Advice/Comment about Promotional Video for College Kids Camp
 

Hey all,

I recently produced/filmed/edited a 10 minute Promotional Video for this UCLA kids camp that I volunteer for every year, using a Canon XH-A1, Rode NTG-2 microphone and edited on Final Cut Pro. The target audience are potential donors (from college students, families, to corporate sponsors)

My big problem is this: The people I would generally ask to give me constructive feedback are actually a part of this organization, so it's difficult to be objective about it having gone through this experience.

The main areas I feel I need to develop include the pacing, the ability to convey the themes clearly to an audience with no prior understanding of the camp, and overlaying of general footage over the interviews.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, from detailed comments to high-level thoughts. This is an extremely important organization to me and the people involved with it, so I want to do whatever I can to portray this camp as accurately as possible.

Here's the link: Promotional Video : 9/14/08 edit on Vimeo

Thanks so much!

Randy, it's nicely done.

I would have approached the opening a bit differently. I mean, there are many ways you can do this, and everyone will have their own approach.
I always want to grab the viewer in the first few seconds. get their attention, then hold it.

I might have started with the closeup of the stream and the nat sot, then clashed that with a downtown shot of noisy traffic, and done that for a couple of quick shots, then gone back to the serene woods and use the soundbite about "it's so quiet here, you can hear the river..." and gone into it from that perspective.

I think the interviews are woven together nicely, I might leave a bit more space and nat sot in between some of them. One interview says something about the campers having fun, but the shot is a large group of them standing around. I would replace that shot with something that matches the voice a bit better.

Beautifully shot, I think you have captured the serene, natural area perfectly. I have a meeting so I have only been able to watch about half of it. will watch the rest later.

Thanks Bill! I agree about leaving more space in between some of the interviews. Let me know your thoughts on the rest of it. I'm interested in getting as much feedback as possible.

Nothing? I'll like some comments, even if they're bad.... :_

Too many calories. I enjoyed it, but it made me hungry. :)

Enter the Trojan Horse
 

Here's a little short film I made originally for the Chiller Channel's Dare2Direct contest. Let me know what you think. Shot with a Canon HV20 with no adapters (and no budget) and soundtracked by myself using Finale 2008's Native Instruments.

Movie Teaser - Vimeo 720p less than a minute


Enter the Trojan Horse - Vimeo 720p 11m07s

Okay Froyo..;)

I got to watch the rest. You got a lot of great soundbites, maybe too many. I know we all want to keep all the good stuff, but sometimes there might just be too much good stuff. LOL, so take a good hard look at that and be ruthless in the edit.

Heard a good deal about what the camp means to the counselors, the warm fuzzies they get, but what's missing?

The kids. What does it mean to the kids? Now I realize this is all in the can, but one of the best ways to illustrate a point is to profile someone affected by what you are talking about. I wanted to hear from the kids. I wanted to hear them laugh. I heard talk about laughter but didn't hear it, except for one short bit of sound mixed way down under an interview. I know the one counselor said they dont have any empirical data etc, but did any of those counselors go thru the camp when they were younger, was anyone on staff a former participant? I want to hear from them. Those that have experinced the camp and what it meant to them.

Those are my thoughts.

Hey Bill, thanks for your comments on this. I agree with you on many of the points you brought up. The amount of soundbites was also a concern for me and I will definitely take a hard look to cut them down since it’s probably the right approach.

Regarding the inclusion of kid interviews, I luckily DID interview a good amount of kids in the same style as you see the counselors being interviewed. I found it difficult to find a point where I could cut to interviews with the kids, but I’ll admit I gave up a little too early on that portion and just kind of stuck with this style. I’m definitely going to take another look at that tonight.

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it.

If anyone else has any advice, please let me know!

Well, I'd like to watch the film. The trailer is intriguing.

But you have the film password protected.

I don't have the password.

(Sigh)

I liked it...well paced (although I thought the first scene lasted a bit too long), well timed edits, nice shots. Told the story of making a nice breakfast, quickly. About the only thing I think would make it a bit better is work on the exposure. Some of the scenes were over exposed and that also contributes to focus issues. Aside from those two things, very well done!

Sorry about that. I fixed it.

Fake iPhone 3G commercial...
 

Hi,

in Belgium an Apple Premium Reseller and a mac forum donated a new iPhone 3G (cost in Belgium: 525 euros). You only had to make something digital about the iPhone.
We choose at the last minute to make a fake commercial about the iPhone 3G.
And... we won!

Shot with an EX1, a dolly and edited with Final Cut Studio 2, color correction with Magic Bullet.

The commercial's text is in Dutch, but what it says is:

"If you only had... your own music.

If you only had... your own GPS

If you only had... your own camera

If you only had... your own phone

If you only had... your own iPhone 3G".

It was shot in a rush job, I had the idea in the evening before the day of the deadline. Quickly shot in a couple of hours (transportation included between locations) and edited in a couple of hours. So editing could be a bit tighter, it's a tad too slow to my liking. It was made with a couple of friends, as a fun thing to try.
The first and last music you hear in the commercial is a famous Dutch song, which is a very old fashioned love-song, people funningly think it's only for old people.
The last sentence your hear in the commercial, from the same song as the beginning, is, translated: "Because I love you so much...".
Rest of the music was quickly made in Garageband.

Feedback is very welcome.

Best regards,

iPhone 3G contest : our submission on Vimeo

I enjoyed it. Pretty funny commercial.
I think you could have tightened up the edit a bit but other than that I liked it quite a lot.

Cheers,

Mike

Had to password protect the link: "formula" is the password.

Any other thoughts?

New Short 'Zielsveel' (Dearly) - 2min - shot in The Netherlands
 

Hello!

Just filmed my first project for filmschool. It's about...well, see it for yourself. It cost me about 5 hours to make, but everything was storyboarded and well prepared.
Shot on Canon Xh A1 with SGpro
Cut with FCP on an iMac in HDV (yes, iMacs does the job perfectly)

Have fun! Any criticism is more than welcome!
Zielsveel on Vimeo