Milk Thief, A Short I made for my school film festival

[tiny]

I used Premier Elements 4 to create this. I really wish I had discovered this site earlier so I could have submitted this film.

local link
http://muvipix.com/cpg/displayimage.php ... 0963&pos=0

full quality version (very fast stream) on my site

http://paperdeath.com/video/milkthief.htm

(click little box on player to go full screen, it will look crisp in full screen!)


I used a very ultra compact Panasonic digital camera to do this. Since it is a digital camera, it doesn't have zoom or any other things while recording, but the video at least is clear. :D

Enjoy, let me know what you think!

[Steve Grisetti]

Very nicely shot, Tiny! I think you've definitely got a great eye for cinematography.

And did you shoot it and star in it too? That's tough to pull off with any effectiveness -- but you seem to have done it very well!

Sorry you missed our spring video contest. But I sure hope we'll see you represented in our future contests. You've done some very nice work here!

Thanks for sharing it with us.

[tiny]

Thanks for your comments. I do hope to be part of future competitions. I bought a refurbished HV20 a few days ago, so I hope to do a lot more filming.

Most of the camera work was me, or a tripod, save it be just a few that were simply not convenient to do by my self. My largest complaints are the bad acting by some of the extras, well mainly the person at the store looking at the camera and then laughing as I left. Then there was the underwater part, where since I don't have fancy equipment, I just put the camera in a ziplock back and took it under water. Finally the ghetto effect of me being in a cop car since I couldn't get the police to help me. If I were to re-do that I would just have me getting my mug shot.

But for the time and equipment I had, I am pleased.

[Paul LS]

Very very good. Excellent editing. It must have taken a lot of planning and fore thought. I especially liked the scene with the people walking backwards.

[tiny]

Thanks. This was my first time editing with Premier Elements. There are still a lot of tricks I hope to learn.

[ed]

What camera did you use? I find myself using my Canon SD1000 more and more for video becuase it's so convienent.

Nice job editing and working the story line in. One thing I would suggest is to shorten some of the scenes next time. The scene where you had the people walk backwards could have been reduced by half. Hope you post some work with your new cam.

[Helen]

Very nice, I really liked this. I enjoyed the music as well. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[tiny]

http://www.bwayphoto.com/viewproduct.aspx?id=2421386

That is the digital camera I used. Except I bought it on clearance at Office Depot for $97!


About some scenes being too long, I strongly agree about the backwards scene. I was going to cut it out earlier, but I was in a rush because I only had a few minutes left to do the music before I had to submitted it.

Which leads me into my next answer.

My roommate who plays guitar just watched the film and made up music as he went. The second time through was good enough, so we kept it. From that point on I could not edit the video without messing up the audio, so that one specific scene will continue to haunt me every time I watch the film.

[Steve Grisetti]

That's really amazing footage from a non-video camera!

But I still don't think, even for under $100, I'd trust a Ziplock bag to keep my camera dry in a pool!

[Chuck Engels]

From that point on I could not edit the video without messing up the audio, so that one specific scene will continue to haunt me every time I watch the film.

You need to learn the tricks with the Ctrl and Alt keys as you drag clips to and from the timeline, and if you aren't using the timeline that would be another bonus for you There are lots of ways to continue to edit without effecting the audio, just takes time to learn it all

[tiny]

Well what I mean is that if I have music scored to the video, and I cut some of the video, my audio is no longer synced with my audio. I could perhaps then fudge with the audio to somehow cut out the time without it sound bad, using fade in/out, cross fade, or just finding a a spot that I can splice out, but again, a lot of work that would have not existed had I cut the video before recording the audio.


As for video quality, I did some custom options.

I used the standard NTSC DV WS 30fps timeline.

To export I did the Adobe Flash Video, at 700kbps, 720x480 30fps.

Easy enough. Now with my HV20, I was able to find a patch put out by Adobe that was written for the HV20. It was written for CS3, but I was able to successfully copy all the files into Elements, and all the new options appear. So hopefully that works, because I hope master my films in 24p. :D


Concerning the plastic bag- Yeah, it was sketchy. The things you do to get that specific shot you saw in your head.

[momoffduty]

Nicely done! Was wondering about the underwater scene, thanks for explaining. Liked the music too.

[ed]

I liked the music too.

[rolawren]

Yes, I enjoyed it a lot, especially the walking backward and the under-water scene. I agree with you, that I would have cut out the Police car scene, as it really caught my attention as it looked a bit odd.

How did you go in the film festival for school?

Robyn

[tiny]

How did you go in the film festival for school?

Robyn

Sorry, I don't follow your question.