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Cat Jones

Operation Project 7

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Operation Project 7 was formed from a vision to bring Christmas presents to the homeless in Detroit. This documentary was created for every volunteer that contributed to the project so that they could see the impact they had on those that are often forgotten.

Comments

Barb Thompson

June 15, 2008 06:39 AM

Awesome!

You got it!

Brings tears to my eyes. What an awesome way to spend Christmas Eve
AND Christmas Day. That is REAL love!

Shiv Kumar

June 15, 2008 01:24 PM

Cat,
I agree with Barb, what an awesome way to spend Christmas Eve!. Great story too.

By way of constructive criticism I would like to say a few things (seeing that you've entered into a 48 hour film challenge).

1. When doing hand held work, try not to use the zoom. In other words, always shoot at the wide end of your lens. This makes the jerkiness bearable to the viewer. If you must zoom in (even if it's just a bit) try and use some form of support.

2. In short films, you have to maintain the viewer's attention and interest and the way you do that is by not holding a scene for too long. Cutaway to the next scene in a few seconds. You need to apply this throughout this short. For instance the scene "Packing bags", you've titled it so the viewer knows what to expect as a result the scene doesn't need to be any longer than a few seconds at most. After the first few seconds, as a viewer, I'm bored. I got it in the first few seconds and I'm ready for the next thing. Now when you're shooting, you aim to get as much footage as possible. It's during the edit that you cut. Editing truly makes or breaks the film (provided you have footage in the first place). So I think you should try and attempt a re-edit of this short and keep it under 3-5 minutes. It's really hard to do and is an art in and of itself. Since you've credited yourself as the Editor, let's see what you can do :).

3. It's important to do some post production fixing to colors, blacks (levels) etc. once you've done the edit. I think this film would take on a whole new look if you were to crush the blacks (as it is called) and possibly bump up the colors a bit. Currently, this video looks like a "home video" (and I mean no disrespect) and it could look very professional if it were re-edited and color graded.

4. This video has an aspect of 16:9. But the final encoded version has an aspect of 3:2 (720x480). As a result you're seeing black bars on the top and bottom (and thus a smaller picture than you normally would). If you're producing a DVD or pushing this on to YouTube this would be fine. However, on XR we support the true aspect ratios of your videos so use that facility to show off your videos the way you intended. If you need help with this, I'd be glad to help.

Oh and for other XR visitors/members, please include the equipment you've used (Camera, editing software etc.)

I hope my criticism is taken in a positive and encouraging light because that is how it is meant.