Band Camp

[Tom_Vayianos]

Hey guys, I'm new to the site.... figured I'd give a little background. I'm currently a sophomore majoring in film (minoring in marketing) at Emerson College in Boston. I don't think I want to keep majoring in film, but I really have no idea what I want. I got involved in videography early in high school. I started shooting for a ski resort's marketing department... website, promo DVDs, etc. The last two years of high school, I put out two full length snowboard movies that were distributed internationally by the leading action sports DVD distributor (VAS Entertainment). And since then I've done a lot of freelance videography and editing work in sports/events/music/etc... for companies such as Burton Snowboards, Fuel TV, and Freeebord.

This last summer I worked as a photographer for News 12 New Jersey. Since I'm in Boston for college now, I go back and work sometimes on holidays and weekends. I love working there, though it was definitely pretty difficult adjusting to it.... mostly the whole speed factor with news. I never really had to plan/shoot/edit anything as fast or in such stress filled situations before. They made me edit my first package ever in a sat truck, before setting up for the accompanying live shot! But as stressful as it was, as much yelling as I endured (from reporters, producers, angry/protesting muslims not wanting women on the sidewalk filmed, and worst.... a judge in court during session), and as many close calls with deadlines that I freaked out about (and the few that missed their air spots), it was a great experience and I had a blast doing it.

Anyway, towards the end of the summer I went through the archives, and took everything I could find that I did. I copied the files from burned DVDs onto my external and think I just need to fool around with them and use the program Handbrake or something to get them into quicktime files. But here is something I was able to get on my first attempt...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhqcyBhfuPI

It isn't my best package, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. For some reason, it didn't get the very first 1-2 seconds of the PKG when it copied. So the first shot you see should have started earlier with nat sound (the nat sound is actually still there because I grabbed it off their website version and threw their gfx in front of my pkg). It looks a lot better with that shot how it was supposed to be, because right now it looks like the package starts poorly framed and with the main subject who you don't see for long enough leaving the screen.

As far as self critiquing goes.....
(1) during the reporter's 2nd track, at "intense training" - flamboyant coach not so "intense" so maybe use a different shot
(2) do the interviews on tripod, though the handheld shots I don't think were too shaky
(3) the stand up I think was pretty weak (on my part), I probably should have backed up, put the camera on sticks, and instead of moving with the camera... panning/tilting/zooming to frame her up on screen

Any and all feedback is welcome, short or long. Please let me know anything you think I did poorly or could improve upon, as well as anything that I did well. Don't be too harsh..... since I am a newcomer to this, but don't hold back.... let me know what you think. Any comments are greatly appreciated. I'd like to keep seeing my packages improve. Thanks a lot, sorry for the super long post!

 

[JoeyO38]

Tom,

As a sophomore in college, you should be very, very proud of the work you do. I can't imagine many sophomores doing work that good.

If you are looking at taking it to the next level, there are a few quick suggestions you may want to consider.

The story itself was a little weak, but it didn't have to be. You and your reporter could have had 2 surprises in this story. You could have started it off with people getting ready for a "training camp" but you don't reveal what it is for the first 10 seconds... the other one could be that they are marching in the Home Depot parking lot. That could have made for a comical surprise. Maybe interview someone coming out of the store to see what they think!

Think of your package is a 90 second story with a begining, middle and end. No good story ever starts off with "The prince and princess lived happily ever after, and now I'm gonna tell you why" But I knew from the first 5 seconds what the whole story was going to be about.

Another thing to think about is more wide shots and more tight shots. There were a lot of medium shots that all looked very similar. Try to get them to sequence with each other.

Last thing to think about is where you make your edit. For the most part, the video edit should be made the frame the track or soundbite is over. Sometimes the edit was made at the start of the next sentence.

But overall you have a very bright future. There are people that work fulltime that don't shoot that well. Good luck!

Joe

 

[NEWSSHOOTER3]

Great Start

Tom, you're starting out way ahead of the curve. I'd recommend staying on the sticks, as often as possible, and shooting tighter, TIGHT, shots every now and again. Its too soon to overwhelm you with much more than that right now. Just start shooting a few really tight, tight shots of eyes, drum sticks moving, feet turning... whatever, and you will begin to notice how much easier it will be to edit sequences together.

Keep posting pieces here. There's no better place for immediate feedback.

 

[Latin Lens]

Sophmore in college, eh? Suprisingly you are ahead of the curve on shooting than most I have seen at your level.

Not an overall great story but if you would've held some suprises like Joey said...it'd probably be a little better. Also, think of your story and get the shots that are related....i.e. marching bands march....I didn't see one shot of feet moving in that whole piece....and the stand up was weak. That would have been a good time to get your reporter "involved" and put her out there doing the formations...it's practice after all right? And then the stand up could have been a two-parter with the instrument aspect....think, think, think. Reporters will love you for that.

If you can put wireless lavs on subjects to get better nats and get tight shots to help you get around the edit bay...there was one break of the axis....tight shots will help you there. Keep it up....you're doing some good work.