Tourism event

I was hired by the event company, so, in a sense, it was more about the styling and the furniture than the people. But then they also wanted to show the people having a good time, so striking that balance was a little tricky.

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Any suggestions for improvement very welcome. And just hoping, frankly, that you guys don't think it's complete crap, because I put a bit of effort into this one. Particularly interested in any ideas about how you would have shot it differently or thought about it differently.

Known problems: mainly to do with camera shake, especially some of the steadicam stuff. Operator shadow in frame for one of the steadicam moves, and another camera operator, with a glidecam, in frame in the final shot, but I sort of felt the content justified retaining the shots in the edit in both these cases. Some of the colour grading is a bit questionable (some faces too red, some bits feel over/under exposed). Also, not happy with font of the title at the start, but didn't have any choice in that.

Very grey/overcast day. I had a think about it, but decided to shoot flat in camera anyway, to try to retain dynamic range. But the trade-off is that it's definitely not as vibrant as it could have been.

Details of shoot: this was stressful. Got flown interstate, and paid a fair amount of money. I guess the stress stemmed from a bunch of things -- in particular, the amount of money, and therefore high expectations, the fact that it was just me there, to cover a fairly large event, and everything seemed to happen at once (guests arriving and finishing touches put to settings, then video presentation on the big screens straight after).

One interesting thing (I don't often shoot these sorts of events) was that it felt quite different to wedding receptions. People weren't as happy/excited -- they're not family or close friends at a joyous event, but colleagues at a conference -- they were actually very subdued until the very end of the night, when, thank goodness, an impromptu dance floor formed, so I had some sort of climax to the video. Not sure how I could have ended it otherwise.

[Rob Cantwell]

looked pretty slick to me, it had a upbeat rhythm to it, a bit too much for me! thats not a criticism tho. But it did convey energy.
i liked the establishing shot - very nice.
It might have been nice to capture the live sound when the band/DJ etc. were shown, but maybe it would have been hard to incorporate into the whole thing. Pity about the colour casts in parts (not your fault tho) and the final observation id make is I liked at the end when the girls in the red came out dancing, you notice them near the start and again at the end.
good job
:-)

[Adrian Tan]

Hi Rob, thanks for the feedback. Very much appreciated!

Those girls in red, by the way, are Virgin Airlines folk. The girls in grey with the white scarves I think are Emirates. Not sure about the other uniforms you might see.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Adrian

Nice job .. For me some ambience on the audio side would have been great and of course maybe some narration or indication (apart from signs) what the event was about would have helped but that's just my opinion. In my opinion whoever is watching it should really know what it was about, why it was held so an intro maybe by the event organiser with some live audio (just a quick intro with them talking) would have made it so much more understandable.

I do agree with Rob too ... filming a band playing with a non related music track does look weird! Even if you had found out what song they were performing and then used even a commercial version of the song would have fitted a lot better.

You cannot do much about the weather or the LED lighting that takes over completely so film that as it was. Even inside the overall grading seemed very flat... I would have thought that an event like that would benefit from bright punchy colour?

Then again, just my 2 cents.

Chris

[Adrian Tan]

Your AU$0.02 is always worth having. Thanks Chris!

[Chris Harding]

Hi Adrian

I also look to others for inspiration ..the video below was shot by Dave Vickers and by using a bit of branding via a logo plus lots of shots showing the sponsor advertising makes it quite clear what it's about without having a narration ...a few live clips intercut I thought added to the presentation.

I did a fun run last month for an event organisers and they were super fussy about getting lots of branding shots (It was sponsored by Westpac and I was told if it has Westpac logo on it then film it!!)

Dave's video on the thread below is worth a watch just for the ideas alone to push the branding side of the event:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-nex...t-ea-50-a.html

Chris

[Craig McKenna]

Great opening shot - did you shoot pay for that shot to be done or???

Starting the story at the baggage collection was wise to show the beginning of the tourism event... perfect start / exit from the airport.

00:10: Welcome to Restaurant Australia shot - any grading on this? Looks epic.

Love the movement generated from 13 seconds to 34 seconds - favourite shots are the flower staging area shot, rolling out of the carpet - moving in alternate directions and the movement towards the wine girl.

The timelapse shot works brilliantly and also reminds me of what you said to me about my film and matching it with the music!

00:38 - great movement past the lemons etc... almost like a fast slider shot, but I'm guessing it was handheld with a stabiliser?

00:42-00:49: The movement of the shots from the name of the stands to the shot of the vegetables moving backwards/revealing the rest of the vegetables/stand worked brilliantly for me.

00:45: The cooked food looks great... definitely gets the taste buds.

00:57: Great shallow depth of field movement and pulling focus - nice!

01:07: Love the shot of the shadow drinking the wine!

01:17: Love the shot of the girl dancing...

01:55: Love the girl doing slow mo' "Come on..." to the camera...

As you've already stated, the only real downside to the film was the other cameramen getting in your shots... as you stated that you filmed this alone, what was their purpose on the day? Regardless of this, I coincide with you in believing that the content trumped their presence in the shots.

I think that the impromptu dance floor gave the event the spark that it sort-of-needed... but in other ways, I wouldn't have expected it... at the end of the day, this was a film about a food court... and with that kind of subject (albeit with the clientele), it was a great film that already enticed the viewer to go to the event... especially the close ups of the cooking and the brightness of the vegetables - I don't think they were undersaturated by shooting flat at all. I didn't even mind the redness of some of the shots, as they were happy to make people red on the day, so I don't see why they'd want to remember it differently thereafter.

I think Chris Harding's feedback requiring sound is a good one, but also agree that people watching this film would probably be informed of the context by the event organiser who is showing this off to future clients... of course, it would be great to have the narration... but then more shots would have been required that might not have been captured on the day... as it is, it's great. Especially if it isn't something that you'd usually do... well done!

Thanks for sharing!

[Adrian Tan]

Thanks very much for all the comments, Craig!

-- Opening aerial shot: that's me sneaking a shot out of the plane after the crew have told everyone to turn off electronic devices.

-- Grading: everything from the setup till when the guests arrive has a film convert look. The remainder of the film doesn't have any film look, because I wanted a cleaner, less grainy image. I don't think the difference is obvious though.

-- Lemon shot: steadicam, with some cheating in post (reversed the shot, because it was easier for me to keep it steady walking forwards than walking backwards, and applied stabilisation).

-- Other cameramen: they were a different crew! No idea who they were employed by, but probably the conference organisers (I was employed by the event manager of just the farewell function).

Reminds me of something Ray Roman once said: "You think you have it tough with one photographer getting in your way? For high-end events, I have five or more different groups of photographers." Apparently, for the ridiculous weddings, where they're spending hundreds of thousands on the furnishings, every supplier wants to document their work -- the design guys, the fireworks guys, the AV guys, the caterers...

[Noa Put]

I did about 8 events like these every year about 5 years ago but the event coordinator who hired me lost every single large client over the years and last year I covered my last company event for her, she has a clothingsstore now and I shoot fashion shows for her instead but they are not nearly as exciting, I really miss shooting these events, loved doing it and I would have the same approach like you have, in fact looking at your video it could have been shot by me :)
I usually got 3 to 4 hours to cover such an event and one event every year I was 12 hours on location, like you said the highest stress came from having to shoot every single detail that went into the decoration and being able to capture the essence of the event as well, people that looked at the video had to see in 3 minutes time what the event was all about and the eventcoordinator that hired me wanted to showcase her work as well in that same 3 minute video. A second shooter would not have been a luxury as too much was happening at the same time but for me it felt like a rollercoaster ride, a rush of action packed events and it was over before I new it :)
Last weekend I spend 4 hours sitting on a chair at a wedding as I had to wait for the 5 course dinner to being served, they started eating at 8 and the last plate was served at midnight, I only had to get up each time to shoot a closeup from the food and during that time I had some sweet memories of running around at such a business event :)

[Craig McKenna]

Originally Posted by Adrian Tan

Thanks very much for all the comments, Craig!

-- Opening aerial shot: that's me sneaking a shot out of the plane after the crew have told everyone to turn off electronic devices.

-- Grading: everything from the setup till when the guests arrive has a film convert look. The remainder of the film doesn't have any film look, because I wanted a cleaner, less grainy image. I don't think the difference is obvious though.

-- Lemon shot: steadicam, with some cheating in post (reversed the shot, because it was easier for me to keep it steady walking forwards than walking backwards, and applied stabilisation).

-- Other cameramen: they were a different crew! No idea who they were employed by, but probably the conference organisers (I was employed by the event manager of just the farewell function).

Reminds me of something Ray Roman once said: "You think you have it tough with one photographer getting in your way? For high-end events, I have five or more different groups of photographers." Apparently, for the ridiculous weddings, where they're spending hundreds of thousands on the furnishings, every supplier wants to document their work -- the design guys, the fireworks guys, the AV guys, the caterers...

Rebel! Haha well worth the shot though - nice one.

Grading: Wasn't noticeable to me with the exception of the titled bit (which was great!)... which means that it's been graded correctly really - you wouldn't want to see a huge change in the image overall, surely?
I purchased Film Convert but still require a lot of help with it. So that's what I'm going to practise between now and the next wedding - grading all my weddings, re-editing them all with commercially licensed music. Should be fun!

-- Lemon shot: steadicam, with some cheating in post (reversed the shot, because it was easier for me to keep it steady walking forwards than walking backwards, and applied stabilisation).

Genius!

Ray Roman is easily the best speaker that I've listened to in comparison to Joe Simon and Rob Adams - even Laforet (who I've listened to less).

I can imagine how frustrating that would be, to have so many people covering the wedding... yet I'm amazed by his professionalism... the way that he speaks, really eases your mind... and you'd never realise that he was flaking... I've seen in his most recent post on Facebook that he is using a Movi now too - would love to see his film. Meanwhile, Rob Adams' Cinematography course has been pulled from CreativeLive, but I still have access to it, given that I paid for it before it came out that he stole some of the course's content. I want to buy more courses related to wedding films, but I can't find any.

Either way, you have really nailed the film (in my opinion) - have you had any feedback as yet???

@Noa, I agree that it's similar to your style - especially your Blackbird movements! Shame that you don't get to cover similar events - maybe one will arise in the near future!