Home video with a difference...
 

Hey all,

Made a movie with my son (19 months old) and my stepson (8 years old) to scare the crap out of my relatives. Thought you might get a kick out of it

Looks a little extreme, but I used split screens with lockdown shots (inspired by David Matthew Bonner) so he's actually got me close to him at times (namely the ladder scenes). He still scares me when he goes up that ladder. I'll be in the next room and hear "UP the ladder!" and I start running...

About 4 minutes long, Quicktime H264.

http://tinyurl.com/24vr3z

Cheers,
Vito

It looks great, which camera you used to create this footage?

Hi Oleg,

It's a Sony Z1. Shot in HDV mode, encoded directly to H264 from the Hi Def file...

Ciao,
Vito

Here's a Windows Media version for those of you without Quicktime 7:

http://www.nosmallroles.com/felix_jeff_fun.wmv

Yep, I think you're gonna scare the crap out of them alright.

It doesn't feel right saying you did a good job .... but you did.

Nice li'l vid. I like the mondo knife. Good times.

That was just awesome.

And to hammer home the 'responsibility' aspect, I loooove the song during the credits. :)

They are going to freak out. :) I might recommend having a video handy to show you were actually close by while danger baby was in full swing, to calm them down afterwards! ;)

C

Thanks for the feedback guys. It was a fun video to make, and worked out just as planned.

The horrified emails are already pouring in from friends and relatives. I've had to reply with proof of the split screens to avoid the lynch mob.

Sometimes it's nice to just relax and feel good about something you've done, hehe...

Ahhhh totally awesome!!! Knowing that it was perfectly safe makes the video that much more enjoyable. Question about the encoding; did you use quicktime pro to encode to h264? It looks/sounds fantastic for that file size.

Thanks, Michael! I appreciate the compliment, especially from you. I'm a big fan of your work.

Yes, exactly. My settings were:

Quality: High
Bitrate: 700 kbits/sec
Frame reordering: yes
Encoding mode: multi-pass
Dimensions: 640X360

Cheers,
Vito

Very slow to render, however. I'm on a pretty 'old' P4 2.5 gig PC.

Fantastic Vito! Thoroughly enjoyed that. My son is 30 months old and is just as curious - drives me nuts but in a good way. I'm sure you can relate to this too:

http://www.territimely.com/movies/short_children.html

Way to go, Vito - I loved it. The video kept my interest every moment - great work on all levels and the home audio was especially charming. My only critique/feedback is, be sure to sign 'em up ASAP before the Screen Actors Guild swoops them up :--)

Warm Regards, Michael

Well done Vito. You certainly had me concerned, from the knife onward. I totally thought he was going to turn those stove burners on. Yikes! I can relate to the ladder bit too, having two young sons who always want to "help" me whenever I get up on the roof.

Michael, I laughed my head off at that short! VERY good idea. Having two young sons myself (4- and 2-year old) I can definitely relate. I love the little extra part at the end where the kid is just moving all around. My 4 year old would be just as goofy. Well, he IS just as goofy on camera.

Hey Michael. Thanks for the great comments. I think I better Youtube it and get them an agent.

Joel, that was a great video. Funnily enough, I had almost the same experience several years ago, before I had children. I was visiting friends in Vancouver. Just minding my own business reading a book when their 4 year old boy comes up to me and says "If I poo, will you wipe my bum." With no hesitation, I replied "No."

Boy, things have changed.

I know what you mean, Mike. I was scared the first time he tried to turn the knobs, but they have a safety feature that you have to push them in to turn. So far, he hasn't figured that out...

I'm such a bad dad. You should see the emails.

that was awesome, you need to put some copyright free music on it and upload it to meta cafe, make some money :)

Ps - so I inspire you to endanger kids lives ?!?
Awesome, I knew I was still good for something. :)