hi everybody,
i finally mustered up the guts to post my work as well. in 2002, i shot a skateboard video here in cape breton, which is probably as far east in canada as you can get. it is 191mb and 30 minutes long, so i wouldn't recommend this to non skateboarding fans as it would likely get old quick. there is also a 7mb teaser.

http://media.locals.ca/scenery.html

background
this was shot and edited over a ten month period on the single chip panasonic pvdv601. i bought the camera (my first camera of any kind ever) on a bit of a whim and started shooting immediately in february 2002. i just learned as i went, and it really goes to show that dv has come to the point where a complete novice can just pick up a camera and start shooting and editing. i wrapped up editing in november, and had a big release party (350 people!) where it premiered. i also had it duplicated on vhs. the premiere and vhs release took place one day short a year from when i bought the camera. a few months after i sold out of the vhs copies, i released it on my website for free. the soundtrack is all local bands.

gear
i used a panasonic pvdv601 and edited on a dell laptop with premiere 6.0 and 6.5. i eventually got two fisheyes (kenko sgw43x, raynox qc303) after i figured out it would allow the camera to 'zoom out' more. i also used lenses from the now discontinued kodak ektanar lens kit for 43mm threads. for lighting i picked up a very loud and cranky honda generator and some cheap work lights and stands.

there is a *lot* of vignetting in most of the fisheye shots and i didn't do any color correction or other patchwork in post.

for the teaser video i matched up a live version of the band playing with the studio audio for the track. since they were not played at the same tempo, it was a painstaking process indeed!

i bought a gl2 last may and have been picking away at a second video which i hope to finish up late 2004.

i look forward to any comments and critiques you guys might have so i can shoot and edit better stuff in the future. i only wish i knew about dvinfo.net two years ago!! :)

cheers,
harry

Very nice!! Only real "complaint" is that it got less interesting
futher along. Looked a bit the same over again. But ofcourse
this might not be so to someone else or your target audience

I only downloaded and watched the teaser and I must say you
had some very nice shots in there. Music was not my style (sorry)
and I also didn't like the fisheye stuff where you are watching a
circle with stuff inside it. Just not my thing.

I've been watching skateboard videos since the late 80's and have to say you have some nice shots in there as well . I only watched the trailer but I would agree with Rob on the Fisheye effect. Its a little to much for my liking and there are tons and tons of skate videos that use fisheye but then again when skating and shooting at the same time you just need to be able to point and shoot so it all makes sense to be able to get it all in the frame without looking at a viewfinder or LCD! Are these guys pros or just like shop sponsered riders? Seems like some talented skaters in there I will try to check out the long version when i get a chance. Good luck on the second vid and just have fun shooting.

thanks for the input guys. i have the century optics fisheye for my gl2 so vignetting isn't going to be a problem this time. when i did the first one i was just happy to get the whole person in the shot!

all of the skaters are just guys that live around here. one or two of them are shop sponsored.

with follow filming i find you pretty much need the fisheye, but you're seeing more and more long lens stuff in pro videos. the thing is, pros have multiple cameras at almost all the shoots so if one guy bungles, it's not critical. for a lot of the stuff i shot, it was going to have to be a one take deal, so i overused the fisheye as a bit of a safety as well.

thanks again for the input!
harry

will try again later, page was 'unavailable'?

that's actually really good advice...thanks! Establishing shots are probably one of the most important aspects of continuity...film class has at least taught me that much

now to apply...

thanks again everyone,
Rob

my gl2 and i have finally finished the website, http://www.fourtenmedia.com and although it still needs some work i thought i would share it with you all... its something different but all done w/ a gl2 (even though the compression makes it hard to tell)

Jerry! Excellent Website! Superb graphics, exciting and innovative too! Lots of great ideas. Oh yes the XM2 footage - GREAT STUFF!!

You're into my Favourites RIGHT NOW! Click - click . . thanks . .

Grazie

made link hot

http://www.fourtenmedia.com

I couldnt get your flashy to work

Nice web site ;0 ;0 ;0

Although a line in the bottom right handcorner spoils the main photo (background, tree, blue sky). Might be worth touching it up.

Cheers,

Ed

Here's a new teaser clip I made for an upcoming "behind the scenes" video for a music video shoot. Everything was shot on a GL2 and edited on FCP.

http://www.terraform.tv/preview/crownedking.html

Looking good! Where they shooting the actual clip on film? Even
MTV was there? Would be interesting to see how the actual
shots from the film camera look when compared with what you
shot!

john,
if you cannot get the flash movies to load/work you may need to download the latest player from macromedia.com , as far as i can think that is the only thing that should be holding you back from seeing it.

thanks ed, ill look into that one... i dont know which background your talking about but it shouldnt be hard to find and fix.
glad yall liked it.

Yes, the actual video was shot on 35mm, i'm also curious to see what the final video will look like in comparison to my miniDV footage. The director said that they were going for a "Fight Club/Panic Room" look. After I see what the final version looks like I'm gonna try to color correct some of my footage to see if i can match what they got, should be a good little exercise. The band seems to be pretty popular with the mtv crew here in Vancouver so they came out to do a little piece on the new video as well.

Corey

Corey,

Crowned King?

Sean Frank is the singer and his little brother is on sac...Sean went to my elementary school.

Was that video done by Triton films?
When was the video done? Couple months ago?

damn wat a small world!

Hi Jerry,

Nice site! A bit different approach then the usual sites!

One thought: You should use a font that is taller than wider, and perhaps abit more "free air" between the lines, for readability!

Best regards,

Lazze Z

looks great!

Nice site and footage Jerry, What is the bands name on the first us open clip?

Heres some Snowboarding work ive been doing with my DV953, the colors might look off because I did all that in post for effect.

Thought you Pana guys might be interested
{btw, the DVD quality is outstanding}

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&postid=131219#post131219

John Gaspain

Looks nice.. love the zebra gixxer haha.

The camera angles were very inventive.. i love the camera on the midde of the tail looking up at the rider's back.. great vantage point.. a lot of these angles are way better than onboard kneedragging video i've seen in the past.

what kind of onboard camera/lenses was this video shot with?

I agree with Adam. You have some great camera angles in there. I especially like the "Training Day-ish" front wheel/rotor shot.
Something I did notice however is that the shots end a little quickly for my taste. Many times the shot ended before I could really grasp exactly what was happening. You have some very creative angles in there, and I'd love to get to see them a little longer. I imagine the quick edits were used only in the trailer so its probably not a big deal.
As far as the graphics go, I like them. Yeah, the font is basic, but the white flash goes great with the music and is timed well.
Overall, I think you did a great job and I would like to see the whole video.

The link seems broken...it doesn't work for me...Here in Seattle WA, it's snowing like crazy today...it looks very cool outside...i would like to see that footage...

I would like to share with you my first two ultra shorts. I decided to give up on wedding videography as it was doing nothing for my soul, so here I am, my early attempts at something that I hope to get better at.

www.rafalkrolik.com/westlakefright.wmv (12 MB)
www.rafalkrolik.com/thebowler.wmv (9.5 MB)

I had no problem downloading the file with GetRight. Nice piece of work. I agree, the music could be more exciting.

Made it back from Boeing field to Bellevue in one piece in the snow.

Glad you liked it Fred! and yea I agree with that about the Rhinestone, I just dont know what I should use to replace it? any suggessions?

[Fixed Quicktime link]

I changed the music to Sepultura- Territory :D, it fits it much better now

There're several CDs worth of free music, grouped in different categories, on www. freeplaymusic.com. You can download them either in wav or in mp3 format. I've downloaded them all gradually in mp3 and burned on 3 CDs. Each clips comes in four or five different lengths, up to two minutes I think.

I have never experienced snow (the frog in the well, I am), but the snow colour changes over each cut. Sunlight or WB?

it is modest mouse, the name of the song is 'lounge' if i remember correctly. their a real good band, check em out definately

na, its just Me screwing with color corrector in Vegas, no red snow here!

They are good little shorts to start on. But I think you better
switched the way on how you shot them. In other words, I
thought the fright movie would have been way more effective
with the closeups that the bowler was using.

A tip: Also you were using copyrighted music, right? That can
be a dangerous road to go down. Just to remind you.

Thanks Rob. Tell me a little more about your suggestion. Are you thinking of having close-up of people running where instead of their faces only their feet show or are you thinking more of getting rid of the shot where people come running from behind the building? As I mentioned, I am new to this but in the top 2 percentile when it comes to being dedicated to pursuing filmmaking and any suggestions, especially from established industry insiders such as yourself are VERY appreciated.

Music wise, I believe all clips came from either Flashkit.com or freeplaymusic.com , but you are right as far as that goes. I will eventually produce my own soundtracks as stealing from other artists is not my cup of tea.

I wouldn't say industry insider, lol, I'm just as outside as you are!
But, I'm telling you what I'm seeing. Normally movies that try to
be a bit scary don't reveal too much in the beginning. You can
use a closeup of just the head as it turns to look to something
and you perhaps see the eyes widen and start screaming. Also
more closeups can help give a claustrafobic feel and heighten
to what is coming. It looked like you primarely wanted to go down
the funny road, but that can pay of more if you "scare" people
a bit first.

The group coming running around the corner would have been
perfect after a bit of introduction. A camera inside the group or
very close as it runs buy would have probably made some nice
cut-a-ways etc.

But, expermenting will definitely help to see what you like or
don't. Perhaps my suggestions wouldn't look too good in your
eyes, that's possible. We all like different movies!

If you want you can check out a little short from me here (http://www.ladyxfilms.com/theater/e14/episode_14.shtml)

So you are the dead agent, huh? I have been following the LadyX series and actually have been writting a LadyX script based on an idea I have. I think Ken Tanaka would be my regional producer, right?
Also, thanks for more suggestions regarding my work, I thought about what you said and it makes perfect sense. The whole idea of creating suspense and not quite revealing the humurous nature until after everyone is "scared" would have added to the aura of the fright movie. I plan on doing a sequal for next Holloween and will follow your advice.

Unfortunately the Lady X series is closed for entering as we
our now in our Awards run. There might be coming something
later in the year though, so keep an eye out on the site (or
better yet subscribe to our newsletter) and announcements
here.

Yeah, I seem to be pretty dead! <g>

Bummer, oh well, I think I will continue with the scripts anyways. I think it's a fun project over all and my small group of actors is always itching to do something for the camera.
Off topic here, but I noticed that like myself, you also work as a computer programmer. Just an observation.

OK, thanks again for your tips.

Like everyone here I strive to improve my skills as a film maker / video producer. So I thought I would share my work to see what kind of comments or critique it generates.

http://www.mksmotorsports.com/video/FULLDV.wmv

It was my first video that I was paid to create. I realize its totally amateur compared to what I've seen posted here but I guess you can't learn if you don't put your work out there to be viewed. The client was very happy and I think thats what is important.

I shot it in one day as the Association only thought to have a video made a week before the last race of the year so I had to take what I could get that day at the last race. And as it was a real event I kind of had to work around the tracks schedule too which made it even worse.

Everything was shot with 2 Sony Digital8 trv-203 cameras (I'm sure that makes a lot of you cringe :-) ) And I asked a freind to help out with the second camera. I figured I'd need all the footage I could get as we only had the one day.

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : A tip: Also you were using copyrighted music, right? That can be a dangerous road to go down. Just to remind you. -->>>

What do you recommend using for music? Do you produce your own? If so, what do you use to make it?

Hi James

As far as the music goes, I have two sources for non commercial use. they are http://www.freeplaymusic.com and http://www.magnatune.com . When I look for loops, I usually go to http://www.flashkit.com , they have great selection of sound effects and loops, plus they are also marked as freeware, shareware or whatever so you know what you're getting. I usually use Acid to create music from loops. I also have a daughter who's good with a piano/synthesizer so some of my stuff will eventually come from her and I have been feverishly taking guitar lessons so they one day I can be my own asset. My biggest help, however, comes from my talented musician friends who put their own stuff together. I am doing a documentary on them as a matter of fact, here's a little teaser: http://www.rafalkrolik.com/warparty.wmv. The music you hear is their own and these guys will put together any genre for me, not just rap. Hope this helps.

Mike, this is not bad at all. I think it relays exactly what is intended to be shown. Don't worry about your equipment either, when you get more paid jobs you'll be able to upgrade. The most important thing is you composition. We all know people making cinematically great videos with nothing more than a video camera from Wall-mart while others invest housands into expensive equipment but exhibit no visual composition skills.

James,

I'm lucky to have a good friend that will do all audio and music
aspects for me (composing, scoring etc.). He used Cubase SX
and Wavelab 4 on our Lady X episode.

Keep in mind that freeplaymusic etc. is only free when you are
not making money directly from the product or indirectly (ie, it
screens at a festival where people must pay for a ticket!!).

There are numerous sites around the web (do a google search)
from new artists that try to get their music out there. A lot of
them will give there music for a indepedent movie if they get
credit (and probably a link to their site) for it. See it as a way of
two artists helping eachother out.

Was nice! How fast do those things actually go? As you've said
yourself, the most important thing is, is that the client is happy!
I would have liked it a bit shorter in length, but that might be
because racing quickly loses my interest <g>

I know I need to learn a better way to do the graphics and text. Some of the title sequences I've seen on the videos on this site are amazing. I'm using a program called Media Studio for my editing as it came bundled with my firewire capture card. And its pretty easy to use.

One thing I have learned is that the cuts and disolves are the best transitions. But why do the editing programs make such a big deal about having 87 versions of a barn door transition and such? I think the "gizmos" in the low end programs distract the beginner to much, it makes it harder to focus on just making a good video. Its too tempting to try and use all the "effects".

The Mini Trucks are powered by a 13hp honda motor and will reach speeds of 120kph or 75mph. Its pretty much like go-kart racing. But NASCAR has made the trucks very popular.

Indeed, FORGET the effects! Why those are there? For the mass
market that is buying all those little camera's and "making" little
homevideos. Someone probably thought way back that it was a
"cool" thing.

You wouldn't say from the video that those things are running
that fast. Nice!

Hi Everybody,

I just shot my first film with my XL-1. I shot the entire film in "Frame-Movie" Mode and edited with basic i-movie 2.

Check out what I was able to do with just an XL-1, a shotgun mic, my Corvette and my dog. Go to:

www.dreammachine88.com

Best,
Matt Gutelius
Fast Car Films.

Nice C4 Matt.

I've got one in black. :)

Once again, outstanding work. Had a very good behind the scenes feel, but still showed off almost as a music video in and of itself. I liked the fast cuts at the begining. The "get the camera off me" verbal was cut a bit short, but candit comments are always hard (how is it that just as someone says something brillient, someone makes a loud noise or otherwise ruins your audio in the background??)

Anyway, very inspiring, and as always with your work, the video quality was very good and fitting.

Thanks for sharing.

here is a short demo reel that my company put together. we shoot live shows and make music videos.

Scrambled Visual 2004 demo reel (http://www.scrambledvisual.com/demoreel2004(high).mov)

(right click & save as)


what do you think?

If you get rid of the spaces in between those [url] tags we'll be able to click on it :)

The video is really nice. The whole thing has really good pacing and visuals, very tightly put together. It's short enough so it holds your attention the whole time as well!

Same thoughts here. Nice, fast, looking good!