Promo video for a bookshop

Hi all,

here is a 2 minute video which I shot for a bookshop.
It was shot with a 5D markII with the Technicolor cinestyle profile and edited in FCPX:

Hope you will enjoy it.
Julian

Looks really good, nice shots and nicely cut together too. Love the macro shot at the start. Only point would be the Apple promo style music doesn't really seem to fit - fights it a bit. Might be worth trying something else against it. Otherwise, good job.

Really good shots, a bit to long for my taste.
Keep up the good work!

Thanks. You actually raise an excellent point re. music. I usually find this is the most subjective part of the process i.e. choosing the music with your client. So what I usually do is choose it myself and change it if the client doe snot like it once the video is finalized. I also usually choose the music first and then edit the beauty shots according to the mood given by the music track. Is this the way you work as well or does the choice of music come later on in the process for you?

Ha - through bitter experience, we now usually give them a narrow choice of 3 or 4 tracks we think fit and let them choose one. That way the music's agreed before the edit. There's nothing more soul destroying than cutting tightly to one track to find it unpicked at the next stage!

Providing your clients with three to four music clips to choose from is a good idea. The music selected here fits ok, but I think it is way too loud for the lady's voice. As for the visual: nice shots; I like the clip. Could have been 25 percent shorter, though, but that's just my 2 cents. And from my own experience I tend to believe that too many rack focus shots in a row can have the tendency to become boring. Nevertheless: good job!

I like the music.

I think the music is OK for the clip..but could be a bit quieter to enhance the dialogue....yes, too much rack focus for my taste within a 2 min clip, but great shots, excellent quality. I'm sure your client is pleased.

Thanks! This was only my 2nd project working with the 5DmII, so I guess I was still playing with the rack focus a lot as it is such a treat :lol: But your point is valid and I will try to shoot and use less of them in my future projects.

I liked it because it successfully conveyed the message that you were trying to convey. As a video editor, I'd say this is the most important goal of all. You've accomplished this so your job was done.

However, this is a video-editor's forum. We scrutinize everything in order to help improve your future work. Obviously all our criticism, however minor in detail, is for the sole purpose of helping you do better. That being said, here is the criticism I have for your video:

1. The music was too loud in comparison to the primary audio track. Perhaps the track could benefit from a bit of compression to reduce the dynamic range of your audio clip. I noticed that in some parts of the video, her voice was perfectly fine in terms of levels, whereas in other parts, it was drowned out by the background music. Remember that video productions are still 50% audio in terms of message. Don't ever neglect the impact that a proper audio track has on the final output.

2. Slider shots. With the advent of HDSLR sliders emerging on the market these days, we're coming to realize how important a little motion is to your video. It has an enormous effect on your video if and only if the audience retains the illusion of being emerged in the video. A small jitter or change of slider velocity can disrupt the viewer's attention and I noticed a few minor instances in the video. It's difficult at first, but fluid movement is key for slider shots as well as pans and tilts.

3. Slider/pan/tilt edits. Cuts that utilize sliders, pans or tilts are elegant in nature. In my personal opinion, I feel they do not belong in quick action shots and require a long enough duration for their effect to be properly created. There were one or two shots where I was watching and expected at least 15-25 extra frames of footage and I felt I didn't get enough.

Obviously these comments are truly subjective to my personal taste. They may not be shared by other people however it's always good to get as many opinions as possible in order to cater to a large and growing audience. Thanks for sharing your work.

-Athan

Hi Athan,

Thank you for your feedback which as many others I find very constructive and this is what matters. I believe there is always room for improvement and an external eye usually sees better what you can not always put your finger on. These are definitely things I will be more aware of in my next projects.

Re. Point 1, I always watch the final video edit using studio monitors as well as playing the video on my macbookpro using the internal speaker so as to see ( hear actually ) the worst case scenario in which my video is going to be viewed but I will make an additional effort to prioritize the voice vs. The music.

Cheers
Julian

Nice job man, and I love the quality from that camera. Someone mentioned above a bit too long, and I kind of agree with that. Might be better off with a 1 minute tour, and 2 additional 30 second spots for tight topics. Otherwise, I am in envy.