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1 Man, 1 Camera, Ideas?

A

AustraLiamAid

Hi, I'm not much of a writer, and I thought I would put the line out to anyone who could help me with an idea or concept to build on. I'll be starting study again soon, but in the mean time, I'll be on the lonesome with a camera, and I'm keen to do a one man show.

Do any ideas come to mind? I have access to a car, a house, a shed, a forrest, a highway and a lake off the top of my head- you'd think inspiration would flow.

Thanks for reading. Hope to see more of you around the boards soon. Cheers.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
what comes next?
Click to expand...

What comes next is that you fess up to the very simple question I have posed. Are you a Duck or a Beaver? I must know! I like you wheat, but the future of our relationship hinges on this very important detail.

On a seperate note, if you don't mind some constructive criticism -- that video has a really nice aesthetic. Whatever it is you're doing in post, I'd like to learn it, with the color-grading and all. Seriously, I know you didn't get that look with your camera, did you? What was your method?

However, I think this could've been shot better, insofar as shooting for continuity. This sequence has a total of five shots, and only two of them actually cut together well. In future shoots, I'd pay closer attention to specific actions, and in the edit, try cutting on action. Also, if you can get greater coverage, extreme closeups can function like a continuity-nuetralizer.

I like that you are shooting some kind of "Rambo" something. I'm intrigued!
 
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Papertwin.. are you ready for the secret??

.... (alcove, cover your eyes)

the sound was captured with
the ON CAMERA MIC.. SHOCKER!


Thanks Cracker,

I think shots 1 and 2 (and back to 1) intercut well, but that up to the face shot did not work right. I had no plan, I was just poking around outside with the camera, and though, "Oh yeah, the one man one camera thing.. what can I do here in a few minutes???"... and, that is what you see.

A lot of that aesthetic is from the 35mm adapter, giving the ability to selectively focus (DOF), along with its own look from the ground glass, the lens, and finally its just a pretty spot.

In post I use Magic Bullet Looks. For this one I started with the "Block Buster" preset, disabled the diffusion and vignette, reduced the "strength" of the Lift Gamma Gain and bumped the exposure..

Now, if you look close, the "greenish stain" on the knee was very BROWN, so I tracked it, masked it and did a "color replace" from brown to the same color as the pants. Also, my white socks were freaking BRIGHT.. so I masked them out, turned down the contrast and darkened a bit. Sloppy job, you can see some of the effect hitting the surrounding image..

Here are some untouched screen caps..
 

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wheatgrinder said:
I think shots 1 and 2 (and back to 1) intercut well, but that up to the face shot did not work right. I had no plan, I was just poking around outside with the camera, and though, "Oh yeah, the one man one camera thing.. what can I do here in a few minutes???"... and, that is what you see.
Click to expand...

Since I wasn't at the shoot, I of course don't know which ones are shots 1 and 2, so for the sake of this conversation, I'm just gonna pretend there are 5 shots in total.

Shot 1 ends with you kneeling to the ground, reaching for an object with one hand. Shot 2 starts with both hands actively pulling at the object. That's a total jump-cut. Maybe you wanted a jump-cut; I'm just pointing out that the action doesn't match.

For me, shot 2 cuts together quite nicely to shot 3.

Shot 3 to shot 4 doesn't work. At the end of shot 3, you are clearly in motion, raising this object to eye-level. But at the start of shot 4, you are definitely motionless, with your head and eyes oriented in a position that doesn't match the previous shot.

Shot 4 to shot 5 is also a major jump-cut. At the end of shot 4, your head starts to move, but there's no question you're still kneeling. Yet, at the start of shot 5, you're already standing and running.

All that being said, you cut it together well, considering the fact that it was an impromptu, unplanned shoot. Look, I'm criticizing, but I've spent enough time editing these rapid-fire shoots to wanna punch myself in the face for not getting better coverage. My most recent 48HFP has continuity issues galore. There is one major incontinuity that everyone notices, but I, the editor, notice a TON of them, all over the place. Anyway, I take you for the kind of guy to appreciate a detailed nit-picky critique. The average viewer wouldn't notice the inconsistencies I've noted; it's yours and my job to do so for them.

wheatgrinder said:
In post I use Magic Bullet Looks. For this one I started with the "Block Buster" preset, disabled the diffusion and vignette, reduced the "strength" of the Lift Gamma Gain and bumped the exposure..
Click to expand...

Dude, that's sweet. I've never messed around with AE at all. Your results with it are rather encouraging to me, because I've got some footage that needs some serious polishing. Thanks!
 
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The one hand two hand error is because of bad acting.. in the actual take, shot 1, has me eventually using both hands.. but it looks so obviously fake that I figured the continuity error was better than the silly, completely unconvincing tugging ...
 
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