Feedback Appreciated - Highlights Video

[Kelii Grace]

http://kaimediahawaii.com/4keone/mark_kerry.wmv

Any constructive critique on this would be appreciated. This wedding was for a very cool couple a few months ago. Keep in mind i am very new to the business and I am still working on my shooting skills. Shot with the FX-1

Mahalo,

Kelii

[Zach Stewart]

Kelii - the video is nice, but with a few adjustments i think it could be tons better. a few spots of camera movement that distracted me from the piece, and could potentially be fixed by slowing the clip down a bit. also, the colors didn't quite match between cameras. some clips had the whites blown out and others had the black levels too low. don't go too crazy with the levels adjustment as it will drastically change the look. did you happen to record the audio of the vows? if so, i would suggest putting some audio in from the ceremony. last thing....i didn't really see the need for the "film burn" transition. if you were using a film look then maybe but it didn't seem to fit to me. just my 2 cents...

[Kelii Grace]

Originally Posted by Zach Stewart

Kelii - the video is nice, but with a few adjustments i think it could be tons better. a few spots of camera movement that distracted me from the piece, and could potentially be fixed by slowing the clip down a bit. also, the colors didn't quite match between cameras. some clips had the whites blown out and others had the black levels too low. don't go too crazy with the levels adjustment as it will drastically change the look. did you happen to record the audio of the vows? if so, i would suggest putting some audio in from the ceremony. last thing....i didn't really see the need for the "film burn" transition. if you were using a film look then maybe but it didn't seem to fit to me. just my 2 cents...

I guess you can say I was going for that look where colors didnt match and I made it look inconsistent on purpose but this was the first time I edited this way and the first time I used magic bullet so I guess I did get a little too carried away. The film transition also was just a new thing for me as I am a fan of cross dissolve and cuts but I thought it added a film look. My latest wedding I used a 35mm adapter but maybe I will shy away from the film transition on it. Thanks for the feedback by the way.

Kelii

[Josh Green]

I liked it. I thought it was really good. The surroundings were really cool. What a great place to shoot a wedding.

I'm kind of weird, and I like when the colors are a bit messed up and don't match all the time, thus, I thought the way you colored everything was pretty cool. There were a couple black and white shots that I didn't like, they just looked a little too gray, and the one shot of the super bright yellow flowers in front of the bride was just a bit too much for me. Maybe a small lowering of the brightness of that clip would be nice.

All in all, I'd say your client will be extremely happy with it. Good job!

[Kelii Grace]

Originally Posted by Josh Green

I liked it. I thought it was really good. The surroundings were really cool. What a great place to shoot a wedding.

I'm kind of weird, and I like when the colors are a bit messed up and don't match all the time, thus, I thought the way you colored everything was pretty cool. There were a couple black and white shots that I didn't like, they just looked a little too gray, and the one shot of the super bright yellow flowers in front of the bride was just a bit too much for me. Maybe a small lowering of the brightness of that clip would be nice.

All in all, I'd say your client will be extremely happy with it. Good job!

THANKS! Yeah, the black and white shots were pretty much a cover up for poor color and exposure. I totally agree with you on the bright flowers part but I had only two hours to edit this being it was an onsite video so I just chose what I thought would be good at the time. Thanks for your comment!

Kelii

[Marcus Marchesseault]

I wanted to see closer shots during the ceremony. I thought the editing was good but there weren't enough really clear shots. I would put an operator on the aisle and closer to the couple, maybe halfway up the room. This would allow a better angle on the kiss and probably would allow the lens to stop down less to improve exposure.

Why was the ceremony indoors? Everything I've shot at the Royal Hawaiian has been an outdoor ceremony and mixed indoor/outdoor reception. I love outdoor weddings since there is plenty of light and I can get any angle I want. I particularly like getting a reverse angle from behind the couple so I can get them and the families in the same shot.

The nice things about weddings in Hawaii is that everyone gets a police escort and honor guard. ;)

[Jon McGuffin]

I really enjoyed it and thought it was truly excellent. I agree there were a few spots where the colors were blown out that didn't fit with the altering color scheme you chose but overall I still thought this part was well done. Your client should be thrilled and very satisifed.

To edit that inside of 2 hours... that's really good because that simply just isn't a lot of time... great work!

[Kelii Grace]

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

I wanted to see closer shots during the ceremony. I thought the editing was good but there weren't enough really clear shots. I would put an operator on the aisle and closer to the couple, maybe halfway up the room. This would allow a better angle on the kiss and probably would allow the lens to stop down less to improve exposure.

Why was the ceremony indoors? Everything I've shot at the Royal Hawaiian has been an outdoor ceremony and mixed indoor/outdoor reception. I love outdoor weddings since there is plenty of light and I can get any angle I want. I particularly like getting a reverse angle from behind the couple so I can get them and the families in the same shot.

The nice things about weddings in Hawaii is that everyone gets a police escort and honor guard. ;)

The ceremony was done at the supreme court building with only natural light through stained glass on an overcast afternoon. The place was so small and we had barely enough room to fit everyone in there. That and there were three buzzing bee photographers getting in our way most of the time lol. Oh and not everyone gets a police escort. They were high ups in the force.

[Jason Robinson]

I noticed that the music was a fairly laid back beat & temp but the cuts, camera motions, and all around pace of the edit seemed to be targeted towards a faster song. Might just be my perception of the song. I took most of my cues on pace of the song from the singer and the background drum set.

I liked your use of crowd reaction shots.

I also really liked your use of the pillar to switch from B&W to color. That was a great idea for a color transition, and if ou had that planned out before post-production that is amazing! That is the kind of thing I only think of after I'm sitting down to edit.

Other places where you use a B/W vs Color transition were kind of "there" but only for one scene and with out much warning or preparation. Possibly use larger sections of each affect, rather than switching between them as often. Unless you have one angle that is always that affect, but for that, it needs to be a bit more carefully planned out for the shots to not jump out.

Over all I liked lots of our shots, and almost the only comments I have relate to their treatment in post. I usually have the opposite problem with my footage where I have more issues with the shots them self than my use of them in post.

EDIT: I just read that you only had 2 hours to edit this. That is amazing. Was this for a SDE?

[Kelii Grace]

Quote EDIT: I just read that you only had 2 hours to edit this. That is amazing. Was this for a SDE?[/QUOTE]

Yes this was SDE. I actually finished it ahead of schedule and as I was rendering the final output the computer crashed! My worst nightmare! Luckily I saved the project before rendering so I simply restarted everything and made it just in time. I knew it was too good to be true. But anyone who does SDE knows the pure satisfaction you get when all those people at the wedding just give this look on there face like "How did they do that?"

[Tim Polster]

I liked the feel of the video.

You captured some nice moments.

The camera movement did not bother me.

Some of the overexposed shots bothered the videographer in me, but most viewers will not be bothered.

I hate to change the tone, but once again I am taken aback at the flaunting of copyright violation on this website.

"Under the radar" just does not apply in the wedding forum.

-I am assuming you did not purchase the rights for this song.-

Don't want to be a finger pointer because we have all done this, but just want to let it be known that it was noticed.

Best of luck

[Kelii Grace]

Who hasn't done this before? What If the couple owns the cd and gives the song to me? Does that make it legal you think?

Originally Posted by Tim Polster

I liked the feel of the video

You captured some nice moments.

The camera movement did not bother me.

Some of the overexposed shots bothered the videographer in me, but most viewers will not be bothered.

I hate to change the tone, but once again I am taken aback at the flaunting of copyright violation on this website.

"Under the radar" just does not apply in the wedding forum.

-I am assuming you did not purchase the rights for this song.-

Don't want to be a finger pointer because we have all done this, but just want to let it be known that it was noticed.

Best of luck

[Tim Polster]

I don't know if this is a new topic for you or not, but any use without the publisher's permission, especially in a paid situation is not "legal".

This is a question every professional videographer has to ask oneself.

Am I going to work within the copyright guidelines or outside of them?

It is not pretty when dealing with weddings, but that does not make it go away.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Originally Posted by Kelii Grace

The ceremony was done at the supreme court building with only natural light through stained glass on an overcast afternoon. The place was so small and we had barely enough room to fit everyone in there. That and there were three buzzing bee photographers getting in our way most of the time lol. Oh and not everyone gets a police escort. They were high ups in the force.

I missed the transition from one location to the other. I would think the big statue would have clued me in. At least I was joking about the police escort and not completely brain dead.

Don't let photographers get in your way. Politely introduce yourself and let them know where your cameras will be so they can work around you. It is no problem at all for them to shoot over your shoulder or past your elbow. If I am shooting in the aisle, I try to get off to one side so the photographer has a clear view if they want to go back and get a long lens shot. I know it gets crowded, but if you wear deodorant you can all cram in to get the shots.

[Kelii Grace]

You know its funny, the photographers were so cool and always asked If they were in the way and I would let them know that yeah they were in the way but they would still get in front of my shot. No matter though because the way my company works is that we try to be as unobtrusive as possible, almost like ghosts. I like it when people comment saying that they didn't know we were even there. After all, this isnt a movie set.

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

I missed the transition from one location to the other. I would think the big statue would have clued me in. At least I was joking about the police escort and not completely brain dead.

Don't let photographers get in your way. Politely introduce yourself and let them know where your cameras will be so they can work around you. It is no problem at all for them to shoot over your shoulder or past your elbow. If I am shooting in the aisle, I try to get off to one side so the photographer has a clear view if they want to go back and get a long lens shot. I know it gets crowded, but if you wear deodorant you can all cram in to get the shots.