Early footage from Niagara Falls documentary.

Y

young_fast_&_scientific

Active member
Hey guys,

Here's a short reel of footage i've shot thus far for a documentary i'm putting together in Niagara Falls. The film is in VERY early stages, with only two interviews completed. The main subject has yet to be interviewed, and I will be showing him this clip as an example of the tone and style of the film. Let me know what you think:

Niagara Falls Doc Footage

Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks,

Jay
 
I really liked that. Some fantastic shots in there - especially loved the tank interview with the whale tank background, and the communication moment was cool between the guy and the whale. Good camera work.

I was there a few years ago for an afternoon, and you captured a lot of how I remember it. Thankyou.
 
Some really nice mood and style to the piece. Like the composition on the wide desk shot and the shots of the whale with the one guy are sweet. Like the telephoto of the acrobat too.. very very nice indeed. My only thing I'd say to work on.. and I know it's really rough and early.. is the sound design. It's cut abruptly and you don't have any fades and cross fades and you can hear the sound just cut out and or off. The one guy also has a ton of echo on his recording... probably the location, but I'd try and EQ some of that out to match or maybe get a LAV on him or something.

Looks really nice so far though with some good mood and music... Just needs that old tightening up. Who's hiring ya to do this or is it a personal project? Let me know if you need some underwater niagra shots... LOL.. just as long as I wouldn't get sucked under.... and over..

I went on the Mist ride there before.. was really cool and had a great time visiting that during my youth.. except for the car ride there.. that was horrible. My nana and my two bros and myself in the back of a Datsun driving from Montreal to Niagra... HORROR ...

Keep it up and love to see the finished piece...
 
Hey guys, thanks for the comments.

Justyn: I totally agree with the sound design. I haven't put to much into that at this point, but am planning on taking the appropriate steps to clean everything up in the future.

As for who's hiring me, this is a personal project at this point. I've been doing a one man crew for this thing thus far.
 
Things are-a-changing Justyn, my business seeds are sprouting thanks to this camera and a whole new lease of life and work it's given me.

Had a baby son a month ago, Liam, who is adored by his 4 year old sister.

thanks for asking, and keep up the good work yourself.
 
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Nice looking!
How do you keep the camera safe around all of that moisture/mist? Any type of bag/enclosure?
 
Hey Look_1st:

I've managed to stay far enough away that I don't have to deal with it. Some days are worse than others down there, but i've managed to avoid the mist. However, I will want to get some closer footage, for which i'll have to come up with some sort of covering for the camera.
 
Nice work. At first the ECU kind of freaked me out but I like that you chose a more striking composition instead of going with a more comfortable closeup. Just be aware, getting that close on an ECU tends to have a psychological effect on your viewer. I like it, but other people might find it strange.
 
Isaac_Brody:

Yeah, i've had similar reactions from people regarding the ECU. Personally, i'm a huge fan, and I guess I draw a lot of visual inspiration from the documentaries of Werner Herzog and Errol Morris. I enjoy the cutting between tight and wide. Maybe even a little Sergio Leone inspired documentary filmmaking!
 
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