My Entry in the Flip for Budget Video Contest
 

I was hesitant to pollute this forum with another example of my work but I wanted to show you guys my entry for the Flip for Budget video contest. I shot it on the A1 using the TrueColor preset. I'm still learning and my work is getting exponentially better after each new project that I shoot so be gentle with my fragile ego :-P

Here you go:
http://flipforbudget.com/videos/cheap_trip2/

Wolves in Yellowstone
 

OK, no pretense to this being great video -- except for the subject matter. We were driving through Yellowstone Sunday afternoon and saw what, at first, we thought was a baby black bear curled up near the side of the road. When we stopped, it got up and we quickly saw that it was a young wolf. Almost at the same moment, we saw the momma wolf not far behind it. I grabbed my A1 and just flipped it to AUTO and started shooting. I didn't want to mess with anything at the risk of missing the opportunity.

Anyway, here's the link: http://www.vimeo.com/1190372

There is no audio. It's rendered as a 1280x720 .wmv file.

wow they are such beautiful animals. great capture!

End to end swim film(9 minutes)
 

6 swimmers attempt to swim the length of the Isle of Man.

My first 'real' attempt at a documentary.

Please let me know what you think!

http://www.vimeo.com/1198734

permission
 

... no permission ... sorry

Sorry,I do it EVERY time! It's now public....

Bouldering championship XH A1 footage
 

Bouldering championship NL women. 4,5 minutes. Shot with A1.
www.vimeo.com/magicroom

+6db gain, pressed colors.

interesting. felt sort of more like a rave then a bouldering comp.... haha i posted this earlier this week. interesting contrasts:

http://www.vimeo.com/1177045

Really good climbing short and good camera and editing too. Very cool to see each of the climbers style accomplish the routes.

Music felt good for the video. What was your source for music?

Footage looked clean and the camerawork was solid. Nice 'not over the top' color correction done as well.

I'd have to watch it again to see how long it was because honestly I was completely immersed in it.

It's a cute little concept, however here's my 2 cents... it's way too long! All that could be conveyed all within 30 seconds by discarding all those redundant and longgg shots (seeing her walk out the front door all the way to her getting in the car; backing out the driveway; getting out of the car walking up to the gas pump; the long stare at the posted prices; getting back in the car; another drive way shot... car pulling up; getting out and watching her walk all the way up to the door, etc.; the bicycle shots (seriously, just one is needed).

Plus there's no music track until a 1/3 of the way in. I learned long ago regarding an edit... make a point... then move on :)

Very well done, Alex! I would, however, add my one criticism to that already given: it's too long. I think you could cut it in half (or more) without losing any substantive content. We don't need to see ten seconds of her carrying a suitcase or dragging it behind a bike when two seconds will suffice to convey the idea.

Anyway, that's my two cents worth ...

Doing Photography in Yellowostone a lot I know that feeling of having to act fast and think later. Wildlife never poses, it just is. Nice capture.

Here's a second (I guess or third) vote to cut it down. My suggestion is to make a personal goal of cutting it down to no longer than 30 seconds. While it may not work perfectly (though I think it will) it will really force you to think about what cuts and frames are absolutely critical to your message.

Brickfields Temple
 

Hi,

Here is a short edit of Brickfields Temple, Malaysia during Wesak Day (Buddha's Birthday). I did not bother to cover or focus on the event (I was SO NOT prepared) but I focused on the people who prayed there, so it is a collection of shots. Shot with the XHA1 and LE.

In the meanwhile, I will try to think of a better way to end the video and also fix the colour. The Quicktime output gives out a wash out look for some reason.

http://vimeo.com/1211381

Comments welcome :)

Check this out for the colour problem

http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/?p=197#comments

Nice stuff!

Joan

I really liked your images... solid composition and artistic.

The music was out of place for me. It's a good piece, but seemed a bit too much. To me, the music itself tells a narrative. Your images, though compelling, seem more documentary. Just my take.

One thing I will say about the XH-A1 is that the "Full Auto" setting does quite well under the scenario of outdoors, sunlight, and good contrast. So I wasn't all that chagrined about having to use the dreaded "green square" setting.

in the park / kids singing XH-A1 + P2 HPX500
 

Hi!
Here's some footage shot on a weekend in the park. It's a bit messy. Barely edited.

Filmed with XH-A1:
girls, fishes, bridge, water, sky, yellow flowers
HPX500:
boys, out of focus pink flowers, red flower, tree branches

http://www.vimeo.com/1228472

Thanks for the advice.

What do you mean by documentary looking? (well, I shot an event so it is a documenting process?). I think perhaps I didn't capture enough the emotion and nuance of the people over there so there's like no story/ motivation for them to do what they are doing.

You're not the first person to say this. I went out on a shoot once and was handling the camera for a while (shooting people walking on the street). One cameraperson noted that I shoot 'documentary style. Unfortunately I never managed to ask him why. Its good to understand your comment as I don't wanna be boxed into one category

I have watched documentaries on various subjects and there are many styles so no help there :(

Hi Pyrek
Like your footage in the park, lovely rich colours and depth. I have an XH A1 but don't manage to get that level of quality. Can you tell me what settings did you use?

Well... i don't know if it's really that good :-). The colours came out by themselves, if you ask me they're always coming out too rich, so i rather desaturate in post ;-). I don't really remember but it could be PANALOOK preset on, and maybe the WB a little off :P. As for shooting, it was 25F with shutter speed 1/50 with ND 1/32, and the iris open as much as it could be - that's the way i like to shoot :-).

P.S. Please adres me by my first name Przemek, my second doesn't really sound that good ;-).

You were using that "snap zoom" feature on the camera weren't you? Liked the quick zoom-in and zoom-out moves.

Hehe... i hope the guy who shot this will never read it... ;-)

The quick zoom is done by using the focus ring on the pro broadcast Canon lens on the Panasonic HPX500.

My friend who shot it is always complaining about zoom speed on his Sony Z1, so he was happy to have something that works faster... unfortunately he forgot about what he was shooting... ;]

XH-A1 - Ellwood Bluffs
 

Shot with Panalook preset, the image is fairly dark (-3db gain, i didn't boost any colors in post and it is an MP4) Is that normal for Panalook?

www.vimeo.com/1267317

-Steve

It doesn't look too dark to me. Your post in Vimeo says that you added some contrast and color boost. In some of the scenes with a lot of white (like the white shirts) it looks like there may be a touch too much contrast which will also darken the blacks. Is that what you mean?

Hi Marcel,
I replaced the video on vimeo with newer one (thats why the conflicting descriptions...) By too dark, I meant the image just felt dull and dim. I had the 1/32 ND on and -3db gain. Would it be a bad idea to go with 0db or +3db gain in bright sunlight?
-Steve

Sunday afternoon
 

Your comment are welcome and thanks in advance

http://www.vimeo.com/1290644
Cheers FArid

Nice images!

Looked pretty smooth too!

Not bad at all. :)

Thanks Brad for your feedback!
cheers

Wildfire Video - XHA1
 

Used mostly the REALITY PRESET (does anyone know if REALITY uses Type 2 NR? How would I check?)

www.vimeo.com/1299506

-Steve

NR settings aren't part of Custom Presets. However, you really need to have a sitdown with the manual to learn how to see what settings a particular preset has.

NR1 & NR2 are settings available within Custom Presets...

Lordy! Let me get my foot out of my mouth!

You're right Jerome. I have no idea what I was thinking. I think perhaps lack of sleep has fudged my judgment. I stand/lay corrected.

The REALITY Preset does not use either of the NR settings.

Very nice. Made me see that the possibilities are only limited by the imagination.

Thanks Tim

Wildlife in a Canadian National Park
 

Enjoy and comments are welcome :)

http://www.vimeo.com/1342832

I would love to know what preset you were using as well as what framerate you were shooting in... Gorgeous looking shots man... Great job...

Hi Doug,

I shoot with the factory default preset. I don't generally like to shoot with any correction done within the camera as my latitude for correction in post has be compromised after using a camera preset. In almost every shot I have stretched the blacks to increase the contrast and sometimes a bit of colour saturation is added to liven up the colours slightly. My tools of choice in that regard are the new Magic Bullet Looks 1.1 or the colour correctors and secondary correctors in Vegas Pro 8.

This footage contains both 30f and 24f footage all rendered to 23.97 .h264 for Vimeo. You can especially notice the 24f judder during the pan/tilt up to the frog. It's the one point I wish I had gone to either 30f or 60i. I'm having better luck with pans shot in the 30f so I think while I like most things in 24f, the faster 30f still has a filmish look with less chance of judder.

Thanks for the compliments. If I ever get the time...(LMAO, I have three jobs until fall) I would love to put all the footage I get from the park this year into a longer length documentary or travel info video.

Very nice demo reel btw! Good looking video and well done graphics and effects.

Nicely done. Watching this and reading your settings info is a definite guide for me just starting out. Thanks for sharing this video.
Tim