archived-videos How is this promotional video I did for someone?

H

harmonica44

I was hired to a video of a company's building expanding, construction wise. It's just a rough draft so far, with some subtitled text, cause I was waiting to here back from the client, on what he wants for a final product. What do you think so far? Is there anything I could better?

https://youtu.be/SoJzEaEdjWw
 
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Okay thanks. I have already seen that video before :).


My plan was to show the before and afters, like me and the client agreed on. Notice how when I show the before and after's the camera is in a very similar spot (as close as I could get it), and then you see the before's and afters. So that was my plan going in.

Next time I will try to come up with a better plan. I am not sure how to film so much construction, and then not over-make the point, or have it become repetitive. I will have to work on that. I will edit to the best I can for the client and hand it off to him.

As for editing to different music, I don't know if that will help, cause I feel I should edit to the order and progress of the construction, rather than edit to the beat of the music. Editing to the beat of new music, might make the editing more off maybe. I will see what music I can get and try. But I think the client is going to want it soon.

But it was a good learning experience. Next time I am going to try some different approaches, with one camera still probably, but try to make it work, with some new approaches.
 
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harmonica44 said:
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As for editing to different music, I don't know if that will help, cause I feel I should edit to the order and progress of the construction, rather than edit to the beat of the music.

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FACEPALM!
Why do you think that the order and progress exclude editing to the music?

This learning experience is not over yet.
 
Well it was suggested before (or so I thought), that I should edit the rythym of the music. But I thought that could cause shots to be too short, or too long. Or I could try to edit the music to the video, but so far in testing that out, some of the cuts in the music, do not feel natural, and sound forced perhaps, as oppose to naturally scored that way.

But I don't know if I should even learn editing to music right now, cause I have a lot to learn in video editing alone, that maybe I should just attempt to learn one at a time.
 
harmonica44 said:
But I don't know if I should even learn editing to music right now, cause I have a lot to learn in video editing alone, that maybe I should just attempt to learn one at a time.
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Why do you ask questions and then, basically say, &@$£ you, I'm going to do it my own way?

The song sucks. It makes the whole thing seem ... ridiculous. Yes, that's the word.

As for the editing being off if you change music, don't worry about that, it couldn't be any farther off than it already is. You need to start over on that front anyway.

Get a new tune. Lay it down on the track, and then start shortening the clips you have to the music.

Then just hand it over to your boss and learn from this nightmare.
 
Okay thanks. Sorry I didn't mean it to come off that way. I apologize. What is it about the song that is ridiculous though? What kind of music should I use?
 
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Appropriate music, Ryan. You use appropriate music. Try. Go and try again.

Tell me, when you watched that video of Caseys, what did you learn? There are many nuggets of info in there for an inexperienced vlogger or filmmaker. So, what did you pick up from it?
 
In the video he talks mostly about how you can get the most bang for your buck when it comes to cameras, and he talks about how story is the most important and to concentrate on that first and foremost, before anything else, cause everything else will come out of it.
 
This is simple. As the director make the creative decision and stand by it. People tear apart Tarantino and Spielberg as well so you just need to be decisive and stick to your guns. If you like the song stop listening to others and asking questions. Be a director.
 
Okay then. Well after watching the video again after not seeing for a couple of days, I think maybe instead of cutting it down, maybe I could add more shots, in it, to perhaps maybe make the montage feel less random. Perhaps more is better maybe...
 
I only understand that you were to do a construction sequence because you told us that.

Your film was supposed to tell a story. It did not do a good job telling the story of building the addition. The "Before" and "after" clips don't match well and don't show your audience really what happened. That needs to be fixed or removed. There is a pan and a still. For before and after. Why? Makes no sense.

Hauling off the old office and building the new. I get no sense at all what the new office looks like except a vaccumme cleaner in a hallway and someone tearing down Sheetrock. That sequence was horrible. I don't get it. Why spend so much time on filming a piece of plastic?

Think about it in a logical story telling manner. Remember, just because you know what and why doesn't mean we do. You have to show us as if we have never been there and don't know what happened.

It's not all trash. There was a couple scenes where you faded from old to new. That was ok, the transition took too long. We can get it with a one second blur or fade.

If you have more like that, I'd say use them, if they are good and if they tell a story well.
 
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Okay thanks. When you say there is a pan and a still, which part are you referring to? The concrete on the outside of the building? If it's that part, what I could do, is use a still, both sides, if that's better.

As for the taking apart of the office scene, and adding new parts, do you think it would have been better I had put the camera on a dolly or a glidecam and went through the whole building, and then do a side by side comparison, to make it more specific?

As for showing someone who has never been there before, I don't know if I can do that for everything. I have a lot more footage, but I am not sure if it will still explain everything. But next time maybe I could put it on a glidecam, and move through the entire place, if that is better. Mainly I just wanted to do still shots and video without camera movement, cause I one thing I tried to learn from watching filmmaking tutorials is to tell a story without a lot of camera movement. Especially since I only have a tripod right now, and that's it.

But do you think that maybe a story like this needs movement, to create a sense of geography? Or is it possible to do that without camera movement, still?

As for the before and after clips not matching well and telling enough of what happened, I put the camera in the closest place that I could to get matches. So what is it about the before and after fades, that are hard to comprehend? What if I put in text, explaining the befores and afters and describing what happened? Would that be better? The client wanted text in the original plan anyway, when we discussed it, but I haven't put them in yet, since I was still waiting to here back from him and decide on a final cut. But would it help to put text in, since me and him were going to in the final cut?
 
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You are the storyteller. Plan to tell The story. Take the shots you need to tell the story.

Take your footage and put it together to tell the story. If you don't have it, plan better next time.

Please don't ask how. Just figure it out.
 
harmonica44 said:
do you think it would have been better I had put the camera on a dolly or a glidecam and went through the whole building.
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You're equating quality of film to quality of equipment as opposed to quality of filmmaker. All the equipment is useless unless you know how to utilize it.
 
I think it is a good start. You got some good ideas and I like what you've put together. I see you've gotten a lot of responses so I'll keep my input pretty brief. What I have learned is to get out there and do stuff like this, then compare what you've done against what the pro's have done. The fun part is figuring out what is different and how to do what they did. Give 'em hell kid!
 
Okay thanks. Since dissolving from the before and after, is not enough to register in the viewers mind that it's the same location, from the same angle, but changed construction wise, is there something else I can do besides a dissolve so it will register that it's the same place?
 
How ironic that I, of all people, would someday come to the defense of H44. There's way too much negativity in this thread, and I ain't havin' it. Y'all are about to make me proll you again.

Just because somebody asks a question, that doesn't mean you have to answer it. If your only answer involves snark and insults, maybe it's best to step away from your computer.

H44, to address the reason you started this thread, I think the pacing is a bit slow. I think you should cut faster, try to cut on cue with music sometimes, and maybe completely do away with any swipes or dissolves. Keep working on it, you'll get there! :)
 
Okay thanks. If I get rid of the dissolves though, and just have cuts that might confuse the viewer even more though. Cause a couple of have already said they cannot tell what is before and what is after, so I was using the dissolve, to make them see that. But if I take that away and it just cuts to before and after, would that confuse them more?

What about the color grading? Is it good, or could I improve it?
 
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