Highlights for 7-7-08
 

Here's the link:

7-7-08 Wedding Highlights on Vimeo


I'd love to hear what you guys think, especially the negatives. I already know this isn't one of my strongest highlights videos. I had an "off" day with the camera or something, but the couple was awesome and one of the best I have ever worked with (very relaxed and fun and trusting). This was shot in SD on Canon GL2's. Anyways, fire away!

NOTE: Something interesting about Vimeo .. I incorporated grain in the levels of a number of shots (like the opening shot), but this grain seems to have been mostly removed by the Vimeo conversion, and has resulted in a "soft focus" look. Very odd .. and too bad. Oh well.

Travis,
overall I thought you've had a solid highlights clip,

couple of things,
on a close shots wide angle lens doesn't do a justice to the faces, possibly longer focal length...

on story structure here, preparation comes as a flashback in the middle of the clip,
I feel emotional inconsistency in a story in this kind of approach when it comes to highlights video, this is pure imho, personal opinion, and I state it on a different forums, I am for consistency in wedding day storytelling.

There's some color balance problems... mostly greenish tint outside & leaning toward red inside. Also, and I'm assuming here, the added letterboxing is cutting off heads. This of course can always be fixed in post when adding a letterbox matte by applying the matte to an upper track and simply moving the source track below it up or down as need be.

Great clip Travis!

Some thoughts

The stop motion felt out of place, although it was timed to the beat, I felt it didn't fit in with the flow.

Also regarding consistency, I felt the engagement shoot was kinda off too. I was figuring out for a moment if they were guests or whoever. I guess if you really wanted to include the pre-wedding shoot, you could introduce that earlier on.

Skin tones indoor are too red for me.

But otherwise, I love the shot selection and the way it was put together. That shot with the barley(?) in the foreground was killer.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the comments, Oleg. I wasn't using a wide-angle lens, so I'm not sure what you were seeing with the faces.

As for the story structure, that was something I was definitely struggling with. I was trying to break away from the standard flow and do something a bit different. It's outside my comfort zone and I agree that I'm not sure it's working as well as it could.

Interesting, I actually purposely colored the outside shots greener and the inside shots more red/yellow. I guess I just feel totally lost when working with color. It seems like whenever I try to grade something people point out that they don't really like it. Maybe I'm just overdoing it?

I'll check on the cutting of heads. I found a few clips like that and fixed them before posting the video, but it was late last night and it sounds like I missed a few. Thanks!

Thanks, Jason. I was trying to use the stop-motion of the invitation to lead into the wedding ceremony footage from the other footage. I'll take another look at it.

I totally agree about the "engagement" shots, except that they were from the rehearsal dinner and not an engagement shoot. The couple was really excited about doing some fun shots at the dinner, and I just hadn't found anywhere else to use them by the time I got to the end of the video. It seemed they were going to be out of place no matter where I put them. So in the end, I just put them there. The couple will love it, but I completely agree that it feels out of place. It's an "artistic compromise", lol.

Thanks for the comments, Jason!

Looks like you used the advise we gave you about shooting larger people. Was this the couple?
The song...what's the name of it...I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think someone else on this forum has used that one on another highlight :)

Tom
just kidding around with you Trav.

No, this was back in June, and a different couple. The other couple has a wedding coming up soon. Glad the shots worked, though. The bride lost like 30 pounds or something before the wedding, so she was looking good all on her own!

For the record, the song was not my choice. I am NOT a fan of country music. It's okay. I can handle it. But I wouldn't ever probably choose to use it for anything, lol. But these guys were all about the country music, so I used the song they wanted.

Thanks for watching!

I think everyone on this forum has had to use that song at one time or another. I personally drink a gallon of Jack Daniels after editing one of those. Then jump into my pool to try to drown myself. If that doesn't work, I shoot up some heroin but my wife usually stops me from going that far by bending all of my needles.

Well, it was a first time for me, and I didn't mind it that much. Funny post though .. made me laugh. I'll have to remember those "tips" next time I'm editing to country music, lol.

To be honest, I have a harder time with songs that just don't have any variation in the pace. You know, the really slooooow, sappy love song that just drones for 3 or 4 minutes and never changes pace. To me, that's the hardest stuff to edit to.

Yeah, I know what you mean. That's why I have stopped asking for music from the couples. I just ask them the genre and or style they like with some suggestions from them as a guide only.
Anyway, I think your edit was just fine.

So how has that been working. I'm always afraid if I just pick a song I might pick one they don't like. I've tried suggesting a short list of songs, but that hasn't had much success, which leads me back to not wanting to pick a song they don't really like. Do you pick a song and then confirm it as "okay" with them before you edit or no?

Glad the edit was fine - anything that stood out that you didn't like?

No complaints so far...This is what I have discovered about human nature;
First of all, in Houston, Brides have absolutely no creative bones in their bodies when it comes to picking music. If it was their choice, all of my highlight reels would consist of "Amazed" by Lonestar and "From this Moment" by Shania Twain. I realized early on if I was going to survive "mentally" in this business, something had to give. So, here is where the human nature part comes in....If you get close to the "style" of music they like, and your editing is creative, then, once they see their faces in the clip, they LOVE 'em. It's really all about the client seeing themselves in an artfully edited piece.

On the other hand, I've seen real crappy videos from my competitors and the bride still loves the damn thing...go figure. So, in closing, if you charge $700 for a video, you don't have to worry about anything. If you're like me, and get about 3k on avg, just get close on the music and show their faces alot...throw in a ring with light shot to spice it up and some color grading and voila!! Your the man!

Thanks for the phone call!