My first Beach shoot.

siniarch

siniarch

Veteran
So I did a shoot on the 5th of July around 5:30am on the beach.

It was just myself and 2 actors. (one was the girl on the footage, and the other was another girl that wanted to help and learn about film making)

Needless to say, it was pretty tough. (it was really a one man show)

I'm just getting started and filming on the beach with an M2 and no crew was a little daunting. Especially the time constraints (with the sun light getting through the marine layer, and trying to avoid people going to the beach in the morning)

I found that I was so overwhelmed with getting all the technical stuff, that I neglected to direct the actor into having a better performance. I didn't review the footage before moving on, and was not able to do enough takes because of time, and because the ocean was not cooperating with me. grrrrr.

All in all, it was a great learning experience. Here is what I edited with the footage I shot. Let me know what you think.

www.silo23.com/heinz-01

Thanks,
Luis
 
I like the framing and the look in the opening shots and I agree with you on how daunting it can be shooting at the beach. I liked your piece.
 
thanks jinks. its always good to hear that people liked it. I'm not going to use it for the commercial, but I wanted to put something together for the actor that she could show people and use for her reel.
 
siniarch,

nice choice with the hand lick. what a crazy overcast day, huh?

i also really enjoy the bottle rolling in the waves. makes me think of the old "couples rolling in the sand" type shots.
 
Looks great Luis, you got a great eye. especially given the problems you had.

Had a great time hanging in LA. Thanks for helping me with my shoot, other than provoking a street gang it was a success. The stuff looks great and we got some really nice stuff cross country.

how's your film coming along?
 
i wish the hand lick would have been covered in a closer shot. a commercial is such short in length that all shots must be powerful and punchy, i felt the edit was too long, and shots were average. keep on shooting. and good luck on ur future endeavors.
 
Bradley, Thanks for your comments. it was in Malibu. early morning the marine layer is always like that. so I should be able to duplicate that almost every day.

Hey Bosindy, How was the trip? hope you had a good time. Let me know when you have a finished cut. As for my film. delays delays delays. hopefully I'll film something I can use tomorrow. I'll keep you posted. and let me know when you are moving to LA. hahahah

Creativeye. Closer shot on the lick ah. I'll keep that in mind. I thought edit was long also. I hadn't realized how fast 30 seconds just fly, until I put this together. I just put it together to show the people that helped and give me some practice. As for the shots being average, can you elaborate. I am going to keep shooting and hope that my future endeavours can wow people. So your thoughts on why my current shots are average would be very helpful.

Thanks everyone.
 
you said you had to sharpen some shots. Just curious how much you did. in FCP? i thought it was interesting. it wasn't your typical sunny beach vibe, which can work. I thought your shots were cool, but when she went for the bottle i just lost interest when she licked it. i don't know. to be honest, it just looked bad. but not in a good way bad. maybe that it was overcast, and that sucking on ketchup after a workout wouldn't be my high on my list, maybe if there was something funny about it or an editing trick right at that moment of her licking it- cause that's what the whole thing builds up to- then it might have worked better for me. anyway, that's my two pennies. kudos to you for shooting it!
 
thanks sonic,
I sharpened in edius. The setting was Strong. (I want to say 20 out of 100) it added some grain to the footage, but I was ok with it. Once you reduce the size it gets sharps also and looks good.

I know what you mean about the ketchup not being intense. That's what I meant about not being able to direct the actor as well as I wanted to(My fault)

I was overwhelmed with taking care of everything, that I didn't get a chance to review the footage, nor pay as much attention to the acting as I wanted to.

I told her a few times that she had to take a zip of the water and when she noticed it was gone, to look frantic, and look for something, anything. and then she finds the bottle. and she should seem like she just can't wait to eat it.

But after a few takes, I just decided we had to move on before we the sun came through the marine layer.
 
fwiw: the set-up was great, music was great too.

but the idea went nowhere.

what's the concept/story & why is ketchup the hero? it's begging for a surprise...

i'll never forget when an old famous ad teacher once told me of a an ad i did for class ...

-you walked up to an interested girl in a bar & said, "banana," & she just turned around and walked away...

that's how i felt after viewing. i liked it for some reason, ya had me w/ the visuals, music & all , but lost me.

i do think this could be very cool though...

fwiw: that's just speak from an ad guy.

cheers & bol
 
thanks Rich,

Yeah, this wasn't the concept for the commercial. and even at that, its not what I wanted. I was collaborating with someone on the idea and I might have to go back to my original idea.

This was just me piecing the footage I had together, to something I could show. Hence, concept was weak.

I appreciate the criticism.

I'll post something when I'm finished with it.

Thank you again.

Luis
 
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i gotta' feeling you'll come up with something cool. bol

that desaturated look feels very 70's cinema... goes well w/ the white stripes track too.
 
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Thanks Paul,
but I think its a result of sharpening the image, and reducing the image size.
I actually didn't have my M2 set up properly so it was a little out of focus. :(
but shooting HD and bringing it down to SD solves most of that.
Lenses were Nikon Manual Primes. I used a 35mm/1.4 for the 1st wide shot, an 85mm/1.4 for some of the others, and I can't remember if I whipped out the good ole 180mm/2.8
 
i thought she was going to save the drowning bottle of ketchup....

but was surprised by the over all weirdness. I like.
 
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