My First try at a Documentary

[Jopling]

Hey, I moved to DC a few months ago and I haven't been doing any film for a long time. Typically I do sketch comedy stuff with my friends when were just messing around. I decided to try something different so I took a shot a documentary. I promote with a company called NiteFX for clubs, so for a project in one of my classes I decided to focus on that. This is the first cut and I've already gone back and fixed some of the basic errors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iZyPskdxf4

I'd like to hear what you guys think.

 

[OldCorpse]

meh

Purely technically, it was competent... there were a couple audio dropouts, but otherwise everything was A OK.

Problem was as I saw it, it's too monotonous. Cut to guy 1 to crowd to guy 2 to guy 3 to crowd and back to guy 1 to crowd to guy two to guy three to crowd on and on and on. Snore. The cutting rhythms are sleep-inducing.

Break it up a bit. When you interview a guy/gal, once we know well how he/she looks like, you don't need to show them all the time while they're talking... show some other footage over their voice, take the camera somewhere, have fun, include other shots, mix up the tempo.

In this type of "soft" documentary (you're not doing hard-hitting investigative journalism here), the key element is FUN. If you're not conveying the fun you're having, it'll look dead... no matter that you stick an unmoving camera on a dancing crowd. HAVE FUN, and make it show.

 

[Jopling]

thanks for the input. I only had one night to film it all and half the tape got corrupted, thats why there is that drop out.

 

[thebiggoose]

I liek it alot. What apps and equipment did you use? Especially for the lower thirds (motion or after effects or something else?)

 

[mac 2005]

Hey, I moved to DC a few months ago and I haven't been doing any film for a long time. Typically I do sketch comedy stuff with my friends when were just messing around. I decided to try something different so I took a shot a documentary. I promote with a company called NiteFX for clubs, so for a project in one of my classes I decided to focus on that. This is the first cut and I've already gone back and fixed some of the basic errors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iZyPskdxf4

I'd like to hear what you guys think.

Technically, it looks and sounds very good. Strike me as a commercial, though, vs. a documentary.

 

[Jopling]

I filmed with an XL2 and edited in Final Cut, lower thirds I forget if i did them in Livetype or Motion. I like to stay away from livetype, but ive been having problems with importing video into motion and preserving quality. I also used a light on the top of my camera, but it was borrowed from a friend so i dont know much about it.

I knew it would come off as a commercial no matter what, so I didn't mention the names of the companies.

 

[camomac]

good job. i liked it.
i didn't quite get what the gut at the very end said, but maybe that was just me. overall nice first attempt.