Nike "a Single Dream" - by s3films

s3films

s3films

New member
So I finished my first portfolio piece and uploaded it to Vimeo. Link below but please read on first.

I have always wanted to make commercials but never did anything about it. Finally 3 months ago I bought a HMC150 and a full blown editing computer. Before 3 months ago I had zero film experience, no classes and I never owned a video camera before. I am 37yrs old.

The clip "a Single Dream" came to me in the middle of the night. I woke up and had the majority of it all there. So I wrote it all down at 2am, 2 pages of notes. Then took a buch of photos at test locations and when I found one did a lot of lighting test and settled on a morning shoot. The kid in the clip is my friends grandson and the voice is his grandfather. The kid is only 5 years old and he had to wake up at 5:45am to film but he did great.

I used my HMC150 with everything on manual for every shot. I also did a lot of test to get the two looks in the piece. The golden hue at the begining and end and the blue hue in the middle. I really ramped up the iris and the gain levels using a modified version of scene F5. Before you comment on the fact that the whites are blown out or the blues are two intese, remember that I went for that exact look and deliberately did that. Also I did no color correction in Premier, I did it all on camera. I obtained the blue hues by shooting in the first 1hr of visable light, and the golden by waiting 30 more min. I did add a gradient ramp to two scenes (chaulk and shoe spin) and there are a few scenes with lense flare for the flashes.

I also used a variety of shutter speeds to obtain the look I wanted for each scene. The whole thing was shot in 720/24p and converted with the Pansonic transcoder and then outputed to H.264. Edited in Premier CS3 and titled in AE.

It took me and a crew of 3 to film in 2 hrs. I made a mini skater dolly for one scene. I used a go-kart stand as a dolly that an assistant pushed me on. I also sat backwards on a scooter for some scenes while another assistant drove. I did use a piece of white posterboard for a reflector. I also used a ladder.

No sound was recorded on the shoot. Everything was done afterwards in Sb.


* Please watch it in HD and click on the 4 arrows at the bottom right of the video that looks like an "X". Then before you start it make sure "scaling is off" at the top righ of the screen. *

Click here: Nike "a Single Dream"

It looks about 90% as good on Vimeo, there is a few stutters on Vimeo that are not on the master.

Hope you guys like it :)
 
Overall I liked it. I think my only criticism was that some of the shots were a bit too redundant for me. I think it could be shortened. Considering how long you've been doing this I would say that was quite a feat!
 
ryvac said:
so you made a Nike video for fun???

great video btw, it looks amazing
Click to expand...

Kind of. Like I said I always wanted to make commercials and I have found that I love filming. So yes I guess I did make it for fun but my long term goal is to build a portfolio.

I already have my next piece sketched out. I thought up this piece because it only needed a crew of 3 and was simpler. My next piece will need a crew of about 10, 2 day shoot, and has a lot more euiptment that I need to make.
 
Nice job! The whole piece feels too long, but that's damn impressive considering you just got into the game.
 
I like it, God knows my stuff wasn't like this after 3 months... If you were to edit-it real tight and short, it would really flow. Nice work man, Keep it up!!!
 
Loved it... Never new about the scaleing thing...wow.. never new what that little button did. How did you do the running shots..do you have a steady cam?
 
I used a go kart stand that I modified as the dolly for some shots and I sat backwards on a scooter for some others. No I don't have a steady cam I just got lucky and had a lot of 3-5 sec clips without a bump. Sometimes I used a small sandbag and sqeezed it an the camera between my knees so I could focus with one hand and hang onto the scooter with the other. Backwards on the scooters luggage rack was totally sketchy and I fell off during a practice run without the camera.

That kid was really fast. I worked with him for a day on his running style. His dad is a college football player. The kid just turned 5.

Thanks for all the great responses:)
 
Looked good, but you should cut it down to a :30, it could flow very nicely.

Also, you had a few shots in there that didn't follow the same cc style you had going. I think you should stick to the same color correction throughout to keep the viewers attention.
 
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