Go ahead -- it's only :30!

Here's a little something I whipped up for a Volunteer project we're a part of. I'm interested to hear your praise, and then how you think it could be made better. I have a few ideas already, but would like to hear the group's opinion before I give my own criticisms.

www.mikewatsonproductions.com/video/Vol8Generic2007.mov

Thanks!

-MW

Hey Mike,

I will say that while this kind of layering and blown-out highlighting is not my cup of tea (the current trend in TV News On-air graphics is enough to sear my eyeballs) I do think you did a nice job with it. I actually like the idea of layering the main video on top of a screened back, mono color version of itself. If anything, I would eliminate those extra little stills that pop up; too cluttered for my taste, you have so much going on already (but that's just me).

Maybe hold the type a little longer onscreen? Also, there's a lot of filters on the news anchor at the end; I know they like their skin to look as smooth as a baby's tuccus, but if you go too far they start to look alien...

Overall, I do think it's a nice spot. You picked some good sound bytes from the clips and it flows nicely. Nice work!

JK

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SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

Hey Mike nice job. I especially like the timing of the painting shot falling in to the drum beats.

I think the only thing that bugged me was that the guy with the speaking part 'You get a lot done...' has his head neatly cut in two. It makes it look like he is standing behind something. Maybe this one setup could be split into thirds instead?

Also theres an audio glitch just before the seniors section - but maybe this is just the compressed web version.

Otherwise - very pretty.

I appreciate the comments.

John,

The stills are (mostly) outside of 4:3 safe, and are intended to give the HD folks something extra. There's a big push on that here, as we just went fully HD a few months ago. I agree that they may be overdone, I will revisit that decision.

The glowy-layered-matte look is at times too much, but when you work in Rome, you do spots in Roman. (As they say.) I've seen it come from out of NOWHERE, and... as you say... at least this one is somewhat tasteful. ;-)

Jude,

The spot was a 2-day hacktogether edit job, and I *hate* that the guy's head is cut in two in that shot... I hope to go back in and fix it. At the time, I was trying to match the 4-panel "vertical blinds" look between two shots, and didn't go back to move around that shot, as it would have required re-editing all the crops.

Also, the audio glitch is a sneeze (damn volunteers), I hope to have an audio guy EQ it out next week. I gave it a shot and only managed to make it worse. Gotta get around to learning STP better!

Thanks for the comments.

Any more out there?

It looked very professional. You're a master of using this type of technology, I can see that.

I recommend more emphasis on "volunteers" since I think that's what the commercial is trying to get.

Maybe more close-ups of volunteers in action, or
find better shots of volunteers helping out.

The anchor woman gives the spot a bit of credibility but it would be nice to use someone more prominent -- I don't know ...

over all great.

i think the glow overlays could have benefited from a more defined clear footage areas over the subject speaking. at times i found myself squinting to see what was going on in the clips.

very pro over all.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"