SHORT: Why I run

S

snapdragon

Member
Hey guys,

I've been producing videos professionally for around 5 years now. I've always found it hard to see the progression of my own work. After a while, I've found that I get tunnel vision and I'm never sure if the videos I'm producing are any good or not...
I'm sure this is the curse of the creative professional... or maybe it's just me?

Either way, one of the things I look forward to most after finishing a video is getting feedback. Is it any good? Does it suck? What can I do better next time?

This video in particular is part of a series of short videos I'm currently working on for an ultra distance running event in New Zealand. It wasn't a scripted video - I shot the event with 2 other camera operators, and shot the interviews with a series of guided questions. The rest was 100% crafted in post.

I'm quite proud of it - I really like the tone, and the message it portrays. But I'd really like some feedback so I can make the next one even better. Good or bad, any comments would be great :)


Cheers all
 
As usual please take my critical comments under an umbrella of general positivity. You deserve to be proud of this. Jumping in:

-Are these runners ultra runners? My cousin is on the US women's team, and there's not a lot of pudge in their photos. They're lean like the guy you interviewed, rather than the softer bunch you filmed running. If you film a less intense group at a 5k to pitch the magic and difficulty of ultras, it's somewhat of a slight to the ultra runners.

-The shot choices, the edits on beat, the guy's motivational spiel, the Hollywood sound design...it's all fine. It's just 100% safe and 100% what you'd expect. There's nothing to complain about. What's new? What's funny? What haven't I seen before? What makes this unique to your filmmaking and distinct from a thousand others?

-In the only documentary project I've done, I learned that everyone sounds like your interviewee when the camera is on. They say what they feel they are supposed to say in front of a camera. It's all tame and might as well be scripted. As soon as you shut the camera off, all the good stuff comes out. Original stuff that you could never script. Trick: keep the camera running, say thanks and great job, talk to them for five more minutes, then unclip the mic five minutes after they thought they were done.

All in all, great job and thanks for sharing it.
 
I was really impressed by the imagery, a variety of different angles, lighting, movement. It pleasantly tickles the optic nerve.

I think an easy improvement would be taking the scissors to the narration:

"It's always a process of learning, adapting, changing, digging deep, and gritting it out, and like finding that inner core of what you're capable of. And I think what running and, endurance sports in general, does is it strips away a lot of the layers. So you just get to this really base level of almost like survival. And that's what's so cool about it is, after you get done with a race or you get done with a bad patch, you come out the other side. And you know what you're capable of, and you can use that in life. You can use that with your kids. You can use that with your job. You can use that when you don't want to wake up and do the training in the morning. And so it's really powerful. It allows you to achieve so much more than you think you could. And I love that. And I hope that I can keep doing that for as long as people will let me."

​


It started off nice, with the music and imagery. I was really getting into it. Then about halfway in, I start to feel like there's not enough air in the room. Partly it's because this guy will not take a breath (the periods I inserted are gracious). Partly it's because the music, which started out kind of cute in its earnestness to be inspirational, is now overwhelming in its momentum. And then plus it's all the imagery, which we're seeing for the first time.

This is really hard to see if you're the shooter and editor. You saw each ingredient from inception, and you saw the ingredients slowly combine. You know every shot and every word so well that it doesn't take much mental effort to process them. But if you put yourselves in the shoes of someone who is seeing it all for the first time (and hearing it all for the first time) you will be better equipped to pace it. To you it will seem too slow, too sparse. But again that's because you've seen it a hundred times and know what's coming next before it happens. I think a good model is Ken Burns.

You could insert some pauses between the interviewee's sentences --- I mean his clauses, since it's almost one long sentence. You could also cut about half of it. Here's a rough re-edit:

It's always a process of learning, adapting, changing, digging deep, and gritting it out. (insert pause)
It strips away a lot of the layers. So you just get to this really base level of almost like survival. (insert pause)
And you can use that in life. You can use that with your kids. You can use that with your job. (insert pause)
It allows you to achieve so much more than you think you could. And I love that.
​
 
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Thank very much for the feedback. I've never thought too much about pacing in that sense. You're right - as an editor when you've heard the words a thousand times, it's easy to process them. But people seeing/hearing it for the first time may get a bit overwhelmed.

That's something I'll definitely take on board for future projects.
 
I used to do the exact same thing (crammed in too much imagery and narration at once) until I also did what you're doing now (asking people for honest feedback). They said, whoa, my head hurts in this sequence.

I was so afraid of my videos gettng boring that I overdid it, and looking back, a lot of my editing is just annoying.

Don't get me wrong. You can have fast cutting. And don't get me wrong, you can have a lot of narration. You just can't have both at the same time.

Analyze other videos that you like. When I paid attention to exactly when they cut, or how they spaced out the voiceovers, I thought to myself, wow, that editor has nerves of steel. But it works, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
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