I really like the first shot, the AOASintro. Great colours, and you've got a strong foreground and background.

My second favourite would have to be StatueBS, that's a really epic shot. It reminds me of something out of Shakespeare.. I'd love to see this in motion, with the birds flying every which way!

The second AOAS shot (with the silhouette against the window) is interesting, but I would like to see a bit more light on the figure. Maybe a strong key light from the same side as the window, just to bring out the features a bit more.

Alex,

That shot of the statue with the birds flying was an opportunity I took. I had it story boarded, but the pigeons was an added bonus. (Just before the pigeons launch, the main character steals and a chase ensues through Central Park.) I asked the director to follow me over to the statue, after setting up and locking the shot, I had him jostle the pigeons softly. I've got some great sounds of the birds in flight as they rush off the statue. I'll clip some off of the sequence and post it.

Yes, the figure infront of the window. I see what you mean by keying high from the window. Maybe even a slight hair light fill also... I am working on getting a light kit (I need to paint).

That first shot, AOASIntro, is the opening shot.

AOAS is giving me problems on the editing side. Sound issues and lack of perserverance that I now have. Because it has been so long, I am in the process of just cutting it together and leaving it as it is. Linking together all the pieces is and shall remain the obstacle with this experimental short.

Cheers!

Well, by JUST looking at the photos, they seem very blocky, as if they were de-interlaced. Other than that, the pics look good, but it's kind of hard to say how they fit the mood of your final project until I can see them in motion.

Ted,

I am exporting from Avid Express DV, Single Field. That may be what is causing the blocks. In addition to my, reducing the quality so that the images weren't large.

The footage has not been de-interlaced at all. Post production houses told me that if converting the feature, "Breathing Shadow" to 35mm film, they would use their own log to deinterlace the footage on their end.

I will make a separate version for television 1.85 letterboxed.

OK.

I'll post some moving images sometime this weekend.

Cheers!

Thanks for your input.

WeeklyDV (http://www.weeklydv.com/)

This is a site run by a guy named Jason Zada called WeeklyDV. He had it going for awhile last year and earlier this year, and then his wife had a baby and it stopped. But it's back starting this week.

The idea is there is a topic posted and you have a week to create a 4 minute or so short. They are all submitted by midnite (EST) Wednesday of each week. And then everyone gets a chance to view them. This week the challenge is to use a piece of music he created in Soundtrack as the BG music for your video.

More info on the About (http://www.weeklydv.com/about.php) page, and Rules are on the Submit (http://www.weeklydv.com/submit.php) page (down the page a bit on the right hand side).

Check it out - it might get your creative juices flowing. There are a lot of good videos that were created the first time he did this, and I look forward to many more.

Sounds like the reason for the blockiness. I'm sure it looks much better when viewed full frame instead of single field. :)

Interesting idea! I'll definitely be checking this out.

do you post on the r1-forum?

i've seen this link posted there before, and possibly elsewhere (lurk so many places at times it's hard to remember)

Hi Adam,

Yes, I think either myself or the shop owner has posted this video or a link to it on the R1 forum or Hayabusa.org site...it was done with a cheap Palmcorder as it was all i had on hand at that moment and sadly it was sold the day after for $28,000 to a fellow in Georgia who had seen pictures on our site.

(Thanks Andreas for the compliments- see our main site www.bronxpowersports.com for new projects- we are in preliminary talks with the Discovery Channel about doing a regular series on the work we do- but right now everything is tight lipped and it's too early to know what's gonna happen for sure- but we have our fingers crossed!!!)

What a GREAT idea!

The music is good too! but can I chop it up and use it in different parts of the movie, or does it have to be played all in one shot?

I cant play this week but maybe next week.

It's not my site, I just posted the link in hopes of attracting new people. As I understand the rules though, you could probably chop up the music and use it in any way that you wanted. If in doubt, ask Jason (his email is on the site somewhere) or post a comment at his blog (linked from the weeklydv.com site).

Hope to see some of you over there in the future!

I'm gonna bump this up since at the time of this posting there's just 5 hours or so left to get your video in for this week. If you don't make it this week, there's always another capsule for next week.

I've posted mine and I'm looking forward to see who else does something this week.

The more people who play, the more fun this will be!

Well I finished up school about a mounth ago and I finally got my demo reel online. I would like to know what your thoughts on it are and any pointers would be great.

http://s88685368.onlinehome.us/Movies/Demo%20Reel_Large.mov

now with clickability! (http://s88685368.onlinehome.us/Movies/Demo%20Reel_Large.mov)

Gonna watch it now..

clickability apreaciated, just need too know how to do that

I dont get it, course my sound didnt work so ...?

Jon,

Congratulations on getting your reel up and online! That's a major first step.

My impression is that the racing spot should lead instead of the shots of the desert (in a reel, hit them with the best stuff first).

And as for the shots from the desert, IMHO I'm afraid I find them lacking a great deal. The desert looks best in four situations: just after a rain when the colors are saturated and the sky is dark, midday on a dry hot day when you want to emphasize the intensity of the heat with heat waves and intense sun, and then sunrise or sunset. Looks like you shot these either on a cloudy day or at dusk and so the sky is flat...consequently, there's not much that jumps out at me.

Bottom line, I'd remove the desert footage and use the racing footage...and consider adding something different or reshooting the desert shots.

While we're nitpicking (fun!)--

The Riverview Heart Institute animated logo doesn't approximate very well the shape of an ECG trace. Not to mention, anybody unfortunate enough to have that signal would be afflicted with bradycardia and arrythmia.

I like the drag race and the intro sketching your name, though.

hey guys, i have gotten tons of help from this site and i love watching other peoples work so i thought i would share one of mine, this was made about a year ago, it has a Romeo and Juliet thing going on, the acting = not so awesome, and the editing could use some help in a few places, but i like the camera work in it, so tell me what you think

http://homepage.mac.com/rpflo/romeo.mp4

im open to all comments, tear the thing apart if you want, just let me know why.

You're right Riley,

Great camera work and the editing is pretty good too!

Good work!

Here is a quick trailer of some CAR stuff shot with my DVX100... during the summer...

www.illconcepts.com/web ill promo.mpg

copy and paste link


enjoy

EH! Theres alittle to much black bars in the trailer! When i encoded the trialer it got squished by 15%!?! I'll try to fix!

thanks for the help guys. I agree about the desert shot, but unfortionatly that project turned south due to the only weekenb I had for shooting that it rained the whole time (this is arizona so its not normal). I plan on reshooting something else to put in it when I get my own camera. prolly will do some arcitechial stuff or something not sure yet. Also proubly going to try to rerender the orbital design logo to get rid of some of the interlacing artifacts it looks ok on tv but crappy when I run it on the computer.

<<<-- Originally posted by Robert Knecht Schmidt : While we're Not to mention, anybody unfortunate enough to have that signal would be afflicted with bradycardia and arrythmia.

-->>>

hense they need to go to the heart insitute :D j/k

Hi all,

If you have High Speed internet Access and have about 2 minutes of time, go to my website at http://www.dec12studios.net/documentary.htm and view a one minute trailer for a Documentary/Video that will be out later next month for my brother in law's church, Chicagoland Community Church. Two weeks ago I went to Chicago and shot about 5 hours of footage that is being made into a 10 minute video presentation to show to large churches in hopes that they might support C3. All done with the DVX100.

This is my first big attempt at doing something big and we'll see what happens!

Thanks and have a great day!
Best Regards,

Neil
www.dec12studios.net



PS: The file is about 10 MB large, so you must have Highspeed internet access and wait from 1 to 3 minutes for it to appear onscreen.

You might also want to provide a direct link so people can download it. Not only do some people prefer things that way, it'll save you a bit of bandwidth!

that's awsome! good job!

Hey all,

I have just completed a little short i did for fun.

It is based on expressionism, which is a period i loved.

Shooting equipment was.

Panasonic DVX100e, Bolex hr16 rex 16mm, eastman tri-x B&W reversal 16mm, 3x dedo 300w, 2x tota's, homemade jib and dolly, miller ds10 tripod, and a bunch of other stuff i am forgetting now.

Anyways, i hope you all like it.

PC (divx 5.01) 14mb
www.mindfreeproductions.com/device/devicedivx.zip

MAC (QT5) 11mb
www.mindfreeproductions.com/device/devicemov.zip

Very stylish, nice job!

Good on ya, Zac! This is a keeper...just so I can say "I knew him when..."

I enjoyed it, what did you use to edit everything together?

Nice job! I like the look - you managed to evoke a feeling of having found this in a time capsule, or the back of someone's lab - a long forgotten work.

Great use of lighting, too.

Quick question - the QuickTime version that I downloaded seems to stop abruptly at 1:47. It seems like there should be more. Did I miss part of it?

Thanks for sharing!

I have been looking into DVD replication, and ran across Customflix ( www.customflix.com). For $49 one time setup fee, they will take your video masterpiece, put it on DVD or VHS, package it, create a storefront, and sell it for you- all for $9.95 a unit + 5%.

It sounds like a nifty idea at first, but then I started thinking... If I price the video for $15, they make almost $12.00 off of my movie. On top of that, they of course charge the buyer for shipping. Most places I have checked, will dupe and package 1000 DVDs for around $2,000- give or take a few hundred. That comes out to about $2 a DVD. So Customflix is scalping at least $9 off the top of MY product, plus 5%. I find that a bit steep.

Doe anyone know of any similar companies, that maybe don't gouge so deep?

Hi I have a website and in that website I have more than 30 downloadable short videos and films all shot by XL1s
There are also more than 1000 of screen shots of the projects which are all shot by Xl1s (out of the box with no additional equipment used)

www.kkymn.8m.com

Hope to hear from you soon.

Kadir Koymen
Aspiring Filmmaker

yeah it stops abrubtly, just the way i did it, kinda like someone quickly had to stop the projector or the film would run off.


It was edited with vegas video and composited in adobe after effects.

When i get a chance i'll post a longer version.

thanks for your the kind words.

Zac

Kadir,

Excellent! Thanks for letting me take a look at your work.

I am working in the same capacity, it sounds like, using the stock lens and the added feature of a matte box.

I enjoyed your frame composition. Did you shoot in frame or standard PAL?

Looks like you aren't afraid of getting a little dirty to get the best frame.

Cheers!

Derrick

<<<-- Originally posted by Zac Stein : yeah it stops abrubtly, just the way i did it, kinda like someone quickly had to stop the projector or the film would run off.
Zac -->>>

Ahh, that makes sense. I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything!

Again, nice job. I look forward to seeing more of your stuff in the future.

Kadir,

Great work. I'm curious to know what post effects were used on your Photogirl.avi.

It almost looks like some small posterization, but I'm not sure.

Regardless I really like the look in your videos!

Dennis,.
www.starcentral.ca
Toronto, Canada

Hey, pretty cool stuff. You must live by me...snow. :(

Hey, just one thing...drop the music volume sometimes and let's here on-set audio or some foley sounds. The music works, but not so much...let's here some audio!

Chris

This is unbelievable! Who would think it would be so hard to find the typical Christmas Nativity type of footage. Even a church live nativity scene would be of some help.

How about it, anyone got any of this stuff?

John

thanks for the input, i agree now that i watch it again, and no i dont live near you, im in utah, the snow must be all over! anyway, i gotta get back to work, thanks for the input again

This is my newest video which i shot last weekend. It's an ongoing project that i'm shooting once a month for a singer/songwriter's website. here's the link:
http://www.terraform.tv/videogallery/videopopups/dotm_oct.html

Tech info:

camera: gl1&gl2
lights: 2- 500watt home depot worklights
1- flouresant 2 light fixture with kino bulbs.
post: fcp3, after effects 5.5

its very uhm, er.... interesting. No, truthfully i liked it, the camera work i thought fit the "mood" very well. My favorite shot had to have been the one from up top. Now i hope you dont mind me asking, but all of that first part, the black and white, old film look, what did you use to achieve that? was it a filter, or manual, or a little of both?

I had a drink like that in the Virgin Islands. They called it a "yellow bird." Yet, it didn't produce the same effects? Almost, but not quite. Nice work though!

Hey Corey,
I'm a big fan of your DOTM July '03 - I've probably seen it 30 times :). I've also been very impressed by your film-look projects. The beginning of "44 Magnum" was very Wonder Years-ish. The blue tinted "Film-look" showed influence from old black-and-white films that used colors to define times of the day (Nosferatu comes to mind). And now, the spooky horror flick look worked perfectly with the halloween theme of DOTM October '03. One thing I did notice, however, is that this movie didn't rely on music and beats as much as the others. The beginning worked perfectly with the classic horror/mad scientist music, and of course the slasher genre "ree-ree-ree" went great with the special guest scene. I love the reveal from behind the smoking skull and the low to high angle cuts that give it a multiple personality feel. However, the drink mixing did go a bit slow. One way to break up scenes that are visually repetitive like that is with a larger variety of angles/shots or maybe a couple short music/sound effects breaks. That will help keep the pace up, which in turn keeps a stronger hold on the viewer's interest.

I'm hoping that, like myself, you feed off constructive criticism and don't think I'm some kind of jerk. Overall, I really like your work and would love to read your input once I get my website up and running. We'll see how that goes.

p.s. Shiloh is a hoot... her evil twin that is.

Although, all things were pointing me to purchase a dvx100, the XL1s with the $500 rebate was causing a bit of hesitation. After seeing your footage, and the low light shots of the honda driving through the streets, I'm so impressed!!!

Did you do much color correction in post? What encoder/bitrate did you use for the trailer?

AWESOME JOB!. Do post more on your site when you get a chance.

Randy

Nice underground shots, is that Metrotown?

I think it's a bit too squished... but DAMN that looks good otherwise! I love that POV shot where you mounted it on the back of the car high-up. Great stuff!

Just need to show more Vancouver landmarks so we can all indulge ourselves ;)

The honda stuff was shot in Metrotown area... undergroundparking lot shot at UBC...

i tryed posting a new version of the car trailer... less squished!

"Did you do much color correction in post? What encoder/bitrate did you use for the trailer?"

hardly any color correction at all... ive used this MPEG incoder called "TMPEG." However its seems to squish my video a little to much in the 320x240 setting... im still trying to work it out. eh!

Thank you for your motivating toughts!
How I achieved the look?
THE SECRET REVEALED!!!
Apply these efects to your videos and see the transformation yourselves!
Using adobe premiere 6 or 6.5

4 efects only!!! Apply them in the same order!

1.Contrast increase by 25%-35% Brightness decrease by 10%-15%
2.Tint apply 45% (with the color white selected)
3.Noise (color noise turned off) 7%
4.Clip 15%-20% (from top and bottom)

Thats it... I know you think "there is no magic recipe for the film look! Its imposible!".. I agree but with this recipe you can get very close!!! You WILL LOSE SOME DETAILS IN THE PICTURE... But you must have a good contrast in the image to get the FEEL of the film!

Another very important point!!!
While shooting always go as far as possible from the subject!!! And always zoom as much as you can!!! Always use LONG SHOTS!!! Never ever get close to your subject... Never!!!

if you do these you get the look in my website.. I am not claiming they are a miracle but I heard lots of DV people telling me they are pretty good...

My website is www.kkymn.8m.com again. I hope you try and give me your feedback on this recipe.

Cheers!