I tend to agree with Kermie's remarks.... The editing could have
been a bit faster in my opinion as well. But overall it was really
nicely done!

Dylan,
I shot it on a Canon ZR20.. not the best but I dealt with it! For lights, we had 3 construction lights -- a big one plus two little small ones and a few reflector boards.

Kermie,
Thanks for the suggestions, now that you mention it I guess I was doing that, it's good thing I noticed now before I made it a habit :P

I want to disagree with the comment that audiences are much smarter than you think. If that were true, Kangaroo Jack would never have been number one at the box office.

This will probably be deleted.

Better Luck Tomorrow: grassroots marketing
 

Interesting article in the LA Times about "Better Luck Tomorrow" and its grassroots campaign to get the seats filled. "Better Luck Tomorrow" is a film by Justin Lin about Asian American high school students who get involved in a murder. It's been covered in Film Comment magazine and received a spot of news when it was shown at a festival (Sundance?) and Roger Ebert shouted down someone who was protesting the film because it didn't show Asian Americans in a good light (like Italian Americans who protested the Godfather).

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-fi-grassroots11apr11,0,2077568.story?coll=cl%2Dmovies

Interesting talking points:
- the use of email campaigns interests me because my company's technology allows player and plugin free video for Java-enabled email clients
- the "first weekend" campaigns for black and other ethnic groups encouraging those groups to get out in the first weekend to send a message to distributors that there is an audience. The first weekend, of course, is totally important. Without a big first weekend films are pulled.

Thoughts?

Australia’s Cape York Peninsula
 

Here’s a short trailer for our upcoming doco of travels in Australia’s tropical North Queensland. Enjoy!

www.drivenxdiscovery.com

We filmed the entire adventure using a canon zr30, and while admittedly not the best in low light situations, it is a hearty little cam; it didn’t even really complain too much after it’s brief and, I’m sure, exhilarating swim. = ) We are using Premiere 6.5 to do all of the editing.

We are hoping to gear this tale of misadventure towards a general adventure oriented audience, as well as having it be a useful resource for people who might be interested in doing this trip for themselves … that is, how NOT to do it. = )
It is, if anything, highly entertaining (or, should I say, will be when editing is completed sometime this June).

Granted this little clip isn’t very much to go on, but any comments are welcome.

Thanks for looking, mates.

Dom

drivenbydiscovery productions

Another Short
 

Check out "Penetration Strain or Shocked" at our website www.american-ocean.com and let me know what you think... this is a short one man show and will only take 3 minutes of your time ;)

Wasn't visual enough for me, but that's just my opinion. You could have used a set of 3 stills and put down and audio track on top and it would have been the same. I would like to "see" more.

Very interesting...

The acting wasn't too bad.
I think it could of been framed a little better.

All in all it does get the point across very well.

-Nori

Man,
Now I really want to go to Australia. Some of those visuals are absolutely stunning!

-Nori

Me too! That's gorgeous!
I also miss my 4x4. Some of that driving looked really fun!
Except for the rollover. :)

He did that all by himself btw =)

Very well done and done with a ZR30 too.

James, I noticed that several shots seem to be out of sync... what methodology did you try to keep the different angles in sync with the song?

(shrug) I guess if she makes the kind of money Britney does and shuttles a little your way her emulating Britney isn't a bad thing. (G)

Sync
 

Well remember this is a screen test for a bigger production. It is mainly to see how she performs in front of the camera. What is displayed here is only the first 1.25 of the song. We shot the entire song about (almost 3 minutes) 15 times with different framing allowing a couple of minutes in between takes because of studio time. I believe part of what you are seeing is her being thoroughly worn out and using more energy to dance and occassionally slipping on the lyrics, but just a little. Overall, she did a great job. Also, compressed video isn't in perfect sync. What you saw is played at 20 fps. We shot close ups first so she would appear fresh. Then mediums and finally wides. The final, actual shoot will be shot in sections to balance the load.

The sync is maintained by shooting the entire song for each take and then finding the very first spike on the playback (set) audio and matching it with the studio mix. Once this is achieved after slipping it a frame or so, every take (track) is in sync and then each track is cut for its place in the song. This project is 13 tracks deep. This method makes it easy for cutting but wears out the performers. I have a time code slate for synced playback to be able to shoot in sections but nothing to feed the 29 fps code from a playback device yet. I know where to get what I need it's just not in the budget. I can't wait because it will be a whole lot easier on the performers and the cutter.

Check out my article in Moviemaker Magazine
 

I've written an article about my experiences using the XL1 with the Mini 35 in making my short short film The Chinese Shoes (http://thechineseshoes.com) for Moviemaker Magazine (http://www.moviemaker.com/).

The magazine is already available.

Just thought I'd let y'all know.