Web video for the Red Cross

M

mrWr0ng

Well-known member
I'm doing some video for the Red Cross of the bay area, nothing major, but when I went in, they had no idea what they wanted, the guy in the video hadn't even read the script, and everything was pretty much up to me.

Anyways, this is their website: http://bayarea-redcross.org , and I wanted to try to get it to match, so I set him in front of a white background and colour-corrected to whiten it as much as possible.

This is the footage I went with, but I'd like some feedback. It's a 30 second piece that I put together from 4 different takes from about 35 takes we did total - he never did it correctly all the way through in the time we were shooting, so I had to put it together somehow.

This is the footage, and thanks. I know it's not impressive or anything, but would just like to see how it comes together as a website intro piece.

http://www.jlboyce.com/video/Brooks_2.mov
 
My opinion, is do a reshoot. the guy is looking off to the sides, cross disolving between is horrible. Image is VERY flat, and the greyish backgorund is darker on the last shot. Audio seems very low.
 
If they can not memorize the scipts or just get it handed to them, you need to break the shots up. kind of like you did in post, but creating a shooting list with storyboard aloong side script will help you acheive a short shooting time. You could have gotten in like 10 takes, which is double the shots in your final version, = two takes per sentence, and better to have more takes for editing. Just my opinion. As for the eyes and him looking off, maybe you could have had him talk to you, putting yourself infront of the camera, without obstructing the path of his eyes. I sure it would be tight, but worth it.

These are just my opinions, and dont know if they are practical in your situation.
 
My biggest problem is the audio. I would have put a lav on him, and also a boom over his head as well.

I've done a lot of these 'white screen' limbo shots over the past few years and here is what I've learned for pulling this stuff off:

1. Make sure the background is lit as evenly as you can possibly, possibly light it. And use "Super-white" seamless paper-- don't use regular white or video white. You need to use the brightest paper possible.

2. Set the iris on the camera so that the white background is a little over 100% IRE if you are going to be posting the video on the web (which you are). This will blow out the white to broadcast standards- engineers everywhere are spilling coffee on their pants- but will get you closer to true 'computer white' in post.

3. Also set your white balance to the paper-- and don't change it--- even if the talent appears too warm or too cool once you put them into the scene. We'll deal with this problem later.

4. Once you have the background lit evenly, slightly overexposed, and white-balanced, bring the talent in.

5. Now, if the talent looks too warm, too cool, overexposed, or underexposed, use your key, fill/bounce, and Backlight to adjust. If he's too cool, try and warm him/her up with gels or dimmers. If he's to warm, try playing with some light CTB gels. If he's under/over exposed I'm assuming you know how to handle that---- different heads, lamps, walking in/out, etc.

WHATEVER YOU DO, KEEP THAT CAMERA SET FOR THE BACKGROUND EXPOSURE AND WHITE BALANCE. Adjust the lighting to correct for your talent, not the cam.

NOW...... To get that dude to look at the camera consistently, you probably should have just done more takes with him, until he got it right all the way through. BUT, if you are dealing with non-pro talent and you don't have them for enough time on set, I have used another method-----

If your budget can support it, hire a teleprompter operator who has (2) camera mountable monitors, and bring a second camera to the shoot. Now, you sit in front of the second camera and have the teleprompter operator feed your talking head image to a teleprompter mirror on the main camera--- so that when the talent is looking 'at' the camera, they are actually looking at YOU. Then, have the teleprompter operator send the main camera's signal to the mirror on the camera you are sitting in front of. Now you and the talent are having a sort of video conference in the same room.

Using this method, the talent is able to look at 'YOU' while they talk instead of the camera lens (which can make them feel awkward). I've had great results with this method, as their eyes rarely leave the proper contact point, and when they walk on to the set, all you have to do is say, "we're just going to have a conversation back and forth, here look at the monitor-- do you see me?" And they usually say, "oh yes, this will be easy, I thought I'd have to stare into some camera lens or something." I'm being a little sarcastic here, but it does work very, very well, and people get into the groove very quickly on this.

Hope all this helps, and shoot me an email if you need to talk on the phone about any more of this. -Mike :thumbup:
 
The thing that really freaked me out is that the speaker suddenly flipped to the left side towards the end of the video.
 
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