lafcpug wants to see your work. Either in progress or finished. Simply post a link to where your project can be viewed, tell us what codec you used to compress, how long is the clip and whether we have to wait for download or if its progressive. And then be prepared for honest and hopefully constructive feedback.

Only thing we ask is if the project is not "office appropriate," meaning contains language and/or nudity and/or violence not suitable for the office environment, you warn us of the fact.

Michael Horton
-------------------

As a courtesy to the group, it may be a good idea for those posting clips to also list the SIZE of the clip so those with slow Internet connections can decide whether or not they want to wait for something huge (I am on a very fast DSL and I am STILL waiting for Johan's reel to download ).

...just a thought

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Excellent point, Joe, and I'd also suggest that you guys put down what codecs you're using. I'm still using QuickTime 6, so I can't play H.264. Yet. I'm upgrading probably in a month or so.


www.derekmok.com

WolfDog Films wants to share a video with you:




Video Description:
Clip From the film about training the Iraqi Army


This clip is the making of a new documentary on the war in Iraq. The film was shot mainly
in Iraq by the film's Director who joined the Marines and became O311 (Infantry) just to make the
Documentary

The teaser is up on [www.triangleofdeath.net]

The teaser and making of on you tube was exported interlaced. The interviews was shot 24p with a DVX100 on the teaser. The rest mixed formats such as DV down to 8mm.

Gene Gordon

Great stuff Gene. Thanks. Can you move this out of this thread and start a new one. It will get buried in here and no one will see it.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Hi, I am Trig Simon, designer of the Balance Beam. I want to get the word out of this really new idea for small camera stabilization on $150 tripods.

This thing is amazing. You may have read LAFCPUG review by Steve Douglas. Take a look at it.

I do now have a video demonstrating the Balance Beam that I would like to share. I am very interested in hearing from event videographers about their dealings with jerky camera moves and if they think this could help them.

Here is the link:





Thanx for any comments you may have.

Trig Simon
Video Images by Trig
832 Main
Toledo OH 43605
419-693-0872

Hey Trig,

The Balance Beam...brilliant! Great idea - hope you sell a million of them. I may buy one myself & definitely will recommend it to my Studio Camera folks.

Honest feedback time regarding the video demo...not so good. I think you should redo this immediately (and in HD) because for such a wonderful product, the video looks cheesy and poorly Produced IMHO:

* There is a green haze around / on all keyed elements & people
* Lower thirds are too small / practically unnoticable
* Audio is out of sync in places
* Talking heads need to be scripted / shot better. There are far too many transitions between single lines. Need longer shots between transitions (avoid them altogether if you can or cover them with a little B-Roll)
* May want to add a "unboxing" sequence to show what it comes with in the box and how easy it is to assemble.
* I would add footage of it being used in different scenarios in the field = sporting event, news event, wedding, etc. Appeal to a BROADER AUDIENCE...not just someone shooting in a theater.

Best of luck with this!! You should take it to NAB & show it off!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

The device looks promising. Let's just hope producers don't use this as an excuse to lump even more jobs onto the camera operator...like sound-mixing the show, monitoring the field audio, video tap, etc.

I also have some suggestions:

- Framing and text. Many of those appear to be too far off to the side. On a broadcast TV, for example, Tim Leichty's shot would cut off his right ear and leave a huge blank frame to the right, while Joe Oberster's lower third is guaranteed to be outside the title-safe area. And yeah, as Joe pointed out, the lower thirds are too small. Aesthetically I like small titles as well, but this is taking it too far.
- The editing could be tighter. The fades to black feel painfully long for me, and not at all necessary.
- I'm not too hot for the easy-listening music, myself. It seems to contribute to a feeling of laxness in the pacing. Now, with a video like this you have to make sure the information gets through at a steady, not rushed pace, so I'm not suggesting you start montaging everything. But I do feel like I'm at a product demo where I wish the speaker would assume we were smarter and go a bit faster.
- I love the part where you show how the gadget goes on or off.
- YOW! Kill the shot of Tom Hofbauer grinning at the camera...he looks uncomfortable as hell! He's wearing what we call a "40,000 Face" in Chinese -- a deer-in-headlights grin. It's especially bad because he looks like he's posing for a photo, but it's video -- so it looks like an amateur's attempt at doing a freeze-frame, by making the actor freeze. It almost never works.
- Bad font at the very end with the contact info. Use a thicker, more confident font. Right now it looks like the text has bad Tracking -- too much space between letters, making it look lax and undesigned.
- I feel there is a huge, huge element missing from the video: Where are the actual shots you do with the camera? How can I see how smooth it is? And how do I know if the shot is smooth because the operator is good? Do you have With/Without or Before/After comparisons? And how much is this thing? And how does it work with even smaller cameras (eg. "handycams" -- does it work at all?
- Oh, and next time, I think you should plan out the interviews more so that not all of them are on the left side.


www.derekmok.com