some feedback please

All things in moderation. Indeed one has to reach a state of balance between the practical & the aesthetic, the material & the ethereal. Yet, the quest for perfection isn't a pipe dream to be discarded, nor an impossible standard we hold others to, but rather a personal challenge to be true to the meaning of art & complete expression. This, like a muscle that when exercised becomes stronger is part of the artist's refining process, all these things, the eye, the heart, workflow, tools, all utilized & mastered, recruited in the pursuit of excellence.

Of course this is the goal, I agree, it's not easy, & the balance is the attempt to maintain that path while wrestling with the mundane, deadlines, paying bills, clients who don't even know what they want, etc.

Personally, I view the commerce side as just another aspect of art, to be studied with its own particular eye as needed, along with mentorship from its masters.

BTW - I highly recommend the BBC series of 3 episodes which recently aired; What Do Artists Do All Day?

I have done another birthday party one. Don't blame me for the music my friend wanted the god awful song on it. I have used Alex's colour and light plugins and I brought some light swipe transitions for Tangent.

Used the dazzle effect to add some star effects combined with Alex move and pan plug in to add so tempo. Hopefully have it on line later for next round of you two edumacating me.

Hmm... maybe you're educating us...

Anytime we're prompted to think on these things, there's some kind of reciprocal expansion.

Either way, I'm looking forward to your next film.

Heres the other version of the birthday party. Think maybe there to much blue as the Ballons and carpet are blue.

vimeo.com/m/63880179

Oh and the music wasnt my choice

Hey Malc,

It looks a lot jollier to be; rule of thumb is to make Christmas Parties & Birthday Parties as colorful as they can be, and you've managed that. The light-ribbons transition ads some color too.

I wont talk about the music (there has been a heated debate about the use of copyright music recently on this forum; sufficed to say I'll just assume that someone licensed the music and paid the royalties)! But on the subject of music; when you have a tune with a distinct beat (like the Gangham music), it can be an interesting editing technique to try and cut to the beat during the opening section; it kind of sets a rhythm to the visuals (but you don't need to do this through the whole video, just the opening scenes). You can also try editing to the beat when you come to a distinct music cue (for instance 1.03 the song goes into a very fast beat right before the chorus - you could try doing extremely fast crash-cuts at that point to make a strobing effect to match the visuals to the audio). Something to try experimenting with for your next project perhaps?

Anyhow, I think everyone will agree that the 2nd cut is much happier than the 1st cut, and i reckon the family will be happy with it.

Thanks for sharing, Malcolm.

Like most people on planet earth, over the past year I've developed a deep loathing for that song, but you know what? I loved it here. To me, it fits better than in the original Korean video, which if I never see again, it will be too soon. That song perhaps explains why North Korea wants to bomb them...

Your film this time, not only made me smile, I laughed out loud a couple of times. As Simon said, it's very joyous. Joy typified in all those little tykes ecstatically wriggling about with glee, the little girl's exuberant cheerful smile in the bouncy castle is the quintessential example (perfectly timed BTW).

Must agree with Simon's recommendation on choppier cuts to the beat, some of your shots will gain added punch thru brevity.

The colored ribbon transition needs a bit of variation. When we later move to sparkles, they are so bright compared to some of your still a bit dark footage, I'd lessen the sparkle opacity a few grades. We don't want to overwhelm the entire frame. There are a couple of shots that are very dark, the one where you're handheld facing the window, you kind of pan & the image grows darker not quite into a silhouette. An increased exposure keyframed to a flash transition might work there. Also run your shaky footage thru FCPX's stabilizer, it works wonders. Despite your concerns, I had no problem with the blues, again - like Simon says, colors are great for this genre. A couple of shots as we zoom in on children also look like they could do with a bit of sharpening, this also can be done in FCPX. Here's how.

Sorry, a quick search for Fox Mahoney's Sharpening Plugin here isn't finding it, perhaps someone will post it for you in this thread. Until then, here's Alex4D's version which might work better for your situation...

The shot I liked earlier with the 2 women feeding the baby chocolate, really looks great here in color, the backlighting on the child is absolutely gorgeous.