Las Vegas vith Vegas (home video trailer critique)

GTakacs wrote on 9/22/2004, 1:40 PM
[note] I had this posted with a different title, and I got no response, I hope this time I will.....

Hi everyone!

I am in the process of finalizing my first home DVD that I did of my latest vacation to Las Vegas.

I was wondering what people thought of it... Be easy on me, this is my first attempt at doing anything decent and I am an amateur, not a video professional. It is the intro footage to the DVD and lasts less than 4 minutes.

http://gregtakacs.com/mnm/lasvegas_intro.zip (File is a ~20MB 1MBit WMV zipped up so people download it instead of just keep steraming it.)

Comments

PierreB wrote on 9/22/2004, 5:38 PM
Hey, Greg

Well, since I'm a non-pro whose main output is vacation videos also, I'll plunge in!

I loved the photography, thought you did a great job holding your breath (or tripod) depicting some of the sights of Vegas (which I've never visited).

Maybe it's just me, but I found that with Elvis belting it out back there, I wanted the images to keep pace with the rhythm much more than they did...

Anxious to read what pros will write.

Pierre
Spot|DSE wrote on 9/22/2004, 6:05 PM
Greg,
My take on it is that it's very nice work, especially if you're new to editing.
One comment; It would hold interest more if you occasionally cut on whole notes in the music, instead of on every 8 bars. In other words, occasionally break up the long shots with short shots, even if it's the same shot using pan/crop to zoom in on the shot.
Nice choice of music, etc. I hope you had a lot of fun. I'm a fan of Las Vegas, getting there about every 6 weeks for a business client or tradeshows.
GTakacs wrote on 9/24/2004, 12:02 PM
Spot,

Thanks for the kind words, I went back and changed some scenes and added some differently timed edits as per your advice. Needless to say it made a difference and it looks a lot more interesting now. Thanks for the tip!

As far as the music choice goes, interesting yuo mention that. Some people have pointed out that I am in copyright violation and I should be expecting the lawyers to be knocking on my door any time now.... They even pointed me towards your length article about copyright issues.

Here is a link to the thread in question....

Cheers!
OdieInAz wrote on 9/24/2004, 6:39 PM
Hey! Nice work. I too created a vacation video from LasVegas, only used my Canon S50 for photos and created a montage with a selection of MJPEG movies.

I've been converting a lot of my old video home movies, but unfortunately, many of them have the Light Saber approach to sweeping around. Nevertheless, I am able to cut a lot of them out. And for what remains, I cleaned up a lot of shake with Virtual Dub with the DeShake plugin. You might find that worthwhile to play with it some, as it helps a bit.

Good luck with our new found hobby!
DVDeviations wrote on 9/27/2004, 7:59 PM
GTakacs,

I like how you did the "handwriting" title and also the "black and white" fade.

Could you explain how you did those and/or point me towards the tutorials?

Thanks,
Colleen
GTakacs wrote on 9/27/2004, 9:44 PM
http://webott.com/tutorial/handwriting/

I have used SpiceMASTER to do the handwriting animation, I downloaded a handwriting font from on-line and masked it and revealed it with a mask. For the black and white fade I just went into the color curves and keyframed the saturation down to 0. The fade was pretty easy.

The above tutorial will get you going, but it is a lot more complicated to get it to look right than what they explain in that tutorial. I have changed it since I made that sample file, the handwriting looks a lot better now, it's a lot more pronounced, not as gradual as it was in the original footage.

BTW, the file is off-line for now, my badwidth was gone within days.... I have to find another solution to host such files....
Spot|DSE wrote on 9/27/2004, 10:14 PM
Yeah, I didn't say anything about copyright. Dennis is absolutely right, you are absolutely wrong. You do NOT fall within Fair Use, not by any stretch. If you are giving it to family and friends, you are in violation. Period. How you choose to deal with that is your option....Elvis' copyrights on that song won't run out til LONG after YOU'RE gone, not him. Read my article, you'll understand how the Bono Extension will keep his rights long in place. And he doesn't own the copyright anyway. It's owned by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. It was reregistered in 1992 to protect it from expiration, and the Bono Act extends it even longer.

Registration Number: RE-570-785
Title: Viva Las Vegas. w & m Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman.
Claimant: Geoffrey Felder & Sharyn Felder (C of Doc Pomus)
Effective Registration Date: 9Jan92
Original Registration Date: 16Mar64;
Original Registration Number: EP185945.
Original Class: E

If it's just for you and your spouse, that's one thing. Making copies for friends is another. Posting it to the web, you could easily get nailed if BMG were to find it. They own the masters, which is a whole 'nother issue. You used a copyrighted song, plus used a copyrighted master, AND you synced it to music. Coupled with the public notice that you're going to give it to friends and family, plus your rebuttal on the other web page constitutes a potential criminal use. No way, no how, would it go there....but you should be aware that your rebuttal on the other page holds as much water as a fishnet.
But...if it's just a single copy for family...no one will say anything.
farss wrote on 9/28/2004, 3:33 AM
Can I add to what SPOT is saying. Quite apart from the legality there is the point that typically 70% of any production is the soundtrack. I haven't watched the video but it sounds to me like in this case it's more like 90%!
I don't want to sound harsh as this is your first go and from what others are saying you've done a half decent job of it and for that deserve to be congratulated so please don't be discouraged by what I'm trying to say here.
Giving it away as 'your' holiday video is just not right. Showing it to your friends to show how you created a music video using Elvis's music, I'd say is ethically OK. Calling the whole thing your work isn't right. It's mostly the work of the composers / musicians /singers/ engineers. You just put some images to their work. To see what I'm saying, try playing it without music!
You see I or any one else could download your work, compose some new music for it in Acid and flog it of as MY music video, does that sound right?
I really don't have a problem using other peoples work to learn by but to use it verbatim in a new work and label it your own, particularly where it's the guts of the thing, well, I think you get where I'm coming from.

/end of rant/

Bob.