Television Promo

Kevin Wells

Kevin Wells

Well-known member
Hey all.

I shot and edited this 30 sec promo piece for a local televangelist. This is a rough draft. Just wanting some opinions on what people like, dislike, would change, etc...It was shot on the HVX at 720p.

*Original*

http://www.emergentpictures.org/web/brm_intro.mov

I have made a few changes including the titles, made minor edit adjustments, and cut out some of the smiling at the end although some is still there. I HAVE NOT ADRESSED THE AUDIO YET. I know it is a bit odd, so I will work on that this weekend.

*Updated*

http://www.emergentpictures.org/web/brm.mov

Thanks for any comments.

-kevin
 
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Overall very well shot and thought out. Like the wife and dog shot .I'm not wild about his picture at the end, maybe smiling a bit too much.

Any ministry needs to show a bit of what the ministry does for the community.
If possible, show him interacting with someone at hospital, homeless shelter,
etc. to promote a positive image and try to undo what some of his fellow televangilists have done. Great work!

What scene file were you using? Any special settings? I shot the zoo footage just posted at 720pn and it isn't as sharp, just trying to figure out why.
 
I also find it hard to show people talking to the camera without hearing the audio... as it just seems disjonted somehow. Just my .02 Looked pretty nice and clean though. Nice boom move. I do think the smile at the end is too much. I think a VO would be necessary in a lot of places. more Sound design.
 
Yeah, I'm going to cut down the smile at the end. I agree about the oddness of him talking but hearing no audio. I didn't realize how jarring it was until I started editing.
About the VO, I'm thinking about putting some in.

I forgot to mention that this is for his television show intro, and would be used also as a commercial/promo. Obviously it needs more info to serve as a promo, so none of that text is in there right now. This isn't the main one to be used. We are building an animation in Maya, but keeping this one as a conventional one/backup. Thanks for the comments. Keep em' coming.
 
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Nice job man.. Nice lighting on the interview stuff.. What did you use? Also, the boom up?
Did you shoot mostly at 48-60fps?

Keep up the good work.. I agree with what everyone else says about the lack of a voice coming out of this guy (considering thats what he does, SPEAK)

Lets see the next cut..
 
Thanks for the comments. For the interview stuff, that was just a 650W Britek with Softbox, and the back light was a Britek 200W. I had a gelled 650W Britek through a cookie for the background. For the boom, I used the Skycrane Jr. And yes, most of the shots were at 60fps. It was either 60fps or 24fps, no in between. Thanks again for commenting.
 
I thought it looked very good. You might experimenting with the gamma an saturation a little. If you tweak these settings up a little you can really bring up the richness of it and give it more of that film look like Lakewood Church does. Just a thought.

It looks very well done, though. I agree with the other comments that you need to hear some audio, whether that be a VO or some actual clips of him speaking. An the Smile at the end is way toooo long and way toooo big. Also, the effect you did at the end was real nice, but it seemed just a tad out of place when it wasn't usedany where elase in the clip.
 
AAAAHH Studio cuts! They make me so warm and Fuzzy. I have delivered over 100 shows all with the Studio cuts library. Finally got clearance to use Video helper in an effort to save the public from a mass killing spree using only a spoon and a wad of hair as weapons.

nice work though!
 
HAHA. Yeah, it's Studio Cutz. First time I have used it, and they aren't as bad as a lot of the other things I have heard. Thanks for the comments, and I will be working on it more this week. I should have the final next week. I will post here as soon as I get it. Thanks all.
 
The images are fantastic. They're well lit, generally well composed, and make good use of movement. The music and editing is very strong as well.

That said, I'll have to echoe the comments from others that the lack of audio is really odd during the interview stuff. I mean, you did record audio didn't you? Why not just stick it in? Even for the opening to a TV show a few words of wisdom don't hurt. And yeah, his smile kind of scares me just a bit.

That said, great stuff. Really great stuff (would have sworn I was looking at 35mm).
 
Thanks man. I'm really happy with the images I got out of the HVX. I only own the DVX (I rented the HVX for this), and I'm sad to say I didn't want to go back to the trusty old DVX. I love the HVX images and workflow. Just gotta get the cash together for it.
 
Well this looked very professional. How much did you end up charging the guy for it? Seems like if you keep doing stuff of this caliber you should be able to pay for an HVX200 pretty easy (especially given rental costs are rather high and it's more economic).
 
The budget was $2,000. Not a lot considering the work put into it (theres some Maya animation being made as well), but I know the guy and know more work is coming from him. With buying the HVX, I just graduated college last spring, so I'm afraid rent, insurance, and paying back school debt while buying an engagement ring (while trying to get freelance work) has pretty much ruined my finances!
 
Hey. The only thing I did was crush the blacks a little bit on some of the shots. I'm sorry but I do not remember the exact setting I used. I didn't change the setting dramatically. I believe I boosted the color and detail up a bit in the camera.
 
Kevin, beautiful lighting and great footage. I agree with most of what others have said, but I think the weakest point of your clip is the shot (actually 2 shots) with the choir singing. I guess that's suppose to be him singing with the choir, but he looks totally different in these shots. He has an old fashioned geeky looking haircut and more conservative old fashioned suit. He really looks like a different guy, very geeky looking, not good for his image in my opinion. His image in all other shots is very contemporary, cutting edge ministry type guy. His image in these shots is "old fashioned small-town churchy". I don't mean that as a slam to old-fashioned church people. I just get the impression from his look in all the other shots that that is not the image he is going for. Maybe you could get some shots of him singing with his new look.

Question: Right after the headphones shot, there is a shot of him with a big Bible looking book as part of the backdrop. How did you achieve this?
 
Hey. Thanks for the comments. Actually, the guy in the choir is not him and isn't supposed to be presented in that way. The reason we included the choir is to give it a church community feel, and the client did not want to be in every single video clip. I put it in there to add to the church atsmosphere of the video.

A lot of the shots were filmed with that background. The headphones shot, the camera rack focus, the one with the bible in the back, and the one with him smiling were filmed with a fabric behind him. On several of the shots (including the one with the bible), I used a projector and projected an image onto the screen behind him. I use this technique in a lot of interview setups I do. I normally have a gelled light through a cookie illuminating part of the fabric as well. You just need to make sure that position and flag your keylight so it doesn't go on to the background. He was standing a ways away from the fabric. It takes some time to set up, but it is very simple and I think adds a lot. Hope that helps. On my website, I have a jazz video (titled Between the Notes) clip that utilizes this and I think looks pretty cool.

-kevin
 
I have posted a new version of the video in the original post. The audio has not been adressed yet. All comments welcome. Thanks.
 
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