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Non Commercial Promo

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:59 pm
by gigfilm

Hi Film Makers,
Thank you for allowing me to share.
Here's a promo video and while it might appear to be a commercial my reward was not having to pay the full price of the camp that I filmed.
The music is by Folk Campers who just happen to be professional musicians.
I'd appreciate your comments and advice.
Gig

Re: Non Commercial Promo

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 5:56 pm
by gigfilm
Using the Flash Player destroys the image quality....ughhhh!
Ok, you need to choose the quality via the HD button. It's quite sharp at 1080p, as long as your broadband is up to it!

Re: Non Commercial Promo

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 5:15 pm
by TimStannard
You have some nice big brave close-ups of faces, especially in the first half of the film, showing a variety of expressions, and these are the attention grabbers for me. These are among the crispest shots as well. I can see that you've tried to structure it with different parts of the day separated by meal time, but for me there was far too much made of the meals. Mass cooked food never looks that appealing on camera anyway!

I liked the way you had several changes of pace, and emphasised this with the different tempo musical pieces.

Another issue with structuring it by time of day is that the final section, which should be the climax, contains the very grainy footage.

Whilst the music was appropriate, I would have liked at least some ambient sound in there from time to time (either mixed with or instead of the music) as this would really add to a feeling of presence.

Try to avoid dissolves. Typically, if used at all in narrative, they are are used to move from one location or one time to another.

Be careful with trimming clips, one of two of your shots cut into camera movement or zoom, rather than after the shot is composed.

If it's a promo, it lacks any information (when, where, who etc) but that may be appropriate if this is just for display on a website which has that info.

Re: Non Commercial Promo

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:46 pm
by Michael Slowe
Tim, it's not playing on my MacBookPro. I click on the Flash and the screen with title frame comes up but it won't play, do I have to do anything else?

Re: Non Commercial Promo

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 6:19 pm
by Dave Watterson
Michael - and anyone else having problems with the embedded version, try https://vimeo.com/189617144

Dave

Re: Non Commercial Promo

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2018 2:26 pm
by gigfilm
Thank you for your kind words, advice and well considered critique Tim.
I was working to a very tight client brief - "3 minutes maximum, one music track (which I ignored), and be as inconspicuous as possible".
There was also a list of subjects to shoot.
Folk Camps is a volunteer led not-for-profit collection of folk dance, craft and music lovers of all ages. There are lots of jobs to do, mainly meal preparation, that is carried out by the holiday makers. In that respect meal times are important as they break up the day, as you pointed out, but they are also a chance to meet and greet friends old and new, as well as to reassure potential folk campers (the target for the promo) that they will not be eating typical "camp rations". But yes, there was too much food!
You said "try and avoid dissolves". I've had another look at all 3 dissolves and I really don't think a cut would work in that situation.
Grainy Footage - tell me about it (whatever that means). The hub of Folk Camps is the marquee set up many miles from habitation. Power for lighting is from a small generator. Video lighting (I only have red-heads no led's), was impossible. I pointed it out to the client and suggested a re-shoot of the dancing at a later camp, but they insisted it was atmospheric. Watching that bit still makes me cringe.
The promo is on the Folk Camps web site http://www.folkcamps.co.uk/ and the girl in the office tells me that it saves her no end of time explaining what Folk Camps are like to enquirers.
Apart from the grainy footage I was quite pleased with the result. It was my first attempt at this type of promo video, although I had previously edited a folk duo promo from live gig footage.

Re: Non Commercial Promo

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 4:13 pm
by TimStannard
Thanks for the additional explanations. I guess the client ignored the fact you'd ignored their instructions re music and accepted you were right (it's so important to get those changes of pace in to keep the interest alive).
gigfilm wrote: The promo is on the Folk Camps web site http://www.folkcamps.co.uk/ and the girl in the office tells me that it saves her no end of time explaining what Folk Camps are like to enquirers.
I'd say that's "job done", then
:D