The 2013 New Orleans Bridal Crawl Video

cayenne

CR Pro
Mar 28, 2012
2,868
796
Hello all,

I've just posted to YouTube the first video to come out for this charity event I shot last Sept here in New Orleans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOIlThG5ww0

The charity was for Cafe Reconcile, which helps inner city kids learn about the food service business, which is a big deal here in NOLA...from being a chef to business mgmt, etc.

The video here, is my first ever attempt to do a video for anyone external to just me goofing off in my kitchen doing my CWI (Cooking While Intoxicated) cooking videos.

I've created a simple montage to try to show the fun for the day.

We start the day off at Muriel's a restaurant in the Quarter, and attempt to set the Guinness World records for most people (men or women, this is New Orleans after all) in full bridal costume. We had officials and every thing.
Unfortunately, rain hit and we lost all last minute walkins, and we didn't come close, but it was a fun day, and we're thinking this is a dry run for this coming year.

After the record attempt, it turned into a pub crawl all over the Quarter into the Warehouse dist.

I shot this with my Canon 5D3. I rented a 50mm f/1.2, which helped a LOT for many of the scenes, which were in very dark bars. That one scene inside Gordon Birsch is at f/1.2, it essentially turned night into day in there where the Asian guy in the right is photobombing me..

I ended up using my Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 a lot too...

I brought the 17-40mm f/4, but it didn't get used nearly as much as the other two lenses. I'm going to buy that 50mm f/1.2 this year.

Everything was shot pretty much using my manfrotto mono pod with video head....it even doubled at times for a steadi-cam for moving shots.

I shot everything flat using the Marvels Cine style, and I graded in Davinci Resolve 10. I bought the Neat video noise plug in for Resolve and used that to clean up noise.

I edited in Final Cut Pro X, 10.0.9 I believe...the one before you had to have Mavericks.

The beginning logo fly in, and the ending credits were my first every try to work with Adobe After Effects, and wow, I'm blow away by what that can do...will be learning that intensely going forward.

Anyway, this is a first semi-pro effort I've ever made. I can see warts in this, but the client is extremely happy, and it has been very much a learning experience. I NOW know how to do a round trip with Resolve and FCPX...although my next project I may try to learn Premier too.
:)

Anyway, here it is, please give me your thoughts and your constructive criticisms. I really appreciate the comments by the crew here on CR.

cayenne
 

tntwit

Enthusiastic Amateur
Mar 3, 2012
101
0
WNY
cayenne said:
I've just put this up on Vimeo too, I think the quality is better there….

http://vimeo.com/user16498390/neworleansbridalcrawl2014promo


Do ya'll think Vimeo is better than YT?


cayenne


Very nice job on the video.

I was interested to see how you did on the focusing as it is all manual.

Did you use any kind of rig?

I am just starting to play with video on the 60D I just bought. I never shot much video with the T3i I had because I was discouraged by the manual focus. However, having played around with it over the weekend, manual focus is easier (not easy - just easier) than I thought it would be. Still need much practice, but I am encouraged by the initial results.

I mostly played with the 50 1.8 and the Sigma 10-20 which gives some unique results.

I like being able to move the focus where you want and not where the camera thinks it should be.
 
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tntwit

Enthusiastic Amateur
Mar 3, 2012
101
0
WNY
Sorry, you did ask for some feedback!

On the opening of the video, at first I thought Vimeo looked better than You Tube, but after it played for a few seconds it seemed the same. I went back and forth between the two and I cannot see any real difference. Vimeo might look a touch better, but it might be because you suggested it and I'm now a touch biased toward it. On a technical level there may be differences, but I couldn't really see any.

Regarding your work, I'm no expert as noted above, but I'll give some kind of feedback for what it's worth.

I liked the way it flowed, I thought the music fit very well. I haven't done any videos in a while, but I'll be doing one with stills and video soon, and I always put a lot of thought into the music to give it the right feel, so having said that, I think it was spot on.

I like to pay particular attention to the creative aspect since I am amazed at what others "see" that I wouldn't - or at least would see differently. I liked the glass shot where you moved away from it. Some of the pan shots I am guessing were with the 14 mm which looked cool. Also like the bride walking through the exit door.

I thought the focusing was very smooth and accurate - not always easy to do.

You'll be far more critical than anyone else - that's just natural. The only thing that really stood out as far as constructive criticism was in the beginning you pan from one bride left to another and then focus on the second bride. I thought the time to focus was a bit slow, but I also though you may have done it intentionally for effect because when you were outside and moved from the bottles to the bartender (black stripe shirt) you focused very quickly.

That is a pretty minor find (and again, maybe intentional).

Overall I think you have a strong start. It definitely has a pro feel to it.
 
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cayenne

CR Pro
Mar 28, 2012
2,868
796
tntwit said:
cayenne said:
I've just put this up on Vimeo too, I think the quality is better there….

http://vimeo.com/user16498390/neworleansbridalcrawl2014promo


Do ya'll think Vimeo is better than YT?


cayenne


Very nice job on the video.

I was interested to see how you did on the focusing as it is all manual.

Did you use any kind of rig?

I am just starting to play with video on the 60D I just bought. I never shot much video with the T3i I had because I was discouraged by the manual focus. However, having played around with it over the weekend, manual focus is easier (not easy - just easier) than I thought it would be. Still need much practice, but I am encouraged by the initial results.

I mostly played with the 50 1.8 and the Sigma 10-20 which gives some unique results.

I like being able to move the focus where you want and not where the camera thinks it should be.

Thank you for watching!
No, no rig...I shot pretty much EVERYTHING using the camera mounted to my manfroto monopod with a video head on it.

Everything was manually focused by me as I was shooting it. My secret? Editing.
:)

I would move, focus and shoot....move, focus shoot...etc. When editing, I looked for action I liked and then hoped I had sections of that part that were in focus. This was truly a run and gun type thing.

Yes, most all of the wide shots were with the Rokinon 14mm. Most everything else was with the canon 50L f/1.2 lens. I rented it for this, and really fell in love with it.

I"m currently saving to buy the 50L.

But with manual focus...I just would set the mono pod down, and try to focus through live view. If I had time, I'd magnify the focus to get sharp as I could, and then hit record immediately...and got what I could.

My problem is, I'm horribly nearsighted, but with age, somehow getting farsighted too. So, during this or any shoot I do with manual focus, I find I canno wear my contacts so I wear my glasses, and when focusing, I look over my glasses to get very close to back of camera to focus, but when moving about, I just do it best I can and hope I get good focus shots.

For instance the clip of all the brides dancing on stage where the guys run up with them, the focus isn't great on that...and I had to crop in which makes it worse, but I liked the scene so much that I just threw it in for a short time. I was actually using the 14mm with that I think..and it was on my monopod which I was holding up way over my head about 10ft or more in the air total with my height figured in.

They were happy with the video and asked me to do again this coming year. This year, I'll get footage of people with interviews and all too...and try for something more than just a montage.

Thank you,

cayenne
 
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tntwit

Enthusiastic Amateur
Mar 3, 2012
101
0
WNY
Given your stated visual limitations, I even more impressed.

But, it is also a good example of working within the limitations/capabilities (manual focus) of the equipment and producing an end results that doesn't look like there were limitations.

I like your editing concept - makes sense. That's the nice thing about video, as long as the content isn't required to be continuous (like a ceremony or a speech), you can make mistakes and edit them out later. With stills, when you really botch them they are botched (out of focus, severely under or over exposed, etc).

Found your CWI series on You Tube and subscribed. Nice job on those to, and I liked the various recipes. I even sent a link to some friends who might enjoy it as well as they like to cook.

Looking forward to next years Crawl video.
 
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