Yep, that about sums it up.
Nice work!

Thank you for the comment. Some people had alredy told me that the first scene is too long, but I think it contributes to a better "shock" effect when the fast-paced editing comes in.

I fully agree with you in the overexposure issue. I'm not a professional, so it's hard for me to get the look I want, because every time I see some cool shot, behind there is days of searching over the internet and reading books about how to achieve that particular look. And when it comes to making it for real, you find problems that you never imagined before...

I'll be working hard in the next project, so it looks better!

Thank you again!

Thanks!

Anyone else? :-)

Without any doubt one of the most beautiful shorts ever. This really is stunning. Simplicity above all. Less is more. This 2 minutes are a classic. I do not exagerate.

Superb acting of the guy, I love how the camera keeps rolling after he gets the heart back.

Terrific use of audio. Let this short be an example. You don't need dolly's, cranes and huge crews to make something that is universal, something that we all recognize and touches us.
I would have casted another type of girl, but that's personal, nothing against her.

Ivo, you should start realising that this 2 minutes are splendid. Many congratulations!

I liked the acting of the guy, too.
I loved colors and everything else!
Good work!

JJ

Thank you for sharing your reel!
I liked most of it, but I have to agree more with Lori. I myself am making reel for my company right now, and the first thing even before I gather the footage was what to put in the beginning, middle and end. sorta arranging and planning things out.
I have NO DOUBT that you are very artistic, and got some top notch tech skill. But just like Lori said, storytelling was somewhat not focused and footages were scattered.
I wrote down some of the shots in the middle: LeBron James-Guy on the sofa-Band music video-Rapper-Guitar-shoes-Guy wondering-LeBron James-Band-Guy wondering-Water Fountain at Park-Band-Rapper-Guy wondering-Rapper-Rescue Team-James LeBron- and I think you get my point.
I would definitely arrange some of it, put similar stuff closer together instead of here and there.
Here is my 2cents...
Keep up the great work, man!

JJ

Very good use of facial expressions and actions to indicate what was un-spoken. For her actions, it seems like her face and body language could have given more to the scene (not like I know what I'm talking about... just what I'm seeing).

Very impressive story.

First Interview
 

I have undertaken a recent project: Document a local string quartet as they prepare for their next concert series. I have learned that documentary is a totally different style. I am interested in all of your comments. Help out the new guy!

First interview on Vimeo

P.S. Something was messed up in the encode and/or upload, so the audio is wack.

A few suggestions:
Choose a better location with less noise - that audio was not the best.
Don't shoot someone with a window behind them with bright daylight outside.
You have some interlacing issues going on there.

Thank you, Dennis. Duly noted on all points. Unfortunately, I don't have the best gear around, which, I think, had more to do with the audio problems. Not enough isolation.

But the background, yes, I will agree, that was terrible planning. I may have to re-shoot with all of the sunlight off the windshields.

This is how we learn though, thanks again!

Eric

There are definitely some problems with the interlacing. I have had issues with the same thing on a few of my recent projects. Does anyone know how to fix/prevent this?

thank you very much :)

Make sure to select the deinterlace option from your video editor when exporting the video for use on computers and the web. This should remove the lines you are seeing in the video.

Thank you, Josh. I love these boards. Everyone here is awesome.

I enjoyed this short. The score perfectly pushes the story along, without over-doing it. Whar filters did you use for the color? Very impressive work.

Very nice! Keep working.

I just fiddle with the 3-way colorcorrector. I love to pull the mids up a lot, which gives a kinda bleachy look.

Ely in August HD (Sony EX3 Timelapse)
 

My first 3 minute short done back in early August when I got my Sony PMW EX3.

http://vimeo.com/1796053

Comments/constructive critique welcome!

Andy, i enjoyed that as I am always in Ely on a Saturday taking the girls to ballet lessons and having a relaxing coffee at starbucks!

Out of interest are you capturing your footage from the EX3 using Prores codec?

cheers
Sherif

Hi Sherif,

Actually, just the standard Sony Clip Browser (version 1 as I heard it was much faster on here when V2 came out - not sure if that's true or not) to MBP 15-inch hooked up to a 24-inch Dell 2408WFP and then editing in FCS2 with the XDCAM 1920x1080p settings in the timeline (I've not got past the basics of FCP 6 and a little of Soundtrack Pro 2 within that suite yet so forgive my ignorance.

Then it was just a quick conversion to Quicktime using pretty much the Vimeo recommended settings on their site. Nothing fancy as this was my first project with EX3/MBP/FCS2 etc. I'm never totally happy with what Vimeo does to my videos as dicussed to death on Dvinfo by me a few months ago.

Lots to learn yet!

Glad you liked it!

Wedding Intro / Prep
 

Hello.
So I am finishing up this couple's final long cut. It's not all that great like others, but I am practicing and studying everyday to get better.
It was shot by only Canon XHA1 only by me. It was one man show... which I not prefer, but... oh well.
Enjoy, and feedback is always welcomed and appreciated!

Wedding Intro (prep) on Vimeo

JJ

J.J., I have left this thread in place because this is the appropriate forum. I deleted the other one. We have a 'no cross posting' policy at DVINFO.

Regards,

-gb-

Sorry about that! Rookie mistake!

The Watermelon screening at the San Diego Film Fest this weekend!
 

Sometimes post feels like it's going on forever, but we're finally premiering at the San Diego Film Festival this weekend. So far the response has been good, and we've been able to stay on top of the most scheduled list at the festival. The trailer is strong, and I'm confident the film delivers on what the trailer promises. It's a great script, beautifully directed and edited with wonderful, charming actors. A friend popped it on a few weeks ago, and called back within three minutes of the beginning to find out who the DP was - so everyone's work has gotten high marks.


Here's the trailer:
YouTube - THE WATERMELON

And if you're in San Diego area and are coming out for the festival, we'd love to see you. Here's the festival page for the film:
San Diego Film Festival 2008 : The Watermelon

Watermellon Trailer
 

Hee hee. Funny Trailer-- the strange thing is, I have seen it somewhere...I don't know where though. I wish you the best in Sandiego. Looks like a fun piece!

New Chocolate Commercial, comments welcome.
 

I just finished another chocolate commercial in the Fanny May campaign.

http://www.blackbagfilms.com/fmcpixiessmall.mov

I like it a lot, feel free to add your comments.

Michael Azzariti
Director Cameraman
Black Bag Films, Inc.

Very nice - made me want some candy. I guess that's the whole point, now isn't it? :)

Yes, there were a couple off-focus or over-exposed shots, but it was very well made - I'm hungry!

my collection of videos
 

if any of you have got the time to look over a few of my videos i would appreciate your feedback of what you think works and what dosn't and what i could do to make them better

thanks

kevob's videos on Vimeo

MTV & Coca-Cola Soundwave music video
 

MTV Baltic & Coca-Cola had a contest called Soundwave for unsigned bands, the winner band would get a music video as a prize. I was chosen to do it, check it out: fff.ee

We had 10 shooting days, in some scenes we used two cameras. A-cam: HVX+M2, B-cam: HVX+SGpro.

Aero shots were done from shoulder, original footage was very shaky. Underwater shots were done with home-built underwater housing.

Short Film I made for class
 

This was filmed in one day and edited in the next. Our assignment was to create a five minute short about anything we wanted. This was our first film project for my Cinematography class.

Philip: A Filmmaker on Vimeo

Comments are appreciated.

Great!
 

That was amazing. I loved the concept and the way you blended the 'real-ugly-life' with a child's perspective. The video flow was incredible. I loved it

I saw it at the fest Sunday night and I found it very funny. Congratulations to the entire team. I met some of you there. Good job.

Daniel

Pixie Porn?!?!
 

A client described the spot as "Pixie Porn".

I'll take that as a compliment!

Daniel,

Congratulations to you on your Best Feature award. I got tied down with real estate catastrophies and didn't get a chance to see The Appearance of a Man, but your trailer is fantastic.

And I'm glad you enjoyed the film. I'm very proud of the work we did. We've had one distribution offer, and I am very hopeful about the future. :)

Hi Michael,

Nice job.

If I was to be constructively critical, I feel like the lighting of the hero shot of the chocolate itself could be improved. As I'm sure you are aware (but I am re-stating here for those who haven't done a lot of product shooting), shiny objects like cars and chocolates are all about reflections, and any given light source will both cast light on the subject and appear as a reflection in the surface. I feel like the individual bounce cards or frames that you were using to light the chocolate should have been larger and more uniformly lit; the hot spot in the higher source reads a little funky on the product.

I would likely have used an overhead softbox to create contour across the top of the chocolate with some additional lower, large sources to give more dimension to the sides, but made sure that the sources were uniform in appearance and not too hot.

Charles,

I agree with you 100% on the fact that sheen sells chocolate. (I've DPed a LOT of chocolate for Peter Elliott)I had to tone down the light sources in order for the whole spot to cut together. Enough light for a good wide highlight on the chocolate burned out the pecans and the background and I wanted some nice fall-off on the surface.. I felt that sacrificing a wide delicious highlight was the trade off for good rich colors in each part of the story. I tried to compensate with a harder rim light to get some specular hits to liven up the chocolate, which did a fantastic job on the caramel. I dropped a double and single in the rim but I agree that it is still a few stops too hot. I can't trust the onstage monitor and should get out my spot meter for this stuff....

Best regards,

Michael Azzariti
Director Cameraman
Black Bag Films, Inc.

Interesting dilemmas Michael. I'm personally not much of a menu diddler but I wonder if there might have been some tweaking possible that would pull out more detail in the chocolate and/or keep the pecans from blowing out.

Tabletop is so delicate--I hear you about the surface getting hot with an overhead softbox but it seems like you had a fair amount of depth behind the product, could it not have been flagged just above camera, both in front of and behind the chocolate?

The highlights in the caramel and especially the chocolate itself when it is being poured were nice although I myself am not crazy about the hard shadow created by the rim light--wonder if a softer source would have still carried the pour?

So many ways to skin the cat of course. Hate to get too dissect-y about someone else's lighting...congrats on the campaign and continued success!

Dream lover (short film by me)
 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3295/...8b574039be.jpg

Dream Lover is about a girl, who dreams. She dreams herself and her lover, and the game is between herself and herself. She lives and is born from her experiences in the dream realm. Alas, it is never just a dream.

Made this short film with some of my friends. Spent 3 days filming and two weeks editing (a few hours each day after work).

Please tell me, what you think! It's my first try, so please be honest.

Watch or download here:
Dream lover (short film) By Andris Krastin? On ExposureRoom
Dream lover (short film) on Vimeo

Film web page: Dream Lover - Our Fire Film

now also in HD lack of Eoins - Children's Society on Vimeo