Launceston Town Videos

3 replies [Last post]
tilski
tilski's picture
Offline
Joined: Sep 5 2000
Hi all,
 
My latest project:
 
 

What's to become of us.... What is to become of us?

infocus2
Offline
Joined: Mar 2 2012
Re: Launceston Town Videos
I watched the film about the museum, and there's a lot to like in it - but I did find the pace of cutting far too fast - too often I was just starting to register and be interested in what was in a shot..... when it was gone.
 

I also began to wish the camera would just stay still and let me take the scene in, many of the camera moves just seemed rather distracting. I was always taught that ideally any move should be motivated by movement in the frame, but at the very least the beginning and end should be distinctly different in content. I'm also interested why you chose to cut on movement, and then opposing movement either side of a cut? (So cutting from a zooming in shot to one which is zooming out, say?)

Barry Hunter
Offline
Joined: Nov 30 2001
Re: Launceston Town Videos
Generally thought it was well put together, it`s sometimes a difficult decision between pace & content & keeping the viewer`s interest, some scenes were a little quick but the one thing that irked me was the fade to black at the point about the baby gas mask, but all in all, I liked it. Well done Til, was it your`s or students? smiley

Barry Hunter videos4all.org

infocus2
Offline
Joined: Mar 2 2012
Re: Launceston Town Videos
Watched it again after reading Barrys comment, and if you want an example of what I was referring to, then I'd refer to the cut between the RAF badge and the shot that follows. The badge shot works well - fits in with the commentary and goes to a full defocus. But there then seems to be an abrupt cut to another shot which is much less defocused, and only sharpens up just before it's cut away from - it's some sort of machine, but what? That would work so much better if the second shot started off fully defocussed, a mix was used to ease the transition, and the second shot was held several seconds longer.
.

The other thing which struck me on second viewing is that the sequences of the herbarium and the polython rather ask to be given what I've always referred to as the "show and tell" treatment. In other words, the curator would be next to the things he's referring to as he talks about them and can refer to them in shot, with cutaways that match the master take if required. (If you watch the current Lucy Worsley programme, that sort of technique gets used very successfully there.)