The big 4 - exercises to make you big.

Needs to look at the camera and not look off to the side, why the side shots, if you must use those then they need to be broken from the full face shots first. It annoyed me so I didn't watch much further, so probably not a good indication for the viewer.
 
and get someone who isnt an illiterate to script and present - he's here to day to "give us some tips and advices" :bang:
 
It wasn't my most favorite video, he's not the most motivating trainer...

I don't even really need to improve it as it was a freebie for him doing something for me.

Might just leave it and crack on with a great video next time lol.

It was difficult getting any personality across so in the end I just settled for what we are presented with.

I guess what I'm after is, "what could I have done better?".
 
Wow that's harsh crit... I thought it was ok, maybe the second camera shots could have been less or broken to but it followed ok with the primary audio. Did it go on a bit too much? Well yes for me it did but hey it's not my thing so my interest may not be typical of the viewer. On the whole I thought it was well done.
 
V8burble said:
Wow that's harsh crit... I thought it was ok, maybe the second camera shots could have been less or broken to but it followed ok with the primary audio. Did it go on a bit too much? Well yes for me it did but hey it's not my thing so my interest may not be typical of the viewer. On the whole I thought it was well done.
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Cheers.

I think these guys were expecting my normal Steven Spielberg type work lol.

I was fairly happy with it for what it is and the 'boringness' of the subject... as always I just like to know how it could be improved that's all :)

I have loads of cutaways anyway so cutting to something else other than the B cam isn't a problem.
 
I've only watched the first minute, but I think that's a decent effort there bud. In terms of visuals I like your 2 camera set up and the jumpy cuts. Adds a bit of pace which suits the subject matter. Without watching it properly (it's Friday night, come on!), my only crit would be the sound quality. It's a bit tinny and reverby, and sound is as important, sometimes more so, than visuals.
 
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Dangleman said:
I've only watched the first minute, but I think that's a decent effort there bud. In terms of visuals I like your 2 camera set up and the jumpy cuts. Adds a bit of pace which suits the subject matter. Without watching it properly (it's Friday night, come on!), my only crit would be the sound quality. It's a bit tinny and reverby, and sound is as important, sometimes more so, than visuals.
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Cheers mate.

My mic unfortunately isn't up to scratch :-(

I edit and denoise as best I know how but yeah... polishing a turd.
 
Dangleman said:
I've only watched the first minute, but I think that's a decent effort there bud. In terms of visuals I like your 2 camera set up and the jumpy cuts. Adds a bit of pace which suits the subject matter. Without watching it properly (it's Friday night, come on!), my only crit would be the sound quality. It's a bit tinny and reverby, and sound is as important, sometimes more so, than visuals.
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I second this Phil, too much room sound (reverberation) is being picked up and no amount of processing is going to eliminate this. In such situations, a lavalier mic will make a huge difference. I've had good results with a very reasonably priced Audio Technica ATR3350 (about £26 at the excellent studiospares.com). I use it plugged into a Zoom H1 handheld recorder, which the 'talent' has hidden on their person.

Apart from that, I thought it was a pretty good effort and I get what you were trying to achieve with the side shots.

P.S. The only other critique and this may be own to encoding, the shots of Saaj talking into the camera are nice and sharp, but whenever any motion comes into the film, it seems very fuzzy and somewhat jerky (see around 31s - 45s when he is benching and squatting for example).
 
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MarcM said:
I second this Phil, too much room sound (reverberation) is being picked up and no amount of processing is going to eliminate this. In such situations, a lavalier mic will make a huge difference. I've had good results with a very reasonably priced Audio Technica ATR3350 (about £26 at the excellent studiospares.com). I use it plugged into a Zoom H1 handheld recorder, which the 'talent' has hidden on their person. Example here: http://www.caterpillarmusic.com/franchise

Apart from that, I thought it was a pretty good effort and I get what you were trying to achieve with the side shots.

P.S. The only other critique and this may be own to encoding, the shots of Saaj talking into the camera are nice and sharp, but whenever any motion comes into the film, it seems very fuzzy and somewhat jerky (see around 31s - 45s when he is benching and squatting for example).
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Cheers Marc I'll look into you're suggestions and the fuzziness and find out why... :)
 
what the others said really... it is what it is, noone was expecting 'speilberg' from this kind of video.

The straight, piece to camera style works well, as do the jump cuts, though I think that I'd have brought the second camera more at 45 degrees or so rather than a dead profile.

I think that there's just a wee bit too much headroom - angled very slightly lower down to get the bright hotspot top left out of the frame would be better, bright patches tend to draw the eye away. If you were still trying to get the fitnessfirst logo in, you could have stood him on something to get him up a couple of inches

Sound's the biggest issue, but as you've said that's largely a mic problem - a decent stick mic, or a lav, would have helped.

Looks good though. Not everything is, or needs, *outstanding* cinematography - and there's a hell of a lot of commercial talking head production out there like this, so nicely done.
 
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First thing I noticed was the sound (along with how unsure he seemed of himself on camera).

The cuts are OK I think, don't mind the 90º profile either. Main issue with the visual side of things is the headroom, you have a few tighter frames, but the main to-camera shot has way too much headroom, to the point where you are also cutting off his hands at the bottom. You probably framed it up to get the logo in the background, but it would've been better to change the angle, maybe moved him further from the logo if you could, to keep it in frame with less headroom needed.
 
Jayst84 said:
First thing I noticed was the sound (along with how unsure he seemed of himself on camera).

The cuts are OK I think, don't mind the 90º profile either. Main issue with the visual side of things is the headroom, you have a few tighter frames, but the main to-camera shot has way too much headroom, to the point where you are also cutting off his hands at the bottom. You probably framed it up to get the logo in the background, but it would've been better to change the angle, maybe moved him further from the logo if you could, to keep it in frame with less headroom needed.
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Yeah I probably should have lined him up properly with the logo... definitely take the away with me for next time.

I did think of it even at the time but for some stupid reason I thought it was ok because of when I zoom in for a 100% shot (I shoot in 1080p and edit in 720p).

I could sort it all out for this video bit since it's not paid and the client is happy... I don't think I'll bother.

But next time!
 
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