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Shot Composition Critique (video)

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Official_Recap
Posts: 1075 - Karma: 525

I've been meaning to experiment with this, and now that we have some serious flooding at the waterfronts, I figured I would go out and push myself. I tried to make a short that involved no shot movement (i.e. pans / tilts). The idea was to focus heavily on the composition of the shots, as well as the timing of each shot in post. Bear in mind, this was the first time trying this, but then again, the only way to get better is to push yourself and try new things!

Any comments, critiques, and ideas are greatly appreciated!









Cheers,

Chase
May 1 2011 10:59PM
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Childstar.
Posts: 1947 - Karma: 2,213
Pretty interesting for the first minute, but most of this kind of work is like that.


May 1 2011 11:02PM
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Official_Recap
Posts: 1075 - Karma: 525
Do you think that is just because of the repetitive nature, or tat if there is a way to make the shots more interesting, the video wouldn't lose the viewer after a minute?
May 2 2011 10:47PM
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.cam.
Posts: 1852 - Karma: 48
the shot composition was beautiful but it was too repetitive for my liking. if it wasn't just flooded stuff it would be nice.
May 2 2011 10:59PM
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blatt
Posts: 5584 - Karma: 3,097
Too long in my opinion. both clip wise and the video as a whole. Shorten each clip and it will make the edit shorter. It would keep me much more entertained
May 2 2011 11:03PM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
shots were a little repetitive, and almost all of them were held too long. would have been cool if you had done some split screen stuff too.

you had some really beautiful shots in there though, i enjoyed it.

just out of curiosity, what made you decide to that? it just seems a little strange to me, since a big part of film is the beauty of movement, be it the subject or the camera
May 3 2011 1:55AM
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Official_Recap
Posts: 1075 - Karma: 525
Thanks for the responses everyone!

I've found myself using too much of the same motion recently. While shooting, I kind of started to see myself doing the exact same movements in every shot, just adapting them to new scenes. It has become a bit monotonous and I wanted to get back to trying to push myself in video. Taking out the movement helped break down bettering my footage by starting with just better composition. I think after this, I am going to try to continue the focus on composition and then add a few slight movements. I just really don't like where I have been going; essentially shooting with an equation of 'pan here, tilt there, slide here, slide back there, etc.' thinking that any motion is good motion, if that makes sense.

thoughts?
May 3 2011 4:52PM
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kootenayklaus
Posts: 3914 - Karma: 2,179
Personally, when a video has a lot of camera movement (not shakyness, just normal pans and tilts and such), I get bored more easily. I prefer the fixed tripod shot with a good composition to a pan or a tilt. Now the video was excellent composition wise, but the shots were held too long and it was repetitive. But excellent work though.
May 3 2011 6:14PM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
but would you prefer a static shot with good composition to a well executed pan with good composition throughout?
May 3 2011 7:05PM
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HeadyTopper
Posts: 1170 - Karma: 98
this makes me realize how much panning, tilting, etc adds to a shot. however, i liked your video although it was rather repetitive.
May 3 2011 7:17PM
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