Got an express one-day tour of San Francisco with a friend of mine. Used his XHA1 so I think it was set to the factory preset #1. Color corrected in Premiere Pro CS3

http://exposureroom.com/members/disjecta.aspx/assets/d82e6df8f767484892de677e4b90f011/

Very nice departure from your regular scenics. I love that city. You have some nice angles too. Did you drag your tripod around or was that hand held?
Also was it shot 24f. I though I saw a bit of strobing on a pan or too but it could have just been the compression.

Lovely, and I second another comment about throwing in a bit of nat sound here or there

Steve,

Thouroughly enjoyed it, and I LIVE here. (Well, in Foster City, twenty minutes south).

One complaint. Since you were pretty much 'on the nose' with matching shots and lyrics IE Cable cars climb halway to the stars' I was really expecting a great shot of the skyline from golden hour at the end. Closing with Alcatraz was kind of a downer. (But hey, I 'm a screenwriter.)

Composition and quality very good, nat sound under would have been nice.

Thanks for the comments. Understand that I didn't really have a strong shot of the city to close (what I had was full of excessive haze) so I had to go with Alcatraz :) This trip was not planned out so I just grabbed the best shots I had for this piece.

There was so much yakking from tourists in the shots, I just didn't bother with the natural sound, jumping from scene to scene from an audio point of view was just too violent to my ear....I really wanted this to be a easy-going thing...

Hey Steven...

Great job.. Thanks for sharing. I have to agree with Richard. I think switching the last two shots would have worked. Just my opinion.

Okay, switching the final shots seems to be the general consensus, I'll do that and re-upload. I wish I had a killer shot of the city for the final shot but I just didn't get one...too much heat haze. So it is what it is :)

Steve,

Understood... ya gotta work with what ya got. It was only a mild complaint ;)


In terms of nat sound, I would be listening for an OCCASIONAL swell of sound, not a constant 'bed'. Think of the way waves sound as they come and go. A little street traffic, a little birdsong-gull call, some tourist chatter, even some wind - just a bit that comes in and out... not a constant background hum - and I'd time it to the song.

Not saying you need to go back and re-edit the piece, it's just an excercise in shooting/editing and a test of the camera as it is. But if I were constructing a travelogue of something like this, I'd let the nat sound mix in. And yes, I might even pull some stock 'nat' sounds... traffic, wind, seagulls to help emphasize it. But that's just my approach.

Yeah, I totally agree with you but given my crazy schedule right now, I'll do that on a piece that has a paying client attached to it. :)

Very nice Steven. Question though, how much attention does the XHA1 get when in areas with a lot of people? Are you getting a lot of looks into the lens? Thanks.

Kevin

It's a little less than areas where there are not major tourists... These days, people are walking around with still cameras that have lenses about a foot long.

What I do when I want to capture candids, is I frame up the shot on a tripod and then I hit record. I look away from the camera at some invisible distraction. That way, people are not so aware and self conscious because they really don't look at the camera at all.

I use that "trick" all the time.

Great, thanks!

Taking out your phone and pretending to text works well too, also I have the tally lamp off all the time, nothing worse than that red light as a dead give away!

Thought the best shot was the woman with her hood up on the bus. Very Breakfast at Tiffanys...

I should credit Fred White from De Cristo Productions properly for making this film possible. He allowed me to use his XHA1 camera and made time outside of hiring me for a separate videography gig to take me around the city.

Thanks Fred...very much appreciated and I am adding a co-credit for this film.

Getting time-out errors on the web page. Seems that too may people are trying to watch it or something.

Try here: http://www.vimeo.com/844044

The video has a great feel to it. I just moved to the bay area from Hawaii and never got a chance to really explore the "city"....not a fan of the hustle and bustle. I must say though, this short film makes me really want to take some time to get to know the city more.

Steven,

As a newbie and aspiring A1 user, I wish to thank you for your many videos and creative viewpoints. Although I'm not all together a newbie at video, I find your pieces to be inspiring and challenging. I look forward to implementing new techniques and processes once my camera arrives and hope that given your busy schedule you'll be able to comment on my postings.

Jay Hobbs