So choppy... What am I doing wrong?

A

AlexanderH

Let me just start off by saying that I lurk these forums more than Moaning Myrtle haunts the girls lavatories.

I've only ever really filmed things -- not people. I've done different "artsy" shorts, but since I have never had actors, I could never include people at all.

Basically, I was filming something today with some actors (students in my class) and... What am I doing wrong?

Please include more than just "You're dumb." Links, advice, videos -- I need help with this one.

I realize that the cuts aren't perfect -- I just threw this together really quickly just to see how the shots look together.

Are my shots too short? Am I having the characters move too much in too short of time? I'm just not getting what I want at all.

Thanks!

http://vimeo.com/40640177
 
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Can't see it yet, but guessing that maybe your footage is one framerate, and the video-editing software is set for another?

Actually... does it play okay in the timeline, and only look weird after it's exported? If so, you'd want to look at your export settings.

Dunno. Will wait & watch. :cool:
 
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Zensteve said:
22 minutes remaining 'til video starts converting on Vimeo

Can't see it yet, but guessing that maybe your footage is one framerate, and the video-editing software is set for another?

Actually... does it play okay in the timeline, and only look weird after it's exported? If so, you'd want to look at your export settings.

Dunno. Will wait & watch. :cool:
Click to expand...

I don't mean choppy like my frame rate is too low, I mean choppy like... Like my shots just don't flow whatsoever.

So, you know, it's like one of those things that I should have learned ages ago, but instead, I spent my time learning about how to export correctly and color grade and other things that aren't as important. :rolleyes:
 
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Well for me I noticed your camera angles don't make sense. If you are going to even shoot the simplest things try and plan out how your going to composition it. It was choppy not because the transitions for the most part, but choppy because it didn't make sense. Like why show them behind the door then in front of the door when you could have showed them walking in the door. Just be creative and "make sense". Another thing is if you were shooting professionally the audio makes bad transitions because its totally different levels of static so it actually would have been better if you cut the whole audio out. Just keep up the good work YOU WILL get better I promise. Also try think of what you want to film, imagine where you are going to film then story board each shot so you know what you want when you get there. Believe it does help :)
 
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Board ate my poast.

Did you storyboard any of this? Reason I ask, is most your shot choices are... off.

Shot of students walking past with heads out of frame.
Shot of students from rear.
Shot of students from side.
Shot of students from rear/angle.
Shot of students marching out of frame

Also, your insert of the light switch has no context. Who's turning it on? The students? If so, follow up with a wider shot of lights coming on, and students reacting to that. Maybe the phantom of the theater was activating the grisly death-devices to kill our lovely students... once again, what happens when the button is pressed? Noone knows.

Who turns the key in the door at the end? Was it a student who was leading the rest of the pack? If so, an establishing shot to cover the moment before might be good. A shot of the group of students actually coming to a stop at the door, establishing who & where.

Or maybe that was the phantom of the theater... couldn't tell; was pretty dark... but then again, phantoms like the dark, so whaddo I know?
smiley_ghost.gif


I think your problem is that you just have a poor selection of shots to use. Do you even have coverage of each shot, so you can pick the best closeup, or long, or what-have-you, to match?

Practise makes perfect, and all that jazz.

What's this project for? :)
 
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Much of the choppiness you feel is that there's no logical flow of events to the shots you've chosen. There's nothing necessarily wrong with the shots, per se... I could pick nits, but that's not the point here... they need to tell a story that the audience can grasp.

There's also a tendency to leave alot of "heads and tails" on your footage making the shots seem awkward as we wait for the actor to perform the action we expect them to do. Trim the heads and tails a bit cut into and out of the action while it's happening and you'll see your editing improve substantially.

Using the shots you have... turn off the sound (as it's mostly direction in those clips) and visualize with me:
0) mid students walking down hallway away from camera
1) CU light switch being turned on.
2) Mid of student looking through door (trim the head a bit to have the actors already in the window)
3) CU door knob turning (trim the head so the hand already is starting the process of turning the knob
4) Mid of students walking through door.
5) Mid of students walking up stairs.
 
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Gahhh. You guys are so harsh.

But helpful, and so I thank you.

I realize that it was kind of shitty, and I went back to re-shoot some shots today. I think I actually got some decent footage. I'll be doing a (very) rough edit tonight to see how it comes out fairly nicely.

Zensteve -- I'm a sophomore in high school, so it's for a high school advanced drama class.
 
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Dude, if you think they're being harsh, you gotta work on thickening that skin of yours.

Here's my advice to you. Shoot a simple action scene. A dude runs through his house, from the kitchen, upstairs, into his bedroom, and then high-fives his roommate. That's it. Shouldn't be any longer than 20-seconds long.

You can only use one camera, and our subject can never leave the frame. You'll have to shoot it from many different angles, and all of the action is going to match.

The reason I suggest this exercise is because you have nothing but jump cuts in this video you've posted. Work on shooting and editing some continuous action. Make everything match up.

Jump cuts are fine and dandy, I use them all the time. But you should think of a jump cut like the editing equivalent of running. You gotta learn how to walk first, and that would be shooting and editing continuous action.
 
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I would add, the camera should be on a tripod and not pan at all, to get you used to using the edges of the frame and thinking about screen direction before you shoot, as you're blocking, you'll be foced to think about editing.

If your subject leaves frame left, they should enter frame right and vice versa.
 
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i will say check your minds eye for the shot and then the next because you kind of subconciously know continuity from watching films so trust that instinct...trust your minds eye and story board the shots. If you just step into a scene with a camera and no plan then usually its a recipe for disaster...man I dont even write a scene unless i can fully visualize it...
 
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One of the things I've been telling folks on my team is that they have the knowledge, but not the confidence to know when something is wrong and say something about it. Little things like... The lighting feels weird or is the framing off?

You hit the nail on the head right out of the gate. You titled the thread with that kind of realization... it seems like a simple thing to notice that it's incorrect, but there's so often that that doesn't even happen. Feel more confident about the fact that you noticed it was wrong!

The next part is keeping an open mind to suggestions... if you're not happy with how you did it, there's no ego to bruise and no need for a thick skin -- you knew it was wrong in the first place. I know everything I do is innately wrong. I know every flaw of everything I've shot (there's a ton of them in every single frame)... realizing the flaws is one of the big parts to improving.

I can't wait to see your next revision of this to see what you've picked up just by having the stomach to ask why it felt jerky when you watched it.
 
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