Premier Pro CC newbie video

[Pig benis]

Hello folks

Recently I have been trying to find my way around Premier Pro CC and I've 'completed' a few videos so far. My latest one I put up onto my Youtube channel the other evening, and I was wondering if you guys would give me your opinions?

The title of the video is VERY click bait, and bare in mind this is only my 3rd video .

Disclaimer - While filming this video I had an issue with my camera and its shutter speed, which made some shots very over exposed, but I have fixed this issue now

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQCmMKzi46A

Thanks
Vince

[Fordo]

Hi Vince,

Thanks for sharing the video. Nice to see - I used to do videos at car meets when i first started as a camera op.

I work as a shooting director / editor now, (and previously worked as head of post production at a large production company) so I hope you won't mind a little constructive criticism?

BTW - i kind of like the click bait title, and starting with the police. It gets peoples attention, and thats the way edits are going, especially on social media. You have to grab peoples attention in the first few shots. Also, theres some nice shots in there, and you got some great audio.


- Edit notes -

Overall it needs a little of what i call 'housekeeping' - a few little bits that could tidy up the edit.

00:29 - The shot of the blue BMW. The shot is static, then goes down, then goes back up again, which feels a little accidental. Id either use the static part, the going down down part, or the going up part. But all 3 feels like a very loosely edited shot.

00:45 - the back shot of the E type. Right at the end, the camera starts to move and then it cuts - id trim off a few frames at the end there.

00-56. the lambo pulling out. Great shot, and like the mini crash zoom out as it goes by, very top gear. However, at the end of the shot theres a wobble and what looks like an accidental micro-crash zoom out. I'd trim that shot back by a second or two.

1:20. Theres a jump cut there (can also hear the jump in audio as well). At 1:12 the camera pans back, then theres a jump cut. id cut out the back back, so theres no jump cut.

Theres a few other times when that happens - I don't think you need the pan backs.

Tighten up the whole edit. - theres a few times when shots linger, and i think the edit itself could do with tightening up.

Audio - for the most part, your audio cuts when the video does. Some could benefit from cross fades. Also sometimes it might work well to do an L shaped edit - overlap the audio, so the next clips audio is fading up early over the current clip. Can work well the other way too, overlapping the audio at the end, over the next clip. Especially in places where the previous clip was a car roaring off, hearing the tail end of that audio over the next clip, gives the viewer the impression that there wasn't a jump in time but we instead we cut to another camera. L and J shape edits like that, have the effect of smoothing the harshness of a cut.

Cutaway shots - In the cars driving away section, did you film anything other than the cars themselves? Sun through the trees, close ups of peoples reactions, or people taking photos? A close up of a blade of grass (with cars out of focus on the background) etc. These shots are the glue of editing, and help it seem less repetitive, especially when filming a lot of similar shots (i.e, cars pulling out on the road.). These work well if you combine these cutaways shots with L and J edits - A shot of sun through the trees with the sound of a car revving up - the viewer is now intrigued 'what car will it be?' and then you cut to the shot of the car.

- Bridging sections. At 00:56, it feels a little harsh to go from wide static shot of car to just wide shot of car leaving. They are two different sections of the film. A couple of cutaways here could be a nice to bridge the sections of the film. Or edit in an ending to the music, so it doesn't fade out, but instead reaches a crescendo, and time your shots with the music and then fade out the last shot, so it feels like an end of a chapter.


- Shooting Notes -

Overall, i like your framing and shot choices. Your panning with the cars is nice too. Perhaps get some more close ups and details shots of the cars when static, and some cutaway shots that tell the story of the day - people looking and taking photos, people doing things, like opening up a car bonnet. I always find if I chat to people and take an interest, then they don't mind doing a few things for me to get some interesting shots.

I can see the camera is on some kind of auto mode - as cars go by, especially black cars, the camera adjust the exposure, then the sky is over exposed and gradually the camera adjusts back. Might improve things to get more practice in a more manual mode, so you can lock shutter / iris / ISO, which will mean a more consistent exposure.


Again, hope you don't mind the constructive criticism - but hopefully these notes might help you make an even better video next time;

- Really fine tune the edit. Are any shots too long? Are there wobbles at the end of shots?
- Overlap the audio in some places
- Use cutaway shots to avoid jump cuts and repetitive sections
- Get some close ups and detail shots
- Try and use more a more manual mode on the camera to avoid exposure shifts mid shot


- Pete

[Pig benis]

Hello Fordo

Wow! Thanks for your reply. You have made some very good points, your feedback is far better than I was expecting. I have been thoroughly enjoying editing recently, and I will definitely be applying your tips to my next video which I am currently making.

That is might impressive your jump from videoing car meets and now a director / editior. Where would I be able to see your content?

I hadn't even thought about filming anything other than the cars which were there, but after watching other videos that others have posted, yes, I will be trying to capture the surrounding area a bit more.

You are absolutely correct, on this particular shoot I was filming in auto mode. Since then I have spent a lot of time 'messing' with the settings on my camera, and I have ventured into manual mode. Instantly I have noticed a dramatic difference in the quality of footage, which I hope to be noticed in my next video.

Again, thank you for your feedback. If you don't mind, when I upload my next video (in the next few days), would you mind casting a critical eye over it?

All the best,
Vince

[singlecoil]

The question I would ask is what is the purpose of the video? Is it to build a following or is it just a standalone thing?

[Pig benis]

singlecoil said:

The question I would ask is what is the purpose of the video? Is it to build a following or is it just a standalone thing?

Well, I would like to get more views on my videos and I guess with that, more followers would be nice.

A bunch of my friends all have some interesting cars, so I am looking at doing a feature of each of them.

I know that when I am in the market for a new car, I go straight to YT to see what the car sounds like, the performance, versus videos, and so forth. So I am hoping on getting a few videos covering these topics.

At the moment though, I am just trying to learn Premier Pro and anything that I can edit, I am giving it a go.

Regards,
Vince

[singlecoil]

Pig benis said:

singlecoil said:

The question I would ask is what is the purpose of the video? Is it to build a following or is it just a standalone thing?

Well, I would like to get more views on my videos and I guess with that, more followers would be nice.

A bunch of my friends all have some interesting cars, so I am looking at doing a feature of each of them.

I know that when I am in the market for a new car, I go straight to YT to see what the car sounds like, the performance, versus videos, and so forth. So I am hoping on getting a few videos covering these topics.

At the moment though, I am just trying to learn Premier Pro and anything that I can edit, I am giving it a go.

Regards,
Vince

I believe I see what you are getting at there. The reason why I asked is that at the moment there is no emotional content to the video, the viewer doesn't know how you feel about any of it. So because of that, unless they are only interested in what these cars (with their unknown exhaust modifications) sound like, they are not going to engage with the video.

The easiest and best way to put some interest in is to provide some commentary. I suggest getting yourself a microphone and doing some voice over. There's plenty of ways to modify the sound of your voice if you don't like hearing yourself in recordings.

[Fordo]

Pig benis said:

Hello Fordo

Wow! Thanks for your reply. You have made some very good points, your feedback is far better than I was expecting. I have been thoroughly enjoying editing recently, and I will definitely be applying your tips to my next video which I am currently making.

That is might impressive your jump from videoing car meets and now a director / editior. Where would I be able to see your content?

I hadn't even thought about filming anything other than the cars which were there, but after watching other videos that others have posted, yes, I will be trying to capture the surrounding area a bit more.

You are absolutely correct, on this particular shoot I was filming in auto mode. Since then I have spent a lot of time 'messing' with the settings on my camera, and I have ventured into manual mode. Instantly I have noticed a dramatic difference in the quality of footage, which I hope to be noticed in my next video.

Again, thank you for your feedback. If you don't mind, when I upload my next video (in the next few days), would you mind casting a critical eye over it?

All the best,
Vince

Thanks for the kind words. It wasn't quite such a big jump, more of a slow ambling career! I started as an assistant cameraman, practiced loads of the side, learnt editing, worked my way up at a few companies, and now work freelance doing a variety of editing / directing and DOP work.

If you're interested in my work, my showreel has a nice montage of the kind of productions i've worked on: www.peterford.co.uk - although I can never take all the credit - I work with some very talented people, and I always think great work comes from a great team.

I'd be happy to cast a critical eye over your next video. It's great that you're so open to constructive criticism - I've found sometimes some editors can be very precious about their edits. But sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can be really useful

[Fordo]

singlecoil said:

I believe I see what you are getting at there. The reason why I asked is that at the moment there is no emotional content to the video, the viewer doesn't know how you feel about any of it. So because of that, unless they are only interested in what these cars (with their unknown exhaust modifications) sound like, they are not going to engage with the video.

The easiest and best way to put some interest in is to provide some commentary. I suggest getting yourself a microphone and doing some voice over. There's plenty of ways to modify the sound of your voice if you don't like hearing yourself in recordings.

or even grab a few soundbites from people there on the day. Everyone's got an interesting story to tell, and especially at a car meet / car show, people love talking about their cars. You'll often need them to repeat answers again, to get answers a little shorter and more concise. Human interest and personalities make videos much more interesting to watch.

I was at Uxbridge auto show the other day, just having a look around. Got talking to a guy with a Porsche Speedster. Turned out it was his brothers car, and his brother passed away. Car lay dormant for 10 years, and he's finally got his brother car running, and back on the road. Powerful story

[Pig benis]

Fordo said:

Thanks for the kind words. It wasn't quite such a big jump, more of a slow ambling career! I started as an assistant cameraman, practiced loads of the side, learnt editing, worked my way up at a few companies, and now work freelance doing a variety of editing / directing and DOP work.

If you're interested in my work, my showreel has a nice montage of the kind of productions i've worked on: www.peterford.co.uk - although I can never take all the credit - I work with some very talented people, and I always think great work comes from a great team.

I'd be happy to cast a critical eye over your next video. It's great that you're so open to constructive criticism - I've found sometimes some editors can be very precious about their edits. But sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can be really useful

Excellent website, and I enjoyed your showreel movie. Watching movies like this, really inspire me to improve my camera work. Out of interest, how did you do the clip of the melting dog for the Dogs Trust?

That is very kind, thank you. I will drop you a private message, when the video is live.

FYI, I work in IT, and I noticed that you aren't using your domain (peterford.co.uk) in your email address. For example, [e-mail]. Is this something you would be interested in? As you already have the domain, it would just be a case of adding email hosting to your domain.

[Fordo]

The ice dog advert- that was shot in a studio. Car from a scrap yard, and two ice sculptures were commissioned by an ice sculptor (1 as a spare). We set up 5 DSLRs, running timelapses, for about 48 hours. The set was lit with quite powerful tungsten film lights, but we also had a heater running in the boot of the car.

The temp in the Studio got to about 40 degrees! The ice dog actually cracked in half, halfway through, but we didn't use the backup, we instead repositioned top half and continued the time lapse, knowing with multiple camera angles, we could edit our way out of the problem.