Fun with Motion!

[Mike Oveson]

Originally Posted by Jeremiah McLamb

If its a setting in twixtor that helps give 24p slowmo that smooth feel....then i'm in!

It's Twixtor. The way Twixtor interprets motion and interpolates frames gives it the better slow motion. Vegas is decent but you go too far and it can't handle it. I like Vegas, it's what I use to edit, but you want this clean of slo-mo Twixtor's the best plugin I've used. I use it in After Effects.

[Niall Megahey]

hi joe

Fantastic......

Im quite new to the business and have a sony Z1, just wondering how you get that beutiful soft look to the picture?
Did you use any filters or is it just the way your camera was set up for the day of did you use anything special in post?

[Joe Simon]

Niall I use some blurring filters as well as color correction filters that allow me to customize the look I'm going for. I also shoot in 24p which gives the image a nice "filmic" feel.

[Art Varga]

Hey Joe - what shutter speed do you typically use on the A1 for shots you plan to slow-mo? Do find that setting shutter to multiples of the frame rate ( i.e. 48 for 24p) works best or if you have plenty of light, set the shutter as high as you can afford?

Art

[Joe Simon]

I mostly shoot at 48 shutter speed. I have shot as high as 120 but more then that the footage get really choppy, like a war movie look. But as far as slow-mo everything is this clip was shot at 48.

[Peter Szilveszter]

Great footage, I like it that its nice and clean.

Have you had any issues with Twixtor doing funny stuff to progressive footage, sort of like weird warping to parts of the image?

I've been using the Avid fluid motion and it does it very nice slowmos with progressive footage but it can do some strange stuff so its not very reliable.

[Joe Simon]

Peter, Twixtor does not work perfectly for slowing down everything. There can be some warping on certain types of shots. From my experience when you have a shot with windows in the background or lots of moving objects like pedals you will have a hard time slowing it down. In these instances it can causes warping.

But for the most part it has been an amazing addition to my editing collection.

[Patrick Moreau]

Thanks for sharing Joe.

I find a clip like this really needs some good stills from a photographer to really hold your attention all the way through. It doesn't have the same kind of emotional appeal as events on the wedding day so the slower pace paired with a storyline that is all video makes it a little long for my tastes.

Your footage looks really clean and sharp for more of a standard color palette. Doing some secondary grading to the clis would have given it a lot more life, in my opinion, but it certainly will alos eat up a lot more time.

There seemed to be quite the variance between your glidecam shots with some of them being really smooth and others being noticeably shaky. Perhaps some were hand held moves? The vignette you used also seemd very digital as you can see the gradient in it as it fades out. I have been looking for a good vignette that is mac based but it is tough to find one you can use that heavily.

As far as what twixtor can do- looks great! Thanks again for sharing.

Patrick

[John N. Deaver]

Amazing

Quick Question

From beginning to end how long did it take to shoot this segment?

I have been wanting to expand a bit and push myself to the point of approaching this sort of production value, but I for the life of me have no idea how to go from where i am now to this.

I'm using the same camera and shooting a lot but i clearly have a long way to go.

I will take suggestions from anybody on how to get from this...
(my work)
www.mainstreetav.com then "Demo Reel" then "American Village" or "photo Shoot"
(sorry no direct links)

to something like Joe's

BTW i know yall don't know me from Adam's house cat. First post but I've been reading for quite some time

Thanks
John Deaver
Birmingham, Alabama

[Joe Simon]

Patrick, thanks for the comments. The couple really loved the photo shoot montage so I think it really worked out well. It would have been nice to incorporate some photos in but I wasn't able to get a hold of them in time.

I would liked to have done more grading but I'm still learning that skill which is an art form in itself. It seems you do great color work what program are you using?

The glide cam I'm using is a 2000 pro handheld which isn't really the best for this weight of camera. I do use "steady cam" in FCP to help smooth out some of the shots and also when you do slowmo it helps out a ton. Thats why some are smoother then others. Sometimes the "steady cam" plugin will have to zoom in too much(over 105%) so I can't use it. I really want to get a vest set up like the pilot that would be amazing!

Anyways thanks for checking it out.

-Joe

[Joe Simon]

John, This was shot in 2 hours time. The editing took about a day.

I've been shooting for about 10 years and I still have a lot to learn. The best advice I would give you is practice shooting constantly. Get some books on cinematography and lighting. Also taking some class would be helpful too.

Best of luck to you!

-Joe

[John N. Deaver]

Originally Posted by Joe Simon

John, This was shot in 2 hours time. The editing took about a day.

I've been shooting for about 10 years and I still have a lot to learn. The best advice I would give you is practice shooting constantly. Get some books on cinematography and lighting. Also taking some class would be helpful too.

-Joe

I cant imagine a Bride actually giving me 2 hours to let me shoot such a thing.

I'm lucky to get them to turn my way during the photo sessions.

Of course a good looking B&G + a great location goes a long way to making everything look better, I was most impressed with the color saturation your using and the smotheness of the glidecam work.

I have a Glidecam 2000 and the XH-a1 is nearly too heavy to do any kind of long shots with it. In order for it to work you pretty much have to have you fist out right and hold the handle perpendicular to the floor. I'n a guy of average size but this thing gets heavy quick.
I was thinking of using a sling shot style forearm brace but i don't know if that would help without impeding my ability to float

I assume you used existing lighting on all the wide shots in this clip, did you supplement with any lights for close ups?

I'm also new to FCP and the filters it offers.

Do you apply the smooth cam before or after the slow motion effects?

Thanks Joe

[Scott Shama]

Hey Joe,

How are you delivering Bluray? What burner and what application?

BTW, your work is great. I enjoyed this clip as well as the trailer. If I can offer a suggestion though, you may want to study up on typography and graphic design a little as the titling at the end just didn't seem to fit the level of the video. Please don't take offense as I am just trying to offer up something that I believe will help you make a better product. :)

Thanks,
Scott

[Richard Wakefield]

Hi Joe,

once again, fantastic clip...I was wondering if i could be nosey and ask you about your encoding details

i'm striving to get the best flv settings in time for when i deliver my new web demo, then all of a sudden i see some great .movs - so crisp and stunning!

i suppose it helps that the original footage is HD!

[Steve Sobodos]

Joe, I love the selective bluring in your flemingtrailerHD demo. Are the blur filters standard AE or some plug-in? I use the Matrox RT for editing and they have some soft focus/blur/glow filters but they apply across the entire image. I love your flemingtrailerHD.mov demo so much that I have it on my desktop to play when I need inspiration.

Steve

Originally Posted by Joe Simon

Niall I use some blurring filters as well as color correction filters that allow me to customize the look I'm going for. I also shoot in 24p which gives the image a nice "filmic" feel.