DVC9 Feedback - "The Trap" - Bruce Broussard
 

I welcome all criticism for this video. This one was different for me and I advise watching after a few drinks, it will make more sense then. I would have liked a bit more time in post and maybe to do a few more shots, but I what can I say with the available time. I will say more after people watch it.

I forgot to mention that last time I found the wall of shame. I just couldn't get it done, even though we seemed to have more time. Hopefully, that won't be happening in the future.

After having put this little film together, I remember how much fun it is, and why I started messing with cameras in the first place.

Well now, there’s a piece of advice some folks might be happy to take—for general purposes alone! ;) Good to have you back; I can’t wait to watch your movie.

Thanks for welcome back. It looks like I am one of those in a long list of "returnees".

I thought I’d be taking home the prize for silliest movie this time around, but by golly, I think maybe you outdid me! LOL!

Your animations are wonderful—wish I could watch you work that magic. I got a kick out of the sound you used for that pretty little gal falling down—you’d have sworn she weighed a ton. The stars above her head were a great touch. Loved the high five between you and the little guy, too, especially after his hilarious deadpan to your enthusiasm earlier.

Thanks for the fun, Bruce. Your movies are as diverse as they are entertaining.

Cute short. I liked the setups of the camera for the different setup shots. I was curious as to what was going to happen. I loved the stars too. Would be interestng to see what you came up with if you had say 3 weeks just for post work :)

That was funny in the fine Road Runner tradition. She did a pretty good job on the fall, which had to be tricky on real pavement. No cheats there.

So was it the father and son, or the little green alien who left the trap in the first place?

Smile,
Kris

This was a very cute one, and and seemed like a lot of fun to make. I liked your clever use of compositing (especially bringing back memories of Saturday mornings watching the Road Runner cartoons.)

I am curious as to what you used to add the wall to the composite. It was a pretty cool idea, and I noticed that you even made sure to catch the small details, like having a bit of a shadow on it as she began to walk around the wall. Such details help alot to add to the realism of such an image, so you did great.

A fun video to watch.

Great job.

-Jon

A very interesting film. The wall was impressive, the blending of the path on the "front" side with the line marking the bottom just barely discernible. Like one other I would sure like to know how you did that compositing.

The effect was very smooth.

Very entertaining, Bruce.

Camera work, and acting (now I know what you look like, too!) were very well done, editing smooth as can be and action and pace flowed just right.

I enjoyed it.

Hey... That was really neat! I especially liked the intro.

Stacy

Ditto.

I bet you edit on a Mac. Really neat special effects. The Wall was great. I really have to get AfterEffects, because there is too much cool stuff I'm missing with just Premiere Pro as my editing software.

Fun story. At the end, the alien in the car was interesting, but I'm a character oriented kind of guy, and would have loved to she her investigate the wall, and discover and confront the pranksters.

Thanks for all of the comments. I must say this was a last minute idea. I had a "serious" topic to film, but I just couldn't coordinate the shoot. I came up with this concept on the Tuesday night. Something about "meeting" a wall, I guess I run into too many walls, door frames, desks, tables, etc.

The roadrunner/cartoon idea seemed like a funny way to present it. I was afraid that no one would really get it, but I am glad that it came off well enough to understand.

Since there seems to be a lot of interest, here is how the effects/compositing were done.

Hardware: pc (sorry dick, we would like to use mac's but we haven't gotten there yet).

Camera: sony zr1u

Software: Sony Vegas 6 (almost 7) and for the effects Lightwave 3d (newtek product).

For the wall, I just created a 3d object about the right size and surfaced one side with a shot of the trail from the film shot during the jog. This was a straight on shot. for the other side I just picked a brick texture that I liked.

To perform the compositing:
I created an image sequence of the necessary clips of film from vegas. I loaded the sequence into lightwave and used this as my camera background image. I set my camera properties to be about the same as the zr1. I then placed the 3d object in the correct place relative to the imported image sequence.

This was easy with the shots where the camera (film) was motionless, because I only had to position it once. For the angled shot it was more difficult because this was shot from the top of a ladder and was handheld, so there was quite a bit of shake. I got some of it out, but I couldn't get all of the shake out.

I then rendered in lightwave with an alpha channel and simple dragged this into vegas to show on top of the film.

I added the green guy at the end just to give it more of a cartoon feel.

I have to give credit to my brother (Greg) for the titles, all done in vegas, as was the shadow on the wall (this was just an approximation).

My son had a great idea for the end, as she was jogging away, she should have hit another wall. I thought the idea was hilarious, but I had no time to do it.

One more point, we used a fair amount of work in vegas to improve the general look, for example, the fall was sped up then slowed down to give it a more realistic look (as much as we could), and on my sons voice we raised the pitch to try to make it "funny".

I do enjoy the 3d work and am looking to doing more of it.

Thanks again for all the comments.

Bruce:

I really enjoyed this film. I felt a little misled by the opening titles. The music and the slow reveal of the titles felt "creepy" As I watched I expected some sinister(sp?) trap to do harm to the girl. I am glad to see that I was wrong but I felt let down by the film after the opening titles.

I loved what you did, I just don't feel that the titles and film meshed. Looks like you had fun making it and that is what counts in the end.

Randy

Now that is cool. Yeah the jogger adds to the "cutie" factor. The composition was great! Colors nice :-)

The story - well, I liked it, and I watched it after only my 3rd beer :-)