Daughter's Wedding
 

Please take a look at the intro I made for my daughter's wedding video:
http://crimsonbutterfly.com/video/Wedding.wmv

I get only audio with the download. There is no video. Anyone else having this problem?

I got vid and sound, a little slow, but not too bad. One comment I can give you is the background you use (the blue motion field) became very distracting because the 2-3 second loop pattern got real obvious after a bit. It may be because the image is pixelated due to the req's for internet playback, and that may be making it more noticeable. Not sure, but you should check that on your uncompressed preview.

Interesting music choice.

As a father of a daughter, I'm not sure I want to think about her 'Making Love All Night Long'.

Okay, I downloaded on a different machine and got audio and video this time.

I have to agree with James on the background. If it was more fluid, I don't think it would be an issue. But the loop is so short and jumpy that it becomes distracting, and clashes with the slo-mo of the video.

Regarding the slo-mo, it was a little too much slo-mo for my taste. To avoid overusing the slo-mo, maybe on some of the real-time parts you could composite slo-mo over them, for variety.

Overall it was good, I just got tired of the slo-mo on everything. Hope that helps.

Hey George!

I must agree with James & Travis... the looping blue background is far too distracting. I like the idea of the background but maybe you can create a slowed-down version of it.

On another note, Bryan is right. I am 19 years old and I would be a little creeped out getting a video from my "new" dad that has a song about "Making Love All Night Long".

Maybe you could also add some actual sound clips from the wedding... possibly the "I Do's"? Or "Do you take this man/woman...". You get the picture.

On the animated card: the first page "For my daughter...", the page turns too fast... I barely get done with "daughter" when it turns.

Besides being really picky, I would have to say the video is nicely executed. I enjoyed the animated card, and nice choice of font. The video playing in the tilted rectangle also works well.

Oh and I almost forgot... when you do use the slow-mo try to not make it too slow... at some points of little action the video looks one step away from a still.

I'd love to see the way the intro fits in with the full wedding video.

youshould pick a different song

After thinking about this more, I want to chime in about the song. This is not the right song for this video. I also have a daughter, and it initialy made me squirm a bit thinking about that aspect.....then I realized I was thinking too much about "sex", (not "love" or "family" or "starting our lives together") as I watched it, because of the song. I don't mean to sound like a pervert, but the songs lyrics are very focused, and all we see are the bride and groom, the thought process just occurs, in fact it is almost forced on you. I imagine this is a special song to them, and your daughter specificaly asked for it, but she needs to reconsider. Imagine showing that to grandma, or other family!? It just doesn't work IMHO.

I'm in the process of rerendering now, with a new motion background and a different song. I realize a lot of you are in GB, but in the US sex occasionally occurs on the wedding night. Really, it's true....

George, I'm married and a US citizen, but I have to say that I nearly busted out laughing when that song hit the chorus -- I really have to agree that the song doesn't fit a "wedding video gift from dad."

Also agree on there being too much slow-motion and with James on the blue background. I, too, wondered if it was simply that noticeable because of the compression for the web. And slow-motion should be used to accent certain scenes, not for an entire 4 minute montage, in my opinion...

Then again, it sounds like you've already heeded this advice as given by others. Look forward to the new version

George - lol - sex on the wedding night - lol - actually, my wife and I flew all night long on our wedding night, so I guess I shouldn't laugh . . . .

Looking forward to the re-edit. My biggest problem was not with the song or the motion background, it was with the 4 minutes or whatever of slow-motion. It was just way too much, and you lose the emotional effect with that much slo-mo.

--EDITED--
I just noticed that your comment about a lot of us being in GB actually holds no water. No one that has posted in this thread is from GB. d:-)

I changed the music and toned down the background. I deliberately wanted this intro to be in slomo, to make it more dream-like. The rest of the video will be at varying speeds.....
http://crimsonbutterfly.com/video/Wedding.wmv

George,

I appreciate that you're taking the suggestions and making some changes.

However, I don't think Color Me Badd's I Want to Sex You Up is the best song to use as the replacement.




:)

Despite the fact that you want to have this much slo-mo, there is still way too much slow motion in this clip.

For example, from 2:23 until 2:48 you have what amounts to a slow motion shot of two people standing; as happens at other points (as previously mentioned) the slow motion makes it look like a still picture because there is no motion in the frame -- why use "slow motion" when there is no motion to slow down? In the above example, you've used up 25 seconds for a shot that really doesn't need to even be there, much less in slo-mo.

The shot of your daughter walking in and the shot of the kiss are great moments where slow motion is used more effectively.

I get the feeling that you are making the intro this long simply because of the length of the song you chose. By spending over 3 minutes on your introduction you've done more than introduce the wedding video -- you've shown us the whole ceremony! Unless you have titles/voice over/ or other info that you'll need to convey during that time, there's no reason this intro should be more than a minute or so. Don't feel constrained by the length of the song -- the great thing about editing is that you can make whatever cuts are needed; feel free to tear it apart, make the song shorter, cut out a verse and go straight to the chorus, etc.

Hopefully, I'm not coming across as argumentative; I just wanted to give some constructive criticism. And I must say that the love theme from Top Gun ("Almost Paradise") is a better choice for music -- especially since she's marrying a military man :)

Almost Paradise is actually from Footloose.


Maybe the groom's a dancer. ;)


(Take My Breath Away is from Top Gun)