Uh, my new extra dumb video is complete. :D
 

http://www.xbox-connection.com/hoste...s9/scooter.wmv


Be the first ones to see it. The almighty retarded video. It took about a total of 20-40 minutes to shoot, if that, and I spent the last 10+ hours straight editing and rendering it, for only a 2 minute video, heh.

1. We don't like rap music, if anyone was wondering.
2. All 3 of us are *BAD* actors.
3. I was expecting the video to be around 4 minutes long, but it ended up at a measly 2.
4. When we went to shoot it, we forgot to bring the stuff to blow him up (so it would of looked like he was really getting shot) so I had to pull out some "fancy" crap in Vegas.
5. Me having to be in front of the camera made it bad because, the camera had to stay still on the tripod, and I couldn't be for sure about the framing.
6. Don't use Auto Exposure, you can see it adjusting in some of the video. The reason I HAD to use AE is because you can't judge anything from the viewfinder on my camera, and the LCD died, and even if the LCD was working, it would of been wayy to bright to even see anything.

Enjoy the full effect of dumbness.

Well, I caught the full effect!

While I initially thought there is no redeeming quality in this at all, I believe that is too harsh.

By re-reading your post, it appears you learned some things, such as:

1. If the music fits the piece, use it - whether you like it or not (though you didn't credit the artist or get permission!).

2. Acting can make the best of scripts (ahem) bad. By the way, which 'bad' actor were you (heh)?

3. You never end up with what you expect when shooting a short. So use what you have.

4. As the director/producer/dp, responsibility falls on you to make sure you have all the tools.

5. See above. If you're in front of the cam, then you need an assistant dp.

6. You explained this one yourself. Considering the LCD didn't work, you used AE and weren't behind the cam, the finished piece is better than I would have thought.

Maybe you already knew all of this - and the point of my blather is to reinterate a previous post - shoot, shoot, shoot, but try to better yourself and minimize past mistakes!

BTW, the editing looked decent - except for the one piece where the beginning of the dialogue was cut off!

I didn't think it was half bad, Alex. You've got a career ahead of you.

How did you do the wide ratio? Did you use an in-camera 16:9 option, or did you shoot full frame and crop it in post?

Making off with the sneaks was interesting flourish that did much in the way of adding versimilitude.

Mark, about the music, I did get permission, the first track is joe's freestyle from www.rickandrak.com, and the driveby track is from mp3.com, I emailed the artist and he was more then happy to let me use it. I didn't feel like doing credits.

I was bad fat actor with the pimp hat and glasses on.


"BTW, the editing looked decent - except for the one piece where the beginning of the dialogue was cut off!"

Huh, Where?


Thanks for the suggestions and comments though, guys.

About the "16x9" I just did use the "cinema bars" in my camera, and just cropped it in post, the cinema bars are pretty much close to 16x9, only a few pixels off. Lost resolution, but oh well.

I can do much better, I just need a better idea and better actors and more time and stuff. :D

<<<-- Originally posted by Alex Knappenberger : I can do much better, I just need a better idea and better actors and more time and stuff. :D -->>>

Hahaha. I think everyone is in the same boat!!!

My apologies on the music credit. I thought it fit the piece well (though I don't care for rap either!).

As for the edit - you call 'scooterboy'; [cut]
He answers; [cut]
You say something about being farted at. It is at this cut back to you that the very first part of the sentence is cut off (at least it is when I view it). Perhaps the sentence isn't cut off by edit, but the mic didn't pick it up.

If it's ok in your view, then it must be something on my end.

I'm slack. I haven't sent you a script, but I will. Sorry. Keep shooting.

No problem mark. About the cellphone convo, turn up your speakers a little bit. I say something like "Yo dawg some punk just came up and farted right beside me"....and when I cut back to the scooterkid, I made the audio sound like it was on a phone......

Alex the only thing I would say is in the future definitely show credits when someone lets you use their music. They need the publicity and it's sort of expected. Otherwise you will get a reputation as a cheapskate and no one will offer. Just IMHO.
Congrats on making it, even if Snoop Dog hunts you down for messin wit his style, hehehe.

Hehe -Alex that was pretty funny.I liked it. When he jacks his shoes at the end is classic! Plus the hand crank motorized scooter is a nice touch too.

I saw this post earlier today but was unable to view it because I was browsing the forums at work.
Alex I must say I liked it. Me and a friend of mine do nothing BUT silly comedic shorts. The part that got me was the sceen where you first see the kid on the scooter with the gun- lol! Classic!
It's definitly satyrical comedy that I totaly get comming from an age of hoodlums and punks that talk and act that way. Jeez, you should have seen my highschool- what a bunch of posers.

Anyway- questions:
1. In the first sceen, what kind of transition was used when you cut from you to the farting kid last comment to you getting up? It's not a straight cut- I see some blurb of something but can't make it out.
I noticed there was a frame of black, as well, between you getting up and the sceen where your dialing the cell phone- was that intentional?

2. What did you use to capture the audio? Certianly not the stock mic on the Panny?!

3. This was all done in Vegas right? Good I can grill you with quetions here. What sorts of audio filters did you use. Did I detect a slight vignette in some sceens? Also what did you use to ad the muzzle flash to the gun?

4. How did you do the flashes. Not the sceens showing the kid get hit but rather between cuts when the kid is posing with the gun?

5. Lastly.....speaking of gun- that's mighty convincing looking- what kind of "toy" gun is that. Last time I remember them not making toy guns obviously fake colors like bright orange or hot pink was when "I" was a kid?!

The only thing that bugged me was the first cut I guess I'm very perceptive....or anal *depends how you look at it. In the first sceen your bobbing your head, swaying your body and moving your crossed arms to the music- then it cuts and BAM your sitting stiff with your hands resting on your lap with a slight head bob. lol
Overall- great job man! Don't sweat the lenght- most shorts end up being "shorter" than usual. That's mostly a good thing- shows you have good pacing. Oh and how old are you again- 14? Wow you still have many years to season yourself as a videographer. If you stick with it your gonna be big- real big. Good luck, and keep at it man!

Glen, thanks for the comments and questions.


"1In the first sceen, what kind of transition was used when you cut from you to the farting kid last comment to you getting up? It's not a straight cut- I see some blurb of something but can't make it out.
I noticed there was a frame of black, as well, between you getting up and the sceen where your dialing the cell phone- was that intentional?"

Intentional? Of course, every space and gap or whatever is intentional, it's just that a lot of times I don't think straight hard cuts look right, so I will add a black gap or try something fancy. Hard cuts seem to only work if your shots are perfect, and like you mentioned, the shot from me being all energetic and then when it cuts i'm just sitting there, bad mistake.

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2.What did you use to capture the audio? Certianly not the stock mic on the Panny?!

Yeah, it actually is the stock mic on my $350 camera that I used. Thats one praise I give to Panasonic is they don't cheap out on the audio department, no hiss or anything. When I do dialog shots, and I know I don't have someone with a boom mic or anything, I just try to get the camera as close to the subject as possible, thats why you won't ever see any far away dialog shots from me, unless I get some better audio stuff. I also work some magic in editing I guess. On voice stuff, I will try and keep the levels up just enough to not clip, but like on the last shot where he's grabbing the slippers or whatever, I had to boost that A LOT, and you can tell.

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3. This was all done in Vegas right? Good I can grill you with quetions here. What sorts of audio filters did you use. Did I detect a slight vignette in some sceens? Also what did you use to ad the muzzle flash to the gun?

About the audio, to make the freestyle rap song from rickandrak.com sound like it was coming out of my headphones, well kind of, I used the chorus filter, with the "cheap TV" preset, and I tweaked it a little bit, and then I used a EQ, and took out all the highs and lows, thats pretty much the same process I used for the cell phone convo to make it sound like it was coming from a phone. Eh the vignette stuff is from my overusage of bump maps, I look at it now and wish I didn't add that, but I just wanted to get it done when I was doing it. The gun muzzle flash was cheap, I just found a picture of a 3D muzzle flash and put it on a new track and used the pan/crop tool.

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4. How did you do the flashes. Not the sceens showing the kid get hit but rather between cuts when the kid is posing with the gun?

It's called the "flash" transition, you just overlap two peices of video with automatic crossfades on, and just drop that transition right there. It's probably the only transition thing that I will ever use, the others are all cheap.

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5. Lastly.....speaking of gun- that's mighty convincing looking- what kind of "toy" gun is that. Last time I remember them not making toy guns obviously fake colors like bright orange or hot pink was when "I" was a kid?!

Yeah, it's a airsoft. The new ones (he also has one of these) have a orange plug on the end to say they are a "toy". It looks completely real, the only way you could tell by looking at it that it's not real, is that there is a airsoft name on the side, and warnings and instructions.

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The only thing that bugged me (and I guess I'm anal) was the first cut. In the first sceen your bobbing your head, leaning your body and moving your arms to the music- then it cuts and BAM your sitting stiff with a slight head bob. lol

Yeah, I should of paid more attention to details like that.

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"Overall- great job man!"

Thanks.



EDIT - The video is on a REAL server now.

http://www.xbox-connection.com/hoste...s9/scooter.wmv

Wow I'm pretty impressed with the audio on that little Panny. Not too shabby Alex.

Regarding using the pan/crop tool to overlay the muzzle flash image- how did you line it up with the footage? Can you stack it on a layer above the footage- then run pan/crop on it and see the footage underneath it once you resize the image (muzzle flash)?

Love the flash transition. It's impressive to me because the flashes you saw in my wedding sample I posted were all done manually. I had to make a white color matte and cross dissolve to it and back to footage again quickly. Premiere has an "additive dissolve" but looks terrible.
The only transitions I use are dissolves, and flashes. Straight cuts for all the rest.

Alex, how many shorts have you done? Do you have any more to share?

"Regarding using the pan/crop tool to overlay the muzzle flash image- how did you line it up with the footage? Can you stack it on a layer above the footage- then run pan/crop on it and see the footage underneath it once you resize the image (muzzle flash)?"

Exactly. If the image has transparency on it, you just lay it on the track above and you can just move it around and resize it as you wish right over the video. I was going to do this manually frame by frame in photoshop, it would of been better, but I said screw that, plus you can't get a realtime preview in photoshop of what it will look like.

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"Love the flash transition. It's impressive to me because the flashes you saw in my wedding sample I posted were all done manually. I had to make a white color matte and cross dissolve to it and back to footage again quickly. Premiere has an "additive dissolve" but looks terrible.
The only transitions I use are dissolves, and flashes. Straight cuts for all the rest."

Thanks. You haven't tried Vegas? Give it a shot, you'll probably like it.

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"Alex, how many shorts have you done? Do you have any more to share?"

Eh, just some stupid stuff that people don't need to see, heh. I'll have more in the future though, but if they are good, i'll probably end up keeping them to "myself" and then put together a little hour long video or something and give it away or sell it for like 4 bucks.

Alex I do have Vegas- and the 6 hour training DVDs to learn the darn thing. lol I just haven't got into editing on it yet. I'm still learning basic principals and workflow. I'm in the middle of editing 2 weddings and a commercial so it's a bit hard to balance all that and working full-time...yet still have time to work extensively with Vegas. I will, however, after I bang out the 2 weddings.