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Dream Arcades documentary

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DreamArcades:
Actually I don't normally look so pale and tired, the video was taken shortly after the holiday rush, plus I had a bad case of Bronchitis. I normally have at least a little color.

Anyway, I did figure some BYOAC members wouldn't much care for the political stuff, but there is some shots of the shop and arcades so I figured I would post it anyway.

I think the producer wanted to make it somewhat political as Current TV is owned by Al Gore.

quarterback:

--- Quote from: DreamArcades on March 02, 2008, 12:13:17 pm ---Actually I don't normally look so pale and tired, the video was taken shortly after the holiday rush, plus I had a bad case of Bronchitis. I normally have at least a little color.
--- End quote ---

:)  But I still would bet money that pic #1 is closer to what your world looks like than the squeezed version in the video.

One other note, at first I thought that the aspect ratio problem was related to uploading it to that site however, that doesn't seem to be the case.  Whoever edited this screwed it up.   The graphics in the video are correct when shown 4:3, but all the actual video footage is not.  In other words, they edited this by intercutting anamorphic/UNletterboxed 16:9 footage with 4:3 graphics. 

My honest hope is that you didn't pay for this 'documentary' to be made because it's clear that "Fire Productions" has very limited knowledge of what they're doing.  It would be like your company making a custom CP for somebody, but drilling 2" holes for all the buttons because you thought that was the correct diameter and proudly showing the CP to the world as an example of your work.  :dizzy:


If you did pay for it, please don't tell us how much.   :cry:

Goshen:
This video reminded me of those old projector films that we used to watch in elementary school that were made 30 years earlier about "good manners" and, the "life of a working man".

"This is sid...sid is a ditch digger...sid works hard..."

But seriously...I love that you are following your dream!  Everyone should be doing something they love, and stop being a corporate tool.

DeLuSioNal29:
Being in the TV business for 15 years, I tend to be a little pickier than the norm.  I myself am a producer for the History Channel and A&E and I've seen hundreds of shows produced.  That said:

I think the promotional video idea is a good one, but not by this producer.  He lacks the professional and polished look that is so deserving of a documentary in general.

A few problems that I saw right off the bat:

* The writing needs some polishing.  The story was focused on his being layed off.  Although that is an interesting point to make in the documentary, it should only be a highlight towards the creation of his business, not the main point to focus on.  For example, it should have focused on the positive aspects of the business first, and then maybe a comment or two on the layoffs later and how it was fortunate that it happened and what it led to.  The point is to draw people into watching the piece within the first :30 seconds with a positive light on the company, not to have them tune out on a depressing story.
* The music was terrible.  Not only did it not fit the piece (more like a depressing version of Jeopardy), but it was repeated, over and over and over.  There is no excuse for this.  Royalty free music is available everywhere on the internet for free download.
* The narration was awful.  The narrator's voice was not a documentary type voice.  Even so, it could have worked had the audio be mixed properly to allow his voice to stand out.  It was hard to hear at times as it was overpowered by the background music.  Also, he spoke a little too fast at times with drawn out sentences.  Again, the writing needs to be worked on.
* I'm sure the Aspect ratio was something that could not be helped due to the formatting of the current.com site.  However, the video could have been submitted with the included black bars on the top and bottom to avoid the picture squishing when it gets "downconverted" to 4:3
Although a great idea to begin with, the final product suffered as a result of poor planning.  This would definitely fail our technical evaluation standard and practices here at THC and not even make it to air.

Again, the producer is to blame.

~ DeLuSioNaL

quarterback:

--- Quote from: DeLuSioNal29 on March 02, 2008, 07:07:02 pm ---
* I'm sure the Aspect ratio was something that could not be helped due to the formatting of the current.com site.  However, the video could have been submitted with the included black bars on the top and bottom to avoid the picture squishing when it gets "downconverted" to 4:3
--- End quote ---

But that was the point of my last post, I dont' think that it is current.com that was the problem.  I believe that problem lies within the project itself because the editor intercut 16:9 footage with 4:3 graphic elements, but put them both into the same sized frame (either squeezing one or stretching the other)

If the entire project were stretched out to 16:9 (which is what it would take to get the interview stuff looking correct), then the webpage graphic would look like this:



Instead of like this:



I guess it's possible that the 16:9 version is what that webpage is supposed to look like, but the 4:3 version looks correct to me.

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