Quinceanera Video

[Monday Isa]

This video was done for my friend little sisters 15th birthday last year in June. The story behind this is she was diagnosed with leukemia 3 times from the age of 11 till last year and she is doing very well now. This highlight though, I just finish editing and will show it to her tommorrow. I did record the ceremony and reception last year 1 man and 2 cams. No fun at all, way to much work and stress. The cams were 1 ccd pvgs150 and optura 20. Would love to hear some feedback. Thanks

Monday
P.S. I don't know how to encode for the web, so sorry if it's poor compression quality.

http://clips2.vimeo.com/video_files/...569.9b40f9.mp4

[Monday Isa]

So yeah! Any comments on my first post? Thanks peeps
Monday

[Marcus Marchesseault]

My personal taste is to have a slower-paced edit. I also like to hear audio from the event. This is a very MTV-style video and that is what you intended, so I can't criticize.

The only thing I can say about the editing is that it seems you re-used footage of the group of girls dancing. Not much changed from one clip to the next. A different angle or different tempo of dance would make a better differentiation. There are three different sections of the dancing, but they all seem the same. In the last dancing montage, the girls start to bow, but it is cut so fast that I didn't notice it the first time. I would cut the middle montage of the dancing entirely and have just the bow at the end of the video as part of a finale montage along with the balloon release etc.

If you want to see more of the dancing, I would make the edits pace more slowly. Perhaps you could cut to full measures of the song instead of two beats. That is a very up-tempo song and two beats is not enough time to understand what is happening in the clip. In the rest of the edit, I would tone down the jump-cuts to re-sized versions of the same picture. I couldn't even tell what some of those pictures were in the instants they were flashed on the screen.

Those cameras did a better job than I though possible from 1-chip cameras in indoor light. If I ever need a really-small camera or a backup, I am going to give a second thought to single-chippers. They are much better than when I was shooting Hi8.

[Mike F Smith]

It was a very hard clip to critiqe. As the previous poster it was a little too fast for me. It's not that I don't think the style is worthy, it's that I don't think it will stand the test of time and isn't that what these events are all about. It takes a certain amount of time to get an image. If they are shown too fast it requires more work on the part of the viewer. So in a sense i felt i was working a little too hard to watch your clip and lost the story somewhat.

Having said that there were parts of it I really liked and thought worked well.

Mike

[Monday Isa]

Thanks Marcus and Mike for your comments. Could I get some more feedback from the community? Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to watch this highlight and to reply.

Monday

[Jonathan Jones]

I have to agree with the previous posts to an extent, ...the whole 'test of time' thing. Alot of popular styles 'come and go' in editing, and some stuff will have folks wanting to view it in 5, 10, 30, or even 60 years from now, and still be just as viewable....so in many cases, I tend to lean much of my editing work towards more traditional and subtle styles that will always be fashionable for decades to come...(we hope)..and I'm personally not the biggest fan of the quick-cut style...but I just think I it is just my aging.


That being said, I also have to state that I really thought this piece was EXCEPTIONAL. It was very well done....upbeat and worked very well with the music. The cuts and use of effects were very effective.

Since you noted that it is a highlight piece, I think the style works pretty well, assuming the bulk of the actual content is more subtle for the rest of the event. Since this is a highlight 'wrap-up' segment documenting an event of a teenager, surrounded by teenage friends, celebrating a teenage ritual, and a video that is ultimately probaby designed to entertain this same teenage group. This is a video piece customized for a specific target audience and I really think you did an excellent job with this, and your hard work really shows.

I was especially impressed that you got such great footage with the cameras, and it is easy to note that you worked hard to be in all the right places, capture great footage from perfect angles and put it all together very creatively.

I have never shot a quincinera but I have seen a few videos produced by quincinera videographers who work locally, and even just this highlight piece most sincerely blows them out of the water.

Good job.
-Jon

[Monday Isa]

Thanks Jonathan,
The rest of her video (ceremony, reception, and departure, life story montage) was very traditional and subtle. To be honest these quinces aren't like weddings so you really can't cut out sections except the delays in the program, cause everything is significant. (that's why I use chapters, they can skip that part their Mom really enjoys lol) So it's less time required to edit and pretty much has to be traditional. I showed the girl this highlight video on saturday and she was just so thrilled about it. All her friends were there as well, and they really enjoyed it, they all wanted a copy. Cha ching!! I do see working in this type of market two ways. They're are two audiences, the parents and the teenager, the parents pay for it, so I give them the nice edit that's pretty much traditional. Then the teenager gets their special video the style they like it. Thanks for your comments, and it's answered a doubt I had in my mind. Could I get just a few more comments from the community? Thank you everyone.

Monday

[Marcus Marchesseault]

That sounds like the way to go. Just because a guy in his 30's doesn't like a fast-edit doesn't mean 15 year old girls won't eat it up. I'm probably the customer type of the traditional edit. If you can double your income by doing a highlight video with MTV styling, go for it!

Besides the tempo/pace comments, I still think you might want to look at my other edit suggestions. I think the finale would benefit from extracting clips like the bow and balloon release and placing them at the end. I wouldn't go back and re-do this event, but keep it in mind for your next job.

Selling a video to your customer's friends - genius!

[Monday Isa]

Thanks Marcus,
I will definitely keep that in mind. I appreciate that. I have another one coming up in May unless I get a surprise one last minute, you definitely had good points that you mentioned and I definitely hear ya. Well thank you again to everyone for their comments. Take Care

Monday