one trick pony

I like the footage and the music choice (woo white stripes), but I did not like the speed of the editing. There was so much motion in every shot and the edits were so quick my eyes felt like they were trying to adjust the entire time. Slow it down and let us really look at the footage and I think it would be a lot better.
 
interesting

firstly I can imagine if you play over a bad bandwidth it would become a mess - it certainly plays badly for me on vimeo, may DL the file and try viewing like that ?

Im learning video editing having been shooting and editing video only since the D90 my background is still photography

Ive tried to close in on the 'decisive moments' telling a story through a set of actions

gloves go on , hat goes on , man gets onto horse

Every shot has a little something, say a horse blinking

My first efforts at editing videos seem plodding and slow

I try to think on the internet you have to keep people engaged with their gnat attention spans

One thing I learned and think works is that really short cuts need to be 'locked down' shots, I think most of the (really) short cuts are locked off

There are also a couple of shots where the camera moves (helmet goes on, rider mounts) where I should have been static but was not - thats live event filing for you

So in a way its more trailer style editing, hopefully you leave wanting to see/know more rather than wandering off to the next thing 20 seconds in

Maybe I took it too far ?

S
 
Last edited:
Hey Morgan,

Funny, I saw this the first time without sound, and the quick edits,
especially in the first 20 seconds or so, really bothered me.
Saw it a couple days later (just now) with the sound on and it didn't bother
me nearly so much. Turned the sound back off and it felt just like
the first time I saw it. I must admit I have a personal bias against
gnat attention span editing. I suppose this is a curse of having been
born before the invention of MTV. So in my opinion, I do think you
overdid the pace of the editing. (I count about 12 cuts in the first 10
seconds.)

Having said that, there was some really interesting stuff
going on with your choice of cuts. I love that big breath to the music.
Also, a lot of the footage is gorgeous. I lust after that Nikkor 400mm f2.8.
That must have been a ***** to focus this quick moving action.
What f-stops were you using?

Maybe I think quick edits are a way to cover for talent that lacks talent
(e.g., can't dance) When the talent really has talent it's nice to be
able to seem them do their thing, so for this piece I would have liked
to have seen some more drawn out footage because those horses
can certainly dance.

But yes, I enjoyed it, and would like to see more.

Cheers,

Max
 
I think it was on 2.8 or 4, on a 7d at 60p IMO the iso needs to be kept low to keep some modicum of quality

As for the cutting, it certainly looks crap withtout the music

And for gnat brain edit, its the internet, its very easy to walk out, unlike walking out of a movie theatre, which is harder to do, maybe you have 10 seconds to grab a punter

Im not saying I like it

My teaser of the short I shot got no responses on this board, one theory I have is that the second shot, which I think is cool, really drags - on purpose, I reckon most people bail before that shot is gone

Maybe its just a crap bit of filming



S
 
Sam,

I like the second shot. I maybe would have cut to it on the pan,
keeping the camera moving.

I think it's an interesting theory about
fast cuts keeping you watching something even if it's not very good.
I remember when MTV first came out and for the first year (month?) we all sat around
thinking how amazing it was and then when the novelty wore off we were quick
to change the channel. Maybe MTV had some hidden research documents that prove
rapid cutting will deter people from changing the channel. And alas, a new editing style
was born.

Still I don't think that second shot put people off. The first shot is nice, and the second
shot while maybe a little long is just going to make people curious. (What is that strange
light flickering on the ceiling?) In fact, the basic filmmaking in this piece is very solid.

I think you lose people here at 2:22. It's a very disjointed transition and the shift in
musical style is jarring.

And to be perfectly frank, the content overall is a bit of a downer,
to put it mildly. Maybe this has something to do with direction because the male
characters come across as so unlikeable. There was nothing to connect with except
for frustrated or drunken male rage. A little pathos would have been nice.

So while I think it is actually a good bit of filmmaking, in the end it is a bit of a crap film.

My apologies in advance for any artistic sensibilities offended, but I really don't think
that second shot is to blame for the lack of comments. Generally, it's probably true that
if people don't have anything nice to say, they don't say anything at all.

Still there are a lot of nice bits to the film, and the editing, and the shot making, are just
a couple of the nice bits.

Cheers,

Max
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top