My new project 'Venom Trickshots' is creating quite a stir....
 

Well, it's finally complete. My new movie trailer for 'Venom Trickshots'.

This is my second movie ever. I did all the pre-production, production, and post-production work myself. The idea was to modernize billiard trickshots by bringing a more extreme and fast passed style to it. I've made this as dramatic as I possibly could.

Thanks for DVinfo for the help along the way.

Please take a look:

Youtube (larger but poor quality):
YouTube - Venom Trickshots DVD

My website (smaller but flawless quality)
Venom Trickshots DVDs

Looks real good. I had to watch the YouTube version twice because I wasn't even sure if a couple of the shots were real because they were so crazy. Anyway, what'd you shoot it with?

okay that's pretty cool, flows really well

Thanks guys. I shot it with two EX1s. I had no idea how to use them, which probably explains why the picture isnt as good as it could be. In fact, I had never even used a camcorder previous to that.

I knew I needed something that shot 60p, and since I was offered a good rental deal on a pair of EX1s, it seemed like a solid choice. I intend to take some courses to learn how to get better at the cinematic aspect before I start my next movie.

the video looks great to me

Both the trailer and your website looks great. It looks like you have done a great job with marketing. Awesome job!

Nathan, that was awesome. I currently have my pool table covered and the space converted into a video studio, but after watching your trailer, I'm considering switching it back. I put three holes in the cloth just watching those masse shots. :)

Can you tell me about the lighting you used?

Thanks.

BTW, just watched the trailers for your instructional vids and they are light years ahead of the Byrne videos that I learned from. Great job.

Thanks Paul.

As for the lighting, I built a custom rig for it. I made a grid of 4x2' reflective tin light boxes. Each one had two rows of six 23w CFs (works out to about 1200w of light per box, 4800w in total). Each box had an egg crate on the bottom to ensure that the spill didn't touch the black walls of the set. Using CF allowed me to control the heat levels over the table, as the table felt tends to dry out and play differently when the temperature changes.

I then mounted the boxes all together, and hoisted them up over the warehouse rafter on some steel cabling and pulleys. The table was then installed directly under this light.

I also used two 500w soft boxes at the front as fill lights (each at about 40 degrees from the center). I had to had to flag the spill off where the output from each light crossed, so as not to over light the black backdrop. I also then added to hard rim light in each back corner to help separate the talent from the darkness.

I opted to crush the blacks in post, rather than adjust the camera's black level (to make the background go pure black). Given my lack of experience, I figured it was the safer option of the two.

All in all I was pretty happy with the results. There are a few small changes I'd make if I were to do it again, but other than that things went very smoothly.

Thanks again for your positive feedback.