Help critique my movie!

[iamhammill]

I'm making a movie about the music festival, Bonnaroo.

I wan't the movie to be a fun idea of what Bonnaroo is like, just to share with my friends and other people that have gone to the festival.

I'd like some advice on things that I'm doing wrong so far, and areas that can be improved. This is my first attempt with making a movie, so any newbie tips would be great! I'm most concerned with my transitions. With only 15 or so to choose from, I kinda feel like I'm re-using them too much.

I have about 4 hours of video, I'm thinking with that much I should be aiming at about a 20 min movie. Most of the clips are only a couple mins long, although I do want to include about a 5-7 min interview.

Also, I'm thinking about going out and buying FCE tomorrow, but can I take what I already have in iMovie and continue in Final Cut? I'd hate to start over.


For anyone that's interested, you can check out the movie so far at

www.pythonrichards.com/helpmeout.mov

(It's a large file, about 15 mb, and my host is kinda slow. So give it a little time. The part where the guy is talking (about 2 mins in) there is a bad word incase you have the speakers up, and due to the low frame rate to put it on the web, it doesn't look like the audio lines up)


Thanks!

 

[Macnoviz]

Make every shot shorter, no fancy pancy transitions like that bubble thing, stick to the basics, and shorten your dip to black unless you want to mark an ending of one part
I love the male Ellen Feiss Guy btw
Don't be afraid to combine different shots to one, like adding static footage over an interview (eg when the guy talks about beer, show a shot with beer in it)
If a shot involves a motion, use only the motion, and cut the rest away. You may feel like losing stuff, but you're making your movie a lot better.

I'm no expert myself, I made a few little things, and nnow I'm working on my first big project, but this is just some advice that you will probably get from others, too

 

[netdog]

Everything Macnoviz said plus other then the occasional fade or dissolve, lose the special effects transitions. Shots like the watermellon shot should be cut way down to maximize impact. Wherever you think you can trim, almost always do so.

Looks like you have great material. Edit it ruthlessly and you should have a great little piece here. Keep us posted.

PS: All that's missing is Jerry

 

[bowens]

Like the others said just shorten some of the clips and get rid of most of the transitions. When I started working on my first video, I tried to use transitions between every shot and it was just too much. Only do transitions between sections or big parts. Other than that it looks good.

 

[iamhammill]

Wow guys thanks for the tips!

Ok so insted of transistions, I can just have it go directly into another scene, or do I have just a little bit of "black"?


Also, does anyone know about my Final Cut Express situation? That would help with being able to add different shots of things over my main video, but like I said, I'd really hate to start over if my iMovie project doesn't carry over.


Thanks again for all the info, I'll keep you posted.

 

[Texas04]

I actually like the video. Some of the shots should be cut down a lil, yes the watermelon and the guy in the underwear... he grossed me out... lmao. But otherwise, the music is good, the guy talking is good, xept one thing. I dont quite remember but music with words + an interview, dont always mix. But other than that it was very good, especially if your just sharing w/ friends and family.

 

[idea_hamster]

Wow guys thanks for the tips!

Ok so insted of transistions, I can just have it go directly into another scene, or do I have just a little bit of "black"?

Here's what you should do: take a couple of hours out to watch your favorite documentary. But don't watch it for the story -- watch it for the editing.

You'll find that (despite the plethora of transitions that Apple offers) you have really a few basic ways of getting from one scene to the next.

General wisdom says that your default should be a straight cut. If you want to show time passing, then cross-fade. Longer time lapse, fade through black. Everything else is pretty much fluff that distracts from your material.

I have, however, found that hand-held video can look better with a cross-fade because of the unsteady nature of the camera. With steady camera work, straight cuts are less jarring, but with shaky zoom-and-pan amateur video, the viewer needs a visual warning that we're moving to a new scene. (BTW, kudos for laying off the zoom buttons -- nothing is more irritating than a zoom-o-rama movie!) I would still say that you should straight cut whenever possible.

 

[iamhammill]

Good stuff. I'm going to go back and try to edit my clips to prepare them for striaght cuts into the next clip.

I ordered FCE, so I'm hoping that should really help with multiple images at once, which was something I really wanted to do.


Anyone have any good doc's to watch purley for the editing? A good story also helps

 

[iamhammill]

Well FCE came today! I was anxious to try out some multilayer video, but I'm not sure how much I like it.

www.pythonrichards.com/teaser4.mov (pretty slow stream)


Anyone have some tips to maximize the effect of the multilayer video? FCE seems like it has a lot of potential, but it's taken a while to get used too.


Any help is great!

(oh btw, the ending is the same as the first links in the thread, and I have gotten a chance yet to fix the transistions as recomended)

 

[idea_hamster]

That intro looks quite good. I think the cut into the road footage is a good choice as is the fade through black into the tent scene.

You've got some strategic decisions to make about style, IMHO. The layered footage works well in the road scene, but I would offer two caveats:

1. If you use it there, I would suggest using the same effect either (a) once again at the end of the film in the closing scenes, or (b) throughout the film whenever you have footage that is somehow both substantive and can serve as a background. The road footage is a good example -- it explains the travel to the event but it is a good background for layers.

Interestingly, your high-speed tent set-up is similar. I found myself half-expecting some video layers there too, since after we get the idea of the setting up, we can add a distraction (layer) and then re-visit the tent scene when it's done. The down-side here is that the scene is right after the road scene -- too soon to use the same sytlistic element again. This suggests that the tent scene may run a bit too long. Maybe increase speed, maybe some goes to the cutting room floor. JMHO.

2. Pick whether to overlap the layers or not. You have two layers that overlap early on, but then none of the rest do. This got my hackles up!
The transition-like effect of (i) adding a layer, (ii) adding a second overlapped layer, and (iii) fading out the first is quite good. The other effect of (i) layer fades in, then out, (ii) next layer fades in, then out is ALSO good. I would just suggest that you pick one -- don't mix and match. And then keep that style throughout (see #1).

BTW, the dude with the baseball cap looks like one of the Monty Python guys -- Terry Gilliam, maybe....