Show Your Work 2008

[Ian Stark]

Just a bit of gentle fun for a client. The brief was to make a promo for a piece of scanner software - not the most interesting of subjects. Well, you can't say we didn't try!

http://www.videoit.uk.com/client_vid...final_v500.wmv. Around 10Mb in WMV. V Lo res!

Canon XL2. Sony Vegas to edit. Cakewalk Sonar for music and some foley.

[Caleb Epler]

I liked it. The tracking shot was my favorite. I like the two different color schemes, whether it was on purpose or not. I know you probably hated the wind conditions, but it also added a sort of human nature effect. I agree with the bathroom opinion, but that's not a major issue. The sound was good except for outside, but it wasn't a big deal. I like the concept a lot. great job

CME

[Paul Grove]

Thanks Derrick - this was just various shots I've collected over the years ... have a couple of projects completed and in the pipeline ...

[Mark Howells]

Thanks for the comments. I didn't get anywhere in the competition which was a real disappointment. But I'm very happy with the quality and tone I achieved.

[Bill Mecca]

some background: former TV news anchor/reporter now working in government video, most of what I do is training, education, PR type stuff with the occasional documentary thrown in.

I recently contributed a sax part to a Canadian artist's song called "I'm that Man." We bouth thought it was ripe for a video, and he wanted to enter it into a contest, so I found a bit of time. Since he is in Ontario and I'm in NJ, I gave him ideas of what to shoot ( I have no idea what he used but a consumer mini dv camcorder) He sent me the tape, I found some public domain footage, shot a bit myself and dug into my archives for a few shots. I put it all together in Vegas 6, with one tweak in Aftereffects 5.5. It's up on youtube.

I'm That Man

[Caleb Epler]

um wow, the quality is greeaat. It's not very different, but hey why would it have to be? I liked it a lot, the soldiers playing the tamborine were off just a tad, but other than that it was very professional looking, sure this is your first one?

[Ian Stark]

Yep, enjoyed that.

Particularly liked:
- the set up at the very start ('any last words' - nice touch)
- the authentic look (costumes, locations)
- the shooting segment - very nicely done
- the cinematography - some great shots and movement

Not so keen on:
- the tambourine playing soldiers (immediately removed their menacing quality, for me anyway), likewise the toe tapping.
- the sub plot with the girl etc didn't quite make sense for me - I expect I need to watch it again to fully get the story.

I would have:
- perhaps put a dialogue scene in during the middle eight - like when the case is being delivered to the man behind the desk - some menacing words then would have been great. I really love dialogue like that in a music video.
- considered using an old film stock look that would better position the piece in the 1960's Soviet Union. (or whenever/wherever it was supposed to be set!). You know, that desaturated cine film look that you see on clips of nuclear missiles being moved around Russia during the cold war - or the famous old yeti clips! Nothing wrong with the look you applied to your film, just observing what I might have done differently.
- I always think out of focus works well to increase the menace appeal of a person or people - I would have kept the firing squad out of focus every time (with the exception of the captain, perhaps).

Anyway, regardless of all the above (which are all subjective observations and not criticisms as such), I enjoyed it and will watch it again. I'm guessing that while this may be your first music video, this probably isn't your first time making a film?

Care to share some 'making of' info - which camera, NLE, size of crew, special kit you used etc etc?

Cheers,

Ian . . .

[Ian Stark]

Lighting, sound, cinematography - all great. Nice and creepy. Didn't quite follow who did what to whom and why but who cares? It was still effective!

What NLE did you use?

[Jon Wolding]

Thanks!
This is the first music video I've directed. The band and I came up with the concept.

Tambourines and toe tapping were the band's idea... to let people know they don't take themselves too serious. The people playing the soldiers pretty much had no rhythm, which the band and I thought was hilarious. We shot that and the toe-tapping a few times. I figured since we thought the poor rhythm was funny, then we'd found what we were looking for - a little levity.

The last shot tends to be missed in the compression... but the blood soaks into the shirt, forming a broken heart... then a solid heart (lyrics "...nothing worse than a broken heart"...). I went for subtle, dark humor there.

The structure of the story is broken up so that all three "climaxes" of a larger story happen around the same time in the video.
Chronological order:
1. Guy and girl (spies?) running through forest with bag (full of secret documents?).
2. They are chased by soldiers.
3. They are caught by the soldiers.
4. They end up in a cell with the rest of the band. No one is in any serious trouble yet (they're given a couple of bottles of "Russian Whisky" - heh), they were just in the wrong place or something.
5. The bag is dumped out on the Commander's desk and he finds the secret documents.
6. The Lieutenant shows up at the cell with one of the secret documents. He orders the guards to get the girl out of the cell. Then all hell breaks loose.
7. The band, now kind of beat up, faces the firing squad...

- We talked about putting dialogue and other sounds in during the music, but decided it would distract from the music (the whole point of the project).

- I actually have a shot of the tambourines in the background, out of focus, from behind the lead singer as he's playing/singing. But we decided not to use it (the section in the video where the shot synced up would've thrown off the pacing of the video).

- As for the look of the video, I was aiming for a slightly warmer version of the look from the movie Behind Enemy Lines.

BTS:
- The firing squad scene was shot in a recently burned-down building in Tampa's historic district, Ybor City
- The jail scene was shot at the old trolley barn just down the street in Ybor
- The snow scenes were shot in Vermont/New Hampshire, in the area around Dartmouth
- HVX200 w/ Brevis35, Nikon primes
- Spider dolly/flextrak for jail; Matthews dolly/fixed track for firing squad scene
- Edited with Final Cut
- 11 man crew for the firing squad sequence
- 3 man crew for the pickups at that location
- 3 man crew for the jail sequence
- 1 man crew for Vermont

[Robert Kegley]

Thank you very much for taking the time to watch my film. I agree with your comments - the one thing I regretted most was the ending and how the boy wasn't as well mannered as he had been the rest of the film. Another shot of the car would have helped as well. All I had access to during the shoot was a shotgun microphone so the audio didn't stand much of a chance outdoors.

Thanks again :)

[Jason Murphy]

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

[Michael Pulcinella]

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

[Caleb Epler]

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.

[Giuseppe Palumbo]

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

[Mark Howells]

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

I used Sony Vegas Pro 8.