First ever PSA

Cristian Carceller · April 25, 2011

Hi,

This is the first PSA i have ever shot... A club at my high school wanted this to air on its television network so a director asked me too shoot it. I was very excited for this opportunity. I am 15 and i shot it on my t2i... Let me know what you think!

thanks for your time

Benjamin Davis · April 26, 2011

Hey, I'm going to go kind of in-depth here and I want to try to point out what's right before I point out what's wrong with this.

What's right: You were able to convey the message that these two people were in love very well. With the visuals, I was able to immediately understand that these two people were in love and happy. You also caught me by surprise when the mood switched to the man's abuse toward the girlfriend. This is good, because it catches my attention and I'm more alert to continue watching the PSA. You definitely have the subject down and you knew what you were filming.

Now, for what's wrong. Don't look at this as a derogatory thing at all. This is advice that will benefit you. I want to see you get better, reason why I'm telling you what to correct.

What's wrong: The camera is incredibly shaky. It's very difficult to see the couple when you are going in and out of focus like that. I'm all for depth of field, but try to stabilize the camera, work on your blocking and have the composition set before you shout "Action!" The lighting is very pretty, and you shot it at a good time of the day. Next time, though, try to scout for locations that offer interesting shadow patterns, such as beneath a tree. The imagery became very repetitive and needed some kind of break from the warm sunlight shots. Slow down your cuts a little and be sure that if you have a tracking shot to hold the camera as if it weighs 500lbs. The less shakiness, the better!

I hope this helps, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Cristian Carceller · April 26, 2011

Thank you so much! We did not have much time to get ready for this project... In the black and white shots, the director wanted it to have a handheld shaky feel, same with the clu... But i see what your saying, And the spots we filmed were not picked by me but the director... thanks for your advice and hopefully you will enjoy my future work!

thank you!

Cristian

Paul Brenno · June 2, 2011

Christian, first impressions;

1) if the story is about love, warm up the video more with either warm filters or warm cards....this gives the viewer a sense of visual warmth, hence the emotion...focal length should be more close-ups shots, depicting a feeling of closeness, which would convey the love feeling...smooth/fluid shots...Use tripod MORE, esp during the warm/love portion...

2) handheld during the fight sequence is good, the visuals suggest frantic/crazy moment, which co-incides with the emotions, try for a more contrast image, hard blacks/whites to convey the visual emotion....