trailer clip at DVinfo.net

A.J. Briones · December 5th, 2005, 03:40 PM

hey all. been awhile. here's a short engagement session/announcement trailer to share.

trailer

there are things that work well and things that don't, but i'll save that for later.

cheers.

Peter Jefferson · December 6th, 2005, 08:37 AM

clever little page u got there, just be aware of the classification trademarks and wording... being that as its a privately used product, or "documentary" its excempt from classification... itll just save hassles later on..
UNless of course u actually have gone to get that clip reviewed and classified... god knows why anyone would, but if u have disregard what i say....

i know it may look impressive to have, but u really dont need any of that legal crap... i dunno bout the US (or whereever u are) but i know here any use of that kind of text implies that its for commercial and public distribution, which could land u in hot water..

I hope the client is paying you for the time to include all those "credits" i sure as hell wouldnt be able to find a client wanting that.. let alone finding the time to write all that stuff out...

the piece itself is pretty cool.. bit slow for my personal tastes, but im a speed freak. Good pace with the selected music though, but i think if u pump it up a lil with a different track, you could get some more excitement out of it. But then again, this is jsut personal taste... the work itself is well put together.
Nice DOF... what cam were u using?? Also watch for lens smears and spots, as you have a very noticable dark spot on the lower right of the whole piece.

It looks like your running a Bleach bypass colourpass, however some shots look oversaturated or over contrasted (the greens are stunning), and it works surprisngly well. curves are nice.
Watch the audio blow outs. One segment had her overdrive the mic and blew out ur audio badly, when doing interviews, always run 2 mics.. one about 12 to 24db lower than the other in case this happens..

in all a nice piece that im sure the couple would love.. just be aware that on a T3 connection here in aus, it took me 15mins to download

cheers
P

A.J. Briones · December 6th, 2005, 12:00 PM

hi peter, and thanks for the comments.

it's all done in satire to look like a movie trailer website, but if the mpaa so requests, i'll gladly change it. i don't really want to talk about legals today, so i'll leave it at that.

the music is not something i'd like to use, but it means a lot to them, and it dictates the pacing. i wanted to do something different and edgy, but it's not what they were after, so i'll save it for the next bride.

you pretty much caught most of what i felt was wrong with the piece. the dirt was invisible through the lcd and viewfinder, and was actually in the macro lens... i hate when that happens. since then, i started using a 7" tft. i turned up the levels on the audio, and i should keyframe it back down at the point where she blows it out. i'll do that when it's time to render for their dvd. i might even process out the ambient noise while i'm there (another thing that bugs me about this piece). we used 2 mics in this shoot, so we've got the audio covered. that said, there were airplanes flying all over the location, and that made it interesting.

here in southern cali, all of my brides love the "movie" feel, and also love our trailer sites, credits and all. i type 96wpm so it's no biggie, and yes, we are paid well for our time as the website and engagement shoot coverage are an a la carte expense for them.

thanks again for the comments.

Jason Bowers · December 7th, 2005, 08:53 AM

Hi A.J.
That was great. What a great idea. How much would you charge extra for this idea by chance? How long did it take you to construct the website as weel and how long do you leave it up for? Do you work exclusively with the photographer or was she included witht the price of the site. Again great ideo I loved it and might steal it if you don't mind.

Jason

Rick Steele · December 7th, 2005, 09:17 AM

A.J.

No critiques from me.

Just consider me neutral "stand-in" as either the Bride or Grooms father, uncle or whatever.

I love it.

A.J. Briones · December 7th, 2005, 10:58 AM

thanks for the comments, guys. jason, feel free to steal away.

i used to be a web and print designer, so i really love working on dvd covers, dvd discs and trailers. i'm pretty fast, so the website from comp to completion was about two hours worth of work (photoshop, text editor, upload) and the edit was another two hours (fcp, magic bullet), spread across a weekend (it's football season, and i still have hopes for my chargers making the playoffs). the photo gallery took literally 5 minutes to make (run custom automator action to resize photos, upload, run setup script).

the photographer is an independent third party. just note that most photogs are wary of handing out raw photos to another vendor. we ask the bride to send them a link to a previous trailer site and we get the pictures pretty quickly after that.

as an a la carte item to our biggest package, the trailer is currently set at $500, more if they don't get our ultimate edition package. this covers a few hours of shooting (provided we are not booked on that day) as well as the work you see. we keep the site up for at least 3 months after the wedding, and if it's one we really like, we may keep it up for longer. i have unlimited bandwidth with my host, so hosting is not a problem.

Marcin Rafalowicz · December 7th, 2005, 11:55 AM

A.J. I really enjoyed the clip. It gave away a very warm feeling.

The only comment is about some shaky shots which is also something I'm working on at this point. I would assume that 95% of your clips should be or was shot from the tripod, correct? But there are still few shots that appeared hand-held (for the interview part of it).

Good stuff.
Thanks

Dan Frievalt · December 9th, 2005, 08:52 AM

Nice work! I loved the softness and depth of field.

I assume the "softness" was done in Magic Bullet. How about the depth of field? Any special tricks that you used to create that? What camera do you use?

A.J. Briones · December 9th, 2005, 09:03 AM

thanks for the comments!

marcin: re: the handheld shots, guilty as charged. i have a stabilizer (glidecam) but i don't use it. imho, it's a horrible piece of machinery that was not designed for long hours of use or ease of calibration. at times, i use a varizoom shoulder harness, but it still transfers a lot of translation and rotation from my hips. it will probably be years until i get this technique right. i admire the guys that do it well, and someday i'll be up there as well.

there's a video floating around about this by some weva videographers but i'm skeptical of weva in general. does someone on this board (preferrably non-weva) have an unbiased review and recommendation?

dan: i shot with a vx2100 with a letus35 and a 50mm canon fd lens. the shallow depth of field was achieved using the 35mm lens. i don't use it all the time for weddings, but when the timing and setting is right, it can get some really pretty footage.

Mike Cook · December 9th, 2005, 09:36 AM

Aj,

very nice footage and web work. I enjoyed it. I am web illiterate so that stuff seems to take me forever.

Curious if you treated the footage in any way. Someone mentioned magic bullet. I don't see it but maybe you did? I would also work the audio a bit. The song is rather quiet so the transitions in and out of your audio clips are a little jarring. Maybe just a little fade would help. If you can't do that, I would leave some room tone underneath the shorter gaps. Tough one though.

Great location by the way, nice use of background and DOF.

By the way, is that tune IZ?

Mike

A.J. Briones · December 9th, 2005, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Cook

Aj,

very nice footage and web work. I enjoyed it. I am web illiterate so that stuff seems to take me forever.

Curious if you treated the footage in any way. Someone mentioned magic bullet. I don't see it but maybe you did? I would also work the audio a bit. The song is rather quiet so the transitions in and out of your audio clips are a little jarring. Maybe just a little fade would help. If you can't do that, I would leave some room tone underneath the shorter gaps. Tough one though.

Great location by the way, nice use of background and DOF.

By the way, is that tune IZ?

Mike

thanks mike. i agree. the audio needs work. and yes, it's IZ.

Dan Frievalt · December 9th, 2005, 02:07 PM

AJ,

Thanks for the info! I will be looking into the Letus35, I love the shallow DOF. Sounds like it is not very easy to achieve, bummer.

I too have the "moving camera" problem. I am sure it will come with practice. Any tips on how to impove? I will be getting the "moving camera techniques" DVD, hope some tips in their will help for now.

A.J. Briones · December 9th, 2005, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Frievalt

AJ,

Thanks for the info! I will be looking into the Letus35, I love the shallow DOF. Sounds like it is not very easy to achieve, bummer.

I too have the "moving camera" problem. I am sure it will come with practice. Any tips on how to impove? I will be getting the "moving camera techniques" DVD, hope some tips in their will help for now.

hey dan. note that i don't recommend the letus35 for actual wedding day shooting, for many reasons. that said, it's an awesome tool. i'm sure you'll love it.

i'm looking forward to an unbiased review of the "moving camera techniques" dvd. please share one when you have gone through it.

Mike Cook · December 9th, 2005, 10:43 PM

I have got the moving camera DVD and watched it a couple of times. Judging by your posts and footage you already understand a great deal of what is covered on the DVD such as apeture and focal length and how it effects DOF.

Having said that, I always find inspiration from watching other ideas and this is worth the investment in my opinion.

mike

December 5th, 2005, 03:40 PM	#1
A.J. Briones Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 275	trailer clip hey all. been awhile. here's a short engagement session/announcement trailer to share. trailer there are things that work well and things that don't, but i'll save that for later. cheers.

December 7th, 2005, 11:55 AM	#7
Marcin Rafalowicz New Boot Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: New Britain, CT Posts: 10	A.J. I really enjoyed the clip. It gave away a very warm feeling. The only comment is about some shaky shots which is also something I'm working on at this point. I would assume that 95% of your clips should be or was shot from the tripod, correct? But there are still few shots that appeared hand-held (for the interview part of it). Good stuff. Thanks __________________ Marcin .................................................................................................... I don't mind coming to work, but that eight hour wait to go home is a bitch.

December 9th, 2005, 09:36 AM	#10
Mike Cook Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Portland OR Posts: 190	Aj, very nice footage and web work. I enjoyed it. I am web illiterate so that stuff seems to take me forever. Curious if you treated the footage in any way. Someone mentioned magic bullet. I don't see it but maybe you did? I would also work the audio a bit. The song is rather quiet so the transitions in and out of your audio clips are a little jarring. Maybe just a little fade would help. If you can't do that, I would leave some room tone underneath the shorter gaps. Tough one though. Great location by the way, nice use of background and DOF. By the way, is that tune IZ? Mike Last edited by Mike Cook; December 9th, 2005 at 10:17 AM.

December 6th, 2005, 08:37 AM	#2
Peter Jefferson Inner Circle Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Aus Posts: 3,884	clever little page u got there, just be aware of the classification trademarks and wording... being that as its a privately used product, or "documentary" its excempt from classification... itll just save hassles later on.. UNless of course u actually have gone to get that clip reviewed and classified... god knows why anyone would, but if u have disregard what i say.... i know it may look impressive to have, but u really dont need any of that legal crap... i dunno bout the US (or whereever u are) but i know here any use of that kind of text implies that its for commercial and public distribution, which could land u in hot water.. I hope the client is paying you for the time to include all those "credits" i sure as hell wouldnt be able to find a client wanting that.. let alone finding the time to write all that stuff out... the piece itself is pretty cool.. bit slow for my personal tastes, but im a speed freak. Good pace with the selected music though, but i think if u pump it up a lil with a different track, you could get some more excitement out of it. But then again, this is jsut personal taste... the work itself is well put together. Nice DOF... what cam were u using?? Also watch for lens smears and spots, as you have a very noticable dark spot on the lower right of the whole piece. It looks like your running a Bleach bypass colourpass, however some shots look oversaturated or over contrasted (the greens are stunning), and it works surprisngly well. curves are nice. Watch the audio blow outs. One segment had her overdrive the mic and blew out ur audio badly, when doing interviews, always run 2 mics.. one about 12 to 24db lower than the other in case this happens.. in all a nice piece that im sure the couple would love.. just be aware that on a T3 connection here in aus, it took me 15mins to download cheers P

December 6th, 2005, 12:00 PM	#3
A.J. Briones Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 275	hi peter, and thanks for the comments. it's all done in satire to look like a movie trailer website, but if the mpaa so requests, i'll gladly change it. i don't really want to talk about legals today, so i'll leave it at that. the music is not something i'd like to use, but it means a lot to them, and it dictates the pacing. i wanted to do something different and edgy, but it's not what they were after, so i'll save it for the next bride. you pretty much caught most of what i felt was wrong with the piece. the dirt was invisible through the lcd and viewfinder, and was actually in the macro lens... i hate when that happens. since then, i started using a 7" tft. i turned up the levels on the audio, and i should keyframe it back down at the point where she blows it out. i'll do that when it's time to render for their dvd. i might even process out the ambient noise while i'm there (another thing that bugs me about this piece). we used 2 mics in this shoot, so we've got the audio covered. that said, there were airplanes flying all over the location, and that made it interesting. here in southern cali, all of my brides love the "movie" feel, and also love our trailer sites, credits and all. i type 96wpm so it's no biggie, and yes, we are paid well for our time as the website and engagement shoot coverage are an a la carte expense for them. thanks again for the comments.

December 7th, 2005, 08:53 AM	#4
Jason Bowers Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Thunder Bay, ON. Canada Posts: 374	Hi A.J. That was great. What a great idea. How much would you charge extra for this idea by chance? How long did it take you to construct the website as weel and how long do you leave it up for? Do you work exclusively with the photographer or was she included witht the price of the site. Again great ideo I loved it and might steal it if you don't mind. Jason

December 7th, 2005, 09:17 AM	#5
Rick Steele Major Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Denver, Colorado USA Posts: 654	A.J. No critiques from me. Just consider me neutral "stand-in" as either the Bride or Grooms father, uncle or whatever. I love it.

December 7th, 2005, 10:58 AM	#6
A.J. Briones Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 275	thanks for the comments, guys. jason, feel free to steal away. i used to be a web and print designer, so i really love working on dvd covers, dvd discs and trailers. i'm pretty fast, so the website from comp to completion was about two hours worth of work (photoshop, text editor, upload) and the edit was another two hours (fcp, magic bullet), spread across a weekend (it's football season, and i still have hopes for my chargers making the playoffs). the photo gallery took literally 5 minutes to make (run custom automator action to resize photos, upload, run setup script). the photographer is an independent third party. just note that most photogs are wary of handing out raw photos to another vendor. we ask the bride to send them a link to a previous trailer site and we get the pictures pretty quickly after that. as an a la carte item to our biggest package, the trailer is currently set at $500, more if they don't get our ultimate edition package. this covers a few hours of shooting (provided we are not booked on that day) as well as the work you see. we keep the site up for at least 3 months after the wedding, and if it's one we really like, we may keep it up for longer. i have unlimited bandwidth with my host, so hosting is not a problem.

December 9th, 2005, 08:52 AM	#8
Dan Frievalt New Boot Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Green Bay, WI Posts: 14	Nice work! I loved the softness and depth of field. I assume the "softness" was done in Magic Bullet. How about the depth of field? Any special tricks that you used to create that? What camera do you use?

December 9th, 2005, 09:03 AM	#9
A.J. Briones Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 275	thanks for the comments! marcin: re: the handheld shots, guilty as charged. i have a stabilizer (glidecam) but i don't use it. imho, it's a horrible piece of machinery that was not designed for long hours of use or ease of calibration. at times, i use a varizoom shoulder harness, but it still transfers a lot of translation and rotation from my hips. it will probably be years until i get this technique right. i admire the guys that do it well, and someday i'll be up there as well. there's a video floating around about this by some weva videographers but i'm skeptical of weva in general. does someone on this board (preferrably non-weva) have an unbiased review and recommendation? dan: i shot with a vx2100 with a letus35 and a 50mm canon fd lens. the shallow depth of field was achieved using the 35mm lens. i don't use it all the time for weddings, but when the timing and setting is right, it can get some really pretty footage.

December 9th, 2005, 02:07 PM	#12
Dan Frievalt New Boot Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Green Bay, WI Posts: 14	AJ, Thanks for the info! I will be looking into the Letus35, I love the shallow DOF. Sounds like it is not very easy to achieve, bummer. I too have the "moving camera" problem. I am sure it will come with practice. Any tips on how to impove? I will be getting the "moving camera techniques" DVD, hope some tips in their will help for now.

December 9th, 2005, 10:43 PM	#14
Mike Cook Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Portland OR Posts: 190	I have got the moving camera DVD and watched it a couple of times. Judging by your posts and footage you already understand a great deal of what is covered on the DVD such as apeture and focal length and how it effects DOF. Having said that, I always find inspiration from watching other ideas and this is worth the investment in my opinion. mike