Quick update on www.ndividz.com, if I may:

After just over a week we now have around 30 members (with over 100 friends at MySpace.com/ndividz), over 100 articles in around 40 topics, including something like 14 original and very cool music videos for you to view and offer comment on.

Now that we have a small community of music video directors going I hope that it will start to gain momentum.

If you have any interest in music videos - and especially if you have a video of your own that you'd like to post a link to in the Showcase forum - please do take a minute to register, completely free, at www.ndividz.com/forum.

Hope to see you there.

All the best!

Ian . . .

Quick update on www.ndividz.com, if I may:

After just over a week we now have around 30 members (with over 100 friends at MySpace.com/ndividz), over 100 articles in around 40 topics, including something like 14 original and very cool music videos for you to view and offer comment on.

Now that we have a small community of music video directors going I hope that it will start to gain momentum.

If you have any interest in music videos - and especially if you have a video of your own that you'd like to post a link to in the Showcase forum - please do take a minute to register, completely free, at www.ndividz.com/forum.

Hope to see you there.

All the best!

Ian . . .

I'm heading in Ian, cheers...

Cool, thanks Allen (or should I call you The Eejit??). I will post up some comments tomorrow. I'm afraid I have to climb into a dark room now as I have a migraine on its way! Sigh . . .

Sonny,
One reason I almost never comment on other peoples work is simply because it is only my opinion and you know what they say about opinions. Like noses, everybody has one.
Having said that here are a couple of things I saw that jumped out at me right away.
First and foremost you had a lot of camera movement, a lot of movement much of which appeared t obe from trying to zoom in tight and hold the shot.
Very difficult -close to impossible to do for long periods of time so my suggestion is 1) use some sort of camera support always (or at least as much as possible) either a tripod OR a monopod and 2) if you want the tight full frame shot of their faces move in on them-get closer-get closer-they know you're there-they won't object-hell, they might even play for the camera. Leave the lens at a wide zoom and get in close-have fun with them- I had a couple that said to me if you get any closer we should switch places-for fun-I handed the groom the camera and sat with the bride-for about a minute and we all laughed and had a good time-it also made the rest of the day go easier.
On to shot content-I thought the part of them on the beach with the backlit shots (shooting their backs) at about :45 (I think) went on far far too long and had lost the "feel" after about 7 or 8 seconds. Although you had a couple pieces of nice footage in there that could have been shortened and put together in a very effective manner to bring out the beauty of the backlit beach - it was lost in the length an camera movement. I'm not quite sure about the shot of the 2 girls with the umbrellas with the photographer-There were a couple of other shots that I think over all ran too long for my own tastes but again thats subjective.
The song you used is a beautiful and wedding meaningful piece that I have used a number of times (requested by B&Gs over the last few years) and with the right footage can really tell a story as a wedding day highlight.
Perhaps you could go back thru your footage of the day and find some footage that might fit into the song lyrics a bit better and make it a highlight instead of just a walk on the beach.
Don

This is a documentary I shot - very brief work - about some aspects of the hearing impaired. Should have been more in-depth and longer. Parts of the voice-over was over-driven, hopefully not too noticeably. This was shot with the DVX and involved the GO35Pro adapter for most of the interview shots. Comments welcome.

http://blog.tsebi.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=9

Daniel

Ooh I'm getting a migraine myself trying to read your My Space page... (lol)

The footage looks great, the piece is really interesting, I stopped analyzing how the footage looks and was really taken in by the content and concept of the documentary... I'm in the market for an adapter for my JVC HD100. I also own a Pany DXV100a, this footage is sure make'n me wanna pick my DVX back up! Good work though...I was almost sold on the Letus but this is making me reconsider, granted they have support for that Jvc..

Blessing for this and the rest of ur projects...

thanks for the great advice don. I'm just starting to do weddings, so any type of advie from people who have done this before is welcomed.

sonny-

congrats on putting together some nice images. the gals with the parasols parading on the beach was lovely. and so were dom and terri.

some quick thoughts:

the long end of the zoom lens will produce a flat image with less depth of field. personally, i like that look but it is very hard to hold steady. when the bounce is noticable in a long shot, then its time to cut away.

obviously on the beach there is a strong light, unfortunately a lot of the images in the piece were silhouettes. now i like the silhouettes, up till a point. are there other shots of dom and terri's face? perhaps u can cut some additional footage and use the silhouette shots as the transitions, not as an entire scene on their own. could make a nice way to move time forward as the silhouette light changes towards dusk.

and this maybe my real criticism, i didn't feel very close to dom and terri. i wanted to see more of their faces, more of their smiles. i couldn't even tell u the color of the brides eyes. if i see faces, then i am close to the couple, then i'm involved.

now, don't get me wrong. u did have lovely images. and your edit theme worked...to a point. and your choice of music was a winner.

but perhaps, as an experiement, u could re-cut the piece entirely and see if there is aother movie to be made with the same/similiar images.

just one person's thoughts.

again, congrats on getting the gig and for completing a successful posting. good things lay ahead.

be well

rob

daniel-

congratulations for a nice piece on an interesting subject.

your footage looks lovely.

perhaps share with us how u lit the subjects. seemed from the credits u were a one-man-band which is always hard. that said, it was not a liability in the frame. and in the end, its always whats in the frame that counts.

so, tell some war stories: lighting issues? sound issues?

once again, congrats.

be well

rob

Hi,

Thanks for the kind remarks. I was using the GO35Pro 35mm adapter for many of the shots and they give a very DoF at the expense of considerable light-loss. In most of the shots I had additional lighting from a diffused daylight 100W battery powered light which I put quite near the subjects. It would have been much better if I had a 1K or more but as Rob correctly noted, this is a one-man-band. That really makes things a lot hard but I'm trying.

Doing things on your own has it's pros and cons. On the positive side, you gain a lot of mobility and flexibility. You can get in and out of situations where a big group of guys with equipment would be frowned upon. Furthermore, you spend less time getting to the shot (less equipment to set up). This helps with run-n-gun types of documentaries like I'm doing here (see http://blog.tsebi.com for some others).

Then there's the downside - you're doing it all yourself. This means I'm dependent very much on the lavalier microphone since I don't have a boom operator. I have a second gun mic going as a backup, an NTG-2. You really have to get used to multi-tasking because you'll be keeping an eye on the running of the equipment, the framing, while interviewing the subject, and so on. It helps if the subject feels comfortable with you so things look natural and relaxed. I usually set the camera up and explain to the interviewee what I intend to do, including camera movements while they're talking, where to keep their eye focused, etc. This way when I do get up and start moving things around for a different angle, for example, they just keep going naturally.

You will notice that a lot of the shots were not locked down - which I would have preferred. The reason is that I was shooting guerilla style and some of the places, though public, were not welcoming of cameras. I was chased away a few times while trying to get a shot. The key is to be prepared, and once you start, to get the best shot the first time round - before security comes after you. This relates more to the B-roll stuff. As for sound, in this particular documentary - I did not realize that when the deaf sign, the sign for "me" or "my" involves a movement of the hand to the chest - which resulted in the tapping on the clip-mic or the wire, producing some noise and distortion.

Lighting is key to beautiful footage - we all know that. This is even more important when using a 35mm adapter, of any kind. My portable battery powered 100W light gives me about 40 minutes of run-time so I try to keep things short. I also try to shoot near windows on a nice sunny day. Unfortunately this video was shot mostly during the monsoon and the skies were dark and grey everyday for the most part. I try to avoid night-time interviews if I can help it.

On 35mm adapters, it gives you an inverted image so that took some getting used to and working around. The thing is that I don't want to be lugging around any more equipment than absolutely necessary (such as an external monitor, cables, and power). The stuff can add up in weight real easily. In the end you think to yourself, sure the setup could be better and the pictures and sound could have been better. But with this kind of documentary, often it's the content that drives the story most - though good footage definitely helps. So if I had to choose, I'd go with good content with okay footage, that great footage and missing the content altogether. Of course, when you can have both, go for it.

Working with people, can be a hassle, in more ways than one. A lot of stuff people say - they say naturally. You don't really want to script what they say so you have to work the interview and plan beforehand what you want to cover. There's a lot of scenario planning that must happen before the interview. This includes thinking about what kind of shots you want, camera angles, and then the sort of direction you want the interview to go. You want to think about what the vision of the final documentary will look like, while staying open to changes and adaptations. Lots of stuff cannot be planned but having a skeletal plan will help a lot. You really don't want to just go in and wing it although in a pinch that might work. When things happen, that you don't expect, always be ready to grab the shot - some of these may be a one time opportunity. And, try to have a Plan B because Plan A has a tendency of not working out.

Know your equipment well. Fiddling with the camera or the sound to get things right while the interviewee s waiting is a dampener on the spontaneity of the interview. Get in, set it up right and set it up quick. Also, know the people you're interviewing. I try to get to know my subjects and get to a point where the interviewee is not so conscious of being on video as he/she is of talking to you. Explaining to them the procedure and showing them how the video works sometimes helps them feel a bit better and more settled. Also, start with some trivial stuff for the interview so that they can get relaxed and you get into the "groove" of things before hitting the meatier parts. I also try to get the camera rolling a few minutes before I tell them I'm starting. This way I get some candid shots which can be used for cut-aways. The worst thing that can happen is forgetting to check the audio during a shoot and coming away with unusable audio, or no audio at all. This can easily happen when in a rush or when you're not familiar with the camera and the multitude of switches for audio and line assignments. Get into the habit of checking the sound levels before you start shooting.

Other important aspects are the selection of music, the VO scripting, keeping the flow, yada yada ... lol. There's tons more stuff but I'm sure all this is common knowledge and I really don't want to bore anyone. Furthermore, I'm sure there are many more competent documentary producers than myself who can give even better advice. I'd be willing to share anything I can, especially if you have some specific questions.

Daniel

Not really into extreme sports, motocross, etc,....but the trailer for your doc looks really interesting,........and well done. Even someone like me would be interested to watch. Well done!!

hey thanks rob, i will try and re cut it and post it up soon. i get how some scene just drag on a bit to long now that i look at it more closely. oh lol and by the way i'm only 16.

16??? Man when I was 16 (about a hundred years ago) all I could think of was girls and how to make my car go faster. Did I mention girls? ;-)
You've got the talent, now you need to hone it and craft it and by the time you're 21 you could be all world.
I guess I should start my 8 year old grandson on the camera now!

Don

lol, girls girls and more girls and a bit of cars. lol yeh i do think about them. I was wondering if you guys could show me any books or videos about color correcting? oh and if u could have a look at this other experimental video i'v been putting together just to test my camera out a bit. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1134357519

Hi all,

I'm new on this forum, not as a reader but as a poster
Here's a short film we shot a few months ago

http://www.vizpictures.com/headshot/

Let me know what you think
Thanks

Thanks, that was my one and only goal, to get people outside the subculture to maybe give it a look. You made my day, one down 6 billion to go.

Admittedly, sound is my weakest point.

I need to order some books on sound editing... :)

Anyone have any suggestions?

Hey everyone, here are two of my short films I've decided to put on youtube. Once I get my site up and running I'll be able to put more of my work online.

Any feedback is good feedback.

Killer Date:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XwXjypwa3_A

The Waltons:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ehNPkBFgreg

Thanks!

Hi Allen,

Oh, is it not working well? It looks absolutely fine on the three pc's I've checked it on but someone else has also said they've got a problem viewing it. Don't suppose there's any chance you could fire off a screenshot if you get a moment?

Just catching up on activity at www.ndividz.com so I'll be putting a comment up there about your excellent Hallowed Ground video!

Hope you're having a good w/end.

Cheers.

Ian . . .

Great stuff Love the camera work the most its what I pay attention to the most,,acting if good too and love the DOF

pete

My wish for a happy holiday season and lots of jobs for everyone! Shot on HVX200 P2 at 720P 24 with a Brevis35 mounted with Canon 35mm wide open @ 2.8. Compressed through FCP to H.264. It loses a lot of quality going to youtube...sorry. Happy Holidays!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16brcl-0jm4

Not bad kid =)

Couple of things I noticed. Some of the shots were not in focus, or very soft. Also I think you can edit it a bit tighter. Seems to me some of the lines are coming in late. Obviously you can't do anything about the performances, but next time I would get more convincing actors, not that they were terrible, just that you can find better and more compelling performances. Last, some of the framing and composition was a bit off to me.

Otherwise good work.

This is a short film i did a few months ago. Its unfinished and i still have to put in some special effects and clean up the video and audio some more but i decided to post this anyhow and get some feedback on the Movie. This is my first short and i plan on doing more of them. Hope you all like and please feel free for any type of critism. It is very well needed to make it better. Thanks!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdRpodEZWfs

Hya..from what I can see is you are wanting to capture a real moment but the shakiness of the camera in some scenes is not nessesary,,for the opening you need to get yourself a tripod and keep you finger of all video camera zoom buttoms..use the ring and lessen the start and stop of the zoom if you have to use it..

You need a mic or you need to ADR everything because you cant hear much at all..

I think your on the right path and I know its hard to find help in this biz, im by no means Mr proffessional so Im just posting my thoughst hope it helps

Pete

Thanks Pete! Will look to that in future projects.

I also don't like the shaking on the camera on the Last sequence at the house but i stayed with it cause the camera i was using wasnt mines and i couldnt re-shoot because i had to give the camera back

Those videos are very creative and i like how you used the animation with the Lego people. Good job.

I had just got to my spot as it was taking off. I was trying to get into manual mode on my GL2 but fumbled for a bit which resulted in fuzzy video but eh, I'm still learning so please don't yell at me too much ;).

http://www.phenious.com/videos/phenious/nightlaunch

I have been lurking for a long time now and figured I should finally post something. Great forum :)

Ah man. If that takeoff would of been in focus, that footage would of rocked!

Yeah, that seriously would have helped. : sigh :

Did you get it to play? It's a flv file. If you use Firefox, Netscape or Mozilla, there is a video downloader plugin that will allow you to grab a copy of it from Google. Then you can get the tiny flv player and keep local copies.

Sean

here is the video and the info:
http://www.boinx.com/chronicles/2005/12/06/ben-eytalis-mr-brain-for-smarty-pants/

Camera used was a Sony PD100 3 chip DVCAM and the software is called iStopmotion.
More animation projects are in the works.

I shot this and edited it. The guy that suits up to go race is also me.
I host a program called Overdrive about the car/motocycle scene.
Shot with a Panansonic HVX200 in SD on MiniDV.
Edited in FCP and enhanced with film effects. Also created the music with Apple's GarageBand.

http://lunarvue.com/od_pocketbike.mov

I liked it. Nice job. The music was great.

Joe

Thanks, I appreciate it.

I liked it, and I'm intrigued by this iStopmotion software. It looks like it's Mac OS only, so as a PC user I'm out of luck.

I'm looking to branch into clay animation as well, since my biggest upcoming project is going to be extremely diffifult to pull off with traditional stop action animation.

I thought about trying it from Clermont, an additional 20 miles away, but I realized I would be happier just enjoying it. It is amazing how much is missed when your eyes are on a little LCD screen instead of an important event.

Maybe next time I will give it a try.

Yeah, I kept going between just looking and filming. Truth be told I should have just watched as I dont know if they will do any more night launches.

Thanks Pete for your comment.

Brian, thanks for the constructive feedback. This is well appreciated and helpful.
Some shots were soft I think either because sometimes the actor was moving so fast we had troubles to adjust. Having them keep their marks was not easy at times.
We used an M2 on a DVX. I think also in the beginning there was not enough light, triggering some noise and a very shallow depth of field.

Brian, thanks for the constructive feedback. This is well appreciated and helpful.
Some shots were soft I think either because sometimes the actor was moving so fast we had troubles to adjust. Having them keep their marks was not easy at times.
We used an M2 on a DVX. I think also in the beginning there was not enough light, triggering some noise and a very shallow depth of field.

Beinga proud owner of the P&S Technik Mini35 I can give you soem advice on the lighting. ALWAYS make sure you compensate lighting when you shoot with a adapter, especially with mine, since I lose 2 stops. I rather overlight a scene than underlighting. You can easily lower bright scenes in post, but it is much harder to do the same with too bright of scenes.

Use more powerful lights if you must next time aorund.

Being a proud owner of the P&S Technik Mini35...
Wow! Cool! That's a very nice rig. Have only seen pictures of it and clips shot with it. The results were outstanding.

I can give you soem advice on the lighting. ALWAYS make sure you compensate lighting when you shoot with a adapter, especially with mine, since I lose 2 stops. I rather overlight a scene than underlighting. You can easily lower bright scenes in post, but it is much harder to do the same with too bright of scenes.

Use more powerful lights if you must next time aorund.

Ok, so for this particular kind of shots, which is a pretty simple set up, how exactly would you light this? What kind of light and what power?
We had an Arri Fresnel kit at a time we thought we'd shoot with just the DVX.
The kit was: one 650W, one 300W and two 150W
The M2 came after and it felt like we needed bigger lights
The kit also come with a soft box in which you can put any of the 4 fresnels
Putting a Fresnel inside a soft box feels like loosing tons of light, would you use it?
Thanks for your comments and precious advice

Mmm. Tightly edited, short, to the point, with good-looking footage. I would have loved to know more about the organization, but that perhaps would have been a deeper story than you were looking to tell.

Nice.

What was the music, by the way? It sounds quite familiar.

Michael

I would like to get some comments on the film my brother and I are doing. Its called Preparations for a Murder. Thanks!

http://www.myspace.com/robinson_bros

Nice shooting Ben.

How did you like the HVX?

Wow! Cool! That's a very nice rig. Have only seen pictures of it and clips shot with it. The results were outstanding.



Ok, so for this particular kind of shots, which is a pretty simple set up, how exactly would you light this? What kind of light and what power?
We had an Arri Fresnel kit at a time we thought we'd shoot with just the DVX.
The kit was: one 650W, one 300W and two 150W
The M2 came after and it felt like we needed bigger lights
The kit also come with a soft box in which you can put any of the 4 fresnels
Putting a Fresnel inside a soft box feels like loosing tons of light, would you use it?
Thanks for your comments and precious advice


I am not a DP, but I know we use a lot more light than we would have used without the Mini35. You basically light like you would with film. Another advice would be to keep at least a 23" monitor on the shoot. This way you can see what you are actually getting and make any adjustments. I cannot tell you how much value it brings. I wouldn't shoot without it.

Loved the lighting. Pretty good acting too. The knock i found was the music, just not my taste.

Seems like it'll be real interesting. Is this a feature or a short?

http://www.cinevate.com/images/homelessportraitssmall.mov

Shot in 720p then downconverted to sd for editing with other footage shot in doco. All shot with available light

i like it .. want to see more ...
very good use of available light, good framing/shots etc ..
like that we get to look into subjects eyes ...

Hey everyone:

I just made a surprise video greeting for a friend of mine from Russia who will be celebrating her birthday tomorrow (Friday, December 15th). Please check it out and let me know what you think of it.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/silverdrumvideo/A_Birthday_Greeting.m4v

LENGTH: 1min53sec
SIZE: 19.9mb
FORMAT: iPod (.m4v)

Thanks and enjoy!
Adam