Something I made using Vegas

Randy Hayes wrote on 7/11/2008, 7:17 PM
Guys, I really don't feel bad about doing a little shameless self promotion here, seeing as how I used Vegas Pro 8 for this project, but mods, if I'm in the wrong, delete away!

In the southeast, we have a gas station chain called Sheetz. During May-June, they opened a contest to promote their coffeehouse-style coffee drinks where you write a poem, perform it on video, and submit it to youtube to enter. The grand prize was a $5000 gift card good for anything they sell, so I decided to give it a go.

I shot it on my trusty Sony Handycam that I've taken as far as Moscow, Russia and all parts in the US to produce great videos in Vegas. And since I did everything on the tripod, I used Vegas' pan/crop keyframes to tighten up and give some camera motion to one of my shots, and also intercut a pan of my lighting (reversed in two clicks in Vegas because it flowed better that way). This just gave a little more life to the video.

I used Movie Looks Vegas HD plugins to turn my color source footage into gauzy black and white. I can't give Vegas enough praise for it's seamless handling of whatever kinds of files I throw at it. In this video, I used png files with transparent backgrounds to achieve some down and dirty little effects to augment the text of the poem.

This past week, I found out that my video was chosen to be in the top five for public voting. This means that I have at least won a $250 gift card, even if I don't place first. But if you want to help a fellow Vegas user, head over to www.sheetzpoet.com, click the Vote Now link at the top, and vote for Randy Hayes.

Hope you enjoy the video (music created entirely in Acid, btw), and remember that you can vote once a day through July 25th! Thank you Sony for great software, and thank you user community for your support.


***UPDATE: Here's the direct link to the voting page - http://www.sheetzpoet.com/vote.aspx
Make sure you vote from that page. Mine is the one titled "Sheetz Poet Randy Hayes."

Comments

blink3times wrote on 7/11/2008, 7:42 PM
Well.... I sure do like the women in the advertisement on the homepage anyway!
Steve Mann wrote on 7/11/2008, 7:56 PM
What is the title of yours? I would like to see it before I vote for it.
Never mind, I found it on Page 3, with your name on it.

OK, You got my vote.
ushere wrote on 7/11/2008, 10:24 PM
mine 2
Grazie wrote on 7/11/2008, 11:57 PM
Eh? Where's the link? I can't find a link?

Grazie
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 7/12/2008, 12:23 AM
well, I think you should win, you got my vote.

Dave
Grazie wrote on 7/12/2008, 12:48 AM
Dave? Where is the link? Please?

Grazie
Grazie wrote on 7/12/2008, 12:53 AM
Don't trouble yourself - found it.

Grazie
Jim H wrote on 7/12/2008, 12:54 AM
worth a vote.
woznme wrote on 7/12/2008, 1:52 AM
mine too; the one with the kids started well but.....
good job!
blink3times wrote on 7/12/2008, 4:13 AM
"Eh? Where's the link? I can't find a link?"

That's the trouble I had.... couldn't find the link.

Pretty bloody good!
UlfLaursen wrote on 7/12/2008, 9:03 PM
Very nice - you got my vote :-)

/Ulf
Tchak wrote on 7/12/2008, 9:44 PM
Very Nice.

You got my vote!

Good Luck

Tom
rsp wrote on 7/13/2008, 1:50 AM
very nice one - another vote!

Rudi
Randy Hayes wrote on 7/20/2008, 10:32 AM
My sincere thanks to everyone who has replied and voted. Ironically, I had to be out of town and totally away from the computer for the first week of voting, so thanks for helping me out.

Don't forget to vote once a day through July 25, 2008 (this Friday)!!!
Jeff Waters wrote on 7/20/2008, 10:42 AM
Well, you got my vote. Probably would have voted for you just for being a Vegas user, but yours clearly blows away the competition anyway. Good luck!
eVoke wrote on 7/22/2008, 7:54 PM
You got my vote.
Terry Esslinger wrote on 7/23/2008, 11:42 AM
Much better production than any of the others. My old ears have a problem understanding rap so I really don't know which lyrics are the best. You got my vote.
Randy Hayes wrote on 7/23/2008, 4:12 PM
Thanks Jeff. I share your sense of Vegas camaraderie. Been hooked on Vegas since 2001!
Randy Hayes wrote on 7/28/2008, 12:01 PM
Well guys and gals, I have an update. Thanks to Sony for great software and to the kind community here, I got a call this morning from the contest sponsors congratulating me for winning the grand prize for the contest! The official announcement will come in the morning on the contest website, but I thought I'd take a moment and say thank you for your support. Woo hoo!
rs170a wrote on 7/28/2008, 6:40 PM
Congratulations Randy!!
I would've been very disappointed if you hadn't won as your entry was definitely the best.

Mike