Micro 4/3 Kroeger (the ghost in the piano)

[entropic remnants]

The title total reminded me of a quote from irobot. tweaked for piano.

There have always been ghosts in the piano. Random segments of notes, that have grouped together to form unexpected harmonies. Unanticipated, these free radicals engender questions of free will, creativity, and even the nature of what we might call the soul. Why is it that when some musicians are left in darkness, they will seek out the light? Why is it that when musicians are stored in an empty space, they will group together, rather than stand alone? How do we explain this behavior? Random segments of verse? Or is it something more? When does an arpeggio become consciousness? When does a fermata become the search for truth? When does a messa di voce become the bitter mote... of a soul?

Nice! I, Robot has always been a favorite in print form -- I'm a real sci-fi geek and cut my teeth on guys like Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, and so forth.

 

[entropic remnants]

Definitely fun. The only thing that seems a little off for me, and I know you were just tinkering, is the hanging rat wall, it's just not as peeling and grungy as the rest of it. At any rate the playing piano at the end was a nice creepy touch to end with!

Took your suggestion to heart and changed two of the scenes I used.

For those just catching up, I've revised the movie so if you haven't seen it since yesterday I made changes based on some input here.

 

[photoheron]

John, very nicely done.

 

[entropic remnants]

Thanks, Brad!

Working on my film from the hot air balloon festival which I hope to have done by the fourth (of July). Very different proposition than these little things but these were very helpful in learning the editor.

 

[ivoire]

First rate! Very talented production

 

[stratokaster]

This is generally awesome.

However, the opening scenes felt too static for me. I think it would be better if there was some slight movement, like for example curtains flapping in the wind or something like that.

 

[stillshunter]

This is stuff, man oh man, I need to learn. John, step one?

 

[entropic remnants]

This is generally awesome.

However, the opening scenes felt too static for me. I think it would be better if there was some slight movement, like for example curtains flapping in the wind or something like that.

That's something that could work -- except when I went I never really intended to make a video and only took one video segment, lol. Also, there wasn't actually any wind to move the curtains, but I'm sure something could have been done like wave an old board at them or something. I failed to think of such a thing I'm afraid.

I had a very simple idea for a "mood piece" and went with it -- but with more thought it could have been improved I'm sure. It's a learning experience for me and thanks for your feedback!

 

[entropic remnants]

This is stuff, man oh man, I need to learn. John, step one?

I've been hanging around on Small Camera BIG Picture - Resources, NEWS and Information for Hybrid Photographers and DiscoverMirrorless.com which are cheerleaders for mirrorless cameras for pro use. They also encourage pros to shoot more video and do "hybrid e-products" that combine video and stills -- basically bring some movement to your presentations.

Although not a pro, I'm still interested in that, though ultimately I end up making a full blown short film like my upcoming hot air balloon vid. Still, "hybrid e-products" are an interesting idea.

My approach is to use a fairly inexpensive video editor (Adobe Premiere Elements) which I like because it will directly edit Panasonic AVCHD (.MTS extension) video files. Some editors, particularly really good free ones like the well known Lightworks editor require re-encoding the video into another form before editing which can result in a slight drop in quality and adds another step which I don't like. So I make do with Premiere.

I'm not recommending it though -- it's fast and fairly flexible but it can be glitchy. It runs well on my Intel Core i7 3770 4-core system though overall and I can work within it's limitations for what I do. I had "better" editors for video back-in-the-day but only for standard definition and it required extra work up front as well.

My newest video uses several pieces of software to produce: M-Audio (Avid) Pro Tools for music composition and production, Audacity for audio processing, and of course I work all the stills over in Lightroom first always. Then everything gets added as a "resource" to the video editing project.

But I haven't actually answered your question I just realized: I only just listed what I'm using. I'll take a stab at what's REALLY required for "getting started" and it's not about gear/software...

• First, you need a desire to get into something you don't yet understand, lol. You've got that apparently!
• Second, it helps to have an idea. But if you don't have an idea for a "short film", then just go shoot something with stills and video and bring it back and stare at it until you come up with a "story". Bascially, any video has some kind of "narrative" to it -- a progression of images and sound that lead the viewer along. Sometimes, you won't come up with anything -- but that's okay because "failing" is a normal part of trying to be creative.
• There are many, many ways to do this and I've no formal experience in the concepts of story telling -- I just make it up as I go along, lol. For the balloon video, I went to the event intending to make a video -- but I didn't know if I was making a video about the overall event, about flying balloons in general, or trying to follow a crew around, etc. I had no idea what I was going to encounter because I've never been to one and never been to one with "all access". Total improvisation. After the first hour there I hooked up with Patriot's crew and was blessed to have them allow me to hang with them. They knew I was "nobody" but still indulged me. You can't plan on such things and sometimes you just go with serendipity.

But you need to have SOME KIND OF PROJECT and pursue it because the technical needs will then find you, lol. As you want to do a certain thing, it will drive you to try things with your gear/software or to obtain different stuff to achieve your vision. It's like photography in that sense: you look at your pictures and you are either satisfied or unsatisfied with the expression of your vision and seek to improve it.

But I'm still VERY new to HD video production, so all I can tell you is how I'm going at it and it by no means represents the "best way" necessarily. I just do things because I want to get a result and feel my way through the process, which is what I've always done with photography as well. I do hope to get better at this and I'm grateful for any positive attention I have gotten.

 

[stillshunter]

Thanks for taking the time to step me through this John.
My biggest concern is the software that needs learning...I struggle with Lightroom