Bravo Italian Restaurant (EX1+Letus Elite)

91ststudios

91ststudios

Member
This is a promotional film I wrote, shot, and edited for Bravo Italian Restaurant located in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

http://www.vimeo.com/3409326

Technical Info:
Six hours of shooting using three SXS Cards on Friday, February 20th and delivered fully edited to the client on Friday, February 27th.

Shot on a Sony PMW-EX1 with a newly purchased Letus Elite. I used a 28mm 2.8 (Wide), 50mm 1.4 (Primary Lens), 105mm 2.8 Macro, and a 180mm 2.8.

All tracking shots were conducted using an Indi-Slider and Steadicam Flyer LE.

Feedback is greatly appreciated and critiques are welcome!

Thanks,
-Josh Gooden
 
Nice video! Here's my two cents for a critique: (I'm no expert)

1) The POV shots walking into and around the interior, I think you should have just used the shot walking in and then edited to tripod or dolly shots of panning the various rooms. I felt there was too much movement. A little too unprofessional looking.

2) The owner interview, I think the background is a bit too busy. Maybe less light or maybe the background more out of focus? Not bad though.

3) Kitchen shots look good. Maybe an additional light? (a little bit dark)

4) Server shot. The server served the food too fast. I barely got a chance to see the server and the customer. I saw a slight movement in the camera that looked nice, but the shot was so short I didn't get a chance to see it. Next time have the server slow down. (I review many of my people shots before I move on to the next scene. SxS makes this so easy. You can even show the actors so they can see what you're talking about.)

5) The food shots look good, but there's something still not quite right about them. What lens did you use? I've had good luck using very wide angle lenses. Did you use the 28mm or the 50mm? Lighting looked good. No hot spots on the food (which is a common problem)

6) Dolly shot of the wine storage area. Nice movement, but I think it needs some additional lighting. Too much mixture of daylight and tungsten.

7) Pan inside wine storage area. This is a nicer shot, as the lighting and background is better. A little bit fast though.

8) Final interior shot. Very nice. Could have used some people sitting at the empty table?

9) Exterior shots. The time lapse effect is fun, but the lighting isn't great for some reason. Maybe shoot at night?

I hope these critiques don't come across as harsh. I enjoyed the video and I'm sure the owner was very happy with it. Good job! :)
 
Very nice work. The footage looks great.

As far as editing, there are a few times when you have b-roll shots over the guy you are interviewing and he stumbles with his words. Since he's covered, you should clean him up (take out stumbles or huge pauses).
 
Thanks for the comments!

I agree with the POV shots. I actually removed a majority of them and replaced it with footage shot on a slider. It would have been better if he actually walked around with the camera and explained various aspects, but he was short of time.

5) I used a 105mm Macro for the extreme close ups.

Thanks again for the comments, they were not harsh, but I must explain exactly what price point I am producing these for. The list price for this type of video is only 1K for the time being until I get a few more developed and perfected. This is far less than any other production houses near me. The videos will be mainly shown on an upcoming social networking site that will have vendors across the engagement/bridal industry and the client can choose to have it run through the web virally as well.

Thanks,
-Josh


MitchLewis said:
Nice video! Here's my two cents for a critique: (I'm no expert)

1) The POV shots walking into and around the interior, I think you should have just used the shot walking in and then edited to tripod or dolly shots of panning the various rooms. I felt there was too much movement. A little too unprofessional looking.

2) The owner interview, I think the background is a bit too busy. Maybe less light or maybe the background more out of focus? Not bad though.

3) Kitchen shots look good. Maybe an additional light? (a little bit dark)

4) Server shot. The server served the food too fast. I barely got a chance to see the server and the customer. I saw a slight movement in the camera that looked nice, but the shot was so short I didn't get a chance to see it. Next time have the server slow down. (I review many of my people shots before I move on to the next scene. SxS makes this so easy. You can even show the actors so they can see what you're talking about.)

5) The food shots look good, but there's something still not quite right about them. What lens did you use? I've had good luck using very wide angle lenses. Did you use the 28mm or the 50mm? Lighting looked good. No hot spots on the food (which is a common problem)

6) Dolly shot of the wine storage area. Nice movement, but I think it needs some additional lighting. Too much mixture of daylight and tungsten.

7) Pan inside wine storage area. This is a nicer shot, as the lighting and background is better. A little bit fast though.

8) Final interior shot. Very nice. Could have used some people sitting at the empty table?

9) Exterior shots. The time lapse effect is fun, but the lighting isn't great for some reason. Maybe shoot at night?

I hope these critiques don't come across as harsh. I enjoyed the video and I'm sure the owner was very happy with it. Good job! :)
Click to expand...
 
That all sounds great Josh. Good plan.

5) You should try a wider lens next time you shoot food. I think you'll like it. :)
 
Great work all in all, here my 2c:

- too many empty room shots (you can do this with fine real estate, but restaurants need people enjoying their meal in the picture IMHO)

- too much natural light used (less shots with directed lighting whould raise the production value)

- way too long without using the time to really cover the most important aspect of a restaurant: the food.
Let costumers rave about their favorite dish, show WAY more cooking, show the 750$ bottle of wine aso...

- way too cheap. You brought all the good stuff, giving a high production value, you should charge accordingly. Nothing wrong with showing up with a bare camera on a tripod and doing a "news coverage" style report as an entry form of video advertising.
But the gear alone you brought should almost earn you the budget you charged.
I don´t know how long you have been doing this, it might seem a lot of money for someone in college, but once you start paying for your wife, the kids, the house, the car, the collge fund aso you´ll feel sorry for selling of cheap - and letting customers get used to these prices...

Only reason I could see for doing this for cheap are extra revenues from the social networking site you mentioned...

All the best,

Spart
 
Thanks Spart,

I agree with all your comments except the last one. The point of charging very little for now is that I can build a portfolio of promotional videos and gradually increase the price. Now yes, we are dealing with more than 15k worth of equipment, but right now I am experimenting until I get the correct formula of contracts, revisions, time spent, etc until I find a system that works well. Plus receiving important feedback on the videos I do finish, so I can make the following ones twice as good.

Oh and there is the factor that I just turned eighteen and am trying to get as much experience as possible. Though I try not to throw that out to much..

Thanks,
-Josh

Spartacus said:
Great work all in all, here my 2c:

- too many empty room shots (you can do this with fine real estate, but restaurants need people enjoying their meal in the picture IMHO)

- too much natural light used (less shots with directed lighting whould raise the production value)

- way too long without using the time to really cover the most important aspect of a restaurant: the food.
Let costumers rave about their favorite dish, show WAY more cooking, show the 750$ bottle of wine aso...

- way too cheap. You brought all the good stuff, giving a high production value, you should charge accordingly. Nothing wrong with showing up with a bare camera on a tripod and doing a "news coverage" style report as an entry form of video advertising.
But the gear alone you brought should almost earn you the budget you charged.
I don´t know how long you have been doing this, it might seem a lot of money for someone in college, but once you start paying for your wife, the kids, the house, the car, the collge fund aso you´ll feel sorry for selling of cheap - and letting customers get used to these prices...

Only reason I could see for doing this for cheap are extra revenues from the social networking site you mentioned...

All the best,

Spart
Click to expand...
 
With no knowlege of your background ....Let me just say that advertising/marketing and promotion is not an easy thing. It takes years of education and practice to make great promotional materials.

It is very obvious that you put allot of effort into this piece and I don't want you to feel bashed. If you want to discuss it you can PM me and we can chat offline.

frisco
 
Hi Josh,

My comments are on the steadicam moves:

I would recommend a purpose to the move, for example you can use a waiter to help you transition from one room to another as you follow them. Then you could have a couple sitting at a table as you slooowwwly rotate around them to be picked up by another waiter passing in the background so you can follow them to another room.....etc. Simply panning back and forth does not result in good images or story telling in my opinion.

Also its also great to catch a steadicam workshop, if you haven't done that already. It will teach you the rules and tricks in how to pan, tilt, rotate, advance...etc.

Good luck with your business.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top