REALLY nice short edited and cc'd in Vegas

MarkHolmes wrote on 7/17/2008, 12:03 PM
Hey all, just wanted to share a couple links to a short film that has made the rounds on Vimeo and the Rebel Cafe. It was shot on a Canon HV20, edited and color corrected in Vegas by a young guy in Canada. It's called "White Red Panic" and was made by Ayz Waraich.

It's getting some deserved attention on Vimeo and now in Stu Maschwitz's (writer of The DV Rebel's Guide and of Orphanage fame) Rebel Cafe, where a lot of people are getting to hear that all the grading was done in Sony Vegas. It's interesting to hear that all the color work was done with simple tools, mostly the aav6cc plugin.

Anyhow, links:

http://www.vimeo.com/1333375

http://rebelsguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1641

On vimeo, do yourself a favor and log in and download the original 720P file. It's worth the five minute download wait.

And congratulations to Ayz on a job well done!

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 7/17/2008, 12:18 PM
The guy is obviously an artist and therefore who am I to criticize.

I do have a comment, namely that it seems to me that way too many films and filmmakers are enamored with this high-contrast, off-color look. Variations of it have almost become the norm.

For my taste, a little goes a long way, and for me, it is already and old and tired technique, one that is too simple for amateurs to duplicate -- or at least ape -- whereas the traditional techniques of trying to preserve as much detail as possible and to grade color to better represent reality, rather than to alter it, seem to be techniques that a decreasing number of filmmakers and videographers have mastered.
MUTTLEY wrote on 7/17/2008, 12:41 PM

Saw this one when it first went up but he doesn't mention anywhere on it that it was done in Vegas, otherwise would have added it to the Sony Vegas group on Vimeo.

As for the color, I don't hate it. Glad you put the disclaimer on your comment John cuz I think it is just a matter of personal preference. I remember digging around trying to find out a bit about trying to achieve that look way back in the day as it had become rather popular in movies and music vids. I like the look of color reversal but I can easily see how others might not care for it.

- Ray
Some of my stuff on Vimeo
www.undergroundplanet.com
GlennChan wrote on 7/17/2008, 4:31 PM
whereas the traditional techniques of trying to preserve as much detail as possible and to grade color to better represent reality, rather than to alter it, seem to be techniques that a decreasing number of filmmakers and videographers have mastered.

This is just my opinion, but I don't think all filmmaking has to be realistic. A lot of the stories we tell are unrealistic. As in adding music to the film. If you think about the color correction/grading being the visual counterpart to mood music, then I don't see anything "wrong" with that.

On the other hand... people have their own tastes. Some people may feel that the music can be too melodramatic at times.

In my opinion the film looks great. (And everybody has as opinion...)
johnmeyer wrote on 7/17/2008, 4:52 PM
I agree wholeheartedly with both of you and I'm glad you understood what I was trying to say.

The range of art is limitless, and everyone must develop their own style.

However, if you look at the early works of Picasso, as one example, you will see that he definitely first worked at mastering the traditional basics before inventing a whole new way to express himself. Martha Graham spent fifteen years learning traditional dance before she branched off on her own and "invented" modern dance.

The point in bringing up both these examples is that dozens of artists who had not mastered the underlying technique went off and started drawing crazy figures or throwing themselves around on stage and attempted to pass it off as great art. They could do this because, like high contrast, deliberatly "off-color" video, both cubism and modern dance can be more easily approximated by amateurs than can traditional painting realism or Cecchetti ballet (one of the strictest forms of traditional ballet).

So, just as I can't stand watching modern dance done by untrained dancers (my wife is a ballet dancer, and I have both seen and filmed a lot of this crud), I simply wish that, as is required in most art schools and dance schools, everyone should first master basic, traditional skills before branching out and developing their own unique style. The line between art and schlock is totally subjective, and certainly lies to some degree in the eye of each beholder, but that doesn't mean that the line is totally indistinct and that those who "practice without a license" can't be easily discovered.