Comment on wedding ceremony sample clip in High Definition 1280x720p

[Christopher Winnicki]

Here is a video I am posting on my website; it is meant to be an advertisement, to attract customers (of course).

If you download it (~300 MBytes, 10 minutes at 1280x720 in MS mmpeg4v2/mp3 format) I would appreciate if you can give me feedback.
http://animaimage.com/HD_wedding_sam...eg4v2pass2.avi
(If you experience any download problems I would appreciate if could let me know.)
Please consider all these areas:

lighting (filmed outside)/exposure
camera angles
scenes/takes
quality/codec pixelation
presentation in general
overall quality, deficiencies

your worst criticism

Cheers,

Christopher
http://animaimage.com/
http://animaimage.com/HD_wedding_sam...eg4v2pass2.avi

[Dave Graton]

Hey Christopher, I'm relatively new to posting in THIS particular forum, but I always appreciate feedback (good or bad) myself when I post clips up for review as well....so here goes.

-No download problems at all (speed was 85Kb/s which is about half of full speed for 1.5Mb download)- acceptable
-Obviously you've got terrific bright light HD footage there. Downside is that HD is even less forgiving on overall camera shake.... I would invest in the smoothest tripod and steadicam gear you can afford. If you've movement in the frame don't leave your hand on the tripod handle because it can show wiggle.
-Your lighting/exposure wasn't bad except that I don't recommend using auto exposure settings as you had several instances of the dreaded camera iris lag. You just HAVE to learn when to use manual exposure...
-You appear to be shooting handheld? It almost looks like you were given a stage seat right next to the bride & groom...very convenient, but when I see people waving that usually means that you're sticking (ya know...sore thumb?)
-Closeups are terrific, but I did notice pixelation in the dark areas of the face.
-I would remove overly shaky shots altogether. If you really need the audio for a shaky section, then overlay it over a cutaway shot.
-Since this was pretty much a straight cut with just a few fades to shrink the overall time down, I still felt like you may need to do a bit more in terms of the wow factor being that you wish to make this an advertisement/demo. Perhaps some slow-motion segments, narratives, or anything . Then again, maybe not if you're truly advertising your service as a straight cut wedding. That's for you and your business to decide.

Thanks for posting that.

[Christopher Winnicki]

Thanks for the feedback (great suggestions and critique).

-The tripod and the shaky shots are pretty repulsive, my next investment is definitely a better tripod.
-Good to hear that you had no download issues (I guess you were the only one downloading since you were reading 85Kbytes/s, the site is running from my home on a DSL line)
-Improvement in the wow factor will definitely be needed.
-Pixelation at 3Mbits/s HD is almost unavoidable (I tried my best), I guess I could mail DVDs (to dvinfo people) and request for comment (heheheheheee).

All comments are greatly appreciated, thanks Dave.



-Christopher.