festival documentary attempt CIC please

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi guys,

attempted a documentary style presentation of a local festival any cic welcome, its 12 mins long tho!! Have a look and let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VDENYfSrUg&feature=plcp

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Mark,

I made it to the end, although I did feel there was some repitition, plus some that didn't make the generally good standard (don't ask me which), if these avoided, it would have usefully shortened the piece.

There were a few I felt would have benefitted from less DoF, but overall, not bad at all.

[Donald]

I'm afraid I skipped bits. But, overall, it's good.

But it's a good way of presenting images. A former member on here did that also and it was very impressive.

Personal taste - but I like to see the images. By that I mean I'm not so keen on them immediately starting to zoom in as soon as they appear because, immediately I am not seeing the whole frame. But that's just me. I am sure that the intended audience, who I presume are those who appear in the images, would prefer something more dynamic that just a series of images with no dynamic transitions.

[Mark von Kanel]

Thanks for your time gentlemen, i will re edit and shorten it, ill call it redux! its interesting that a formally qualified art photog told me that the repetition was good but i should have put the repetitive stuff together to show moment, she also told me to get rid of the colour stuff and the sepia stuff and said that if i wanted to display any specific colour to just POP the item in question, so ill try that as well, im still at work at the mo so that will have to wait until november.

I have done this once before Donald on a wedding reception presentation i did and i also posted that here for comment but i would be interested in seeing the former member attempt to see if i can improve mine

I agree about the depth of field issue, but im going full frame and i hope that will help some of the lens combinations didnt help but mainly down to my inexperience of juggling setting me thinks! MUST DO BETTER!

[Geoff F]

For me, Mark, too much zooming. When it is on every shot it becomes repetitive.

When zooming, I would like a fraction more time before and after the zoom to concentrate on the image, like Donald mentioned.

And using every transition effect which is available isn't necessary. I prefer a bit more standardisation with this.

But an interesting experiment. Personally, I would say don't take too much notice of the 'experts'. The main thing is to produce a personal effort which reflects what you wish to show.

I have been trying something similar for my local history society; using Proshow for editing. So I know how complex these slideshows can become. Particularly when matching images to narration. And I did the commentary very badly.

But it was merely an initial experiment and I keep returning to the project to make alterations. It has been a mind boggling steep learning experience. This winter, I will have to make a number of similar, but longer, shows for them.

We are even considering producing personal family history shows as well as general history.

Not sure where it will end, but it will involve a lot of time and a great deal of new learning.

Another steep learning experience for the society included cutting and splicing video for public shows; with more to follow. Changing the format into something editable was just the beginning of much head scratching.

[Mark von Kanel]

Thank Geoff,

id be interested in seeing some of you work in this area.

[Geoff F]

I haven't actually posted anything on the internet yet, Mark. Just a few experimental DVDs for TV video showing. But we (mostly me I suppose) need to get into serious learning mode because our history society is getting financial support for equipment etc soon. More about this later.

My latest idea was to use a short piece of unique intro music with the start of each production.

Going into a bit more detail. A local musician/composer, and friend to the community, is terminally ill so I thought using a 15 sec extract from a song which he composed about the town would be a fitting tribute.

The idea being to have the first title page, plus sponsor details, zooming from small to full size plus music. Well, I have now worked out how to permanently attach music to one zooming image which is separate from the main narration.

Although, possibly, doing this for each slide in the show may actually work better than having one full length commentary file.

After our next committee meeting, we will start work in earnest. And another linked project will be producing sound recordings of memories from our mature members.

[Mark von Kanel]

Sounds really interesting Geoff, i used audasity to edit all my music its quite a good program and easy to use and its free! ive got the whole adobe master collection, but havn't the time to learn it all!!

[Geoff F]

Yes, Mark, that Audacity software seems fairly logical to use. At least once you learn the difference between Save and Export, or Open and Import.

And after a few free trials I found the Proshow slideshow editor to be the best for me, even if I had to pay a little for it. Not sure what you get extra in the Pro version for three times the price.

Originally, I had been using MGI Video Wave which was quite easy but it is old technology and just didn't seem to cope with the larger file sizes of today.

I have to do a remake of experiment 1 before the next committee meeting in a few days time so as to include the sponsorship details, etc. Then once everything is in place and announced we can start some serious work.

This will include a bit of photography as well. Both for advertising and inclusion of before and after shots plus some images of the contributors.