As a childhood "ESTES Model Rocketeer" - I LOVED IT! Well done.

I like the concept, it was well written. I watched the whole film curiously and I don't do that a lot. I also liked the old man's acting. So, great storytelling, but there's always a but:

-The acting from the main character sometimes was a little too cartoony. I don't know if that was on purpose, but it struck me as odd.
-Some camera-angles were a little weird as the rest of the camerawork was pretty straightforward. A shot like filming through the fence at the beginning pulls me out of the story.
-I expected a little more from the ending. Now, he realizes something, and the end-credits begin. But I think the ending missed one thing (can't say what, exactly).
-The music helped the film, and I really liked it. But it was also a bit cartoony. The ghosty-melody made me think of scooby doo, and I don't know if that was what you wanted me to think.

Overall: pretty good movie! But: don't know for shure how cartoony you wanted it to be.

Great comments! Cartoony, no. But definitely old Twilight Zone in a way. That's why the music has the theremin in there. Just like the emmy winning score of one of the episodes in the old B&W show. That was definitely on purpose.

The ending of course was left as a cliffhanger. Many of the old shows did that on occasion.

The shot through the fence is actually one of my faves. You can hear the phone ringing off in the distance from the bunker. The ramp up towards him was to imply that it was oddly reaching out. He heard it.

Great comments though. I really appreciate the time.
We may tone down the theremin a bit in the final cut. Still playing around with that idea. I think it suits the time/theme though. Still, not sure if it works 100%.

Cheers,

Mike

Our (Former) Insomnia Festival Entry
 

We entered the 2008 Insomnia 24-hour Film Festival this year and had our entire project planned and ready to go. But when Apple called it off due to technical reasons, it was too late for us to cancel our arrangements. So we went ahead and made it just for fun.

YouTube - SSR

All comments welcome.

Thanks.

I guess I'm not that familiar with the old tv-shows. But thanks for explaining and good luck with future projects!

Batteryfire - Demo Reel 2008
 

Hey Guys,
Just finished a rough cut of my demo reel. It's about a minute long.
I'd love to hear people's thoughts on the content, length, cut speeds, music, etc.

Vimeo Link:
Demo Reel - 2008 on Vimeo

I'm not sure about the music - it is peppy enough, but seems a bit too canned. Also, the ending shot does not seem in place with the rest of the reel.

Otherwise, I like it! It moves right along, and your work is quite good to my eye.

The Clueless Competitor - a mini documentary
 

I present The Clueless Competitor, a 7-minute video that has been causing quite a controversy on the bodybuilding forums.

Here is the post as presented on Musculardevelopment.com...

"Should there be minimum requirements to enter a bodybuilding contest or does anything go at the local level?

What if someone seems not to be in possession of all their faculties? Can just anyone get on stage at a bodybuilding contest?

Where do we draw the line?"

The Clueless Competitor on Vimeo



Anyone interested in reading some of the reactions from the BB community can do so here...

The Clueless Competitor - a mini documentary - Muscular Development Forums

The Clueless Competitor - a mini documentary
 

I present The Clueless Competitor, a 7-minute video that has been causing quite a controversy on the bodybuilding forums.

Here is the post as presented on Musculardevelopment.com...

"Should there be minimum requirements to enter a bodybuilding contest or does anything go at the local level?

What if someone seems not to be in possession of all their faculties? Can just anyone get on stage at a bodybuilding contest?

Where do we draw the line?"

The Clueless Competitor on Vimeo



Anyone interested in reading some of the reactions from the BB community can do so here...

The Clueless Competitor - a mini documentary - Muscular Development Forums

No problem. It should also appeal to those who are not familiar with the show.

Thanks for commenting.

Cheers,

Mike

Great! I loved it! I can not even critique, the film grabbed me. Thanks! :)

edit: With one exception, the first time the phone rings, it can't be heard in the film. The scene where the janitor is cleaning up the floor, then curses and races to the phone. Just before he curses, I can't hear anything, so there was sort of no reason for him to curse and throw down the broom.

Paradise Lost
 

Hi everyone my new short

Paradise Lost - Inspired by Milton's 'Paradise Lost' some of the images include drawings by Gustave Doré. This short film explores some of these themes with reference to the modern world. Shot in London featuring Stanislas Torikian.

Music 1492 'Light and Shadow' by Vangelis

Can be found at

Londonmark Films
Paradise Lost on Vimeo

Best wishes
Mark Dawson

Yah, the phone is ringing on and off during that sequence. It rings again right before he gets pissed off. :)
It's low, but it's there.

Thanks for watching and commenting! Glad you enjoyed it.

Mike

two rap videos
 

Hello!

here are two rap videos shot in the JVC HD101:

1. Shot in Tampa, Florida:

YouTube - Mr. Smith - "Fresh White T" (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

2. Shot in Norway:

YouTube - Jesse Jones, Ken Ring & Saigon - "Drabant" (OFFICIAL)

- Nima

HVX200 on Bluescreen & 3D CGI clip
 

http://www.digitalcribs.net/DisplayV...x?id=942875439

This was shot in 4 hours, edited, modeled, motion-tracked & composited in 3 days.
Music was composed, arranged and recorded in 48h.

We have heard very late about the contest and made the last entry, few hours before closing time.

thanks for any critique ...

Edi

Clicking on the link I get a 404 - File not found error

oops, here it is !
 

First ever music video
 

Hi crew ... here my first music video example ... it's the fourth one down on the list entitled "Darker, Longer" by Calliope's Radio.

http://surveys.therecord.com/TakeSur...rveyID=l4KIlom

Your comments are much appreciated. A nice bunch of kids with their first ever effort to showcase a selected original song with moving images.

Jimmy.

Music vid for Coldplay contest
 

Got hired to DP a music video for a contest being held by Coldplay for their song Lost?. I used my Red One camera recording in 2K (the director wanted to do a lot of slo-mo 120FPS, can only do that in 2K). We shot it all over last weekend in the Boston area...mostly outside with temps in the 20's! Small crew...DP, Director/Producer, Gaffer, 2 grips, PA. Edited in 2 days (not by me...I wasn't involved in post at all). The director posted it on youtube yesterday. Click the option under the vid "watch in high quality". It looks much better than the low res. We were not able to record every shot he wanted in the script in the time we had. I plotted out 67 individual shots for the video from his script. There was no way we could do them all in the time (and budget) we had. So he had to sew it together with what we were able to get. see it here:
Lost? - OurFilmSpace.com

First Full Shoot with Canon XH-A1: Hunting Season
 

It took two days to shoot and edit this.
I think the results came out ohkay.
Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Feel free to ask questions!

Plot:
A Rabbit gets Revenge.

Hunting Season on Vimeo

Thanks,
Kevin

The Turkey Trot - ONE video...TWO clients!
 

This is a first draft of my latest project. It's about a 5 mile charity run held on Thanksgiving Day.

The challenge with this video is that it is intended for TWO outlets. I am making it for a fitness website and also for the sponsoring organization, an insurance company. I attempted to give equal time to both the fitness aspect and the charity aspect of the run. How well did I do? Your opinions and suggestions are always greatly appreciated.

Turkey Trot - 2008 on Vimeo

Pure genius! And I'm serious.

The camera, editing and sound (although the sound wasn't that bad) could have been much better. (But hey, it's a first time). There were some technical glitches which were distracting.
But all that was overshadowed by great storytelling. I liked the bunny's acting and how the scene at the table was lit. the flashback of the kidnapping was not nescecary. The shots in the field were good, I liked the shot of the running man.

Overall a film I will remember!

Thanks!

Care to go into detail about my editing, camera, and sound?
I'd like to learn as much as possible.
Maybe point out specific flaws?

fresh!
 

Great videos! Both of them. I was thoroughly digging the vibe ;) And I'm not even into rap music!! You got some real nice footage to work with, and the edits are great too!

Hm, ok. Some tips:

-I had the feeling you sometimes use autofocus? Try to manually focus everything you shoot.
-The tilt from the ashtray was not that fluid. Make sure to use a good tripod, if you haven't got one, try the tilt handheld.
-The scene where the hunter gets knocked down by the bunny (the flashback) the sound of his 'hello' sounds bad.
-You could have made the music louder when the hunting-scene begins. For the dramatic effect. But that's taste.
-While the man is running through the forrest the camera zooms and focusses. It breaks with the simple, elegant way of filming throughout the movie. It doesn't really make it more exciting.
-A little detail: when the rabbit screams: I can see you! The audio begins exactly on the videocut. Try starting the audio or video earlier. You'll see that it's more pleasant to watch.
-When the man is shot, he falls down but we don't hear a scream, thud, anything.

All of the above are just details. The fact is: I liked the film because of the good acting and storytelling.

Reel...
 

Your reel looked really good. What did you shoot with?

I think it functions more as a promo than a Demo Reel.
 

There is not enough for the substance of directing to get a sense of what your abilities and talents as a director are. I think we need to see something in a demo reel that demonstrates either your work with the character arc or story arc. And not the full scene - unless it''s a short one, but something that collapses your directorial efforts down to a few minutes.

If I didn't know you were a director, I wouldn't be able to tell from that reel. Now as a prelude to a reel or something like that, I think it's fine. Snazzy images - I like the two people facing each other on the cliffs and the woman in the high heels walking away from the bed.

I read your update page - congratulations on your successes. Very nice.

Nice work.
I'd be interested to know what camera gear you used.

Really enjoyed the reel. Some lovely moments (the people on the cliff tops, the lighting on one of the drummers, the kid rolling in the grass, the TV in the shopping cart - although that was a little close to Come To Daddy by The Aphex Twin!).

If I had one constructive criticism to make it would be that the soundtrack coupled with the regular clips from music videos kinda made the reel look like a single (but disjointed) music video. That's it - nothing else to complain about - I thought it looked great.

I echo the enquiry about the gear and edit software you used.

Just a single editing observation (in addition to things already mentioned):

When the guy starts his run, he runs into a wooded area with autumn leaves on the ground, then you cut back to a quick clip of him running over open ground before we see him in the woods again. Just a bit disorienting.

I thought at first that the moving/defocusing camera was deliberate (a la Battlestar Galactica, NYPD Blue, etc) but a little understated, giving the unintended impression that it was accidental. If it was deliberate, there need to be faster zooms and more obvious focus slips. If it was NOT deliberate then you need to focus more carefully and use a tripod, as per Ivo's suggestions! :-)

Enjoyed the story nonetheless. Well acted (with the possible exception of when the guy gets hit on the head and falls - ever so gently - to the floor!), appropriate music, good length. And fun.

EDIT - just realised I went further than a single observation. Sorry . . .

Cooking With Kraft Competition piece...
 

YouTube - Kraft Cooking Entry - Molten Cakes

Got a call on friday to shoot this on sunday! For such a short prep, I think it came together pretty well. First shoot using my new lighting kit (basic Smith and Victor 3 piece open face photofloods) - what a treat compared to my clamp lights and worklights.

Critique away, beat it up if you like... I have an unnaturally thick skin.

Talent had never been in front of a camera, she did pretty well overall... I tried to make the set relaxing for her :)

Sound was Audio/Technica wireless lav, camera was my trusty XL1s. Twice through the recipe once for the master shots (and to see what I'd be shooting over all) and second time through to get cutaways and closeups. 3 night edit, a little work in Shake for title compositing. and away we are with the competition.

Golf documentary
 

Next time you think golf is a difficult game, or if your game drives you crazy, watch If Everyone Cared... on Vimeo

Wow, I am humbled. Never again will I play golf without thinking about this video. Thank you for showing human spirit at its bests. Bob Safay

Thanks
Few clearups-

"I had the feeling you sometimes use autofocus? Try to manually focus everything you shoot."
Everything was manual, but a few times i just spun the focus ring that wrong way, or just wanted it to be out of focus for a bit of the shot. I thought it gave a "someone is watching you" feel


"The tilt from the ashtray was not that fluid. Make sure to use a good tripod, if you haven't got one, try the tilt handheld."
90% of the movie was filmed by hand with a CB-105 shoulder mount.


"When the guy starts his run, he runs into a wooded area with autumn leaves on the ground, then you cut back to a quick clip of him running over open ground..."
I thought this displayed a run that "lasted a long time"...



"I thought at first that the moving/defocusing camera was deliberate..."
Deliberate. Wanted an action-y feel.


Thanks for all your help guy!
I'll try to fix those issues before I submit it to my local film fest.

Thanks again,
Kevin

I see your point - but having looked at it again I still get the feeling that the cut back to the open ground shot is out of place, sorry :-)

Still like the film, though!

Super16 short film (comedy, of sorts)
 

Hey, this is a school project i worked on, i thought maybe you guys might want to see it.

they gave us one roll of film to work with(app. 2mins50sec), and out of that we had to shoot three 27 second takes, one of which had to be used in our final cut. the rest of the roll we could shoot whatever we wanted, but in the end it all had to come together and tell a story so this is what we came up with!

oh, and we shoot with Bolex's so we don't have sync sound, all the sound and foley was added in post!

interested to hear some criticism, thanks!

YouTube - Welcome to Nowhere

or, if you hate youtube try this one:
Welcome to Nowhere (on virb.com)

Thanks for the input. Any more comments on the content? Shot selection, pacing, length, quality, etc? I'd really like to cut this down to the best stuff.

That was pretty good. I really liked the voice of the....I dunno main guy in purgatory(not the actor) it sounded like the voice from the ship in "Flight of the Navigator). Your exposure looked good. I liked the comedy that was used when he smoked a cigarette. I'm very impressed with how you got around the sound issue....very creative.
If I had to criticize this at all it seemed like you stayed on the purgatory scene a little to long.
I know that you mentioned "student film" part for a comedy purpose, which is totally fine for when you show this at school, but I would probably have cut this for when you show a bunch of random people the film.
You did good though, I doubt I could have told the story any better.

My entire DVX100 feature now online
 

For what it’s worth….Here’s the complete online version of my first feature film, a comedy called Rap Quest. It’s 10 parts, with each part being roughly 9 minutes. A few things to note here: Obviously, the quality of the image is severely degraded, having been transcoded for internet use. The other thing is that there is a strange motion blur effect when there is motion in the fame...I guess this is The motion was fine in my final DVD (which can be bought on Amazon.) As for the movie itself…what can I say…looking at it nearly 5 years later it seems pretty embarrassing. There’s a lot of stale humor in it, bad acting and the plot and character development are as thin as a hair. Nonetheless, it’s impossible not to find at least three or more scenes in this little no-budget straight to DVD movie that wont make you out right laugh. I promise you that. I’ll be uploading my entire 90 minute horror movie tomorrow. Enjoy!

-Glenn

Rap Quest - Part 1

Charlie's Game - my latest short film
 

OK, I live in terror of showing my work to other people, but then again, if I don't how to progress as an artist?

I have it up on OurFilmSpace.com - Serving the Film and Television Industry in New England, a site for Film folks in the New England region of the US o' A.

This link should take you directly to the video page:

Dennis Stevens's Videos - OurFilmSpace.com

If that's not working you may try:

Dennis Stevens's Page - OurFilmSpace.com

and clicking on the 'Videos' section.

Note it is chopped into 3 parts.