Most recent Short Edit
 

Hey Guys,
This is my most recent short edit. I've only ever put one up here before and really only read on the forums, but I feel like I know enough of you to take the hardest criticism you can offer. This only really my second real short edit, and only my 5th or so wedding. So I'm still learning. Its what I do to make money while I go through film school.

So be as hard as you can on me, because I have another one on Friday and I would really like to have a few things to think about before I go to the shoot Friday morning.

http://blog.exquisite-video.com/?p=25

Video won't load for me.

hmm, it works for me, tested it on a few computers.

Oh well, I thought it was worth a shot showing people.

Tried it again today. I click play, and it just spins like it's thinking. Sorry.

Works for me. Looks good.

Hi -
Worked fine for me, but I noticed when it ended the play button was spinning, clicked on it again, and got a replay... slightly odd interface, but worked OK for me.

First thought - REALLY liked the use of the "bars" for the "opening credits", but they kept coming and going for no apparent reason...

WB issues - a few noticeable "cool" tones (blue skintones), looked like maybe your light is LED? The LED lights I've experimented with seem to look better with outdooor WB presets... This is always a challenge with all the varying light sources we must shoot under... I just try for a "warm" look, even if it's overly so - never a fan of the "smurf" look.

"jump cuts" - I know you were trying to sync with the drumbeats in the music, but they just felt TOO jumpy to me, as the rest of the music and groove is more laid back... it's a style thing.

These are just some quick impressions that most people probably wouldn't even notice, and are pretty minor - really nice work!

Yeah about the interface, I just went to a blog widget site and looked at video players and picked out the nicest one. I know its kind of weird that theres a button that replays it at the end.

You're right, my light is LED, its the LP Micro, I guess I just have to color correct it in color or something, the only problem is my computer crashes every time when I open color because I have multiple graphics cards. I will do this on my laptop I guess.

Thanks for all your thoughts on the video, It will be quite helpful when I am working on the next one. I'll post that one too so that I could see if I improved in your opinion.

You don't have to use Color. I use the 3-way Color Corrector and it does a fine job.

that is true.

BTW, Does anybody else have any problem viewing the video? its H.264 playing through a flash interface.

It played fine on my pc, why don't you use vimeo f.i. to display your videos? I've seen many HD video's on that provider and they look very sharp and with quite big size, your blog does support the possibility to embed a vimeo player.
Since you made the video so small my first impression was that I was looking at a demo made by a SD camera because I can get the same output quality for the internet with my dvx100.

About the video, I thought it looked good but must say that your footage is quite shaky. I also saw some quite overexposed images, especially involving the bride were the whites of her dress was almost completely washed out with no detail. Don't know if that was done with the HVX but I also have to be careful when there are a lot of very dark and very bright parts in the same image, the DVX easily blows out all whites when I use the F1 setting so I always have to monitor the zebra's very carefully to assure it's balanced.

Yeah the bride was the HVX. It was very easy to blow out the images and it was hard to control. I would not shoot with the HVX again even though I told people I was happy with the camera so they didn't think i made a mistake taking it to a wedding, but I really didn't have a choice.

The footage was pretty shaky, I will agree with that and I don't know why, I'm not normally that shaky as I was that day. Which did you think was shakier the bride or the groom?

About the shakiness, that was more a general impression I got when I looked at the demo but it noticed more when the bride was filmed.
About the hvx, think that compared to the Dvx (which I use now) it's a more difficult camera for run and gun situations because it has even more possibilities making it difficult to controll and it's quite large which makes it more difficult to handhold which could explain why you had a more hard time keeping it steady.
I have been using a Vx2100 before and since a few months a DVX100. Compared to my dvx100 the vx2100 was actually a real "consumer" cam in terms of control, I really had to practice a lot just to get used to the dvx but I must say I like the precision in control the camera has but it's like you said much more difficult to master.
Especially when controlling the iris, I now underexpose my images a bit when I film and then they turn out alright on a lcd screen. Only images like when you filmed the couple standing in a building in the shade (at 02:20) and the guests standing in the bright sunlight outside, you have to set your iris to the couple inside and I have found that my dvx suffers the same problem to display whites that are then in the bright sun. I set my zebra's to 100% and always monitor that very closely when they appear. With my vx2100 I didn't have this problem that much but with my dvx I find myself controlling the iris much more manually but then again, that's the way it should be done, it only takes much more effort and concentration. Also working with the camera light you have to watch out at receptions, last time I used a 20 watt lamp and the white weddingdress is also easily washed out if you have the camera in autoiris.
I usually use the F1 setting which is actually a shame because of the progressive possibilities the camera has but in the progressive mode it needs a lot more light and the autofocus, if I need to depend on it, is much slower in reaction. But it might solve the problem a bit when dealing with over-/underexposed parts in the image, only for dark receptions it's not the best way to go.

I don't know what F1 means but I actually was shooting progressive because 720p used up a lot less space on the cards then 1080i and the rental company only had one 32gb card and one 8gb card so I was stuck. I brought my laptop and constantly dumped the footage onto that so I could clear the card. It made me nervous but it was the only way I was going to get enough footage. 80 minutes of space for the entire day is not enough.

So I know the camera was shaky and I'll try to avoid that next time I shoot and for this one I'll run some smooth cam filters on it, but what do you think about the editing, or the story line? I tried to build up emotion with the editing to the music and the order of shots I used and when certain shots came in. Any suggestions on that?

I am really new at this so I am sorry if I appear annoying, I just really want to improve.

A simple solution for camera shakiness is to shoot on a tripod or monopod. Or invest in a support system like a Spiderbrace (shoulder mount) or DVMulti Rig.


Another solution if you decide to handhold without support is to slip your hand in the grip, flip out the LCD screen and grab the bottom of the LCD screen. Keep your elbows in and you will get some steady footage. Keep in ind though that this technique isn't for long shots.