I really liked a lot of shot composition in there. Beautiful shots
and ofcourse beautiful scenary. I must say I wasn't too fond
of how the voice over was flowing. It sounded a bit "weird" and
was almost expecting a "mister anderson!" somewhere in there.
Heh. I'm not sure if the line "we'll never know where we'll end
up" is such a good line to have? That might not give the confidence
that the participants will visit the best places?

Looked stunning!!

It was nice. Some shots started to look a similar further on in
the movie though. I liked the ending.

Thanks Rob,

Any chance I could get you to expand on "weird"? Do you mean stilted, too flat, over/under announciated? Was one section of VO better or worse than another? (The comparison would help me see where you're coming from.)

Do you have a lot of experience with audio? Was the compression okay? The voice capture?

I appreciate you being candid.

~J

nice
 

Nice Trailer - However I did not grasp the subject, maybe am I a bit slow, but i could not see the why question. This is in no way critique of the trailer, which I think have nice shoots and great quality.

Visually I thought is was fantastic. Very, very impressive shots.

But, I was super distracted by the audio.

Here are my thoughts:

1. A few times a new cut of music starts up very strongly, then almost instantly is pulled down for the narration. I'd rather hear the music start softer if it's going to be pulled that quickly. Also, maybe have a bit more gain on it during the narration. There were many sections where I couldn't hear the music at all under the narration. That's not to say that there has to be music under the entire narration, but if you want it there make sure we can hear it.

2. Rob is right on with the "Hello, Mr. Anderson" thing. It's almost like a William Shatner impression. The best way I can describe it is it sounds like you edited together each word individually instead of it being a smooth read. There's too much choppiness and pauses in the narration. Needs to be more conversational.

Your website looks fantastic and I really did like the video. I think if you can smooth out the audio a bit you'll have a dynamite piece.

Thanks very much Bryan,

I think you (and Rob) are right.

I spend a LOT of time lecturing and speaking in front of crowds, so when I get a script in front of me I'm always fighting the urge to project to the back of the house. (A couple of times on camera I've had to be reminded not to project to the distant cameraman--since I'm wearing a lav!) I usually go through enormous facial/vocal animations to keep an audience's eyes.

Anyway, that experience is hard for me to shake in the booth, and since I wasn't clear about the problem, it came out as a half version of two different styles. I now know I have to treat this kind of speaking as a completely different (more intimate) form.

Thanks again, you've both given me just the kind of feedback I was looking for (and needed.)

~J

PS - Glad you liked the imagery and the site. Cheers.

I like your approach as to catching the bikes, as I was not there could you have gone closer to the bikes or even from under the jump and splice that into the footage.

As for the good love the slow mo on the one-foot kick off good one. Then going into frame mode great.

And another one...
 

And another one...

I hope I'm not annoying anyone by posting all my small 1 minute movies I make every thursday, friday, and saturday nights. I'm trying to work my way up to a 10 minute short, but until then I'm just trying to improve myself.

http://film.omnibuilt.com/ldts.html

If you guys have the time, let me know what you think.

-Thanks

Bryan explained it well. It sounds way too clinical. With breakups
in the "flow" at weird points. If you would translate it to text you
would get full stops (.) in the middle of sentences etc.

The problem with going closer is that the rider will start to take up too much of the frame. This makes it harder to tell what is going on, or what ramps he is jumping, etc. It is possible to get closer whithout this loss of information but that is what fisheye lenses are used for. I just don't have the money to buy one right now.

Got it!!

I really liked it. I loved those photograph effects.

sweetness!

Nice! Some timing feeled a bit "off". Like the gunshot. So this is
just a "fictional" trailer?

Yeah, just fictional, though unlike the alien one, this is based off a script Idea me and my old brother are developing.

A Short Travel Video . . .
 

I've posted a 4-minute video of Venice at night. It was an experiment for me because:

1. It's the first travel video I've shot entirely with a tripod -- what a difference! (A Bogen 3444D with a Manfrotto 700RC2 head)

2. I made very little use of my Optex WA for my VX2000 and, instead, tried to concentrate on composition. Surprise! I found I really didn't need the adapter as much as I've thought. Quite a revelation, that will make my future projects a lot easier, since that Optex weighs about a pound and interferes with the VX2000's OIS.

3. The video was processed as a unit in a single pass through the Deflicker VirtualDub filter, which did an amazing job of removing the 50-Hz flicker of outdoor lighting in Europe that has always plagued my night shots. In the future, I'll process shot-by-shot, but this is an easy fix to a significant problem.

Though the clip looks good on an NTSC monitor, it's a little dark on a computer monitor -- if you take a look at it, you might want to goose the gamma a bit.

I'd appreciate any feedback. My only aim was to capture the feel of the place around 11 pm on a November evening when Venice is uncharacteristically quiet.

You can see it at www.ruyitang.com -- just click on the third clip, "Venice at Night." You can also stream or download directly at www.ruyitang.com/venice at night - 9.wmv

Thanks!

I got Outpost up on another site. Much cooler. Check it out.

http://www.undergroundfilm.org/films...cl?wid=1012267

Very nice. The eye piece prop was great, really added production value to the film. I just thought it was a little short. And that the idea wasn't explored as far as it could have been. And trying to figure out who was shooting who was a bit confusing. From what I got their were two guys shooting at some one off screen, but it looked like at times that one of the guys shoot the other, but i think thats wrong And does this have any Half-Life influence in it, or is that just me?

Paul, excellant. I know how you feel, I travel all over and have no one to really share my stuff with (my wife can only watch so many times). I have videos from Africa, Italy, the Amazon River and most recently Patagonia. I need to learn how to post on the web. I will be in Venice the first week end in April but only for a short trip. Again, I really enjoyed the video. You truely captured Venice ay night. Bob

It looked great Paul! Relaxing and simple. Lovely footage.

Thanks for the feedback. I can understand where it might get a little confusing with the edit and such. In the real world I might market this as a teaser trailer of sorts. Playing off its ambiguity and short length. As for Half-Life; I would have to say that game has changed my life in ways I can't describe...LOL. Many a hour were/are spent playing that game and its incredible mods.

Broadcast: 60i or 30p?
 

I will be shooting two short (theatrical) pieces this weekend that will be broadcast by a local PBS affiliate. I plan to shoot it with my DVX100A and, of course, have three possible modes available with that camera. Shooting 24p does not appropriate for this venue. My instincts tell me that 60i will probably be the best-fit choice for this venue. But would 30p present a problem for broadcast?

It shouldn't be a problem technically, since it is still interlaced but
the time difference has been removed. So it might look "weird"
or "different". But I guess you already knew that! <g>

Check out the improved John Melon Flash intro
 

I just finished this improved flash intro for my site and I thought you guys might like it. It's not a big deal, but I just got a little exited.

www.nothingmanproductions.com

Thanks!

Without this sounding to harsh...

Is this a joke?

There is a trailer in the site that can explain that.

http://www.nothingmanproductions.com...lonpreview.wmv

I assume you're paying Larry some royality money for the yodeling?

:)

For now I'm trying to get some feedback and reactions. If it works I'll come up with my own yodeling. Cheers!

visually it looks great. I think you might be overusing the photographic effect a bit though :)

Yes. At this point, I've yet to shoot anything scripted, so I have no story. Right now I'm writing, so next time I should have actual story, so I don't need to rely on fx.

First Project In Baltimore.
 

hey guys, wanted to let you know that because of this site and all the good people and advice i've gotten here, i am in pre-production on my first project.

i sugested an area where people can keep a log of the projects they are working for people to read. consider this my log :)

here's some details: I searched high and low on how i can start making movies. i was sick of doing the improv things, the one's where it's you and a friend or two just messing around start filming each other with a vhs or super cheap miniDV camcorder. don't get me wrong, i loved doing that..but im an adult now and it's time to take my dream serious.

i found this site and through it i found someone selling an XL1s camera for a price i could aford. then i read everything i could (without going insane) on how to begin. I asked questions and had them answered quickly. I happend to read a post by someone who lived nearby in MD and was interested in meeting people in the DC/Baltimore Area. i contact him and we had a few meetings and talked about things we could do.

one script he had written stood out. then titled: Thorizine. it was clever and had a shocking twist that i didn't see coming and an ending that would leave people talking about the film for a long time after. it only needed one location and a small cast of five. bingo, we had our project. we also had 0 funds, but you have to work with what you got. smiling as i left i remember thinking "this is going to be easy!". oh, how wrong i was.

it took 2 weeks running around like chickens without heads before we both realized we needed a plan! so we took a week and talked and talked and talked. ok, enough talk. time to do something!

first thing was to secure a location: that's now done

second was to gather items needed, small props we could make and/or find: kind of hard but that two is done.

third, start saving for the needed equipment. i began the project thinking i would be the AD but slowly my role became clear, i was turning into a producer. i didn't exspect that, yet it's very interesting and i think this may be my calling. we'll see.

Equipment: we'll i got my Xl1s and i saved for a nice tripod. had to think creatively and came up with the funds to get some lighting. well, there goes the budget. im now in the hole. ohwell.

still short on equipment, we figure it's time to look for some help and why where at it get us some actors.

i took some advice found here and posted an ad at mandy.com looking for anyone interested in helping. all i can say is WOW. i was upfront with people, the ad said this is a shoesting budget and there is 0 pay, only a DVD copy of the final product. we've gotten around 100 responses and after reviewing them we selected a few people who seemed to really want to be a part of this. that incudes, a student at a local univeristy who owns an Xl1 and support equipment. we found someone willing to take care of the sound aspect, who has his own equipment. I was contacted by Mark D'errico who kindly offered to score the intire project for FREE! he does some great work, check his site at www.markderrico.com. we've gotten numerous requests from people who want to do make up, effects, lighting..ect. all in all we have a full crew of dedicated people who wish to gain experiance working on a film.

as for cast. kennith emeson the writer/director/producer and what ever else he wants to do, placed an ad at actornews.com (another suggestion from a member of DVinfo!) he has been swamped with calls and we are currently holding auditions to fill the roles.

we now have a shooting scedule and everything is going verry well. what was supposed to be a colaberation to make a short has turned into something we think has a verygood shot at being played at a few film fests.

other things we've been doing is kenny's done script rewrites and making up some story boards, while i spend countless hours learning how to use VEGAS 4.0 effectivly. (i tried priemere and didn't really care for it) the book "VEGAS 4:EDITING WORKSHOP" by douglas spotted eagle has been a huge help.

once i figured out i had turned into a producer i thought it might be a good idea if i new exactly what a producer was and what he's supposed to do! it's not like i didn't have an idea of what a producer is, but i wanted to be sure i was doing it right and doing all i could to make sure this project gets finished. the book: "INDEPENDENT FEATURE FILM PRODUCTION" by gregory goodel has been helping me so much! anyone interested in that field should read it.

well, we are at a point where it's time to let people know what we are doing and how to get information on the project. so a friend loaned me some webspace and I put my lacking Web Page design skills to use. once we find someone who is a much beter artist and come up with a final name for the film most likely i'll register a domain name but untill then if anyone would like to take a look and follow our progress further check out.

http://www.malicereborn.org/film

i feel i wouldn't have came this far with out the help from you guys, so feel free to let me know what you really think of our progress so far in all aspects of the pre-production process.

Thanks for reading this long and drawn out post!

Kris Mallory.

one quick thing. my spelling is horible, That i already know. Im working on it......

Kris,

Good luck on everything. You had emailed me about doing your website. If you are still interested please email me again.

marty.martin@imagenfilms.com

By the way... THE best book I have read to date on making it into the film industry from an indie/low-budget angle is:

From Reel to Deal

It is AWESOME! I wouldn't just recommend, i would say it is a MUST READ. It covers every angle of making your first film. From pre-production to distribution. From doing it on your own, to choosing to go with a big studio. It is the most comprehensive book I have read [and I've read many].

I would encourage against using Vegas as an editing program. It's not horrible, but I don't think it'll get you the professional results you'd need

liked it. what font is that?

It is Evanescence. Its under the top 100 list on www.dafont.com (change the site to english at the top first)

Great font site.

I think the photographic effects works great. It gives a natural looking shot a nice filmic touch.

Work in progress comments?
 

Well, I am quite new around here so I don't know is it common to post some work in progress for some comments ... :) ?

This is the intro sequence (30s, for now)) of one music video I am working on for one local rock band (the song is "remake" of U2)... It is supposed to be half video and half animation... I am responsible for directing, editing and most of the postp., so I'll be glad to hear some constructive criticism while I am still in production process... :)
At the end, you'll see TV where it's going to be animation which will after few moments "fill the screen" (in 4:3, not 16:9)... Later, animation and video will be combined with some interesting masks... My colleague is working hard on animation, so I can up it too as long as he finish it so I can cut and combine it with video.
Whole material was shot in one very hard day... :)

Thanx in advance for your comments...
You'll need Xvid codec to play the video.

http://studio.bozic.co.yu/temp/Intro_xvid.avi

It looked great and had a nice pace to it. I did feel the group
scenes near the end looked a bit "stiff" and "acted" instead of
like they where just hanging out.

New Short Film and Call for Crew in MD/VA:
 

This is an experimental short we did as a way to prep for a longer shoot that we will be starting soon. We shot it in one (very long) day using an XL1s, a small video lighting kit and an external mic. The editing was done in FCP 4 on a G4 Powerbook. We had a lot of fun doing this, but more importantly for novice film makers like us, we learned an awful lot.

The movie streams from the website on a Mac running 9.2 or higher, and in Netscape on a Windows machine. But we still haven't been able to get it to stream on an Internet Explorer browser on a PC. To play it on a PC, you have to download and save the entire file then run it in QuickTime. We know this means that 90% of the world won't be able to see it yet, but we're putting it on display anyway :-) We hope to get that issue sorted out soon.

http://www.scott2bgreat.com/nosmallstuff.htm

Any feedback would be appreciated!

We're also looking for extra crew members to help out on the upcoming project. We'll be filming over the course of a few weekends in March and April. If you're in the MD/DC/VA area and are interested in getting involved, drop us a line.

Nancy, I'm watching it as I type this in IE on a PC. Works fine for me :)

http://www.scott2bgreat.com/nosmallstuff.htm
For those lazy ones.