my First Vegas Infomercial - NEW Version

TomE wrote on 1/29/2005, 10:24 AM

Ken,

Great JOB!!!

Your best on-camera work yet. I do not think you are talking too fast. You do use your hands alot. I have noticed that in other stuff. Sometimes the hand gestures are just a little disconnected with the flow of what you are saying and so they become a bit of a distraction. Remember less is more.

I agree with the comments on the lighting. It seems a bit flat. I do think your keys are much better. The gripe I usually have is that you are sort of washed out or hazy and the background is too high in contrast. That does not seem to be the case so--good job on the keys.

Ken it has been very fun watching your development. You have really picked up on this very quickly. Thanks again for sharing and for being such a good sport about the criticism.

Tom E

Stonefield wrote on 1/29/2005, 11:45 AM

Hey Ken,

I thought this was very well done. I was gonna comment on the lighting until I watchted it again. Your lighting I thought matched very very well with the backgrounds so I feel that was a successful composite. Stacy's lighting was fine. Just watch those shadows on her face. Keep it clean and your model will look great.

I agree, just a second or two edited out at the very end but It really didn't bother me.

Very well done Ken. I'm impressed !!!

ken c wrote on 1/29/2005, 12:15 PM

Hey thanks everyone .. great to hear it... I'm re-encoding it as we speak, clipped out a bit o stacy in that first shot ..

I'm also working hard to improve the key quality, just bought a gallon of rosco chromakey paint, will try that, also got a felt chromakey cloth vs the thin cloths I've been using...

and will experiment with softbox lights in addition to the 5k flourescents I've been using ... still a long ways to go (especially on full body keys look poor, I need to improve those)...

thanks very much for all the comments, it really helps....

1/29/05 UPDATE: Re-encoded for clearer video, plus stacy edits:

http://www.daytradinguniversity.com/videotheater.htm

==============================================

ken

Duderdude2 wrote on 1/29/2005, 1:01 PM

kencalhoun, as one who's certainly not a pro by any means, but has some experience with video editing, I think what you put together looked very professional. I'm giving you the perspective that I think most of your customers will be sharing. But the advice from others in this thread is good, but I honestly don't think most people would notice the differences.

Anyways, how did you acheive that cool title effect along the bottom of the video?

ken c wrote on 1/29/2005, 1:03 PM

hey thx...

digitaljuice.com editor's toolkit1 animated lower 1/3rd, with standard vegas titling..

ken

MJhig wrote on 1/29/2005, 1:43 PM

Nice job other than I get a huge lag between audio and video. I haven't seen this happen before with other vids I've downloaded, oh yeah, it's the downloaded WMV version as I'm on dial-up. The audio is quite a bit ahead of the video. Anyone else seeing this?

MJ

ken c wrote on 1/29/2005, 5:20 PM

you might want to check that you have the latest media player w/current codecs installed .. looks fine on mine..(actually, using wmp version 9.0; that's the latest avail for win2k ... for winxp there's a media player v.10 avail)

ken

mrjhands wrote on 1/29/2005, 5:23 PM

no looks great to me; the girl still looks a tad awkward waiting for the video to cut...AFTER her closing dialogue..thats where i thought you were going to edit also Ken, since I'm choosing to be anal, but all in the name of tidying up a fellow Vegaser's work

MJhig wrote on 1/29/2005, 5:28 PM

I have WMP 10, Win XP Pro on this machine. I even moved it to my faster (second 7200 RPM WD drive) to check, same results.

True, this is my internet PC, an Athlon 550 mHz with 512 SD-RAM, not the fastest but I've never seen this before. I'm sure other's that visit your site will have slower PCs.

MJ

ken c wrote on 2/2/2005, 7:00 PM

Thanks to all of you for your great feedback, I've re-shot and edited the entire commercial part that had me in it .. let me know what you think:

NEW Version:

http://www.daytradinguniversity.com/videotheater.htm

vs OLDer version:
http://www.daytradinguniversity.com/daytradingvideostream.htm

Let me know any feedback, I sure appreciate it. See I Listened and acted based on what you all said ... hope this one's better...

thx,

ken

AlanC wrote on 2/3/2005, 1:33 AM

Hi Ken

Have a look near the end of the clip just before Stacy comes back in. After you finish saying the words "I'll see you next month" you can be seen lowering your head after speaking. You need to cut to Stacy sooner.

Stacy's smile is much more natural but I think you still hold on to her smile for too long after she has finished her dialogue.

Overall I prefer the start and end of the second version and the captioning but personally I think you come across better in the first one.

I don't like to dishearten you. It's tons better than what I could achieve but I think you should at least address my first point. The rest of my comments are just personal preference.

Alan

ken c wrote on 2/3/2005, 5:48 AM

hi Alan, thanks - agree with you, will do.. hadn't noticed the head-drop on fade out.. also agree, energy was better in the first one... I was trying to reduce the hand waving plus make a more clear call to action re email capture, than I had done in the first one... I'll reshoot it again too .. sometimes in the zone, sometimes not ... back to the drawing board.. it's fun, but a lot of work..

kind of a good videography note too, re talent capture.. sometimes if you have more energy one day, it's good to capitalize on that, and do a lot of different shoots, vs doing again on a day w/less energy..

must...get...coffee!

ken

DavidMcKnight wrote on 2/3/2005, 8:02 AM

Sorry to swing this OT....but just for a sec....Ken, will you check the thread I posted called OT Question for Ken Calhoun? I know you've been busy with this and probably missed it.

OK...back to your regularly scheduled thread!

David