solid, and great footage,nice tight editing and cutting to the beat. There is a good mix of cinematic and dynamic. I do think you do this extremely well.

Only one thing that jarred for me slightly was the overuse of the reverse forward shot. It lost its impact after a while. I think if it was used a couple of times it would have more effect, and maybe the slide down transition could be done differently with the church shot.

I thought this was otherwise an excellent and very creative piece.

Cheers,

John De Rienzo

Thanks for the feedback, John. I have to agree with the church slides. I'm actually tweaking a number of things in the video right now so I'll be taking a look at how to do that differently maybe. I think the problem is the slides don't work so well with a pair of wider shots.

Regarding the reverse-forward shots, I hear you. I won't be changing those in this video, but I'll take the advice for future pieces. I was trying to limit the number of 'tricks' in the video and spread them out so that the piece felt consistent, but maybe those particular shots are just too much to have that often.

Thanks again for the comments!

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by Louis Maddalena

A few things.

First: WOW!

Second: There was some pretty impressive Steadicam footage in there for it being shot with a merlin, I would have guess pilot or flyer. But maybe thats just because I use the pilot and I find it difficult to operate a merlin because of its small form factor.

Third: How did the client react to the new style of yours. I personally love it, but not sure what they would think since its so different then what you usually post up here. Also what are you planning on doing as the longer version, or are you only sticking with that style for the short form.

Fourth: I noticed the reception footage was a little dark at times. What are you using in terms of light if you are using light. Although at one point your subject was standing right below one of the high hats, the lighting on his face looked great.

Fifth: Again, I loved it.

I have to say I film with the Merlin as if I had a Pilot. The Merlin is a major pain for sure due to the fact that it's smaller and has a much smaller contact area, plus I don't have the arm and vest. But I've worked really hard to try and overcome all of those challenges. Thanks for noticing!

The client hasn't actually seen this yet, and in fact I'm still tweaking parts of the video (enhancing some shots, replacing some shots, etc.). But I'm pretty sure they'll dig it. I create a short-form that is very cinematic, and I've been wanting to push the highlights a bit away from being cinematic so as to give more distinction between the two types of pieces. I probably won't go quite this far for every client, but I want my short-forms and my highlights to feel like distinct pieces.

Lighting .. I'm so bummed I didn't set any up for this reception. We tested the light before the major events kicked off (toasts, cake and dances), and it was pretty good for the most part. So I elected to go without the lights this time. Then when they kicked off the dances someone dropped the house lighting, so we were out of luck. I was still stoked to get a shot of the first dance from OUTSIDE the building. Never had that opportunity before. Still, in the future I don't care what the light looks like beforehand, we're setting up lights. d;-)

Thanks for watching and thanks for the comments. Glad you loved it!

[Richard Wakefield]

Hey Travis

as ever, really liked your shots, colouring, and general quality

i really did feel like you were trying to force an effect/movement every few seconds though. I think personally I would have carried out the same cool effects but only for small snippets/sections at a time (i.e. perhaps during the choruses, or 'off-beats'). I hope that makes sense? the viewer would relax more and take it in better if there were parts that just played with no effect. 'Less is more' and all that.

really liked it though! the above is pretty minor, let's face it!

[Travis Cossel]

Awesome, thanks for the comments, Richard. Finding the right balance with this style is definitely difficult and time-consuming. I've probably spent 10 hours on this video now, and I'm STILL tweaking it, lol.

Anyways, thanks for watching!

[Richard Wakefield]

well hey, i think I (and many others) took on board your very valid and recent point that not enough of us are reviewing clips.

i do like alot of your work so i thought it'd be better to pick up on something i could criticize, rather than just say 'i like it' all the time :)

[Travis Cossel]

That's cool. I will say that critiquing the work of others has a tendency of helping you improve your own. It's an odd thing, but it works.

I guess it helps to watch something with a critical eye when you aren't close to the footage to start with. When you watch your own work and the lighting is bad or there's a bump in the video, you can rationalize it and say "Hey, they turned the lights down on me or someone bumped into me." But when you see it in someone else's work it helps you to realize that your own excuses don't cut it.

[John De Rienzo]

So true Travis. There was me just about to put another clip for review and you just made me change my mind! ha...

Cheers.

[Matt Barwick]

Hi Travis,

Really liked the piece you've put together. The funky, upbeat style to it really works, as do the vibrant colours. I like also that you've included the rain shots, rather than pretending it was a perfect day & didn't happen :) - it cuts in nicely.

I'd echo what's been written already about the number of forward/reverse shots and the jump zooms (is that a term?) - maybe just a little overdone, but that's subjective I guess.

The other thing that sticks out for me would be the couples expectations on the style of finished product. i.e. what if they've booked you based on your previous samples/style and then receive something quite different?

The gliding stair shot at 0:48 looks familiar for some reason. Do you have this on your site?

Really well done on putting a great clip together. Very entertaining!

Cheers,

Matt.

P.S. I'm another that's heard your view about making an effort in reviewing others clips.

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by John De Rienzo

So true Travis. There was me just about to put another clip for review and you just made me change my mind! ha...

Cheers.

lol .. don't do that! Post it!

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by Matt Barwick

Hi Travis,

Really liked the piece you've put together. The funky, upbeat style to it really works, as do the vibrant colours. I like also that you've included the rain shots, rather than pretending it was a perfect day & didn't happen :) - it cuts in nicely.

I'd echo what's been written already about the number of forward/reverse shots and the jump zooms (is that a term?) - maybe just a little overdone, but that's subjective I guess.

The other thing that sticks out for me would be the couples expectations on the style of finished product. i.e. what if they've booked you based on your previous samples/style and then receive something quite different?

The gliding stair shot at 0:48 looks familiar for some reason. Do you have this on your site?

Really well done on putting a great clip together. Very entertaining!

Cheers,

Matt.

P.S. I'm another that's heard your view about making an effort in reviewing others clips.

Thanks, Matt. Glad you liked the rain shots and thanks for the feedback on the 'dynamics'. Regarding the couple's expectations I'm not too worried. Their short-form is very cinematic and probably the best one I've ever done, so they'll have that element there already. Worst case scenario they don't like the highlights and I'll have to edit another one more in my traditional style. Guess we'll see .. cross your fingers for me!

The stair shot and a few others are in the promo trailer I created for my website a few months ago. Good catch!

Oh, and glad to see you commenting and reviewing. It helps everyone here. Thanks!

[SiuChung Leung]

Wow, Travis, this piece of work is very inspiring.

Watching your clip make me realize that I been edit my wedding video in certain style and kind of stop trying to find a new way. Your work is inspiring and refreshing since we've watch a similar wedding video style on the forum every day.

I like how you interact the picture with the beat and apply different color to the clip. It encourage me go try out something new to edit wedding highlight!

Thx

[Travis Cossel]

Awesome, Siuchung! I think it is important for us as film makers to find new ways to twist what we do .. if not for the client ... then for us as artists. Because if you get too set in your ways you won't grow, and if you don't grow you'll get bored, and if you get bored eventually the quality of your work will suffer .. and none of us want that.

Thanks for the comments!