Here's a video...

http://www.vimeo.com/835920

...created for my wife for an internet singing competition. If you like Rascal Flatts, you'll love this! It was a great project that was created entirely within Veagas Pro 8. Make sure you have the 'HD' button activated -- looks WAY better than the standard def version.

If you like her perfomance, go give her a vote as well! :-)

http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/VideosSeries/VideoView.aspx?vid=5002_85725688&pid=523182&scid=240&=&isep=1&pbapi=523182&pbvi=13702825&pdi=2366

BTW -- the compression quality is horrible on the competition site, that's why I put it up on Vimeo for others to see (who have a more critical eye :-). Check out the vimeo link first!

Jimmy

Your voting link is dead!

Thanks for the info -- I updated the link above. Not sure what happened...

Nice work James...

James,

Pretty darn nice. I liked the farely smooth movement with her as she walked. Use a steady cam or a track? Nice song by the way!! she does a fine job.

Jeff – Thanks!

Dale --

Yes, Glidecam Smooth Shooter with the Pro 4000. I used it extensively throughout in some VERY uneven, rocky, crappy conditions. I was pleased that the shots ended up pretty smooth for the most part considering the conditions. On the railroad tracks, I was walking backward (obviously) as I navigated 100 year-old railroad ties jutting out at every angle! There was also a very steep crumbling brick staircase I ran up and down to get some of the high angle/jib-like shots…

(BTW - the playback tempo during shooting was sped up to allow for slow-mo in post -- adding to the challenge)

I'm still not sure how I didn't come away without a twisted ankle or broken rig from that shoot!

Thanks for the feedback –

Very nice. the brick building is in South Mountain Reservation right? makes NJ look very country - good job.

Hi James,

Very nice video, really nejoyed it nice colors and very smooth. By the way I film with XHA1 as well did you use any of the presets? love to know more.


Thanks
Matthew

Brian –

Bingo! I guess you know the location. Yes, it does have a very southern quality when shot right and used for the right project – for this one, it was perfect. Thanks for the feedback –

Matthew –

Thanks for the nice comments. Yes, I used Steven Dempsey ‘Vivid RGB.’ However, in retrospect, I would have liked to have tried a bit more neutral settings due to the Magic Bullet looks applied in post.

Shoot:

Canon XH-A1
HDV 1080i
60i fps
1/120 shutter

Glidecam Smooth Shooter with the Pro 4000

Edit:

Vegas 8
Some Digital Juice ‘swipes’ used in post
All footage shot with audio playback 125%
All footage slowed to 75% in post
Each shot manually synced in post to pre recorded audio track

Thanks guys – your comments are much appreciated

James,
I don't know what the voting in this contest is based on but it sure isn't production value and apparently is only based loosely on the vocal.
I actually took the time to watch at least part of all 40+ that are ahead of your wifes video (and I voted by the way) and I cannot figure it out. Yours has the best production value -by far. And the vocal at least belongs in the top 10. What are people voting on ? What a joke.
Hope you get somne support from this forum and your video can move upward. It deserves to.

Terry --

Yes, clearly what we did was overkill compared to what other have done -- and I presume overkill insomuch as what the site hosts expected. I guess it's just a silly little competition, but when you are as crazy as my wife is about Rascal Flatts (country group) -- it's a big deal! (first place gets to sing on stage with them)

Unfortunately, she got into the competition a bit late -- not knowing that the time lost would be as big of a hindrance as it is. Those who were in early now have the largest lead -- talent or not. And as you observed -- in most cases...NOT!!

Again, I knew that most probably would not go to the extent that we did -- and I think that is why in part she is moving up quickly even though she entered late.

Thanks for the comments/compliment and most of all -- support!! I'll pass the word along to my wife...

Hi James,
Video looks great and her vocals and the song is good.
I was wondering if you would share your compression details for this clip?

Regards
Simon

Hi James,

Just for curiosity, how much time did you spend on post in Vegas? Would be nice to know how much editing work (timewise) this kind of video involves. Must be a lot much more than 60:1 as in "normal" editing? I'm fully aware that there is also much work in preproduction and shooting that adds up to the total....but the editing time interests me most. Nice work anyhow, both shooting and editing!!!

Christian

Simon --

I'm not at my work station now but I believe I pretty much followed Vimeo's recommendations:

Project was shot HDV -

Main Concept mp4
1280x720
5 mbits (data rate) (they recommend 3-5mbits -- or as they put it -- 3000-5000 kbits)
23.976 (my project frame rate -- they recommend 30, or your project frame rate)

Christian --

I spent about 5 days editing -- not full days, maybe around 3-5 hrs a day. Actually, I never really keep track of exact hours editing a project. When I have a hard deadline, I just use as much of that time as possible. I can easy spend upwards of 12 hours a day on some projects -- short term.

I certainly blew past the 60 seconds/one hour benchmark -- mine might have been more like 5 hrs for each final minute of video. Ugh...that's why I never like to think about it! :-)

There was extra time involved with pre production insomuch as I had to do a vocal recording session as well. We did that in one day with mixing and mastering the next day.

Thank you both for the feedback and nice comments.

Nice job James. I really liked the song and your wife's performance. Top notch stuff.

Brian –

Edit:

Vegas 8
Some Digital Juice ‘swipes’ used in post
All footage shot with audio playback 125%
All footage slowed to 75% in post
Each shot manually synced in post to pre recorded audio track

Thanks guys – your comments are much appreciated

Nice job James!

MAy I understand what u meant regarding the audio playback playback to 125% during the shoot? Does it mean u were playing the song at 125% speed during the shoot while she lip sync to that?

In Post, you slow down the video+audio to 75% but how do u match the 100% speed audio? I think I saw a tutorial on this at digital juice but u need something like an EX1 to achieve the slow mo.. would appreciate yr inputs!

Found it.. I think I understand wat u r saying now. I'm wondering for the folks that have under cranking cameras like the EX1, how should it be done then? I m refering to the aduio syncing.. wun it be tough to sync?

http://www.digitaljuice.com/djtv/segment_detail.asp?sid=176&searchid=50577

John – Thanks for the positive feedback.

Sean –

Thank you as well.

Yes, the Digital Juice tutorial is exactly right. However, I found that speeding the music up to 200% (or 100% faster than normal) was not only unintelligible ultimately, but nearly impossible to sing along with. Because of that, I chose 75% (of normal speed) slow-motion which meant having the singer sing to the audio sped up to 125% -- a much easier task -- and the slow-motion look very good.

During shooing, the singers lips singing at 125% will ultimately match the audio (normal speed recording) when pulled back to 75% of normal speed in post.

I ‘overcranked’ as best I could with my A1. Since I don’t have the option of 60 progressive frames recording, I recorded 60i with a 1/120 frame rate. When slowed down in post, it looks very fluid and smooth to my eye. I then rendered out to a 24p project to achieve a more filmic look.

thanks for sharing James! I got to try it out! Must be fun!

Great job, James. I especially like the dramatic lighting while she's singing in the studio. Great color, good job on the smooth shooter shots and terrific production overall.

Great job, James. I especially like the dramatic lighting while she's singing in the studio. Great color, good job on the smooth shooter shots and terrific production overall.

George --

Thanks for the nice words and feedback. The lighting on the studio shots was surprisingly sparse. I used a 150k fresnel as a back light and a flex fill to bounce the light (from the 150) on her face. 1 instrument!

I agree with everyone else, great work! You mentioned applying Magic Bullet Looks in post; where/how did you do that? It doesn't support Vegas yet, right? Did you export to some other format and do it in After Effects or something? I'm quite curious, because I'm about to jump into MBL, and I'd like to get a workflow down.

You also mentioned that you exported to 24p for the 'film look'. Is that all it took, or would you say that MBL was a big part of it as well? How would you export your final piece if the destination was DVD?

Sorry -- posted to wrong forum!

Wow, great song, band, vocals and video. Her voice sounds super sweet, perfect EQ, doubling and harmonies in just the right places. Have you had any airplay yet?

Thanks Duane --

Actually this video was for a competition two years ago! I recently color graded the video in MBL (didn't have it earlier, just the other version that came with Vegas) as well as remixed the tune. No airplay as it was for a competition with first prize getting to sing on stage with Rascal Flats. Though she didn't win, she placed about 20th out of several hundred. We had a great time making the vid. Even though it's about two years old, I thought it deserved another color correction/grading pass...

Thanks for the great comments --

Hi James,

Very nice work. I have a couple questions I was hoping you could answer.

1. How did you get the different colorings in the beginning shot where she is walking down the tracks away from the camera? Compositing or layering?

2. Same answer for the shot at 1:04? I notice the color on the right side of the screen is darker than the left and I think it has more to do than shadow vs. sunlight.

BTW, I'm not a fan of country music, but it's clear to me that your wife is a great singer. I thought the singing and the video were both great.


Thanks!

Hi Mike --

The opening shot uses several different filters in MBL. Since the light wasn't exactly right when we shot, I recreated (in post) the time of day I wanted (late afternoon, golden-ish) -- or as close to it as I could get. Here's before and after:

Before:

http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2128321/f/Image2.jpg

After:

http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2128321/f/Image1.jpg

no compositing or layering -- all done in MBL - basically a combination of diffusion, vignette, spot exposure, grad exposure, saturation, three strip process and curves...

The other shot to which you are referring is actually my least favorite. The shot was pretty much all in shadow except for when she gets blasted by sunlight half way through. Not the ideal lighting situation, so again, I 're-lit' the other side of the frame (singer side) and tried as best I could to light her face as she walks from shady to sunny. I wouldn't have used that shot at all, but my choices were limited unfortunately.

Thanks for the questions and comments --

For the heck of it...

Heres another fun/dramatic before/after: (This is the instrumental part between verses -- I wanted something surreal/dramatic that looked like hyper 'magic hour')

http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2128321/f/Image3.jpg

http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2128321/f/Image4.jpg


...and one of the end shots:

http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2128321/f/Image7.jpg

http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2128321/f/Image8.jpg

Hi James,

Thanks very much for the before and after. Very, very interesting. It's nice to see that other people make great looking scenes from otherwise "average" footage. No offense intended, I only mean footage that is straight from the camera and without any effects on it.

It keeps me aware that there's almost unlimited possibilites to what I can do with my own "stock" footage when I get it into my editing software.

You're welcome -- yes, lots of possibilities. MBL has some limitations, but is nevertheless a great tool to use within Vegas.

And Yes, you're correct in that the the original footage is very neutral. I purposely shot it that way in order to allow myself as much latitude during color correction as possible. I personally never like locking myself into a specific camera setting or 'look' while shooting. It's particularly dangerous when working with in-cam curves -- once those blacks or highlights are gone (with HDV) they're gone for good.

all i have to say is that one day i hope to acquire such editing skills!

awesome job.