Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What do you think of my video editing(I'm only 15)

R

rmlred

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 27, 2010
166
0
Rockwell, NC
Here is two of my personal videos:

http://vimeo.com/20635583

http://vimeo.com/20087249

Here is 2 teaser video I edited for a small promotion company(I also do there weekly wedisode but they are 10-13 mins long and Im not trying to take up any ones time):

Photo shoot with chicks- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzVdVw_LF8w

Bojangles Coliseum mud races(camera was not set to full HD and contrast is way too high)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb-_PeuCyto

All of this is edited with Adobe Premier and shot with Canon Vixia HF s200.
A teacher at school has requested I be one the school new team next year editing the show, should be fun.
 
legreve

legreve

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2010
244
0
Denmark
Pretty nice start Royce. The whole learning to film and video edit is about trying something out, look at it with a critical eye and the fix what can be better... And with your age, and effort, you could probably become really good. You seem to have a basic idea of what you want to do.

Now to the constructive critisism :)

I think looking at these videos, my next move would be to try and stabilize the shots even more. Make your pans really smoothe... do this by panning 1-2 secs more than you want in each end of the shot and then edit that part out. It's often the beginning and the end where some stuttering occurs, especially if you don't have a video head for the stand.

"Less is more"... a popular phrase that still holds merit. In this case try to give more variation to your zoom shots. I think I noticed 3 zooms in a row... that might be too much for some. Also do test runs with these zooms so it's nice and tight and you don't have to adjust angle during the zoom.

You know, one thing I absolutely love is sideways dolly shots. This can ofcourse be a bit hard without an actual dolly, but you can achieve something similar with a homemade stabilizer (the t-section one with metal piping works pretty good...). Then do the finishing touches in something like AE or anything else that can track movement.

I don't want to sound like you did a poor job, because you didn't. I wish more guys like you would spend time learning how to do this job.
So get out there, and like you said, you can make movies about anything... don't let anyone tell you you can't do this or that. Your imagination will decide what's right!

:)

Edit: realised I didn't see your mud race vid. I actually think that was nicely done, apart from the excessive contrast ;) (a matter of taste, some like it some don't... let the client decide.) Your zooms worked fine and the freehand motion came more to its right here than on the beach.
I might sound old fasioned, but I like when the camera movement fits the atmosphere of the scene... therefore a more tranquil movement might have suited the beach shots better. Where the raw action environment of the huge trucks work excellent with hard zooms and a little motion in the pans.
 
Last edited:
crazzyeddie

crazzyeddie

macrumors 68030
Dec 7, 2002
2,792
1
Florida, USA
I think that legreve gave you some really solid advice. You editing is really good, way better than mine was when I was 15. Just concentrate on slowing down your zooms/pans and keeping the camera steady when you have to film.
 
A

akm3

macrumors 68020
Nov 15, 2007
2,252
279
Who at age 15 gets asked to shoot video of hot chicks? Well done.

I'm a total amateur and much older, but the advice above about the smoothness of the pans seems spot on. Watching the hot chicks video (the only one I watched) there was just so much motion it was almost dizzying.
 
R

rmlred

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 27, 2010
166
0
Rockwell, NC
legreve said:
Pretty nice start Royce. The whole learning to film and video edit is about trying something out, look at it with a critical eye and the fix what can be better... And with your age, and effort, you could probably become really good. You seem to have a basic idea of what you want to do.

Now to the constructive critisism :)

I think looking at these videos, my next move would be to try and stabilize the shots even more. Make your pans really smoothe... do this by panning 1-2 secs more than you want in each end of the shot and then edit that part out. It's often the beginning and the end where some stuttering occurs, especially if you don't have a video head for the stand.

"Less is more"... a popular phrase that still holds merit. In this case try to give more variation to your zoom shots. I think I noticed 3 zooms in a row... that might be too much for some. Also do test runs with these zooms so it's nice and tight and you don't have to adjust angle during the zoom.

You know, one thing I absolutely love is sideways dolly shots. This can ofcourse be a bit hard without an actual dolly, but you can achieve something similar with a homemade stabilizer (the t-section one with metal piping works pretty good...). Then do the finishing touches in something like AE or anything else that can track movement.

I don't want to sound like you did a poor job, because you didn't. I wish more guys like you would spend time learning how to do this job.
So get out there, and like you said, you can make movies about anything... don't let anyone tell you you can't do this or that. Your imagination will decide what's right!

:)

Edit: realised I didn't see your mud race vid. I actually think that was nicely done, apart from the excessive contrast ;) (a matter of taste, some like it some don't... let the client decide.) Your zooms worked fine and the freehand motion came more to its right here than on the beach.
I might sound old fasioned, but I like when the camera movement fits the atmosphere of the scene... therefore a more tranquil movement might have suited the beach shots better. Where the raw action environment of the huge trucks work excellent with hard zooms and a little motion in the pans.
Click to expand...

I would have took my tripod down to the beach, but being 15 my only transportation is an Arbor Longboard. Thanks a lot for your advice, I will consider it. Thanks again.

crazzyeddie said:
I think that legreve gave you some really solid advice. You editing is really good, way better than mine was when I was 15. Just concentrate on slowing down your zooms/pans and keeping the camera steady when you have to film.
Click to expand...

I've been interested in video editing since I was 12 or 13. It just now took off for me, got a new a camera, MacBook Pro, and some legit software. Thanks for you're post.

akm3 said:
Who at age 15 gets asked to shoot video of hot chicks? Well done.

I'm a total amateur and much older, but the advice above about the smoothness of the pans seems spot on. Watching the hot chicks video (the only one I watched) there was just so much motion it was almost dizzying.
Click to expand...


I actually wasn't videoing at the photo shoot, I was taking pictures. I did edit the video though. I will admit it was a pretty lucky job. Here are the photo shoot pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=350121&id=414748618065
 
notjustjay

notjustjay

macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
6,056
167
Canada, eh?
This may sound totally obvious, but spend time on YouTube. There are a lot of folks people your age doing cool stuff and putting it on YouTube (Lucas Cruikshank aka "Fred" being one obvious, and rather obnoxious, example). Not all of it is good, and some of it is frankly terrible, but you quickly get a sense of what's cool and what's not (for example, YouTube seems to have popularized the disjointed jump cut.) You can take inspiration from the stuff that's done well, and learn from the bad stuff too by taking note of what they did wrong and how you would have done it differently.
 
J

jwheeler

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2010
193
0
rmlred said:
I actually wasn't videoing at the photo shoot, I was taking pictures. I did edit the video though.
Click to expand...
Ugh! That cameraman was awful. Far too much twisting.

As for you editing: Yeh was v good. I thought there were to much fades for the beach shot. They worked on a few of the shots, but when both shots were panning/zooming they felt wrong. Other videos were good :)
 
zblaxberg

zblaxberg

Guest
Jan 22, 2007
873
0
I've learned over time that zooming is really something you shouldn't do often. So many people think they can make amazing videos by zooming in and out all the time when really the zooming just hurts them. The panning and tilting was nice but needs to be much smoother and also I'd recommend not using copyrighted music without the proper permissions.
 
notjustjay

notjustjay

macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
6,056
167
Canada, eh?
zblaxberg said:
I've learned over time that zooming is really something you shouldn't do often. So many people think they can make amazing videos by zooming in and out all the time when really the zooming just hurts them.
Click to expand...

It can be dramatic if done right, and sparingly, but it should not be overused. And always disable the "digital" zoom option on any camera. It's optical zoom, or nohing.

zblaxberg said:
I'd recommend not using copyrighted music without the proper permissions.
Click to expand...

Certainly for anything shared publicly (although YouTube seems to be changing the rules by allowing you to use certain tracks as long as they get to link to the artist credits and a "buy track" page on iTunes/Amazon). I'd say it should be OK for personal use and for learning how to edit against music.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom