My Zombie Movie...on DVD Sept 9th!!!
 

Hey guys...shameless plug here.
My low-budget Zombie flick hits DVD in the US on September 9th! Yippee!

We shot on the Canon XL-H1 and paid for the whole thing on our credit cards...so it is pretty amazing that we have made it this far. Thanks for all the great advice...these forums have always been a big help!

Http://www.zombieszombieszombies.com


J

Dark Matter commercial
 

This is the first draft (and hopefully the final!) of my Dark Matter commercial for MHP. Any opinions would be welcome.

In this commercial I am trying to differentiate Dark Matter from MHP's other new product Dark Rage and emphasize some of the science that goes into creating something like this.

MHP Dark Matter Commercial V1 on Vimeo

Seemed a bit... slow at first but around half-way through it began to look more and more like a commercial, I liked it, you showed the actual product several times, which i liked, the customer now KNOWS what ther're looking for, I didn't like the atom graphic used more than once, the filmed portion inside the gym looked good, I think the last half was the real essence of the commercial, if you could somehow shorten the beginning some.

It also was a different spin on workout enhancers, normally I feel like when I see advertisements for post-workout enhancers, I feel like Chuck Norris is gonna punch me in the face multiple times. But with this commercial I feel like Frankenstein, I liked the theme.

If your going to change anything, my advice would be shorten the beginning, try and not use the same atom graphic more than once, and try and make the whole video seem like the last half ( fast-paced, giving good solid facts about the product back to back)

The biggest part of a commercial is the beginning, if you don't IMMEDIATELY grab their attention they're flipping the channel.

Don't know if you plan on making a 30 sec TV spot version, but if you do, I feel if you follow what you're doing now, it would be great.

Very Good.

CME

EDIT: As you mentioned, the giving of the scientific facts about the product, (in my opinion) is a good idea. Makes me feel as if t6he product is very legitimate, and better than the other products out there.

should i have used the "im only 20 on you" or the "mine is better than yours ;)

Thanks for the comments Ian. I purposefully left it open to interpretation and implication.

I used Sony Vegas Pro 8.

Okay,

the climax and the audio I understand and I think the fix is easy

but the pace - how do I alter that? should the sequences be shorter? should there be more edit points?

I'm assuming the pace is too slow but how do I speed it up?

Our New San Jose 48 Hour Film Project Entry
 

In our recent entry with the 48 Hour Film Project we drew horror as a genre. Here is what we came up with:

http://www.vimeo.com/1605228

YouTube - Death For Rent

Loved the closing pool shot! Very nice. The music was a little repetitive, but for a 48 hour fest I can understand that you were probably swamped since you shot a lot of coverage. The camera work was pretty good. How did you do in the Fest?
Horror is always fun.

PS- If you have a chance, please take a look at my latest. I would love to hear what you think. The Watchman

Thanks,

Mike

We'll know about how we did on September 4.

Yeah, with a 3 hour trip to deliver, our 48 hours was reduced to 45, and I did shoot a lot of coverage. I swear next time I do one of those, I will have someone capturing footage after every scene. That cost me about 4 hours with some capture problems that developed. I originally was going to capture everything in Cineform, captured one tape, and then it ran so long to convert, I finally captured rest via HDVSplit.

By the way, actually shot this with Z1 and Fx1 using--- Cineframe24 !

WIRED - Episode One
 

Hi All,

I've recently finished Episode One of my new 'NO BUDGET' sci-fi/horror web series called WIRED. You can view it here: THE VIDEO COMPANY TV, where I plan to show them all to everyone for FREE.

Since getting into video production around 7 years ago, I've mainly worked on weddings and corporate videos. However, I always wanted to start tv & film production, with WIRED being my first attempt.

Everything was done by myself, including the writing, directing, producing, camerawork, editing and a small cameo at the end. I know this has problems, but I do consider it a success as I had no money or experience of this type of work. The fortunate thing is, I've managed to purchase all the required equipment over the years, and should be able to practice my craft by firing these out.

As I'm a Rodriguez fan, this episode was done in the style of Grindhouse, and I plan to make the next one similar to Sin City. The next episode should give me more practice at writing dialogue, and experience casting people for the roles.

Anyway, feel free to watch and provide any CC that you feel will benefit myself.

Cheers,

James.

New (Old) web videos
 

Just a couple of web videos we've added to our website. (Finally found some time to upload videos, hopefully more to come soon :)

http://www.madjavaproductions.com/Re...ce_Montage.wmv

http://www.madjavaproductions.com/Go...pot_Aug_08.wmv


The Red Bull Air Race was produced in May 2007. And the Goulding's Lodge 30 second commercial was produced sometime in 2006.

Both shot on the Caon XL2, 24p, and edited on Adobe PP2.

Best,

The Joe Show Show, Episode 2: Growth
 

This is a silly little thing we put together. Give it a look and tell me what you think.

The Joe Show Show Episode 2 on Vimeo

I've posted the revised version of the intro, for anyone that is interested.

MHP Martinez intro V2 (Mini documentary) on Vimeo

Thanks for your input Caleb! You are right, the beginning is a bit too slow. I was taking liberties with it because I knew that this commercial is going to be on a promo DVD and I felt that the viewers would be more inclined to sit through it because they are invested in watching it. Now I'm not so sure.

However, later we also plan to post it on the web and at that time I will definitely make some of the cuts you suggested, shortening the first half and increasing its energy.

My thoughts, from someone who produces hundreds of commercials a year...
It is extremely long for a commercial!
In my little world commercials are :15, :30, or :60 seconds.

Short Film just completed.
 

This is a short film we just completed a couple of weeks ago. We were asked to make it as part of the opening of a theater opening in the area.

It was shot on a Canon XL HD1


YouTube - CODA


thanks for watching

Totally missed the silly part in your post...I was totally suckered in to the plot, and laughed out loud...

Good Job.

Mike Watkins

I thought it was quite good! Hope you make more episodes.

Thanks for the comments!

Yeah, that was the 2nd episode and we plan to keep making them until someone makes us stop. :-)

HVX200 Music Video VFX
 

here we go again

Riley Harmon | Rush of Fools: Visual FX

Wow, great visuals! Well done...

Very impressive!

Great work!!!! How difficult was it to key out the white background?

Entire video in HD here:

Rush of Fools - Wonder of the World on Vimeo



ash =o)

yeah, that does look interesting.
 

What camera did you use? And how much footage did you shoot? Did you go into it with a fairly well thought out story, or did it just kind of hatch and present itself to you?

There is a lot of fantastic indie music out there, and this generation has produced some really first rate song writers.

Good start Bill! Is there a particular audience or angle you're taking this video? If you want critical feedback, well, that's what I can offer!

The concept comes through, the shots make sense, the editing is well done, and the sound is good. This feels like a video made in the last 80's/90's with a matching-era Hi8 camera. With the abundance of cheap HD digital cameras available, the older camera-look detracts from the video; it could just be the lighting, but I think it's more than that. I'm sure it would have helped had you been able to be the shooter.

That said, if he shot this himself and he's not a trained videographer, it was well done (stable, clean shots that are quite usable).

The sax shot looks cleaner/brighter than the rest - perhaps colour correcting the other footage would assist in bringing together a more uniform look. The still photos that are colour are far more punchy than the footage of the singer.

Good job!

Thanks for the look and comments. Funny you should mention Hi-8, the shots of my sax playign were done with a Sony VX-3. I don't know what camcorder he used, except it was mini-DV.

He shot the clips of him singing, well I believe his wife did most of the shooting, and the lighting was horrible. I corrected it as much as I thought I could, but there was a lot of grain.

the stills, yes, they are pretty clean, I did pump up the contrast a bit, but we were getting close to the contest deadline so I made it "look done" as we used to say in TV news. ;-) I could probably go back and drain most of the color from them. hmmm.

I've been eyeing a Canon HV30 and actually held one the other day and my goodness it's TINY! A long way from the TK76's and Ikegami's heck, even a long way from my DSR250 (at work). Not sure I can deal with something that small, but the budget won't go for anything more "substantial" maybe a used PD150 or GL1 but that is staying SD.

well, I got a bit off topic there didn't I. LOL

Thanks again.

Nice! Thanks for the explanation and detail into your process. It does look done, so that's good.

I own an HV20 - no joke, it is as good as everyone says it is. Get one - I have mine on rails with a matte box, 35mm adapter - the added heft makes it very workable. I've used it without the rig, and it's a bit light, but in stable hands it produces shots that people can't believe it shot. The music video I shot in this Forum area was shot with the HV20 (comment too if you'd like: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/show-your...rformance.html )

I've used the DSR-250, PD170 and, I can highly recommend the HV20!

Blind Sided
 

This was the 2nd film I made for the Zone Horror Cut! competition, the 1st being "The Bloodstained Moth" (posted earlier). Again it's a 2 minute horror short. It was made principally to give a run out for my new camera, the Canon HV20. In contrast to "The Bloodstained Moth", it was shot very quickly with little light setup.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Blind Sided on Vimeo

Thank you for your interest! The camera I used was a Canon XL2. The film is not yet completed, it's actually about halfway done but we have about 50 hours worth of footage. We had no story at all to start out with, we are basically forming a plot based on what the interviewees say, which to me is a lot more exciting.

I agree that there is a lot of great music out there, and that's what really inspired us to make this documentary. It's basically three people making it, a musician, a photographer and me.

Thank you again for your interest!

My "Mini-reel", I guess.
 

I made a video for my high school film group. We all just graduated from high school last semester and I decided to do one last production for them. I edited clips into a unfinished "Apologize" music video and it turned out to be a great little final project before I hit college. Read the description that is provided on the page as well. Comments are welcome!

The inVISIONit Projects: 2006-2008 on Vimeo

Very cool - I wish I had experience like that coming out of high school. Very nice reel.

The Wild Horses of Assateague Island
 

This short video started out only as a weekend exercise in following movement with a tripod but I had a few "happy accidents" along the way. I'm so pleased with how it turned out that I wanted to share it with you.

Chincoteague and Assateague on Vimeo

Thanks Philip. I didn't know if anyone checks this section anymore.

yo howd u get those letters there where hes pointing them out 02:57. thats sick

I liked the video. I think you could've done more with the whole mad scientist/horror movie concept. For example when he's outside with all those people you could've made a everyone look like zombies ala Thriller (no sequence dancing).

Thanks Aron.

Oh, I love that.
 

I loved the spiderweb, and the raccoons and that shot of the leaves right before the snail which was also quite nice.

I loved Baked Apple - wonderful short. Weird. Funny. And inventive.

Nice work all the way around.

teaser test
 

something I've been working on of late, hopefully it's worthy enough for display...
it may take a few minutes to down load


http://www.starwarsresurrection.com/...%20Trailer.mov

Pretty cool! I think the beginning could be spiced up a bit with more than just text. Maybe on the "beats" you could flash the text and it could change. I didn't see much in the pacing, perhaps add more of your own sound effects to make the shot transitions more "active". And last I think that a quote or multiple quotes from the production would help bring the teaser a little bit more perspective. That's my two cents! Good work.