Brand New Highlights Video - some cool stuff!

[Travis Cossel]

Here's my latest highlights video, and I feel like it turned out pretty well:

http://www.vimeo.com/1163863

The Vimeo compression wasn't kind to the video for some reason, so I'd love any tips (beyond what Vimeo recommends because I followed their advice EXACTLY).

I'd also love to hear any comments on editing, shot composotion, coloring, etc. Thanks!

[Monday Isa]

Hey Travis,
You did a pretty good job with the clip. A few things really stuck out in your clip. First when the bride and groom are kissing in the beginning you speed it up a tad to make it much more fun but the very last kiss they give each other, a big drool comes out of their mouth. YUCCKKK! Bro you got to see if you can still take that part out. I almost vomited. You did a good job with the stop motion. I liked the filming for the most part except the shot you circle around the Bride and Groom outside. It was a bit shaky and one can tell the glidecam or stabilizer is not balanced. Besides that, it was edited very well and it kept me through easily to the end. Very good job Travis. Thanks for sharing and can't wait to see more from you.

Also a side note, thanks for the heads up on my other thread of destination events. Come find out USPS hasn't mailed it yet though I mailed it out a week ago from MD to MA :/

[Wendy Lake]

You are my hero! I loved every part of it. It kept my attention and I was amazed--it was brilliant in my opinion! Very inspiring!

[Alastair Brown]

Originally Posted by Monday Isa

a big drool comes out of their mouth.

I haven't watched it yet, however, the anticipation is killing me!

[Alastair Brown]

My eyesight must be going. No sign of droolage noted.

Really nice clip Travis, enjoyed it from start to finish.

Your Vimeo clip looks as if it is too small (with scaling off it is really small). On my own Vimeo clips with scaling off, the clip more than fills the same screen. I suspect you need to revisit your settings.

What are you encoding using?

[Monday Isa]

Originally Posted by Alastair Brown

My eyesight must be going. No sign of droolage noted.....

0.35-0.38 look again ughhhhh (^_^)

[Matthew Ebenezer]

Hey Travis,

I thought you did a good job with this clip. The editing and the pacing kept me watching right till the end.

Maybe a few too many cross dissolves - and possibly one too many stop motions in time with the drum roll.

And yeah ... trim that first kiss to get rid of the drool. I can see how people would miss it ... but if you see it .... it's quite off-putting. That image is burned into my memory - and not in a good way :)

Your composition is pretty good - a lot of shots seem to veer towards the centre a bit though - i.e. with the subject in the middle of the frame. It's always good to keep your rule of thirds in mind.

I loved the stop motion with the ring - and the M&Ms that formed the love heart - really cool. And the spinning shot was my favourite from this clip - closely followed by the shot of the bride at the window through the banisters - really nice. I would have liked to see that shot earlier in the clip, but that's just me.

Good job!

Edit: False alarm on the drool it seems ... my wife watched the clip and she scornfully informed me that it is actually the bride's hair ringlet that gets caught on the groom. We even paused it in the right spot to check .... yes, we have too much time on our hands :)

I blame Monday for planting the thought in my head before I watched the clip ;-)

[John Stakes]

I get the notion that you have a background in music videos?

I like the stop action with the candy.

Thanks for sharing Travis!

-JS

[Alastair Brown]

Originally Posted by Monday Isa

0.35-0.38 look again ughhhhh (^_^)

Oh....indeed.....Thar she blows! Ok, ok.....before we get sidetracked in "Saliva Gate" I would agree that on the big screen that is probably going to trun and ahhhhhh moment into an euhhhhh one, so, maybe loose it and slow down the previous clip?

That aside, I'd love to have a clip like this under my belt.

[Carl Wilky]

Originally Posted by Monday Isa

Hey Travis,
First when the bride and groom are kissing in the beginning you speed it up a tad to make it much more fun but the very last kiss they give each other, a big drool comes out of their mouth. YUCCKKK!

I’m not sure if that IS a drool, I’m tempted to say it’s her hair or part of the grooms flower on his lapel, I doubt very much Travis would let that one go by.

Originally Posted by Alastair Brown

Your Vimeo clip looks as if it is too small (with scaling off it is really small). On my own Vimeo clips with scaling off, the clip more than fills the same screen. I suspect you need to revisit your settings.

I noticed that too



I like the flow of the video, I find the pink tint a bit over used, specially when you compare it with the awesome job you did with the vivid colours in the wooded area.

And lastly the only thing I would add to make it a bit more personal would be to add the vows as voice over at some point in time during the clip.

The coolest shot for me was the room number transition, very cool and original.

[Kees van Duijvenbode]

Originally Posted by Travis Cossel

Here's my latest highlights video, and I feel like it turned out pretty well:

I agree with you. Very nice video. Which music did you use? I like it but I don't recognize it.

[Travis Cossel]

I'm going to try and respond to everything, but if I miss something, please let me know.

First, that is NOT drool during that kiss. The bride is wearing long earrings and one of them gets caught on his boutonniere and as she pulls away that's what you're seeing. Pretty funny that it happens right next to her mouth and some of you saw it as drool ... although maybe that's not funny.

As for the stabilizer shot, my Merlin gimble broke the morning of the wedding, so I was flying the thing on a semi-functional gimble. The shot at the end was also reduced to 25% speed, and that's why that one probably seems "shaky". Maybe I'll drop it in Motion and see if the resample feature actually works.

Alastair, I used the encoding tips that are posted on Vimeo. Quicktime MPEG4, keyframe every 30 frames, best quality, 29.97fps, 640x480. I'm not sure why it ended up with pixelization when I see so many other videos posted that are crystal clear.

Mathew, thanks for the comment on the rule of thirds. I generally try to do that but maybe I need to do it more. Oh, and I put that shot of the bride at the window near the end because I wanted the piece to have a strong finish and I felt that was a pretty strong shot, but not really appropriate for the last shot. Thanks for the comments, Mathew.

Carl, thanks for the input. I also had a feeling that maybe I was overusing the red tone, but I also wanted to keep that look as the theme for the video. So I guess you're saying that I could probably put a few more full-color shots in and the theme would stand? Also, I don't overlay the vows on highlights videos because for my style the highlights are all about the song and the visuals. I also produce a short-form main feature for the client (which I may also post soon) that has the vows overlaying music, so doing the same thing in the highlights video would be redundant for the couple. Just thought I'd explain that.

Kees, the music is "Sea Breeze" by Tyronne Wells. Beautiful music and awesome lyrics. My one regret with video is that I didn't pay enough attention to the lyrics enough before the wedding day (I listen to the highlights video song the couple has selected a bunch of times before the wedding to get a feel for the style and mood of the song). I could have composed and set up a number of different shots to really take advantage of the lyrics. Oh well, lesson learned.

Thanks again everyone for all of the comments and support. I really appreciate it!

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by Monday Isa

First when the bride and groom are kissing in the beginning you speed it up a tad to make it much more fun but the very last kiss ....

Just to clarify, that clip was not sped up at all. The groom was just going to town kissing her.

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by John Stakes

I get the notion that you have a background in music videos?

I like the stop action with the candy.

Thanks for sharing Travis!

-JS

Actually, I don't at all. I got started editing by editing my own wedding video years ago. I've never actually done a music video, though I sure would like to.

Glad the stop motion with the candy is being received well. It was a pain to shoot and I really didn't want it to come across as cheezy or gimmicky. Glad to hear it's a hit!

[Alastair Brown]

Originally Posted by Travis Cossel

Alastair, I used the encoding tips that are posted on Vimeo. Quicktime MPEG4, keyframe every 30 frames, best quality, 29.97fps, 640x480. I'm not sure why it ended up with pixelization when I see so many other videos posted that are crystal clear.

Do it again, but change your frame size to 1280 x 720