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My First Attempt at Cinematography


Oliver Ash

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My thoughts may not mean much, and I'll just give a technical review, but here goes:

It seems to be that all the shots are flat. They all contain the same contrast. The Colors are all the same. By that I mean nothing really pops. The interesting thing is that visually, it gets darker as the film runs. I assume it was rather bright, or just enough bright to get a decent picture on your DLSR. I also assume that you shot throughout the day, and into the evening with less light, not changing the settings on your camera.

 

The first 20 seconds look rather good. After the 40' mark, everything looks muted. Not sure if that is what you were going for, but there is basically no difference between the trees, and the people.

 

At 1:39 the girls hair starts to stand out, my first thought was COLOR!

 

I think at 1:56, when you move your focus to the big tree; that could have been the best shot in the entire thing, but you cut away, leaving me wanting some more tree. That may have been on purpose ("Where does the time go") because of the song.

 

At 2:35, the boys face is a little dark for me. Again, I don't know if this was what you were going for, but it seems he is blending into the background.

2:52 is where the neutral color pallet REALLY stands out. Everything in the forest is the same color. Even when you move to the leaves, they are still muted.

 

Something to point this out a little more would be at 3:10. Notice how the wood and the forest background are basically the same color?

 

I did however like the edit. And some of the macro work was nice, if overdone.

 

I hope that helps.

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Thank you! I agree completely with all of your feedback. You've been really helpful :)

 

I didn't edit any of the video. It was taken straight from my camera. I didn't see many settings for video on my DSLR, other than things like frame rate. I understand how a camera takes pictures but I guess I need to develop my understanding of how video works.

 

Since receiving your comments I have invested some time into looking at how After Effects and Final Cut Pro will help to enhance my video work.

 

Thanks again :)

 

Oliver

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No problem! Glad I could send you in some kind of direction.

 

I will say this tho. Of all the most beautiful movies from before the dawn of computers (say before 1984), lighting was the most important thing.

I read once where someone said "If you can light it, you can shoot it".

 

I want to encourage you to remember that photography literally is "Writing with Light". Remember that when you are researching all that computer jazz.

Get the lighting right, and everything else should fall into place.

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