A clip from Scotland

[Alastair Brown]

http://www.vimeo.com/1000420

OK guys, I've finally taken a brave pill and decided to post a clip up here for review.

I would REALLY appreciate your comments and guidance on what you think I need to be doing to improve my game.

Shot using a mixture of Canon XH-A1 and an HV20 fitted with a static (hence the dust specs) DOF adapter using a Nikon 50mm 1.4.

Edited using Vegas and MB.

Thanks in advance.

Alastair

[Monday Isa]

Hey Alastair,
Nice clip. The music had a nice feel to it. I really loved your establishing shots at the beginning. How did you pull off the smooth moving shots to the sides if you don't mind me asking? That is the one skill I'm missing in the style I'm pursuing. Once the clip starts with the groom right to the end of the ceremony it would have been nice to use more wide shots. You were really stuck on medium shots and a few close ups up to that point. After the ceremony and shots of the bride and groom during the photo shoot you start to see more wide shots which was nice and made the clip more complete. I to this day still struggle with using wide medium closeup and extreme closeups when filming. I am getting better at using them all as time goes on. The last thing I want to mention is that I think you missed grading some of your footage as some has the MB look and then a few shots were plain and normal. It seemed only the letus footage was like that seeing I could see the lens vignette. Not sure what you were thinking there. Thanks for sharing Alastair and you have some great talent and potential. Take Care

Monday

[Colin McDonald]

Originally Posted by Alastair Brown

http://www.vimeo.com/1000420

OK guys, I've finally taken a brave pill and decided to post a clip up here for review.

I would REALLY appreciate your comments and guidance on what you think I need to be doing to improve my game.

Alastair,

I judge that to be an excellent product.
Before anyone slags off all the daffodils at the beginning that's what I would have done too. (Use of DIY dolly noted and approved as well).

My daughter who is a potential customer liked it also but we disagreed about the audio. Having a whole pipe band at a wedding and not being able to hear it seemed a missed opportunity to me. I wasn't so sure about the bland piano throughout but she liked it. Maybe you are just more in touch with the market than I am.

I particularly liked the shot of the groom's sporran (Please! There are Ladies present!) and the one through the drones of the pipes. The Scottish country dancers were also appealing (weel done cutty sark.)

At 00:52 and again at 01:53 I was not sure if the vignetting effect was intended or not - I see it used for effect elsewhere in this piece and in your other videos. The lighting/exposure looked pretty good to me under some tricky conditions. I would have liked however to have seen a bit with sound so that I could really feel I was there.

I'm being quite brave as well - I live near enough for you to come round with a shinty stick (that's the local equivalent of a baseball bat folks) but you did ask.

[Stelios Christofides]

Alastair
Nice video, The quality of it was great. How did you do it? I would have like though to hear some music on the background especially the back pipes march and the scottish dancing, otherwise great work.

Stelios.

[Peter Wiley]

I looked at the video and think it nice. I have to confess a few seconds in I was struck by Bracken's appearance more than anything else because he looks like he could be kin to me . . . even though the Wileys I'm related to left Scotland in the late 1600s . . .

[Alastair Brown]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. All your comments, which are spot on, are very much appreciated. Lots of food for thought which is what I wanted.

As far as the tracking shots go, I made my own tripod (or floor mounted) tracking dolly. Details here:-

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=121309

I was also struggling with the music. It's nice but it doesn't really carry the piece. That said, I like it more now, as it's so subtle.

Thats why I was struggling with introducing the pipe bands audio. A single piper can be hauntingly beautiful, whereas a FULL band are pretty much right in your face. I've got them going full pelt in the main DVD.

I kinda went for the old cine film type mentality and hoped the images would speak for themselves. Needs audio has been the main cry I have heard though, so, point noted.

The DIY DOF Adapter automatically results in a vignette. Other shots I used MB.

Keep the comments coming!

[Dennis Murphy]

I thought that was 'charming'.
Certainly not the typical wedding video.
Fantastic!

[John Moon]

Alastair:

I really liked it. You did a great job on making the colors "pop". Really liked the dolly shots too.

[Travis Cossel]

Overall I thought the video was excellent. I only have three suggestions.

First, near the beginning when the groom looks at the camera and says something it felt a bit awkward ... like I felt I should be hearing him. Not saying you should have included the live audio, but maybe just found a different clip (if you had one) where he wasn't talking.

Secondly in the church it looked like you were white-balanced for the indoor lighting, but the bride and groom (and officiant) were tinted somewhat blue, so I'm betting they were getting lit mostly from the windows? Always a tough situation, but since the B&G are the focus of the shot, and not the church, I think I would have white-balanced on them (in camera or post, either works).

Lastly, there were a couple of shots that I think were handheld that were pretty shaky (almost like vibrating). Sometimes that's all you have, but they did stand out from the rest of your more "professional" looking shots.

Anyways, that's it. I loved the rest. Nice dolly shots!

[Ethan Cooper]

I really really liked the dolly shots. The dolly combined with the adapter gave this a really clean, professional feel.
I just checked out your thread about your DIY tripod track system and thought the idea is brilliant. Your stuff looks better and better every time you post, I think you're on the verge of being really good. I don't have anything more to add in way or critique that hasn't already been said. Good job man.

[Matthew Ebenezer]

Hey Alastair,

Really nice clip.

I agree with most of what has been said already - i.e. the 'goldfishing' moments where people are talking but we don't hear them.

The piano piece worked for me. Nice and understated.

Loved the HV20 + 35mm adapter footage - really lovely. I didn't mind the camera shake on it - made it feel like old film footage to me. And the dolly shots were cool as well.

Only minor critique would be that there's a very obvious difference when you cut from 35mm footage to non-35mm footage. Not sure what can be done about that ... maybe a bit more tweaking in MB to match them up more.

Overall, good work. Made me excited for the day when I get a 35mm adapter!

Cheers,

Matthew.

[Ethan Cooper]

Here's a tip on matching shots from different cameras using MB. I find it easier to use the 3 way color corrector in FCP to rough in the look of my shots and to get them to match pretty close in color and luminance, then add the MB on top of that so you can keep the look somewhat uniform if that's what you're going for.
Sometimes I don't go for a uniform look though and just tweak individual shots on their own. I know that's supposedly a no-no, but rules were made to be broken.