My two cents:

Overall it was pretty good, but I have thoughts that may improve it much more. Really like the opening, especially the editing. However, after the opening credits and scene it begins to slowdown, too much, to where I found myself not paying attention anymore. Still not sure what it is about, accept anger. BUT BUT, this can definitely be improved to something really good.

1. SOUND. Improve the sound, even if you have to do ADR. Sound is SO important and right now it has "student film" sound. Make it crisper. This is be the first step to make this much better.

2. EDITING. Cut in 1/2. The whole beginning promise a nice cool little FAST paced short, but immediately after lags. You can easily cut it in 1/2 and still keep the idea. Keep the fast passed editing up throughout the film, with cool zooms, pans, transitions, jumpcuts etc.

You will end up with a much better short. Right now you have a real quick interesting fast opening and then a real slow "rest of the short." Anyway, that;s all I have right now. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR PROJECT.

I keyframed a glow effect

Okay, man, you caught me in such a good mood. I loved this right up to the cereal part. If you cut the cereal part and the muffin under the ice cubes and come up with an ending, this will really rock. I was so laughing. ROY!!!!

Couldn't agree more. After the fast paced opening my attention seemed to drop as well. Speed up a bit from then on. Improve sound by using better suited mics (this sounded like the one on your camcorder) and keep the background music running to 'filter' sound imperfections out.

Very cool steadicam/flycam shots. I like the motuion in your shots. What I like a lot less is the framing you end on with those shots (e.g. your main characters half in and half out of frame in total shots).

Cheesy pop song video
 

OK, this particular song is really not to my taste but I was paid a modest sum to make this video and, to be honest, we had an absolute blast shooting it.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...oid=1447728753

The video reflects the light and airy poppiness of the song so don't expect too much in the way of deep and meaningful hidden imagery! It was commissioned by the very wealthy father of the performing duo as a fun project for his offspring to get involved in. I'm doing some corporate stuff for him so how could I refuse??

It was shot on one (long) cold October day (with the exception of a re-shoot of the opening restaurant scene, caused by stupidity on my part where I turned up the gain for some unknown reason!!). We used a Canon XL2 and the whole thing was edited in Sony Vegas 7 with the exception of one very brief chromakey shot which I worked on in After Effects. I guess I was editing for about a day in total (with the final render taking the best part of 12 hours on a 3.4GHz, 2Gb RAM pc!). Tons of colour correction!

I'm well aware of the numerous rough edges but to be honest I'm not going to be working on this one any further. The customer is over the moon because they don't need to think about what to get distant relatives for Christmas any more.

Still, this is only my second music video so I would welcome any honest opinions. Always plenty to learn from you guys.

Ian . . .

ps, as you can see, it's hosted on MySpace so quality is at a premium. I recommend you click the button second in from the bottom right to shrink the video to it's original size. Makes it look a lot cleaner, if slightly smaller.

The subject is not something I'd watch, but I sat this one out - short enough and high paced. Nice... Always a gamble if some of the injuries will be lasting, eh? :-)

I liked it. Reminds me of an old Jeremy klein video I was watching the other day. Good work.

can I ask did this darken when you uploaded?
 

It plays as very dark on youtube. a problem I'm having myself at the moment. i was advised to up the gamma before uploading to the net which apparently will help it to retain its original look better... havent done it yet as my editing machine is down but thought I'd pass it on.

Apple Insomnia Film Festival Entry
 

Hey guys, I probably should have taken the opportunity to post this here a while ago but I didn't think of it until today. I entered the Apple Insomnia 24-hour film contest for students with my brother. We would have had more help but our friends and contacts were just too busy with other projects and schoolwork on the weekend the contest took place, it also didn't help that UNLV had its own 48-hour film contest the weekend before so I don't think they were prepared to do another contest right after the other.

But we worked pretty hard on it and we hope people enjoy it (even though the voice over is a little "blah", it's improvised and edited that way due to lack of time). In any case, here it is:


http://edcommunity.apple.com/contest...php?itemID=199

Yeah, a lot of these guys have had some bad injuries, some resulting in surgeries, etc. One of the riders kept fracturing his foot during fiming and was unable to complete his section...happens. I suppose their lasting effects will depend on each person and how well they take care of themselves as they get older...

That's a nice compliment. Thanks. Even though I don't skateboard, I have followed the video side of that industry off an on over the years. Jeremy Klein always put out great sections, he and Heath Kirchart's section in "The End" being his opus.

Thanksgiving Unstuffed. News Parody Video.
 

Man explodes after Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving Unstuffed. News Parody by Indie League

Here's the short story behind this video. Back in September, I started a film club in the Seattle area called Indie League. It's sort of a free-form group that gets together to brainstorm, write, and film short projects. The idea is to accelerate the learning cycle and get everyone involved in all aspects of the film from start to finish. This is our first complete short.

Comments welcome.

Details:
1 Canon XL1s
3 1960s era "Sun Guns"
2 Radio Shack Omni Mics
2 Jars of Spaghetti Sauce + Strawberry Daquiri Mix
1 Man in Drag
Edited in Final Cut Pro on a MacBook (not pro)

For info on the club is at IndieLeague.com

-ej

Michael,

I was just sitting here at my computer, doing my own writing, when an idea for your short popped in my head. Take it or leave it as you wish, but I thought I'd at least share it.

First, what exactly is this short for? Are you guys killing time, or is this a true interest of yours? If you are doing this for a purpose, you might consider taking the time to fix it.

I agree with the other criticisms, btw, that the sound needs to be cleaner, and, for me, the momentum comes to a screeching halt at the cereal part. As I said, I would lop off everything from there on out.

When the main character copes with the loss of Roy by breaking out a guitar, you could add two more quick parts there, maybe him painting, or at a piano, or writing a poem...something along those lines.

Then for an ending to wrap it up, what about having the main character unable to sleep at night, or mumbling in his dream about Roy, then you show a sunrise, and the doorbell rings. When he answers it, it's Roy, business as usual, picking him up for school.

Last scene, at a bus stop or something, is just them staring ahead. Roy asks how his night was. He says: good, good. You know...the usual. Then Roy asks if they are gonna work out later. And you close with a couple quick shots of them working out again (as if the whole thing happens everyday).

Anyway, I have no idea why this popped in my head, but I think it fits the great tone you got going on there. Later.

a new beginning
 

Hello everyone ----

a new beginning | http://www.mdfilms.net

comments... anyone??

:(

Independent music video forum
 

I hope it's OK to post this. I don't think it competes with the DVi forums or any of its sponsors but if the moderators think it does, then I'll understand if the post is removed!

www.ndividz.com/forum is a brand new (and I mean brand new - at this point it's waiting for your input!) forum dedicated SOLELY to the business, technique, art and critiquing of independently produced music videos. There doesn't seem to be any other similar resource out there at the moment so I decided to start one. Please let me know if I'm wasting my time!

Anyone who has created a music video is invited to post a link in the Showcase forum, tell us something about the making of the video, and critique other peoples work. If my hosting company agrees (in negotiation) then I may be able to host videos at the site as well.

Hope to see you there.

Ian . . .

my demo reel
 

I'm just looking for some opinions on my reel. It's the first one I've made. I was thinking of sending it to production companies (the ones working on low budget corporate / event / music video productions).

I've been doing camera / DP / editing work for a little less than 2 years now. Only been doing it part time, both as a video production owner and freelance worker.

I'm starting to get some more calls and I've arrived to a point where I think I can take most low budget jobs out there and do something that will please the producer / director.

So here goes.

WMP: www.bicubik.ca/videos/demo_david_lachambre.wmv
QT: www.bicubik.ca/videos/demo_david_lachambre.mov

BTW, I am already aware of the quality level I am operating at, I am not trying to get a DP job on the next big multi-million feature production with this reel, I have realistic expectations and am fully aware of my strengths and limitations, so I'm mostly looking for opinions on reel structure (pacing, shot order, arrangement, etc), shot selection (is one clearly sub-par compared to the rest) and even choice of music for that matter.

For example, there is a shot in there where we see light reflections on a girl's glasses (second shot). This reflection was motivated in the story, but I've gotten comments from people on how unprofessional it looked to them. I liked the shot, didn't bother me, but this is the kind of feedback I'm after.

Fire away.

'The Same Old Line' A Short Film set in a Doll Factory
 

This film was made at the end of 2006 as yet another film school assignment. We were each given 3 hours in a studio, a crew of about 20 people and two actors to create a short three minute scene. 'The Same Old Line' was my attempt.

Penny, an assembly line worker in a doll factory, announces to her colleague Andrea that today will be last working before she embarks on her new, more exciting, life.

Any feedback would be much appreciated!

Watch film Here: http://www.reifsneider.com/The%20Sam...m%20Flash.html

any other opinions would be great, thanks.

Hi David:

I think it's a strong first reel. I like your choice of music and the pacing scheme with the fadeouts and hard cut ins on the beat.

The shots that work the least for me are:

--the redhead with her hair in a bun; not much visual interest in this shot. I mean, she's cute and all, but photographically it doesn't have much going on.
--the black and white shot where the person is walking away from the guy in the "p" cap--looks a bit muddy, especially compared to the nice tones you had in the earlier b&w shot.

The shot with the reflections in the glasses doesn't bother me that much on a small web image. Possibly it would be more of a deal on a full-screen, full-res image. But I think the camera move makes up for it, although it would have been nice to have seen the exposure of the screen behind the two been less washed out. Overall, the shot works well within the opening sequence and I think you should keep it. Reflections in glasses happen all the time even in the biggest movies.

Corporate and event clients might not be all that interested in the first half of the reel since it's got that "indie film" vibe that may even raise a red flag with that group, so it's good that you have the second half. I do feel like there is a fair amount of repetition within this, probably it could be half as long. Quick cutting does actually make sense for this sort of thing because it lets people know that you HAVE done this kind of work and they can see that it is good technically, and the fast pace of the cuts gives it a bit more interest than if the shots were longer (and thus more banal!)

Overall, a clean job and you should do well with it. Once you get some more material you'll be on your way. The real joy is when you get to the stage that you no longer have any of the material from your first reel on your current reel--that's a milestone!

Thanks for your comments Charles. Yes I had already decided to get rid of the 2nd B&W shot. I first chose it because I liked the choreography in the movement of the actors in it (it was longer than what is in there) but I think in this reel it is rather dull visually and doesn't really work.

I agree about the fast cutting of the second half, this is exactly what I had in mind, those are pretty generic shots of events and interviews, not much going on visually and a few frames per shot are IMO sufficient to get a good idea about their technical qualities (exposure and framing mainly).

Might be right about making it shorter and I thought about it (btw when you talk about repetition you are talking about the first or second half?), I just didn't want it to be too short, don't know if a reel of say a minute would be deemed insufficient by producers. I've been doing this on an occasional basis so I don't have a lot of material to work with and some of those shots I recognize are a bit weaker as a result. Also, lots of the footage I shot as a freelancer is not in my possession so I no longer have access to it.

I also deliberatelly chose to avoid product shots or shots where there were no people in it, as it felt a bit awkward in the second half of the reel when I was trying to edit quick shots of people with quick shots of objects I shot commercially (faucets, machinery, etc.). Maybe I could divide the second half in people / object segments.

I am at the point where I can finally start moving on to productions where budget and time will allow for more diversity and hopefully better results (they are still low budget, which is a notch above my previous ridiculously low/no budget productions). I'm really hoping I can develop much more in the next 2 years than I did in these first 2 struggling to get interesting work (most of it was event coverage, not much creativity involved). This reel is my first step.

I have modified a few things based on Charles' recommendations. The time lapse shots I've put in the middle part are temporary. I don't think I'm going to leave them in, at least not for so long and not as many. The city shot I might keep. But for now it'll have to do until I go through all my tapes and find something better.

I hope it doesn't feel too short, but I myself don't think it does.

WMP: www.bicubik.ca/videos/demo_david_lachambre2.wmv
QT: www.bicubik.ca/videos/demo_david_lachambre2.mov

As far as repitition in the second half, by the halfway mark I felt like I was seeing similar (not necessarily identical) images. In other words, I'm thinking "OK, I get it" but it keeps going.

Not really a problem as most producers make their decision within the first minute of watching a reel anyway.

As you start to get work and gathering material, you can begin tailoring reels for specific purposes, i.e. an event reel, a corporate reel and a narrative film reel. Probably the first two could be combined though. Keep a short but uber-sexy montage of your absolute best shots at the beginning, no more than 45 seconds or so and from there it can continue on to longer form clips that are specific to the genre. This is the formula I follow on my DP reel and it seems to work well.

Actually I tried at first making 2 different reels, one for narrative / documentary work and one for corporate / event videography but I didn't have nearly enough material and they both ended up looking awful. So I decided to condense and combine. But once I get enough quality work under my belt I'll definitelly go for this option, I'm not all that comfortable as is sending reels to corporate / event video production companies with a reel starting with narrative work, but those shots probably look better, so I guess they are the closest thing I have to sexy shots.

I've already gotten one gig from this reel, which was to recreate one show of Trump's The Apprentice as a spoof for a Montreal firm and their employees. It went well, producer was happy, more work to come, it's a start.

Here are my thoughts, please accept it with a grain of salt.

I watched it, but I don't know what the story is. Just seemed like two talking heads. No conflict, no drama, no punchline. Sound wasn't that good. It lacked fullness in the beginning and maybe some music. There should have been a punchline somewhere, thus no pay off. Do ADR next time if you can't get better sound and add more background noise. Make the sound fuller. It also lacked camera angles, movement, direction. IT pretty much seemed like one shot of two women just chatting. But is that a movie? I'm not sure. Otherwise it was find. Keep going at it. Its not easy to make movies.

Cheers

Even though I am a bit new to this, I'll throw in my 2 cents... Can you incorporate a bit of quick live audio/video clips without the background music either between the fist and second cuts or at the end? The different aspects of video quality look really good, but audio quality can make a difference as well. Also the hotlink mail account looks cheap, (OK, I'm being picky) I sent you a gmail account invite.

'The Same Old Line' A Short Film set in a Doll Factory
 

I liked it. Not everyone´s cup of pee, I mean tea. But well shot, well acted, and well executed...

Regards
Van Zijl

Redhead movie premiere
 

Hey Everyone,

We've finished up our feature we've been working on for quite a while and are showing it this Saturday, Dec 2nd at Studio 35 at 4pm (for anyone in the Columbus, OH area)

We have a cleaner cut of the trailer I need to repost but you can see it at www.redhead-movie.com

Well Scott it might be an idea, but I'll have to check the quality of my sound on the footage I would like to put in first. I must say I had not thought about that. Not sure if it would work or not, but I'm going to give it a try later this week. It would certainly change the structure of the reel, but it might add something that is not currently there. Might also take away from it. We'll see.

As for the hotmail account, it is widely used here in Canada, for both professional and personal use, don't think it would bother anybody really, especially that I'm sending this as a person, not a company (I do have a company mail account).

A higher resolution version of the film
 

Hi.

A higher resolution version of this film (Quicktime, 22.4mb) can be found and downloaded here: http://www.reifsneider.com/The%20Sam...ine%20High.mov
__________________
For more films visit: www.reifsneider.com

Survivorman News!
 

Hey guys!

Just wanted to get the word out.

For you Canadians, tonight at 8pm on OLN is the documentary "Stroud: Off the Grid" that I worked on as a cameraman and editor.

We followed Les Stroud (Survivorman) and his family as they became dedicated to self-sufficiency, moving to an old farm building, far from the nearest water source or hydro line.

Also, Season 2 of Survivorman is in full force! Les is off shooting the first episode right now and will be back soon so the editing will begin!

Les will also be posting a live blog from his Sat-Phone in the field, really cool.

http://www.lesstroudonline.com/blog/

Season 1 of Survivorman DVDs are available for sale now through the www.survivorman.ca website!

That's all for now.

Cheers!

-Andy Peterson
Survivorman II Productions

That's wonderful news! There are so many other "Survivorman" type shows showing up on the Discovery Channels that I was wondered if Les was done... I love that show as well as everyone I know! Thanks!

Short documentary
 

here is a short documentary i did last year for my school project.

I am quite happy with the audio, but the camera movement and some of the lighting is bad.

Please give me some opinion~~~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS-t4QcVhJU

anti-rocker.com
 

hey shane, what an interesting place to find yourself, i have been trying to track you down regarding, firstly the information previously provided on anti-rocker.com which was incredibly useful for my current thesis on the relations of rollerblading to urban theory, subcultural evolution and performance theory! purely for a qoutable, selective history of the technology it was a prefect reference, i stupidly did not copy all information from the page and now it has been taken down, i wonder if by any chance you could fwd me the contents of said page.

and secondly, i have been talking with jess dyrenforth in order to further clarify the early days in which i wasn't involved and i would be grateful if i could ask you some further questions (perhaps via email) about your involvement in the rolling scene as a whole.

i think it is important that i complete this dissertation to the most competant and professional level as (to my knowledge) it is the first concise study of the entire lifestyle's positioning with regard to current social, cultural and political situations.

please let me know asap, clowse

I will have to find the info you're talking about as it is on a back-up disk somewhere. I will try my best to answer any questions you might have. Drop me a PM and I will get you my email address so that we don't clog the board with that stuff.

New film "Smuggler's Ransom"
 

We shot Smuggler's Ransom on one Panasonic DVX-100 (stock lens) this summer, over the course of 4 days. The final film has a runtime of 45 minutes and stars Anthony Tyler Quinn (might remember him from one of his many TV roles... or his recurring role on Boy Meets World as Mr. Turner)

We have several "Director's Diaries" as well as a bunch of Behind the Scenes photos on our website, as well as the teaser trailer.

We are looking at an early 2007 release date.

www.smugglersransom.com

Short Film: "A Price Too High"
 

This is a short film I shot in the winter of 2005. We used the Panasonic DVX-100 (stock lens) and edited on Avid Xpress Pro HD. Enjoy.

www.noaricedigital.com/apth/apth_web.mov

Nice short movie. I liked the music during the first hospital healing scene and the drones during her first bout of illin' . Your assassin put in an intense performance. I cracked up during the assination scene when the two ducks were waddling over for handouts. Good job.

I liked it. Somewhere between the victims brother and the exploding subject, it slowed down a bit but it was fun.

Comments??

Very entertaining, good video and audio... liked the graphics, well done.