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I'm not big on self-promotion, though you may have noticed that I'm big on expressing myself. But I decided to go ahead and post a link to some of my class videos on YouTube to see what some of you think. The quality sucks compared to the actual versions that are DVD quality. The compression actually helps on one of them though, where the inaccuracy of the lip-syncing is not very noticeable. Criticisms are very welcome, otherwise I wouldn't put them up. Post responses on the videos if you like.
Evil Windmill of DEATH! This is my first class video, from last semester. We were provided with about 15 minutes of video of cows and a windmill and told to edit to music, and tell a one minute story somehow.
99 Greg LuftBalloons This is from later last semester. We were again provided with raw footage, this time a bunch of takes for one scene of an embarrassingly bad unfinished short film from what looks like ---based upon the attire and hair of the woman in the graveyard--- the early nineties by one of my professors (Greg Luft; he's the "FBI agent gone bad" who questions the guy who runs. I think he was still doing news at the time, which he was really good at so don't judge him by this.) I decided to make it a music video for Nightwish. I was just learning the effects techniques, so that's why they are kinda bad.
BassBall Earlier this semester... given about 30 minutes of raw video of a Triple Crown Little League tournament. The assumption was that it would be an Event Package type story, but I decided to make it a music video for my band. In the previous week we learned how to do many of the effects you see, and we were required to use each one at least once. I would have left out a couple of them if not. Limited to 2 minutes, so the version of the song is cut down from over 5 minutes (like the Nightwish song.) If you want to hear the entire song and others by my band, go to myspace.com/gashead. I play bass.
Kuntao This is a 2 minute profile piece that I just did. It has certain restrictions on it, like the length could be no more than 2 minutes and no more than one shot from the actual interview (which I broke because that's a stupid rule designed to prevent people from doing packages with basically just the interview [which some people ended up doing anyway; I don't know how some of my classmates even made it this far.]) That's me doing the voice-over, and being painfully used as a practice dummy.
I'll update this thread as I add more videos. Let me know if any of the links don't work.
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I put way to much effort into this post to have no one respond to it. This is a bump. I'll delete it tomorrow if no one cares to comment.
Posts: 1286 | Registered: Dec 2005
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I liked Kuntao, haven't had a chance to look at the others.
My biggest beef is the VO. Get someone with a more "radio quality" voice. It doesn't have to be Don LaFontaine, but high pitched nasal...not so much.
A fade out at the end would've brought everything to a close a bit better imo.
I'll try and give you some thoughts later.
Kuntao...is that what they used in Batman Begins? I thought it was something direct and no-nonsense like what's described.
Posts: 1236 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I more or less watched them all. My favorite was actually the 99 Greg LuftBalloons video. I found the effects on the other two distracting, and I just wasn't into the Kuntao interview one. Even in the Luftballoons film the drop a second jumps at musical staccatos seemed overdone. I think you used that in the Evil Windmill a lot, too. I really liked the splicing in BassBall to make it look like all the people were singing the lyrics; that was a cool effect.
But I don't know anything about the finer points of film.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
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Is my voice really that high pitched and nasally? Yeah, I would normally have done a fade out (and a fade in), but for news packages you're not supposed to because if the technical director drops the ball for a second you end up with a black screen. I can't remember if that was the specific form in Batman or if it was just straight ninjitsu. Kuntao has it's origins in China as opposed to Japan for ninjitsu.
Those jumps in the Luftballons was just me not compensating for not knowing how to do anything else. I had learned a lot more by the time I did the BassBall video, but still not enough to fill it up with more variety. The lip-syncing took forever, and it still didn't look perfect. An interesting tid-bit: probably 75% of the shots were reversed and speed-altered, which helps make it a bit unsettling without the viewer knowing why. It gave me the idea of filming an entire movie, like a psychological thriller or something, with everyone in acting in reverse, and then reversing it for the edit. If it could be done well enough so that it was unnoticeable, I think it could create a very eerie, unidentifiable feeling to the entire work. I think David Lynch did that with a particular character in one of his movies (Mulhulland Drive, maybe). That would be a LOT of work though.
Posts: 1286 | Registered: Dec 2005
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Thanks, Toad, and for commenting on the video. I'm an okay bassist. Did you hear the drummer? Nate Scofield: Best Drummer in Colorado, and that's no exaggeration. Check out our Myspace if you haven't.
Posts: 1286 | Registered: Dec 2005
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I thought what you did with the cow footage for Evil Windmill was very clever. It would've been great if you'd managed to cut to a cow laying down (perhaps sped up to look like a collapse), or maybe yawning (which can look like gagging) after taking a drink. Actually I'm not sure if cows yawn. Horses do, I think. Did others come up with the horror theme, or did they do boring pastoral stuff?
Also liked the lip syncing in the bassball video.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Reshpeckobiggle: Thanks, Toad, and for commenting on the video. I'm an okay bassist. Did you hear the drummer? Nate Scofield: Best Drummer in Colorado, and that's no exaggeration. Check out our Myspace if you haven't.
You know, ever since you posted those pictures of yourself playing bass, I've wondered what style you play.
I've already checked out the myspace page. It's very solid stuff.
Posts: 1594 | Registered: Apr 2006
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Basically Resh, your VO track had no "sweetening" as far as I could hear. And even with sweetening...I'm not sure. I'd check out the dude at your local radio station who does the local radio/tv commercials...he's around somewhere. They can usually cut stuff like that for....maybe 50-100 bucks. Depends on the length and their rates.
Posts: 1236 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Yeah, that's something I should do, the sweetening stuff, I mean. I can do that better, I just didn't put enough effort into it. One or two takes and that was it; I was in a bit of a hurry to finish in time. Even so, I don't think my voice is very much... suited... to that sort of thing. Anyway,all these things so far are class projects, so I'm not about to pay some dude to do the VO's for me.
Scifibum, yeah, country/blugrass stock music, or atmospheric sort of stuff, with no story more than "cow gets up, windmill pumps water, cow drinks water." Some of it was cleverly edited, but... let's just say I was proud of my work.
Let's also just say that I've done several other videos for class that I won't be showing anyone.
Posts: 1286 | Registered: Dec 2005
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Not bad all around. I think you build the story well with your editing--emphasizing all the right parts with the effects. The song you picked for the 99 Luftballons chase scene was awesome.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Evil Windmill fo Death has the makings of a viral classic. It never ceases to amaze me that with slick editing and a certain soundtrack you can generate any desired atmosphere with even the most mundane of footage. I was thinking that it needed a beter payoff at the end, but then I realised the payoff is that there isn't one - it is truly just some cows in a field and a windpump. It made me laugh at least.
Nice work Reshpeckobiggle, you're a pretty fine bassist too.
Posts: 892 | Registered: Oct 2006
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quote:Is my voice really that high pitched and nasally?
No. It's very clear. It sounds like any reporter voice making documentary. It's quite normal to use your own voice in this kind of documentary rather than a voiceover actor. It's like a BBC "Reshpeckobiggle Reports" type thing. Perfectly acceptable and your voice is pleasant and clear.
I watched them all. The Kentao thing is the most polished and I would be happy watching that as part of a magazine section of a newshour. The baseball thing was hilarious and well done (although I agree the effects were overdone) and you even managed to salvage the 90s footage, although you didn't really tell much of a story.
The cows thing was meh for me but I think you did a good job .
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I'd check out the dude at your local radio station who does the local radio/tv commercials...he's around somewhere. They can usually cut stuff like that for....maybe 50-100 bucks. Depends on the length and their rates.
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