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Will Mahoney

Editor / Producer / Writer / Director

Classical Cruisers

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My artistic video coverage of the JC Whitney 2008 Spring Car Show.

Music is a Metallica song, "Welcome Home"(Sanitarium), but it is the version done by Apocalyptica, an ensemble of cellos.

Also, I initially had some trouble with the footage and went through a lot of learning about color correcting to get things looking nice. I've documented my trials in a series of http://exposureroom.com/members/WillMahoney.aspx/blogs/post/211.

Comments

Marco Menestrina

May 23, 2008 12:07 PM

Will,
I enjoyed watching this video of yours. I especially like the dynamism of most of your camera shots; I would just say watch out for the slow motions done in post: they give that strobe effect that pulls you out of the illusion to be there and remind you that you're watching a video. Other than that, well done!

Will Mahoney

May 23, 2008 12:13 PM

Appreciated!

Marco,
I appreciate the kind words. I just love sticking that wide-angle lense right up close and personal with the vehicles. It's great!

A word on the slow motion: I big time know what you're talking about. I shot this in 30F and really should have done it in 60i. I hear that I would have been able to get better slow motion from that. I'm still experimenting and finding "me."

Thanks for the words. Please keep them coming so I can improve.

P.S. I just uploaded a new version with titles, so if the video isn't ready for viewing yet, come back in a few minutes.

Marco Menestrina

May 23, 2008 04:35 PM

Will,
For the slow motion effect, you would either have to shoot at 24p (or 25p or 30p) and select a higher frame rate. Or shoot it at 60p and then slow it down in post (I use Apple Cinema Tools for that), but I suggest you to do it the first way.
About 60i: that will not help you with the slow motion, in fact it refers to the interlaced scan mode that scans all the odd lines of the frame first and then all the even. The interlaced scan works on fields per second (instead of the frames per second of the progressive scan mode), so 60i means 60 fields per second, that results in a motion that is close to the 30p one. I know this is pretty confusing... You should probably check online and find someone that can explain this better or buy a book on digital cinematography.
I don't know what camera you use so I can't tell whether it can or cannot shoot overcranks (slowmotion). If it doesn't, stay away from 60i: it doesn't look too flattering (at least to me). Check Philip Bloom's Southend blog/video: he talks about a plug-in that does fluids slow motions in post. I have never used it so I can't give you a personal experience.
I hope this kinda makes sense and was at least a little helpful.

Take care,
Marco

Shiv Kumar

May 24, 2008 11:51 AM

Will,
That was really good! I thought the edit was stunning actually and the colors came out really nice too. Overall this video has set the bar for you pretty high. Really good job I think.

I agree with Marco on the Post effects.

I do think you should change the thumbnail:)

Jim Miller

May 24, 2008 01:50 PM

Will, I agree with Shiv. This is your best work on the shooting and the edit. For me it lacked some pop in the contrast and crushing the blacks would have really put more pazazz into it. Maybe your next step is a move up from premier elements to an editor with a proper 3 way color corrector. Anyway - good job

Will Mahoney

May 27, 2008 07:53 AM

Thanks for the kind words.

Marco, I know wha you mean about some of the slow-motion parts having a strobey effect. See, typically I do an initial slowdown of the clip to see how it looks slow. If I like it, I trim out the areas that I don't want. Here's where the problem lies, I think. At this point I've got my already slow, trimmed clip. In most cases, I know exactly where I'm putting that clip.

Next, I'll drag that clip over to where it needs to go and then slow it down, or speed it up a little to fit the slot that it needs to go in. I think I'm running into a problem where I'm taking a very small piece of footage (really, too small) and slowing it down to fit a larger spot. Either way, something is wrong. I'll do some tweaks today and see if I can get any more smoothness out of the footage. Maybe I'll turn "frame blending" back on for those clips. We'll see...

Now, I shot this whole event in 30 frames per second. I do understand the difference between interlaced and progressive, but how would me shooting in an even slower frame rate (24) help me to get better slow motion? Also, would a faster shutter speed help? I'd get crisper images, but would it help my NLE slow the footage down? (I'm shooting with an A1.)

Shive and Jim, Thanks for the great comments. I'm actually going back into the edit and I'm going to try and remove some of the messiness of the slow motion spots. While I'm in there I'll try crushing some of the blacks a bit. I did not do much of this yet, mostly just saturation and color work. I should have a new file up in a few days.

Thanks!!

Jim Layes

June 13, 2008 02:59 PM

Good Job

I think you did a great job on this video. Everything looks GOOD. The only thing is I think you should have used a tripod and panned as you pulled out from the grass hill top. Overall everything looks really good. For me all of this over cranking 60i this 30i that is just over rated (ya ya I know), it's what you want to do and how it looks when your all done....

Jim

Will Mahoney

September 26, 2008 08:35 AM

To all who commented on this video: I have uploaded a newer version. Edit is basically the same, but I tweaked some colors, crushed the blacks a bit more on lots of shots, and I smoothed out the strobey slow-motion parts. Give 'er a look.

Thanks for all of your help.