Slow Motion?

[Vito DeFilippo]

Joel, beautiful work. Just a pleasure to watch. Makes me want to go out and get a Glidecam, too.

Mark, try opening your Quicktime preferences in Control Panel (are you on PC?). On the advanced tab, check "safe mode" under video. See if that fixes your viewing problem...

[Chris M. Watson]

Hey Joel,

Nice to see some new work from you. I'm really liking the nat sound and gorgeous colors. Did you make the leap to HD? The reason I ask is that when the video went out to my HD set it was in 16:9. Or was that a quicktime setting? Regardless, great stuff.

As for the topic at hand, I think anything can be overused. In some people's hands (like the Von Lankens) slow motion can be moving and integral to the story being told. In less than capable hands, it can be used as a crutch to cover up bad shooting and end up looking dull and monotonous. There's a difference between a flowing gliding shot of a bride in slow motion and guests sitting down in church in slow motion. For me the rule for slow motion is that the moment has to be extraordinary or emotional. Those are the shots that seem to benefit most from it.

Here's a sample from one of my April weddings that's pretty indicative of the direction I decided to go this year.....

http://www.watsonvideoarchive.com/helen3.wmv

Chris Watson
Watson Videography
www.dallasweddingfilms.com

[Joel Peregrine]

Originally Posted by Chris M Watson

Nice to see some new work from you. I'm really liking the nat sound and gorgeous colors. Did you make the leap to HD? The reason I ask is that when the video went out to my HD set it was in 16:9. Or was that a quicktime setting?

Its all sd - VX2000. The only thing I do is crop 4 or 5 pixels off the top and sides for the web output. I'm still waiting for an HD camera that isn't a step backwards in light sensitivity.

Originally Posted by Chris M Watson

Here's a sample from one of my April weddings that's pretty indicative of the direction I decided to go this year.....

http://www.watsonvideoarchive.com/helen3.wmv

Fantastic. Pulls you right along. Nice reaction from the couple. Its hard when they exit the ceremony and seem preoccupied with where to go and what to do next rather than living in the moment. It makes our job easier when they are emotional as they were.

[Sheldon Blais]

Originally Posted by Joel Peregrine

Hi Mark,



If an effect carries the message its not overused. If slow-motion is what the client is drawn to and thats the emotional feeling you get on the wedding day then I think its appropriate. Its only overused if it doesn't 'work'. The same is true for fast-cut realtime editing. If things move too fast the content may not have time to be digested and it just becomes a jumble of shots. There is obviously a balance to be gauged. Just like us our couples have different attention spans or have may not have a romantic personality. For me its like pulling teeth to speed up the shot progression and the shot speed but some clients prefer that. This is a recent highlights that moves faster than my normal clips:

www.EventVideographer.com/WEDDING_HIGHLIGHTS

The interesting thing is that I could have cut the highlights slow and romantic - I didn't shoot it any differently than I normally do.

Incredible work Joel.....I hope to get footage like that from my VX2100 one day!

[Chris M. Watson]

Originally Posted by Joel Peregrine

Its all sd - VX2000. The only thing I do is crop 4 or 5 pixels off the top and sides for the web output. I'm still waiting for an HD camera that isn't a step backwards in light sensitivity.

I hear you on the low light. I still shoot second cam for others when I have a weekend off and use their VX 2000's and the one thing I really miss is the extra 2 stops that those cams give me at the reception. But that's the ONLY thing I miss. The widescreen aspect ratio, richer colors (no CC on that clip I shared) and more pixels to play with in post make it a fair trade. The 1080P V1 coming out from Sony in December looks nice although another stop is lost in the process. Guess you can't have it all.


Anyway, I'm glad you liked the clip as your opinion carries alot of weight for me. Keep up the good work.

Chris Watson
Watson Videography
www.dallasweddingfilms.com

[Chris M. Watson]

Originally Posted by Joel Peregrine

Nice reaction from the couple. Its hard when they exit the ceremony and seem preoccupied with where to go and what to do next rather than living in the moment. It makes our job easier when they are emotional as they were.

That's something I've been doing since October of last year (following the couples directly after the ceremony). Some of the best moments of the day happen in that tiny window and you can catch some real gems if you're fast enough to catch it.

Chris Watson
Watson Videography

[Joel Peregrine]

Originally Posted by Sheldon Blais

Incredible work Joel.....I hope to get footage like that from my VX2100 one day!

Thanks Sheldon! Just keep shooting and be your own harshest critic...