NS Video Contest Week 1 Judging Thread

aww i didn't make it, maybe next week

good job guy^^^^ 5 sweet vids

haha Im not church _skier but chuch_skier...

sick vids! i wish i coulda made it,o well

Dammit! I'm sorry man, I'm new at these epic long threads, my bad. The "r" has been in there on my computer since the end of the submission thread hahaha oops.

Congrats! so stoked for the next round, new computer in a week!

1) AbeK
Subject wise, I liked how it showed the epic sunset then cut to shots of glaciers, which are something most people don't instantly think about when it comes to summer. I liked how this sort of turned the theme upside down a bit, which is always a good thing.
As far as constructive criticism, I would say that the first thing you should do when filming landscapes is make sure the camera is level. Directors like Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionare) intentionally used canted framing to create a sense of chaos and disorientation...was that your intent here? (As a side note, if you watch The Beach, Danny Boyle didn't use this technique very much compared to his other films because he wanted to focus on the serene beauty of the island). Also, I'm not sure if those shots were graded or not, but is there a reason why the glacial shots had a warm glow to them? Generally when grading, I like the colors to reflect the nature of the subject. Was there a motive behind why you chose orange/warm colors instead of blue/cold ones?

2) Kyle IIenda
Cool vid, it was sort of serene. I liked the landscape shots of the light house; I'm a sucker for vast, open framing. I also liked the surreal colors of the sky and water, and how they displayed a subtle sense of vertical symmetry.
The entire thing had very mild, dark tones, which seemed pretty fitting for the environment you were filming in. However, I feel like certain parts could have been brightened up whilst still retaining the sense of cloudyness. Were these shots graded or color corrected? A rule of thumb is to set your black and white points first using a histogram, then use that as a basis for your gamma (mids), moving onto hues. I feel like the close up of the shore at 0:45 could've used a massive boost. Certain parts of the reflections of the water are supposed to be clipped (you read that right. Certain parts of every shot are supposed to clip). Because the highs are so crushed and low, there is nothing WHITE in the image, and as a result, there is no contrast. Without contrast, there is no grounding, no relativity. This is why the shot looks unnaturally "flat," because the tones are too similar.
Lastly, at 0:13, was there a reason why the sound was suddenly cut off? I found it to be a good atmospheric addition, and I hardly noticed its presence until it was abruptly cut off.

3) Christophe Fortin
Good movement! I liked the use of dollies, both explicitly and subtly. Another thing I liked is how you started with an expository shot-something that is often overlooked. I also like the brightness of the opening shots. It reminded me of summer when you have to squint your eyes because it's so bright outside. I also liked how the editing was more upbeat. You kept it interesting by making cuts after a certain amount of time.
My only criticism is that the last dolly shot seemed like it was aimed too low. As the skater was doing his powerslide, he were barely hanging in the edge of the frame, and by the time he had finished, his head was cut off! At the same time, there was plenty of unused space below him...

4) Mike Vinckier
I liked the subject matter, as it showed what most of us do during the summer months. It had a fun and juvenile vibe to it.
I must say that the filming...confused me, for lack of a better term. Was there a reason why almost everything was a wide shot with little to no planning in composition? Editing wise, is there a reason why there are six random cuts or fades to black? Why did the video suddenly cut off at the end? I think it would have more flow if you synced the cuts with the claps or beat of the music. Also, why did you pick the music you did? Was there a certain way that it contributed to the overall emotion or vibe of summer?

5) Charles Labbe
Good vibe! I liked how the beginning of the video had a story to it, as it described the surroundings and set up the scenario. I liked the shot at 0:32 because you changed the height of the camera instead of having every shot at chest-height. I also thought the subtle vignette at the beginning matched the overall vibe of the edit pretty well. As for criticism, was there a reason why the river shots weren't level?

I feel like the winner here is Christophe Fortin. His video was the only one that had constant movement, and I felt the opening shots alone beautifully illustrated the color and brightness of summer. The skateboard shots had movements in various directions, and he even filmed with the camera at different heights, which many people overlook. It was the only video with a solid establishing shot, and the sound went hand in hand with the editing. Good work Christophe!

thanks so much for the review, yeah there was absolutely no color correction and it was on awb, it was my first edit with my t2i and my first time editing using fcp, I switched from vegas pro and a hmc 150 and since file pulling was allowed for this contest I used this one, how do you set your blacks and whites on a dslr in video?

You don't. You do it in post using a histogram and grading program.

thanks you so much! means a lot for me!

Thanks a ton for that. I'll work on leveling the camera. I thought that switching to Alaska and changing around my colors around might have been too much of a switch, but I guess not.

thanks, Im waiting for next week's contest

thanks alot guys. few comments on my video; it was werid and cut short because it was just another summer edit i was working on.. so i decided to switch it up and cut it down to 1 min which ws really hard. i didnt expect to win and votes with that video at all, but im glad people liked it thanks agian :)

update?

I want to start by saying it's an honor to be able to judge the videos this round and I'm super stoked that we got this up and running. I apologize for the delay, and I hope you guys didn't loose any faith in us. You all did a great job and we will make sure your hard work didn't go to waste. You all should be very proud of making it and you all did a fantastic job, props to all (and everyone that didn't make it to the final round too, stick with it and gain from it!) Now, my comments:

Video #1:
*Vibe gained: you spent your summer traveling and chose to highlight that with your video
*Good beat-matching, it was used well
*Having variety in your shots and filming at two locations added to the video a lot
*Flowed well
*Well composed
*Some of the shots were repetitive, not a huge negative but it did get old
*Felt like the first shot was too long, could have been shortened and had a few more clips tossed in.

Video #2:
*Vibe gained: you had a more mellow and chill summer, hung around town and chose to show some of the interesting sides of what you saw
*Good mix of shots
*Good mix of different angles, multiple angles of same subject to mix it up
*The random fade to black between two light house shots confusing, it didn't seem to fit. I felt like it should have been during the next transition

Video #3:
*Vibe gained: lot of time hanging with friends at the skate park, looked very fun
*Good intro
*Great mix of different angles
*Great low light
*Would have liked to seen some day shots or doing something else, adding a little twist or mix into the variety, but otherwise very well done

Video #4:
*Vibe gained: you spent a lot of time hanging with friends fooling around doing fun things you guys enjoyed
*Good mix of shots
* You didn't spend one time shooting, you had a mix of clips shot at different locations and times that really helped highlight your entire summer
*Edit seemed to just end unexpectedly
*Last clip dragged on, could have been shortened and had a couple more clips thrown in it

Video #5:
*Vibe: spent lots of time there surfing, chose to capture something you did a lot of.
*Let me know it was about one certain topic, even though it was supposed to be more of a broad group of shots I was prepared for it to be about a certain part of your summer
*Flowed extremely well with the song
*Good intro
*Great mix of shots
*Good transitions, mix of fades and L-cuts, nothing too distracting
*Had an intro and good ending, more story like

To all the contestants I want to say thank you for participating. To the final five; congratulations on making it this far – it’s been a privilege to be able to pick apart your videos. Hopefully our cumulative comments will help you guys in future videos, regardless of whether you continue to participate in the contests or not (please do!!!!!). Might I recommend to anyone reading this thread not to just skip through the critiques to the one on the video that you liked/made; read them all and maybe go back and watch the corresponding video to see why we said these things – a lot of our points will be very similar. Just my two cents.

I also want to apologize for the delay – I’ve been caught up with my first year of college and this week has been my first “busy” week yet. I’ll try harder next time to pull these together more punctually so that we can keep moving on and maintain interest. My bad.

Anyways, to the juicy bit ;)

Abe
Like Landis said, I liked that your edit wasn’t “usual” summer settings. I normally end my video with sunsets, so the fact that you started yours with one and cut to something else made me double take and forced me to think about your content – that’s the point of the video, no?

At :15, the video is awkwardly skewed. It’s a nice shot, but that tilt really takes away from it in my eyes – you go from a few nicely balanced shots to that one, and it ends up seeming out of place. The shot after this had this similar problem.

I did, however, love the silhouettes – they gave the video a great feel and really highlight your sunset colors. The shot of the dog jumping into the water off the dock is amazing – you caught something wonderful with that one. If this contest was something about submitting a clip based on timing, like the one iteration of the photo contest, that would make a great entry. Awesome job.

The glacier shots were cool. I know Landis is an Alaska boy so he’s used to shooting them and knows what colors he likes, but for me the only ones I thought were strangely colored was the algae/seaweed on the rocks starting at :45. The rest looked nice to me. I loved the shot with the dock – great lines on that one, I loved the way it made my eye move through the picture.

I wasn’t a huge fan of your titles. I thought that the movement was distracting from the video. I like to see more stagnant titles, that don’t move but still draw attention to themselves. I guess subtle > blatant for me on this one.

The song had a great pace, and therefore so did the edit. You had good cuts and a good eye for progression of shots. I liked that.

All in all your shots were all pretty well structured (with the exception of those few tilted ones), I enjoyed your colors, I liked the music and I liked the pace. Good work Abe, you should be proud of this.


Kyle
Great video! The first time I watched it, to be honest, I didn’t like the pace – I thought it was too slow. However, upon watching it a few more times I realized that the music/pace fit your subject matter very well. That calm feeling that comes with a summer evening, the cooling of the air and the chill that rushes at you over the water as the sun sets – you captured that in your edit. Kudos to you, my friend.

My favorite shot is at :25. It looks like one of those PowerPoint backgrounds, where you can have the colors on the slide fade from one to another and then back to the first. The water in this shot mirrors the pink clouds, and since the dock/lighthouse run through the shot along the blue horizon, your eye is even more drawn along the shot. I liked this a lot. You had this in some of your other shots too, and it makes for a really cool look. I also really liked the way you changed from wide to zoom. The seagull shot at :31 and the one following were a nice visual contrast from the wide shot before (the one I commented on above).

I don’t understand why you put in all those fades to black. You weren’t changing subject matter, so it seemed like they chopped up the edit where a more moderate transition would have made the edit more solid and coherent. Just my two cents – you may have had a reason but I think they were a little unnecessary.

Like Landis, I thought the shots late in the edit were underexposed. I don’t know much about shooting on DSLRs or doing all that fancy color isht Landis does in post, but I’m sure there were things you could’ve done to improve that. It was just too dark; your contrast was too low. In one sense I know that lighting – it actually looks like that when it’s getting really dark, therefore it could interpreted as realistic. I think, however, for the sake of aesthetics, it would be nicer to see those shots better lit.

Overall I thought it was a good video – I liked that it really captured the feeling of evening along the water; watching your video made me think back to nighttimes during vacation at the beach, walking down the beachfront road to get ice cream as the sun set – it really was quite relatable for me and I’m sure it was for other people too. For the most part your colors were good, and your shots were all really well structured. This was a good well-balanced edit. Nice work.


Christophe
LOVED your intro shots – the white sky perfectly epitomizes summer haze to me. Coupled with the dreamy intro to that song you captured something very special. Honestly that was my favorite part of your video, I loved it. I could watch it over and over again.

The timelapse where the music picked up was nice too. I’m not too much a fan of the twisting-zoom effect you had after that, but it wasn’t a make/break the video deal. I thought it fit pretty well.

Overall you had a good variation of shots. The dolly shots worked out really nicely, and I really liked the ones where you were moving past the other ramp to expose the quarter pipes on which the trick was taking place. It was good that you had some stagnant shots too – the angles you used turned out well, though, and I thought all were pretty effective.

The contrast between the fast music and slow mo editing gave the video a great feel. The beat kept the pace up while the slow mo coincided really well with the slow melody of the song, even though it was chopped up.

I can’t say that summertime night sessions at skate parks are at all relatable to me, but I liked the media. Obviously action sports are interesting and the people you were filming were quite good.

The only thing I missed in that edit was filler (besides the intro, of course). I’m a sucker for close up smiling faces, basically shots that capture the good vibes and happy feelings of the session. I didn’t notice until I watched the video a couple times, but there were no filler shots after the intro…which is okay, I just missed them. I know its tough when you’re busy shooting a hectic skate park and can only put in one minute’s worth of footage for the edit, but its nice to have one or two cutaways to throw in and add that happy-factor.

Overall I liked it a lot. It had good pace, good shot variation and placement and execution, decent lighting all around (especially in the intro!) and just had a nice feel to it. I think I’ll end up saying this to everybody, but you should be proud of this. It worked well for you.

(Next time watch your time limit though ;) we’ll be a little stricter I think…).


Mike Vinckier
Your shots screamed summer at me, although not exactly in the way I would’ve liked. Summer, to me, is a spontaneous time, when events come up and you just go for them – just unstructured, all-over-the-place fun.

However, I doubt you intended to create this form vs. function relationship. Unfortunately I felt like your video was a little too all over the board. I thought that some of the shots were kind of irrelevant (the shot of you (?) in the car, perhaps, with the camera looking up at you) and just didn’t really add much – they may have been “summer” but didn’t fit in with the rest of your edit. Another example – the last shot; you show the snowboarder preparing to drop into the ramp, but have to cut the video off. Why bother putting that in if it’s not going to lead anywhere? See what I mean?

The fade to blacks/black should be save for the beginning/ends of sections of your video – don’t just toss them in the middle. If you do, this chops up your edit and minimizes the cohesiveness of your piece. With a time limit on the contest, that is the last thing you want.

I liked that dual-video thing you had going on with the snowboarder on the PVC pipe. Did you align them so that the PVC pipe ran like it was one pipe throughout the full frame? Well done, normally I don’t like that sort of thing but here it was pretty neat.

I too wasn’t a fan of the song – it was fast and fun but didn’t scream summer at me. To be honest it’s just not my type of music.

Overall you had some good shots in there, although for next time I’m recommending that you take a little more care in organizing your shots. Keep wakeboarding with wakeboarding and snowboarding with snowboarding, nah mean? Progression through your shots never hurts either. I liked the edit, good stuff - keep up the good work and keep shooting!


Charles
I LOVED your subject matter! That’s such a cool idea/activity/spot/setting, and that kid was good. It made for a very interesting edit.

You had very good progression. I liked how it started out with filler and moved into the surfing part of the video. That’s always good. As I said above, I’m a sucker for good filler, and you certainly had good filler. The fact that you filled almost half of your video with cutaways building to the surfing is awesome! It really gives a sense of what you guys were up to and how good and happy the day felt.

Your shots were pretty good too. I liked the colors – again, I’m a sucker for warm colors. The close up of the “wave” at :17 was amazingly effective – great eye! I also liked the from-above wide-angle shot – good change of view, in my opinion. To be honest if the shots were all from the bank of the river the edit would’ve been much more dull. Did you have to climb the tree for that?

My only complaint is that on most of the shots where you were at the bank of the river, your tripod wasn’t level. That was painfully obvious when the other side of the river was in the shot and one can clearly see the tilted horizon line. Next time, even if your shots turn out like that, just rotate them a little bit in post. It will make a huge difference.

Back to progression - the fact that you ended with a fall summed the video up really well. The falls are what end the surf time on the wave, and that’s what ended the video – very fitting indeed! Good call on that one.

Liked the song choice – while it may not be my favorite genre of music, there’s no denying that light acoustic guitar is the epitome of chill summer. Your music complimented your video and really helped set its vibe, and that’s what it’s supposed to do.

All in all, this was a good piece – thinking analytically, you set out to capture something about summer, and I think you really did here. All the pieces of your video fit together quite well and in my eyes it just came together, great work.


The other judges and I will talk about what video we want to vote for, and once all the reviews are posted up I’ll announce the final winner. Again, apologies for the delay.

1)

Hey there. I’ll start off by saying that I definitely enjoyed your video. I really liked how there were two “contrasting” views of summer. Warm summer lakes versus glaciers. Your images were beautiful, but they lacked movement. I felt like it got a bit stale having so many locked off shots following one another. You did have camera movement around 00:38, but it was quite shakey and had some “jello effect” it seemed. I’m not sure what you’re dealing with as far as stabilization, but I would have left those two shots out personally. I feel like they didn’t stack up to the rest of the video and took away from it. If you’re going to move the camera just make sure it’s smooth. Also, I was not a huge fan of the last title. It seemed a bit “unprofessional” if you will. You have the right idea though. Good pacing, music that created a mood/vibe, and clean images. Just work on being picky about the fine details that make or break the “professionalism” of the video and you’re set! Keep shooting.

2)

It reminded me of one of Alex Horner’s edits. I think it was the ambient soundtrack, how you could feel like you were there in the moment because of the total sound package. Sound is JUST as important as the visual aspect of a video. I’m glad you understand that. One thing I noticed was that the cuts didn’t really flow with the music. Since the video is so simple from the editing aspect, I would have at least cut to some sort of a beat, noise, pitch, ect. It just seemed like the pacing was off a bit. I was also kind of a little surprised at how it ended. I was getting into it and then all of the sudden, BAM, over. There were no shots that made the edit “fade” out or come to a conclusion. I realize you have a time limit, but that’s part of the challenge, finding the best way to end the video smoothly. I liked the colors, text, and overall visual feel though. Good eye for shots that made me feel like i was there.

1. The video was certainly solid. You have a great feel for pacing and the speed of your video. The shots were pretty well composed, but I felt like you used the dolly for too many of the shots. Dollies/sliders have their place for sure, just be careful about overuse. I was a bit confused about the beginning. It starts with a daytime scene that had nothing do to with the bulk of the video. I just felt like it was out of place and din’t introduce what teh video was about. Thats the part I would cut out if you were to do it again. Next time you’re out filming I’d try to get some shots of your homies slapping fives, laughing, and just generally being stoked. People seem to think that a “serious” video means “professional. My own opinion is that the vibes are raised when you include the personalities of the subjects being filmed. Good job though! Looking forward to seeing more.

4)

Songs. Songs. Songs. They can make or break a video. Before I get into that whole deal I’ll give you props on including many different aspects of summer. I liked that you showed all sorts of things you did in the summer to have fun instead of just one aspect!

Ok songs. I really would suggest you put more thought into music for your video. You picked a song that didn’t create a vibe. When picking a song try and think “how will thing song, in addition to my shots, create the mood I’m going for and give the viewer the feelings I’m trying to express to them?” Basically, pick a different song next time hahaha. I guess that’s personal taste though so I could be wrong. My opinion isn’t “right” by any means. You also seemed to just “brocam” alot of the footage. Basically pointing and shooting instead of really composing each and every shot. If I’m not mistaken you mainly used a GoPro camera. The problem with a GoPro is that you CANNOT compose a proper shot/ a shot that doesn’t involve a fisheye/wide angle. In order to take your cinematography to the next level you’ll needs to used a different camera (unless you’re fine with this type of edit, then by all means do what you like to do!).

I say all this not to be mean, rude, or discouraging. In fact I’m trying to help you towards improvement in your videos. Keep filming man and keep taking bits and pieces of other videos and incorporating them into your own style! I feel mean.

5)

Good job man! This is the winner in my eyes and I’ll tell you why.

Your video told a story. Your video had a feel good vibe. Your video had an indie feel to it (DIY35mm will do that I suppose). Overall you picked an excellent song. It created a feel that made me want to go surfing and enjoy some time by the water with my homies. I liked that you had establishing shots which led up to the surfing. You matched the music with your shots very well.

Since every video needs improvement in some way (there’s no such thing as perfection) I have a few suggestions.

-When you pulled focus it got pretty shakey. 35mm adapters will do this unless you have a good followfocus/rail system so I’m not sure what to tell you there.

-Your pans were somewhat shakey, but this didn’t seem to bother me much, maybe due to the whole “indie” look.

-The video ended suddenly. Maybe some shots of stoked friends, drying off, ect would be a good ender.

Sorry my responses aren’t as detailed as one would have expected. I’m extremely busy with college right now as it’s my first year. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. I hope nobody gets discouraged because filmmaking is something that takes passion. If you have the passion for it your videos will continue to improve. Learn from mistakes and don’t take critique negatively.

There’s probably a million typos in there, sorry if it’s sloppy.

Thanks,

Steve

The second"1" should have been a 3 (for the third video).

Thank you all for the great feedback! Im actually surprised my vid got in the finals, I just shot one day while i wasn't surfing for the fun of it. I'm sorry for the shots on the river bank where the frame isn't level, I actually never noticed that it was like that, as i said before, I shot the whole thing pretty much spontaniously.

StartFragment

Disclaimer: After having written all the critiques, I feellike maybe I’ll come across as a dick. I feel as though I was pretty critical,however I’m only this critical because I see a ton of potential and so many ofthese videos are so close to being truly amazing to watch. I was extra nitpicky so as to make everyone more conscious of things that perhaps theywouldn’t always think of. I’m not trying to insinuate that I’m flawless, oreven very good at that rate, but these are the kind of comments I’d like tohear if I were looking to improve my work (which I always am). I may haverambled a lot on some of these but I hope everyone can take at least somethingaway from what I have to say.

Video #1 – Abek

First I’m just going to start off with things that stuck outto me; good or bad, and then I’ll expand from there.

Horizon

Overall enjoyable vibe

Some confusing, and some good composition

Camera shake, unwanted (presumably?) pan

Horizon. Perhaps you rushed setting up the shot due to thetime limit involved in getting a sunset shot, but that sunset shot with thetrees in the foreground and horizon not level really didn’t feel right to me.To me this is the major point that brings this video down, and it’s unfortunatebecause I feel as though you probably could’ve gone without it. I reallyenjoyed the second to last shot and wish that perhaps you had taken out theunlevel horizon shot and used more stuff like that in the end.

To break down that shot further (of course you must know Imean no offense in any of this, simply constructive criticism), I feel asthough the composition of that shot came off as being really harsh. Much of theother shots are very simple with few lines and a lot of space for the eye tomove in, good composition for the most part, however I find the foreground ofthis image to be distracting and that it really breaks up the shot in anunpleasant way. It’s a very hectic shape and dissects the image in a hectic wayfor a piece that other than this I felt has a very easygoing, smooth vibe.

To continue with composition, I really almost liked the shot at 0:43 with the dock. It’s a rather clichéimage, but typically an engaging one none the less. However, I feel like youjust missed with this one, something about the angle and placement of the dockin the frame doesn’t work. The dock is placed smack dap in the center, bothhorizontally and extending halfway up vertically. Had there been poles on theother side as well (which would make no sense?), I think this framing would’vecreated some beautiful symmetry, however right now it just creates a veryunbalanced image for the eye. I would’ve loved to have seen this shot with thecamera placed more towards the right to help create more dynamic spacingbetween the poles (instead of 1 large space, 1 significantly smaller, and thenhaving them merge into one form).

Overall however, your composition was pretty pleasing, andthe shots in alaska (presumably from a boat?) created some very nice movement.However, to go along with this movement came some camera (boat?) shake and afew slips of the tripod as it appeared. Not sure how much footage you areworking with from there but that slip of the tripod at 0:41 I found to be verydistracting. Also, the horizon appeared to be a bit crooked in these shots aswell. It can be hard to remember to consider leveling in situations like youwere in where you’re seeing things maybe you’ve never seen before, and to youthe focus is probably entirely on those cute little critters who’s soul youwere capturing, however try to always take a step back and analyze your framein it’s entirety before pressing that record button.

Again, however, bravo on your composition for the most part.The piece overall was impressive and I’m just being picky with this criticism.

Which leads me to my next point, the vibe. Well done, sir. PerhapsI’m a sucker for Ellie Goulding remixes, but I felt like the song choice wasvery fitting and definitely worked in your advantage in creating this smoothvibe.

One last thing, color grading. Your colors seemed a bit warmfor the Alaska part, not sure if that was intentional or not but I felt likewhat with Alaska being a cold, rugged place the warm colors weren’t toofitting.

Last note. Good work! I thoroughly enjoyed watching thispiece!

Back for more. Having critiqued a few more pieces now I canappreciate that you were able to tell a story with your piece. You maintained acoherent, however loose, narrative that I was able to follow. You showed thatduring your summer you traveled a bit, and I liked that. All of the shotsseemed to flow well into the next and I didn’t ever feel jarred in this loosenarrative I felt I was in. Again, good work.

Video #2 – Kyle

I’ll do the same format asbefore, list some standouts and expand from there. And begin:

Neat title work

Good ambient sound… why does itcut out so harsh?

Love the shot at 0:22, I wouldlook at that for a while

Horizon, 0:26

Fade to black?

Confusing cuts toward the end,lost the flow?

Title. Not that the title workwas anything wild, but it was a nice touch and I appreciated it.

Really enjoyed the ambient soundyou had in parts, but I found it really harsh how it stopped on a hard cuttowards the beginning. I wasn’t really even aware of the audio (in a good way)until then, and from that point on I was more conscious of it. Fade out thataudio gently, or just leave it in, and I think your audio for this piece isvery enjoyable.

Fade to black? I don’t get thatuse of that. Typically a fade to black signifies a passing of time or change oflocation or both. In this case I sense none of those, but certainly expectedit. I felt very jarred, in a narrative sense, from that fade to black. Fromthat point on I felt a bit lost in what I was I was seeing and where it fit in.You come back from the fade into the same place, same time, and it takes me amoment to figure out why there wasn’t a change, then you go right into anotherfade to black and this time I don’t know what to expect on the other side. Fromthat second fade I emerge into a tight shot of a rocky beach, right intoanother tight shot, now I’m confused. There I change in color phase, so I feelas though perhaps there was a change in time, later in the evening now; anestablishing shot might help to clear that up. I’ve lost my sense of place andnow you cut back to a wide shot, presumably from the same location, however atthis point I’ve lost my grip on the narrative and lost my sense of location.That last sequence arranged backwards from how you had it would’ve been moreeffective.

Now that I’d said all of thatthough, time for some positive words. I really, really enjoyed the compositionin several of your shots. Like I mentioned up above, the shot at 0:22 wasbeautiful, great shapes created by some bold lines. The shot at 0:10 is simple,but quite nice. The curve of the light pole leads beautifully into the boldedge of the bridge. I really enjoy the shape created between the light pole andthe bottom of the frame. The shot at 0:19 was pretty cool as well, although Ifelt as though the lighthouse could’ve used a little more room on the right,and less on the left. I like the softness of the gate/fence in the foregroundthough. I feel like I want to like the shot at 0:26, but I think the slightcrookedness really takes away from the shot for me.

Overall though, you obviouslyhave a pretty good eye for composition and it shows. I really enjoy the shotsin the piece, and the beginning really grabbed me but as I explained earlier Ifeel as though the last bit really threw me for a bit of a loop.

Video #3 – Christophe

Same thing, I’ll say what standsout overall first, and then expand.

Really enjoy the opening shots,but don’t see how they fit in with the rest of the piece being night

Great movement, although perhapsa little repetitive

Framing; cut off the subjectsometimes

Overall I enjoyed watching thispiece, but I wasn’t in love with it. I found your use of the slider shots to bea tad on the repetitive side and many of them I felt didn’t really have muchmore of a purpose than just to use the slider. I personally feel as thoughslider shots without purpose (purpose for me being revealing the subject/objector creating interesting foreground movement. That’s just my opinion of purposehowever) take away from a piece.

I did enjoy the slider shots youused that I felt had a purpose, the shot at 0:15 used a slider to createenjoyable foreground movement with the fence that aided to the overall appealof the shot. I really liked the use of the slider in the shot at 0:29, as itrevealed an essential part of the shot, and the reveal was timed well with theaction. The shot at 0:43 bothered me as it was a bit crooked, and the movementdidn’t seem necessary as all it did was move the camera behind a person whothen abruptly moved against the motion of the shot. The secondskateboard/longboard shot seemed a bit off for me as well as your framing lefta bunch of empty space in the bottom of the frame while the head of theskateboarder ended up getting cut off the top of the frame at one point. Overall with the slider use I’d say ifyou’re intent on shooting with it a ton, at least try to mix up where you placeyour angles in the piece. Seeing the same shot twice in a row, with the exactsame movement and framing really turns me away from what I’m watching.

While you expressed good use ofthe slider and often good composition I felt as though the repetitiveness andshot selection really took away from this piece for me.

Also, with slider/dolly movement,try to edit out any parts where the movement happens to stop for no real reasonother than maybe the fact you ran out of track. That shot through the fence isa great example, as I said before I really enjoyed that shot, however what Ididn’t say before was that I stopped liking that shot during the last 3 framesor so where movement basically stopped for no apparent reason.

However, like I’d said witheveryone else, please know I’m not knocking your piece at all. I’m just sharingmy opinion on matters and trying to give some constructive criticism. The pieceoverall was quite enjoyable to watch and I really liked the movement you werecreating. Ooh, also, good song choice. I felt it worked really well and youedited well to it.

Video #4 – Mike

Same thing, I’ll state somethings that stick out at me then expand.

Abrupt ending?

Song?

Looked like you had a fun timeand it felt like you captured a lot of what you did in this piece

editing

First off, looked like you had afun time! Seemed like you got out a lot and captured a lot of what you did andmanaged to put it all together in this piece… perhaps to a song that reflectstowards your summer? Personally that song choice doesn’t relate to summer forme, and doesn’t fit this footage, but perhaps it strikes home more with you?Seemed like a nice reflection of your summer.

Meow, editing. Those black spacesreally threw me off, not really sure what their significance was. The effect at0:40 with the two frames was kind of neat, although I don’t know if it reallyfit it. Seemed like you kind of just did it because you could. Continuity wise,it seemed as though you told several little stories of things you did, and thiswas cool and all until the abrupt ending when you started to ‘tell anotherstory’, if you will… and then it just stopped.

In conclusion I feel like youcaptured a great summer you had in this piece, and it probably is a goodreflection of you but you didn’t really set me up much to see this through yourlens, so I feel rather left out of the loop in viewing this.

Video #5 – Charles

Yar, same format.

Liked the artificial focus pullon the text.

Cool opening shots

Riving surfing? Awesome.

Real fun vibe, song works well

Little abrupt of an ending

Artificial focus pull of the textwas a nice touch, a little off but I like the idea. Doing some motion trackingto keep the text in the same location in the frame would really help. Like whatyou were going for though, cool stuff. To roll from the beginning, I enjoyedseveral of those intro shots, close shot of the guy grabbing his towel waspretty neat with some crazy distortion, doesn’t really look like authentic,clean bokeh but it’s appealing none the less. I also really like the shotduring 0:36, very pleasing to my eye.

Setting is neat as well. Riversurfing seems like a pretty awesome way to spend a nice summer day and youcaptured that well. Pretty cool concept in general as well.

Song works quite well and youedited to it nicely, up until the end where it doesn’t really seem to wrap uptoo well. Although it’s not the most abrupt ending I’ve ever seen, it alsoisn’t the nicest. I perhaps could’ve gone with a few less surfing shots, andmaybe some end of the day, packing up and leaving shots to finish telling thestory.

EndFragment

well, that's annoying. It appears that in pasting in what I had to say it messed with the spacing of some words. Hopefully it's not too hard to pick through.

Thanks a ton guys!

bump! Where is this going?..

Updates coming in the new thread, which is going up tonight.

Classes are hectic today, otherwise it would've been up by now.

so...

I imagine it will be soon.

Winner has been "decided," just waiting for one of the contest starters to do their thang

Sorry about the wait guys - this has been my first "busy" week at college and I had to get stuff done. The new thread is up, give it a peek and get out there!