This is my first attempt at a "music video" style highlight. I tried to do less slow motion stuff than normal (although old habits are hard to break) but unfortunatly, the decision to create the peice with this style was done after shooting.

Please let me know where to improve!

Quicktime
http://homepage.mac.com/ppike/videos/rowena_gary_hi.mov

Windows Media
http://homepage.mac.com/ppike/videos/rowena_gary_hi.wmv

Patrick, WOW!! that was good for a first attempt. Your cuts were right on target, especially the ones with different pics in pics. What cameras are you using and what NLE. Terrific job!

Jason

Pretty good, especially considering that it's your first attempt at the style and that you weren't shooting for that style (that's pretty tough).

There were a few cuts that felt abrupt, but nothing glaring, and sometimes that's just a personal issue anyways. I'm not generally a big fan of the multiple shots onscreen, but the way you did it near the end was great, and I may try using that myself now.

Nice work!

Can I say I really liked it and say at the same time that I don't think it is a great promo piece for your wedding work and didn't tell the story as well as the footage could have? I was looking at the editing and therefor you instead of at the event. Having said all that, I think you are very tallented.

Also of note, it played perfectly on windows media player for me but did not play well on quicktime. What codec did you use for the quicktime?

Mike

Very nice work Patrick. The pace was perfect and everything worked so well together.

I agree with Travis that a few cuts really semed abrupt. Well the majority looked like it was timed well to the music, some cuts seemed really out of place.For a fast paced clip that is not intended to be the slow and romantic type, I thought some shots were a little too slow and left on too long, such as the last couple clips of the first dance. On the other hand, I really liked the multiple picture in picture with the white background.The film effects you used really worked well and I liked how you came in and out of that effect. HHad this been a photo session clip or something with less substance, even a reception clip, I think the editing would have resonated better. As this is also not the common style for highlights and your first attempt, I also think it was very well done and an excellent start.

I do have a question about your film effect if you don't mind. Was that the nattress film effect you used, and if so, would you mind sharing your settings? If you don't want to post it here, as there are a rather large number of variables, I would really appreciate it if you could quickly email me. I'm using nattress with FCP5 and I really think the results could be better but I haven't tried many of the presets yet.

Thanks everyone for the good words. Editing a clip in this fashion really gave me lots of ideas on how to film for this style for the next video.

Jason-
I put this together with footage from GL-2's and FCP 5 making good use of Nattress' film effects (some of the best filters for your money) and I also used Digital Heaven's Box filter to help make the picture in picture work easier.

Mike-
The Quicktime version is for Quicktime 7 (I think it was the new h.264 codec) which may be the problem.

Patrick-
You're correct about some cuts not feeling right. I've tried to make another pass and make some corrections, but honesly I can't spend too much more time with it because at a certain point, my additional time invested doesn't produce big results-especially when I have a eight other weddings to edit. But these are definetly things that will be going through my mind as a I film my next wedding. With regards to the filters, most of the outdoor shots are varations of the "Orange" present. Usually I like to add some diffusion to the shots. This helps fake the levels a bit and produces a soft pleasing romantic look. If you would like, I can get exact settings that I used when I get back to that comptuer.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment!

Patrick,

If you have the time and don't mind sending me the settings your using, it would be greatly appreciated. Even with a quad, it is very time consuming to try the different combinations and render it to view the effect properly. Overall I have gotten some nice effects but I like how yours looked if you didn't mind sharing.

You also mentioned digital heaven plugins. I was thinking about picking up the whippan and the grid but I was curious if you found the grid or guides plug in more useful and which you used to make your picture in picture easier? I'm now seeing thast you may have in fact used the DH_Box plugin, is that correct?

Thanks for your time.

Patrick I like your style! Good job, and thanks for sharing.

Somebody here likes "24" :). Really liked the PIPs and the way they were utilized. Very stylish and helped with time compression. I think you're on the right track with wanting to get away from slow motion. Everyone uses it these days and I think its impact has diminished to the point where real time is the novelty. The only thing I can see to improve is maybe adding some nat sound at certain spots. Especially the clapping at the end of the ceremony. If there was music there, you could always pull from an applause at the end of a reception speech. Nobody will know the difference and it'll help really sell the moment. All that being said, I was very impressed and can't wait to see what you come up with next.

Chris Watson
Watson Videography

That was a really good edit Patrick.

I think Chris had some great advice. I was a little impatient with just one song and the slow motion, but that's ok (it's just me really ^_^). I felt like it had clean editing and that's what made it good. Thanks for posting.

Ben

Thanks for the advice Chris.. I'm going to go back and revisit the clip and just add some sound effects (applause) into the clip. But the funny thing is, I've never actually watched '24'.

That's hard to beleive. I think you'd really get into "24". The essential seasons are Season 1 Season 2, and Season 5 (the current season). Seasons 3 and 4 have their moments too but they are kind of silly. Just make sure to set aside a good block of time because when you watch one episode, you kinda have to watch them all :)

Chris Watson
Watson Videography
www.dynamovideo.com

I like it! I think it looks great, especially for a first time!

Yes I really liked that myself, love that sort of style with the pic in pic, tells a nice story.
Good job
Paul

I like the video about 3:35 with all the multi-clip-scenes. Great job. Some parts of the video were a little too underexposed for my taste, but it still looked great.