OT: Ultra2 and Sony Vegas latest video promo

ken c wrote on 5/31/2005, 8:27 AM
Hey folks, just wanted to say Thanks for all your tips on my earlier videos, I've done as you suggested and cut down on the number of sets, and used Vegas 4 with Ultra 2, and lower thirds etc for this spot:

http://www.megaseminar.com/topsecret.htm

Any comments/feedback on how to improve it?

Appreciate it, it's a "how to" for my 12 speakers at my upcoming seminar, to answer their questions..

It's 12 minutes long, 420x360 flv.

I didnt' have a teleprompter, so I had to stitch together 23 video clips, which is why the fades. Vegas 4 makes it easy -- I love this program.


Thanks all,


Ken

Comments

Paul_Holmes wrote on 5/31/2005, 8:44 AM
Excellant quality overall. The only thing that stood out to me was that the lettering in the lower thirds was a little too glaring white. I would add some transparency, maybe even darken a little towards a very light grey.
ken c wrote on 5/31/2005, 8:58 AM
Thanks Paul - great idea re transparency... I haven't done that w/Vegas lettering.... smart tip.. appreciate it..

that'll make it look more professional, like broadcast-type... good point!

ken
Paul_Holmes wrote on 5/31/2005, 9:26 AM
Personally I agonize with titling. I'll double-click to select the event, hit Q then just loop it over and over to my monitor. Then I play with the titling FX, adjusting colors, font transparency, shadow, etc. Seems like it takes 20 bad combinations before I hit on one good one. Once I hit a sweet spot, though, I'm learning to copy the title to a new instance of Vegas and save it in a folder called "Titles" so I can reference it in the future.
mjroddy wrote on 5/31/2005, 9:37 AM
I haven't watched the whole video yet, but the the first thing that I noticed was that you may want to give some back lights, or more specifically, side lights on your speaker to help reduce that green tint he has on his cheeks. To me, it makes him look a little ill. I read a while ago that you can put light amber gels on some 150s or 300s (or whatever) to help define the sides of the subject and eliminate that green spill.
And, just to be nit-picky, I think i would have used a transition of some kind (other than a disolve) when changing backgrounds. We're watching the speaker and all of a sudden the background changed. It threw me -just a little bit (very small point, but your product is so good, only little things might help make it better). I MIGHT suggest an Iris or Blind wipe???
Key looks good. Speaker is clear and personable. Information is well presented. Good job.
Last suggestion, watch your head room.
Again, good show.
ken c wrote on 5/31/2005, 10:03 AM
Right mrj... good points... the color was off, re green spill... I was in a bit of a rush with this one.... I'll try that lighting, thanks... and right re transitions/dissolves... I'll try wipes/irises next time - solid idea...

and right re head room, it varies too much, clip-to-clip ... I tried to keep the zooms/pushes and v-set switches to a minimum ... agree it distracts a bit.. will work on focusing better.. thanks much..

ken
Chanimal wrote on 5/31/2005, 10:23 PM
Forget the video, as a professional marketer, I appreciated finding your site so I could download all of the MP3 sample audio clips--great tips!!

Regarding the video, I second the comments about the green spill--you didn't look your normal self. When filming next time, you may wish to intentially film each segment at a different angle. It looked like you did that with some of the shots, but with others you just cross faded which made it more obvious.

I always like your use of Ultra. Thanks for sharing this.

Ted

***************
Ted Finch
Chanimal.com

Windows 11 Pro, i9 (10850k - 20 logical cores), Corsair water-cooled, MSI Gaming Plus motherboard, 64 GB Corsair RAM, 4 Samsung Pro SSD drives (1 GB, 2 GB, 2 GB and 4 GB), AMD video Radeo RX 580, 4 Dell HD monitors.Canon 80d DSL camera with Rhode mic, Zoom H4 mic. Vegas Pro 21 Edit (user since Vegas 2.0), Camtasia (latest), JumpBacks, etc.

Cheesehole wrote on 6/1/2005, 1:38 AM
The secondary color corrector should be able to fix the green spill I think?
Udi wrote on 6/1/2005, 2:00 AM
Ken,

I like to comment about the overall video, not the technical issues of lights etc.

I think that the Video should enhance the message. But in your video, the message is all in the Audio part, and it whould have been easier to get the message using a 2 page word doc.

I think you are wasting the background, you have a lot of real estate that can be used for charts, examples, reports etc.
Seeing you speak for 12 minutes is, well, agonizing...

Sorry for the "bad" review, but I hope it helps.

Udi