Thanks guys. I will notify the webmaster and get it fixed. I will post here once it's up. Thanks for looking!

Peter

I liked them both as well! Especially redemption. I thought she
sits was a bit like a "what if" kind of story?

Great work!

Nice work! Only thing I would have made differently is in "She Sits", when it flashes to reality I would have used a bright white flash or something. Other than that they were great.

Nicholi - Thank you for your kind words! It's great to get feedback from the community. It was, as Dustin wrote, a split between reality and fantasy. The catch on this assignment was that it had to be straight cuts w/ music only, nothing too flashy, no visual effects (but we'll keep that MB look suite and white diffusion I put in on the hush-hush!). I wanted to throw in the flash to sell that split, but was unable to due to the rules. I'll def. put one for the copy that gets dubbed to my reel.

Dustin and Rob, thanks for taking the time to watch our little shorts. We're on our way to shooting 2 more, this time the only catch is that can only be 2 mins max. Thanks everyone for checking out our work!

OOh okay I getcha. I should have read your first post more thoroghly. Well in any case, Good Work! Keep them coming.

Loaded Movie here
 

Hey I'm new to the board just wanted to post a movie I made last fall the names loaded it's about a drug dealer that gets double crossed and comes back for revenge anyway it's about a 64 meg download in windows media video format. just go to this site and right click the loaded low file and hit save target as the download should start Tell me what you guys think

it's on a slower server sorry you'll have to wait a little while

http://65.29.54.30/loadedlow.wmv

Hey guys, great work and great site! 10:17 I thought was a good short but what I thought really shined and has always shined with you guys is the post work. Your special fx and titles really show some talent beyond your filming work - not to say that the filming isn't good but I think because the rest is at a different level, it may take away from the filming. Also, Edward's tracks really brought this story to life, it moved it at a perfect pace in places and I especially loved the outro song that kicked in with the title at the conclusion. The last song had a Traffic feel to it, which I love.

There were also at times I thought the steadicam shots were almost overused. I understand that you guys have the home made one that obviously is very nice and works extremely well, I felt like you were almost trying to find a reason to use it. Awesome work though, great stuff!

Hi Kyle,
I just watched your movie and wanted to give my two cents worth and hopefully help out a little.

This was obviously a low budget film, but you made very good use of your resources. You did a great job with the gunfire/bullet wounds. Add that to all the guns, hopefully borrowed, and I'm reminded of "El Mariachi." Definately a good job there.

I couldn't help but notice how shakey the entire movie was. You've got the right idea with following the action, but that should generally be used in moderation. Instead of constantly moving the camera, try using more cuts and definately a tripod to steady the shots. This can provide a faster, more viewer friendly, and even more informative approach. It also gives a "professional" look to the film as well as provides more control over shot composition (as a side note, it would be a good idea to check out a composition tutorial/tips like this one http://www.video-animation.com/vidcam_06.shtml).

You actually did a good job with the audio. I'm guessing you just used the on-camera microphone, and it picked up well. Although, I did notice some room for improvement with the audio edits. One good practice to get into is not cutting the video and audio at the same time. Maybe bring the audio in a little before the video, or leave audio in for a while after the shot has changed just to provide ambient sound. This will provide more of a natural segue between shots as opposed to just jumping back and forth. You really don't need to worry about this one just yet, its a little more down the line, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

Overall, you did a good job telling the story.

Hey thanks for watchin',

Bryan, thanks for the comments on the post work, I'm definitely trying to hone my skills as an editor/effects man. I think you are correct that certain bits of the titles and such may pull you away from the story, which is totally not what they're supposed to do. In this way I'm both glad I got the experience, but sad that I may have overdone it.

Those steadicam shots you talked about were actually all dolly shots. We have the steadicam built, but unfortunately haven't had the time necessary to learn to fly it with the greatest of ease, so in actuality there are only 2 shots with the "steadicam". The first being the tracking shot where the lens flares up, and the second being an "unsteadicam" POV shot of Ben walking hastily to avoid the crowds. Anyway, we were definitely going for a ton of camera movement, hopefully that fact wasn't too noticeable.

BTW, Devin threw in some light flashes to sell that transition between real and fantasy in "She Sits So Close", (as long as the Prof. doesn't see this version he'll be ok)

Thanks again for the in-depth reply Bryan, please keep 'em coming everyone!

Want to be movie trailer...
 

Hey everyone. I recently took my camera to work and attempted to make my job look interesting. I sliced together the footage taken on my XL1s and scored the music in Apple's Soundtrack after I edited in Final Cut.

Let me know what you think.

It's 5.1 mb and a QuickTime Movie

www.pixel-mesh.com/media/video/thedispatcher.mov


- Aaron

Looks good, you can tell it was shot on video though. You might try playing with the Curves function (not sure how FCP does this, I do it in AE) and putting it in widescreen.

Thanks.

It was 3 am when we shot it so it was a challenge to stay awake and play camrea / dispatcher guy.

My buddy Matt helped a lot.

I think some f the slow mo. stuff in the begining printout looks a bit fuzzy and amature.

Keep it coming all. I need the help.

Hey thanks for the input, my audio did need a lot of work, and our camera had way to much movement on it. I'm filming a short this spring and these are some of the things I'll get fixed. Anyway thanks for the reply and if anyone has a better server that would be willing to host my film that would be great.

I think the video quality is very good, especially the Quicktime compression. Much better than the stereotypical internet video we've learned to love.

I also really like the music and sound effects (radio). That provides a COPS sort of feel, but the music lets me know there won't be any guys running around with no shirt on :).
There's a couple things with editing that you might want to try next time. In a couple shots, the camera is zooming in or out during the first couple frames, then it stops. Its usually a good idea to either have the shot still, or zooming throughout the entire shot (as in the zoom starts before and ends after the shot so the movement is consistant). There wasn't much to shoot in there and it looks like you tried applying some type of motion wherever you could, which is a good idea.

You had a lot of nice tight shots of the keyboard and computer screens, but what about the dispatcher? Some shots of him/you recieving and answering calls would give it a little more pizzaz.
Sometimes its hard, but be as creative as you can. Use interesting angles or maybe a nice rack focus from the microphone/radio to the dispatcher. One time I did a project about dispatchers and was allowed to stage (they may or may not let you do that) an incoming distress call. The video started with a person calling the security office (just a flat tire, nothing big), getting an answer, and then cut to the officer answering the call.
Being limited to 3am shooting times would be a challenge, but I thought I'd toss out an idea or two.

Overall it looks good, but I think if you could get some action in there (dispatcher) it would turn out a lot better.

In my opinion you had a very good use of montage to suggest the job/machine/man relationship. I liked the music as well. Did you use dissolves to represent time compression. As if cutting to moments later? I also felt the sense of the dispatcher's enclosure created by your use of the camera angles.

Result of my boredom this evening...
 

Earlier today I was a little bit bored out of my mind so I put together this little piece. Its me riding my bike. All the camera work is done by other people (except the tripod shots) so its not the best. Also the clips of the wall smiths (where I hit the wall on top of the ramp with the back tire and front peg) had no sound because my friend forgot to turn on the mic so its all makeshift audio effects. Hope you enjoy.

http://www.bmxbums.com/videos/dustinsmix.mov

http://www.bmxbums.com/videos/dustinsmix.wmv

Do let us know what your professor thinks of the shorts!

I thought it was really good! I liked the mistery of not "seeing"
(too much of) the dispatcher. In the end I was quite interested
in what would be coming next. Liked what you did with the
titles as well. Any tips on that?

Good job!

So how far was that drop besides the road? <g> Was a funny
short movie. I liked what you did in the beginning where you
freezed the jump and displayed the "titles".

Hi.

I did the titles in Final Cut Pro with the standard text generator. I decided the flashy text you can create with Live Type just did'nt fit the mood I wanted.

I used the ripple dislove from CGM-Online (www.cgm-online.com) for incoming text and a regular disolve on the outgoing text.

The "bong" drum hit was done in Apple's Sound Track (all the music was scored with ST). I thought there needed to be something else when the transition of clips happend.

Made it more dramatic.

All the radio traffic was recorded from calls we had run.

The drop is approx. 15 feet. Thanks for the compliments.

I watched the film. I was impressed with the effort you put into this film. I mean, a people lose their limbs in this film!

You do need to work on the audio a bit and you probably could recut this film so that some of the edits on action don't look staged. In fact, i take back probably, you should recut this and retime everything.

Another idea is to cut the action sequences to the timing of the music, which will really make it jump.

Trailer for my doc up and working
 

Hey guys--The trailer for my documentary is actually up and working now. The web address is:

www.bicoastalfilms.com

Enter the site, click on "investors" and type in the password: bicoastal (password protected so that people who appear in the film don't see trailer before film is done...very touchy subject). You can read more about the story in the "press" section.

Tech specs: Shot with DVX100 over course of about 6 months. We have about 87 hours of footage and are editing on Xpress Pro with G5. No color correction on the trailer. The music is from the Hours so don't tell Phillip Glass or Miramax. The trailer is basically being used to keep those who have invested money in the film happy, and to attract other investors, though we've really aren't spending any more money. We will start submitting to film festivals as soon as the film is done editing (maybe about 4 months) and then see what happens. OK, curious to hear the feedback.

peter

Peter,

Looks great. Footage looks good except the scene w/the students. Interesting subject. I can see both sides.

Looks like you have a compelling concept. The trailer is scary in some ways - the last line where the older guy compares changing mentality to Hitler is shockingly ill informed. In fact, it's basically the opposite of what he says. What's your take on this as the director?

A new little BMX video.
 

Its just me and my friends riding bikes. Again. Its a bit flashy with the effects but thats kinda what I was aiming for.

www.bmxbums.com/videos/dlwshort1.mov (mpeg4)

www.bmxbums.com/videos/dlwshort1.wmv

File size is kinda big. 15 megs and a little over 2 mins I believe.

not bad by any means, a couple things tho; The music is dated and dosent really fit the theme, when you make a video you are telling a story, what exactly were you telling? and the music should fit that. The font was simple which is ok, but it looks unprofessional just using the regular font MSwindows comes with. Your shots looked realy smooth G/J!, however I felt unattached to the film because you were far away for alot of the shots, but the ones where you did get closer looked good, I see you used a fisheye lens thats good but only when you get close to the subject. Your rider friends are pretty good, Im sure they had a few wrecks tho, those clips are great to include with the other footage. the night shots were the best so far, next to the light sculpture was cool, but very fast, didnt really have time to absorb how great the shot was untill I paused it. The night shots of the bowl under lights were great. The blue effects were ok but I would reserve the effect as a segway for the riders instead of having it as riding content, like remove the white fades and put the blue art effect there instead but dont show any riding, maybe have it introduce the rider with their face?

Im a hard critic, just one favor I ask; when I post a vid please be as honest as I was to you to me.

Oh yea, What camera/NLE/steadie cam? did you use?

Happy filming!

John thanks for the comments. The music is just something totally different than what you normally see in BMX videos. I get really sick of the norm easily so I try to throw in some weird stuff every once in a while and I just liked the laid back feel of the song. I didn't want to go too fancy with the fonts as I made this clip specifically for the web and in my opinion simple fonts are a must as the text tends to become distorted in compression. Everything else you mention is basically how the full length is going to be. This was just something I threw together with random clips just to pass some time today. The full length will have lots of crashes (dvd bonus!), and proper introductories to riders.

Shot with a Trv950 in all of the shots except for one, Adobe After Effects, Premiere, and Photoshop on a Dell Demension 4500, no steady cam believe it or not. I have a home made one but it tends to be more of a pain to use. Especially when I'm on the go and hitting up a quick spot.

You say you like the night shots best? Hmm. I hate them. I love the daylight shots though. The lights at that park are horrible and cause really bad vertical smears which you can see in the video.

Zwahhh...

That was awesome. I love strange movies. I'm looking forward to a part 2 as well.

I thought it was pretty cool those guys were really good on the bikes

good point I'll work on it

Thanks for the feedback guys. The issue is definitely a complicated one, and the guy who makes the Hitler comment has some pretty extreme ideas and concerns. He is also the one who heads up this scholarship and decided to pull it for these kids. I think some of his concerns about schools are valid, others are a little out there. Take a look at the WSJ article under the Press section and you can see more about what he's concerned about. Thanks again for the input,

peter

new video.
 

here is a new promo we made. comments are welcome.

www.scrambledvisual.com/kenshirointro.mov

Looking nice! Short, fast. The first 10 seconds could've been a
bit faster though. I liked the music the most at the ending, but
that's just my taste <g> Did they play that last part as well?
Cause I could probably use some nice guitar stuff like that for
a short of my own.

yes that is all their own music. they are kind of a war metal band so they have some of that nice slow guitar in their music amist all the brutal metal.

A bit like Dimmu Borgir eh. They start of nice and orchestral and
then all you know what brakes loose. Oh well...

Trailer for local Search & Rrescue Team
 

Hi Everyone.

I just completed a trailer or a montage (not sure what you want to call it) for our local Search & Rescue Team.

It's a 6 mB QuickTime movie.

I would love feed back on it.

LINK :: www.dvfreelancer.com/media/video/HBSRTeaser.mov

- Aaron

Hey Aaron! Looked nice. I was hoping for some moving footage,
but that wasn't available I presume. I thought the transitions with
the "fire" could be a tiny bit faster and the the rhytm near the
end started out nice but then missed the "beat" (so to speak).
I also really disliked the first transition after the text (the one with
the weird streaks -> that looked cheap, especially compared to
the rest of the transitions which where good looking!)

Nice!

An old little video...
 

This is pretty much a clip taken out of my full length video I finished a while back. I say pretty much because the only thing different is the animation in the beginning. The beginning animation in the full length video is alot better. It has a faster pace too it and is probably put together better than the last videos I recently made for the internet. Probably because i spent more time working on the full length. Anyways, enjoy...

www.bmxbums.com/videos/jimmyspart.wmv
www.bmxbums.com/videos/jimmyspart.mov

Promo Video / Feedback?
 

I've just posted a two and a half minute promotional clip on my website. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Go to www.jamessidney.com, then: workshops / tobermory / video.

High bandwidth only.

Thanks,
James