seth christian

We're going to be shooting our next music video on March 28th. We've done a greenscreen test at the location already with close to the same level of lighting that we'd like to use for the real shoot. But upon our composite test, our results have been completely UNSATISFACTORY! and UNUSABLE! It seems like Final Cut doesn't key very well.? Looking for any footage or composite shots from any greenscreen composites that turned out well......using a DVX100 or other DV camera. Any advice to the greenscreen world with DV would be greatly appreciated!. (which isn't the prime choice medium to shoot with...I know, but this budget can only afford a DVX100) :) thanks

16mm? I hope you were going for that REAL grittty-grain look, otherwise, I might suggest learning a bit more about sufficient lighting and f-stops. but if you're going for that look then thats cool, but I'd have to make more of an assessment of why you chose to do this for the right context AND if it works for it....once I've seen the short. cheers, christian

the Mole-Richardson site does have really good spec sheets on comparing kinds of lights and their powers accordingly. Good REFERENCE! it might be pretty useful for someone out there to start a site thats just for this purpose...and actually test every common light and give a yah or nay on contexts to use it in and foot candles thereof, etc...

There's a lot of young film-makers out here that are thinking that hey...."1000watts should be a 1000watts, regardless if its a halogen, HMI, flourescent, etc....right!?" I think its good to have a thread on knowing what to expect if a beginning crew buys a 1000w yellow light from home depot is going to be slightly different from getting 1000w HMI that throw a ton more foot candles because of the amps behind it. I think PHOTOS would be great for examples! And stories of what ended up not being enough light, huh! darn, we'd better run to Walmart and buy some more lights...scenario! so first question: how many foot candles does a 1000w halagen from HomeDepot give? and, how many foot candles does a 1000w HMI give?

you tracked your footage within all the photos VERY WELL! what software did u use? what method did u use? I find tracking probably the hardest thing to accomplish, especially when the camera is really moving. I liked the video and the concept. cheers

Z.Vex, If you're going to make such negative comments...at least give a couple specifics to why! This site/forum is used to improve skills within our art, not to just make people look bad.

wanting to do 2 more character bits, but this is it so far. opinions ya'll. tell me if you love it or hate it. and why? that way the last two pieces could try to balance for any good points made. http://thinkmonkeymedia.com/video/documentaries/video1.html thanks for your 2cents!

big carrot...groovy! :o) besides some terrible exposures on the bunny/carrot footage I liked those parts and some of the groovy style cut-edits. however, i didnt think they blended at all with your video footage in the trees, as cool as the tree location was, the band needed a lot more direction in their performance and what was going on, of course, you were only the DP, so thats with a grain of salt for you. Try doing some ECU shots or something to mix it up and giving it more presence and movement, thus, stimulating the viewer more...and not leaving it so stale. keep it up! :o)

looking to video tap my Bolex EBM. place to go where they do reliable work, but wont cost too much. ???

[quote ... my production company. Investors. I dont wanta stray too far from the forum topic, but whats your company? and what investors r u using if you dont mind me askin..and how is it going? I only ask because I'm on the verge of embarking down that investor road myself and am just curious on your take. if you'd rather start a discussion in business, just let me know.

to be honest, I thought that the video was pretty stale compared to the happy face one. this video didn't have continuity at all. the b&w scene seemed like a complete different music video to me, even though the b&w part was very interesting and cool. the grassfield with the artist singing could have been SOOO much more, you could think about putting in some composite background behind the treeline or something to give it a kick*** atmosphere or something.!? the whole ambulence scene wasn't scripted out very well I thought, the car wasn't damaged or anything, who was driving, who hit him,....it was just like him around after being hit by noone lying on the street. these small details take you strides closer to a more believable and effective view. anywho, sorry for all the neg. assessment. you're smily video was leaps and bounds beyond this one. however, you've obviously got something goin and you'll only get better obviously, so keep up the good work! cheers

fantastic idea! I loved it. However, just a couple things did bug me a little: a couple jumpcuts here and there, the knife scene where he gets mugged could've been directed much better, it was pretty lame when the guy hits him in the belly...sortof. and, I disliked the house shots, except for the one with the stove. u did some great prep work with head props, stickers, etc. u had some terrific slow camera moves, made a good feel for the song in context. did u use the f900 or z1u cineAlta ?

I have a Bolex EBM. Used Fuji 250T w/85filter and Fuji 500T. thanks for the post, cheers.

[Just out of curiosity how do you plan to use the trailer to promote the music video? I don't think I've ever seen that done before, is it something the label plans to use, or is it for personal promotion?] -Scott The artist is planning a huge fund raiser at a theatre and she's using this teaser on a temp website to help entice labels, people, etc... thanks for the reply.

everyone please give me their thoughts, I'd sure appreciate the input....good or bad! http://thinkmonkeymedia.com/preview.htm thanks ya'll

I think that the low-key lighting is TOO low-key. And, there's too much of it. Too much silhouetting going on. Most of the shots of the artist are lit just enough to tell there's a face...but too dark to really see him, and the blackness everywhere doesn't say much for anything thats going on, I guess. Some of your choices for backgrounds could have been a lot more interesting, like having more elements in the shot so that it fills the composition with content to make it more visually stimulating. I dig the globe in slowmo and the red in the blender, those were cool. But again, these are just my views, maybe you were going for these kind of things on purpose, so I cant trample on another's art. Not to bad. Let me know what you think of a music video I just started working on. http://thinkmonkeymedia.com/preview.htm

Just started to work on an edit and I just wanted to get some other professional opinions on the edit, the compositions, etc...whatever. Keep in mind this is a "movie-style" music video and I haven't done any compositing work...like clouds and lightning in the background...chroma key on the green picture frame. I'd like to get the best edit possible...so have at it. PS- please be patient for the video to load, shouldn't take longer than 20-30 seconds. http://thinkmonkeymedia.com/preview.htm

I think its gonna be pretty darn decent!!! Well done! I would say that the directing could have been slightly better, but its still decent. Like the girl....she seemed a bit too cool and calm for someone trying to kill her with a machine! I liked the active camera movement and the shots. What's your plan on showing it, festival? Trying to push it with investors, or will this be the ending step in making the movie? Just on a side note.....I love the player that displays the clip. Where can I get that? cheers

I like the styles. If there's one thing that is usually lacking in music videos that I view most of the time is either a good story to watch with the song OR some kind of entertaining element in the footage that keeps me watching, whether it be effects or not, there's gotta be something that makes it fun, and I think you do that....like the tv heads, its a little different, its cooky and fun to watch! Or even better, your dotted room with efx compositing, its cool! However, I didn't think much of the bands. Do you have a website?

really the only concerns are: make sure your aspect ratios dont change, make sure everything stays 16:9 ratio thats relative to your resizing, then just resize your layer down to its desired 720 x 405 or whatever you're using. also,....I would never try to use renders that have been mixed codecs or formats, such as trying to pull in a video that you rendered once as a quicktime (sorenson) and then allowing Encore to try and translate it to an MPEG4 or something like that. if you're using Encore, just stay with AVI or MPEG files from the beginning!

I'm looking to start editing with Smoke or other that will interact well with my Combustion I'm using. The footage that I get back from the telecine uses the Blackmagic codec, and the results using Discreet as opposed to Premiere is drastically better!

I understand what you're saying, and I agree with what you're saying! My comment was with the assumption that the production of the edit and shoot was good. Yes, you can shoot the best film footage in the universe, but if one is not talented to produce and cut it in a way that makes the footage come alive and really portray a professional piece, than it'll still turn out as crap. I've done a recent XL1 piece that is EXCEPTIONALLY better than my first couple film productions because of what you said, but I guess I didn't phrase everything that I meant in the right context. Plus, I'm so biased to film over video, so......you know! :o) cheers

anyone have a list or link of a list with all the great film festivals? I'm getting ready to do some short films and I'm starting to research ones that would be good to go for. Right now, I'm only a member of Triggerstreet. I'm doing documentary, a mocumentary, and 2 drama films. any discussions on this would be great. seth

mr.cox, no rude remarks intended. my apologies! I totally understand your point, I just felt like you no one was getting the point of really what I was looking for; which was the "film" look being more important for this particular contexts over superior resolution. cheers

I dont think anyone's responding to your thread because nobody wants to have to download Slide, its kind of an annoying software. but I did, and I thought the footage looked pretty good, but hard to really assess much with just stills. what festival r u running it in? I'll keep a lookout. Ok, now I'm going to uninstall Slide.