VideoCopilot 'hurts' new filmmakers?

R

RED ROBOT

Hey everyone.


I would like to hear other people's opinion on this .

I love love love Andrew Kramer . Pretty much everything I know about After Effects and Visual Effects started from him .

But now I see a lot of young filmmakers and even older ones using these tutorials and using videocopilot's stock footage and plug ins.

Almost every video is full of Lens Flares and stupid explosions that look the same EVERYWHERE . They don't care about the story ,it's just same effects over and over again and they all look the same .

And if I see one more muzzle flash from the Action Essentials package I will shoot myself in the face.

So what do you think ? I know that you can learn A LOT from this site ,but nowadays almost every video on youtube from a young filmmaker looks absolutely the same .
 
It gives young film makers the tools to do things they other wise wouldn't be able to without a bigger budget. Nothing to complain about here.
 
how does it hurt filmmakers? these people copy the effects and showcase them, thats it.

they dont ever present a viable story, its more or less 12 year old pre-pubecent kids wanting to have fun.

theres nothing wrong with it in my opinion, i think to associate them on a somewhat professional level is bad, i see it more as a hobby for them, although some of them have gone on to make some serious bakers dough.

id rather spend 30 seconds watching an explosion iv seen on 200 other videos than watch an hour of adam sandlers latest film.
 
Stock photo companies and stock video companies have been doing this to advertising for decades... this isn't a new thing. I don't see it as a bad thing either. It allows lower budget folks a chance to compete against firms who have the budget to make their own stock... but have opted not to because Mr. Kramer's is so good and much cheaper, allowing them to maximise their profits.

As for the technique part of it. Alot of folks simply copy his tutorials... that's the problem of the student, not the teacher. Since they are tutorials rather than assignments, the student isn't immediately expected to produce an original piece of content. Film Riot's method of calling out for a specific example of a technique in their Monday Challenges is a better route for encouraging exploration of the technique than producing a step by step tutorial.

That said, I've watched every single tutorial he has to offer and have found places to integrate techniques from them in places that are not at all related to the tutorial from whence they were culled. Little things like fixing problems on set (foot in an overhead shot, etc.) pulled from his techniques for creating clean plates. His keying information that he's given out over so many tutorials has given me a toolbox full of techniques for improving my keying when necessary.

Copying the tutorials and releasing them for critique may be disingenuous, but using the techniques found therein to improve new and novel tasks is a boon to filmmakers and post production personnel at all levels.
 
I just wanted to see other people's opinion :)


I have nothing against mr. Kramer I actually love everything he does I just see a lot of people copying everything he does step by step ,especially using the same stock footage over and over again .
 
This is nothing new. The recycling of photographic elements is a standard practice at all VFX companies.

I worked on one film that had soldiers shooting at giant bugs. The compositors found clever ways to reuse the same bullet hits several times in the same shot. They diligently varied the size, shape and speed of a recycled element so that it had a whole new look.

I just checked. I still have a box of Digibeta tapes of the elements I coveted from back in the early 90s. That stuff was gold.
 
NickysFX said:
Almost every video is full of Lens Flares and stupid explosions that look the same EVERYWHERE . They don't care about the story ,it's just same effects over and over again and they all look the same . (...)

So what do you think ? (...) nowadays almost every video on youtube from a young filmmaker looks absolutely the same
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You sound like the proverbial moth being drawn to the flame. Why do you keep watching the same films over & over? There's no shortage of non-gunfight short films out there, including those made by younger filmmakers.

Broaden your scope, when searching for new films to watch.
 
Almost every video is full of Lens Flares and stupid explosions that look the same EVERYWHERE . They don't care about the story ,it's just same effects over and over again and they all look the same .
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CoPilot isn't responsible for filmmakers stories. It's similar to blaming DSLR's for all these crappy shorts people make. It's not the tools fault, it is those who are using the tools who should receive the brunt of your rage ;)
 
That's why I do the opposite of what people tell me to do. Most young film makers in my generation are clones, all the can do is use after effects but they don't know what a good story looks like or yet alone to write one. That's why I'm confident passion film makers will become successful while they enjoy lens flares and wonder why the industry has no room for them.
 
Now that high-end music, film, VFX and other unobtainable tools have been democratized, I see lots of people dabbling in areas never before possible. As a result, there are some good filmmakers creating terrible VFX, and VFX artists (like me) making terrible movies.
 
Joshua Lloyd said:
That's why I do the opposite of what people tell me to do. Most young film makers in my generation are clones, all the can do is use after effects but they don't know what a good story looks like or yet alone to write one. That's why I'm confident passion film makers will become successful while they enjoy lens flares and wonder why the industry has no room for them.
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This however is not true as well.

If you can work with After Effects doesn't mean you are bad at telling a story and if you are horrible at AE it doesn't mean you can tell good story.

often people say that they want to see only a great story but when they see terrible color correction , bad VFX and terrible visuals they just turn the video off no matter how great your story is .
 
_Rok_ said:
Now that high-end music, film, VFX and other unobtainable tools have been democratized, I see lots of people dabbling in areas never before possible. As a result, there are some good filmmakers creating terrible VFX, and VFX artists (like me) making terrible movies.
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I absolutely agree. The thing that bothers me though is that through this endless recycling of stock footage and effects, independant filmmakers do not use their
ONE competitive edge that they have over the studios: Freedom to do all kinds of crazy stuff.

This aftereffects/stockfootage/plugin bullshit is 90% of the time only used to make bad imitations of the often already quite bland action movies hollywood is making.
Now this is a pretty big generalisation, and I know there are some exceptions here, but still...

It just bothers me that so many people use just a compositing package with the stock footage and plugins, and choose to completly ignore the rest of the vfx pipeline.
Where as the rest of the pipeline is where you can get your creative freedom, be different, and surprise.

And that, I believe should be the goal of an indie filmmaker.
 
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