Comments Please

[Nicholas Heuer]

Hello All

I have a short intro clip that I need some advice on. Please be brutaly honest. This is an intro clip that will play at the begining. It will run right before the ceremony. The music and lower thirds is still up for debate. I shot with a vx2000 and edited in vegas 6.

http://www.nickandjenni.com/Mike%20&%20Beck%20test.mov



Thanks

[Vito DeFilippo]

Hello Nicholas,

I have some feedback for you if you like....

It could be much better with the footage that you already have. A common 'error' that you use throughout the piece is cutting/dissolving into the next shot at a point where the cameraman is still preparing the shot. So we see a shaky intro to the shot, which then becomes steady.

It happens a lot, so I won't detail which shots, but a couple of glaring examples are the shot right after the stained glass at the beginning (why not start the shot AFTER the camera pans left and becomes steady on the girl putting on the boutonnier?), and when the cameraman is putting the camera onto the floor to get a low angle shot of the bride. And we see him picking the camera up at the end of the shot. If you trimmed out these shaky starts and ends to the shots, the video would be much better right away.

I find the motion background on the lower third distracting. Would be better in slowmo. Also, the title doesn't last long enough. A good rule of thumb is to leave it long enough to read completely twice. Also, its colour doesn't match the colour of the shot. Try a colour that blends in better, but still gives you the contrast you need to read the text.

I like the blur into the stained glass, but the shot then takes too long to come into focus. Can you start the shot later and get into focus faster?

The shot of the woman holding the baby is really bad. Zooming in and out, auto exposure pumping. You might be able to isolate a small section in slow motion that would work. Needs to be colour corrected to match the rest as well.

The freeze frame effect with the photos is fine, except when you come out of the freeze, you skip a few frames, which makes it jump. Advance frame by frame and you'll see it clearly.

The fisheye shot of the church is a bit weird out of nowhere. Also, again, the start of the shot shows the cameraman's hesitation, then the real start of the tilt up. Cut into it later.

The final candle shot looks like a still. Is it? Cause it suddenly doesn't look like video for some reason.

Personally, I would put your lower third over a slomo version of the fisheye, and move your opening shot to the end. Get rid of the candle. Would make more sense to me.

Your shots tend to be shaky. For this video, more slow motion would help you, but it's something you should practice for future work. Use a tripod whenver you can...

I like your music choice.

Hope this helps. You asked for brutally honest, so I gave it to you.

Ciao,
Vito

[Nicholas Heuer]

Thanks

I really appreciate the honesty. I put this up to hone my skills at editing. This is the first time I have ever used Vegas and I am getting up to speed with it.

[Vito DeFilippo]

My pleasure.

If you want to get an idea of what I'm talking about, I've recut your video a bit. You can see it here:

http://www.romanhurko.com/vito/mike_beck_recut.mov

I reordered a few of the shots as well to make more logical sections. It's quick and dirty, and I could have fixed more, but hope you like it, or find it of use.

Ciao,
Vito

[Nicholas Heuer]

Hey vito

Thanks

The erie thing is that I went back and put some of your suggestions together and got something close to what you did before I even saw what you did. Except I took the grandma and baby shot completely out. Thanks for the input. I am going to do some more editing and look for more suggestions by others and I will repost the clip.

Thanks

[Vito DeFilippo]

No problem. It was fun to do. Enjoy tweaking your edit.

Ciao,
Vito