Post Your Best Videos

A few years ago, REM got Vincent Moon of La Blogotheque to do a website for their album launch, posted raw footage online, and invited folks to cut a video from it.  I'm not the biggest REM fan, but my roommate at the time was an absolute die hard, and insisted we both do a cut.  So, obviously not original, but I'm still fond of it.

Bucho, really like the atmosphere you created with that video. And great editing Scottie.

I don't have a channel or anything so this first one is the only video that I've directed that I can find on the web. It's like 6 years old and not exactly my type of music but I still dig it. All the imagery is distinctly South African so it might not mean a lot to most of you.

These other 2 are ones that I did through a production company I was a partner in. Friends directed them and I edited them. And as is par for the course, all of these were made for almost no money, just getting favors from friends.

This is a short film, I directed a couple of years ago.

I have another short film currently in post-production, this time with actual dialogue.

Oooh I'm gonna watch all of these a little later.  In the meantime, here's an Image Promo I wrote/shot/edited at work:

I'm a huge fan of hair metal. This is video I took of the Pittsburgh based Poison tribute band Say Ahh playing Look What The Cat Dragged In.

I took the video with My Droid Incredible 2 phone.

<object width="480" height="800"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.facebook.com/v/3097309873507"></param><embed src="http://www.facebook.com/v/3097309873507" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="1" width="480" height="800"></embed></object>

Christ almighty, you lads are talented. I play in a band - will one of you direct my video???

I'll pay you in Krugerrands & rep!

I haven't had a chance to watch everything yet, but Nathan and Tim - those shorts are fantastic.
 

This is a teaser for an aborted TV series, I shot the pilot but it never got past the editing stage for reasons I'll probably never, ever know.

This is a video I filmed and edited when I was in LA last August on tour for my single 'Swimming After Dark':

 I'm still learning filming so it's not the best. I'm always learning!

 I make all the music and videos myself. I'm a one man band and I'm aiming to be a whole independent package of music and video. 

Figured you guys might enjoy this, it's a short documentary I worked on a few years back. It's edited by myself and directed by me and my 2 partners (not the Tim & Sean in the video, those are mates of ours for whom we shot the doccie, kind of as a thank you). The only thing you might need to know beforehand is that the SABC, which is brought up couple of times, is the South African Broadcasting Commission, which runs most of the free-to-air TV and radio channels in the country.

Here is a short documentary I made. It is the first film that I have scored and narrated. It is about Steavenson Falls in Victoria, Australia:

 It was a misty and wet day when I filmed it and really added to the atmosphere of the film. Thats me with the Sean Bean accent. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bucho 

And Scottie has collaborated with REM, pretty much.

HA!  Hardly, although my friend did do something a bit more experimental with the footage, which through a convoluted series of events eventually got him a one sentence email forward from Michael Stipe.  "This one is super cool."  I think that pretty much made his life.  Here it is:

And since I feel like embarrassing myself in front of random strangers on the internet for some reason, here's one of my ill advised forays into acting (complete with awful Russian accent) that I did for another friend:

Around seven years ago I was studying my BA in the city of Kouvola, Finland. Probably the most notoriously ugly city in the country and possibly the entire northern hemisphere. One grey, cold and rainy day someone got the idea to shoot an episode of Miami Vice in there. Few months later COP & POLICE was unleashed, in four short episodes.

Holy crap. I was going to post a Tarantino parody I shot in film school 15 yrs ago and a silly thing I filmed with my dog, but nevermind! Ya'll are some filmatismic mofos.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mangy 

Holy crap. I was going to post a Tarantino parody I shot in film school 15 yrs ago and a silly thing I filmed with my dog, but nevermind! Ya'll are some filmatismic mofos.

Post it!

Agreed.  It is a moral imperative.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bucho 


 Silly things and dogs and silly things with dogs belong here too. Hell, post a 10 second video of you pulling faces if you think it's fun. As long as you're involved in the creation and you enjoy the result on some level it belongs in this thread.

I think I can provide some silly.

I wrote a song for a mate of mine's 40th birthday. He was brought up in Wales, but got a bit of a hard time from the locals because he had a very English accent, and was also the only punk in the village. As a result, he's got a bit of a chip on his shoulder about all things Welsh and will always take the opportunity to have a pop at them.

So I wrote this and got a Welsh mate to add his baritone vocals to give it a bit of authenticity. Another friend who produced it also put this little slide show together, which makes me chuckle, as he clearly gets a bit bored halfway through doing it!

EDIT: I posted a different vid from the ones mentioned above, but the vid quality was shitty and I was embarrassed. Will post something else shortly.

Here's the Tarantino parody I made. Some background: This was my first semester in film school, back in '97 (jeez), and nearly every other student was obsessed with Tarantino and Goodfellas, which meant that almost every other project featured callow teenagers cursing a lot and shooting guns and being edgy. So, armed with a VHS-C camera and the Videonics Title Editor, I made this as a response. Hope you like:

Haaa.  That was fantastic.
 

Oh lord...  I can't even bear watching my older stuff, but I love ya'll... so I'll post it.  Not that it's hard to find if you know what you're looking for...

Description and context are all within the information on the Youtube page.  But this was footage I shot for a 24 hour filmmaking contest.  Forgot the microphone that day so the sound was AWFUL.  After the contest, I went back and put a little more time into the edit and completely ADR'ed the thing as best we could (AS IF YOU COULDN'T TELL).

The music by a friend... that's a tricksy story.  I was a fool to think a casual friend of mine pulled out the lovely ditty on his guitar so quickly.  But only in the past couple of years did I come upon THIS lovely little song!  Serves me right for not knowing songs and stuff!!

Wow, nice job, Shogun.
 

Oh god...

I completely forgot about that credit (and was CTRL-Fing to find a user named Shogun).  It was my friend's suggestion!  It wasn't meeee!!

Also, thanks!

Another fun story.  Only in the past year or so did the little girl in the short get to watch the whole thing (not approved for all audiences!).  She's in high school now. 

Damn, time goes fast.

What did she think of it?
 

She said it was cool.  Violent. 

Or she could've been just being nice. 

I don't understand kids!!!

Haa.  Well it was indeed violent and I loved that last shot of her smiling face before it went out of focus after she stabbed him.
 

Actually, I do like her little moment there.

She is married with two children now!  And her husband is the man that takes the girl away at the end.  Hahahah

EDIT: Eugh, did I actually use the term 'gore whores?' 

I hate me.  I really do feel awful right now.  I wish I could special edition crap out.  I'm sure I asked my friend if she was cool with it (she was right there next to me when I was editing).  But still...

YOU'RE A TERRIBLE PERSON

(not really i love you)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bucho 

Did you film that on your phone? There's one shot where your shadow's on the boardwalk and it looks like you're holding a phone.
Really nice song too. Especially enjoy the beat and the way you have the drums mixed into wide stereo, but the whole thing works a treat.

 Thank you for your kinds words! :)

 Yes, there are a couple of phone shots in there from my Galaxy SIII but it's mostly filmed on a Panasonic HD Camcorder. I messed around with the speed a lot and tried to make the thing look more widescreen. I'm pretty proud of what I've achieved on my own. I hope the next one to be a big step up in quality of both the music and video. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mangy 

Here's the Tarantino parody I made. Some background: This was my first semester in film school, back in '97 (jeez), and nearly every other student was obsessed with Tarantino and Goodfellas, which meant that almost every other project featured callow teenagers cursing a lot and shooting guns and being edgy. So, armed with a VHS-C camera and the Videonics Title Editor, I made this as a response. Hope you like:

 

That was awesome! You really know how to use your f-bombs!

I was checking the mailbox at my youtube account and found something... interesting. I've got some inquiries on a video we did. I don't remember why excactly was this made but anyway:

I've received some questions about this. First from "funnyskippy":

And then, a question from "dragoon2095"

Since I didn't reply, mr "dragoon2095" sent this:

Need I tell you what the guy who played the "attractive corpse" thought about this? Chances are he'll NEVER visit America because he doesn't want to meet "one of my fans".

Glad you guys dug my film. I always thought it was a little too arty for it's own sake but I'm a terribly harsh critic when it comes to my own work.

I have been instructed to move my shit over here and get on the couch with everyone else.  So I shall.  (I won't load the place up with too many embeds.  I dunno about you folks but after a few my browser starts to hate me)

So I've been trying to get into music videos with a couple of no budget efforts recently:

Eggchan - Ghosts

Zanetic - Symmetry

(warning, contains heavily synthesised music)

While I'm at it I might as well pimp a few things I've been variously involved in (mostly as camera and/or lighting person).

These are dodgy exploitation action films shot rather quickly

Blind (did some sound design on this one as well)

Doublecross (this one has nudy bits so don't watch at work)

(there's others, but they are probably the dubious best)

And if you're a glutton for punishment you can watch my student film  The Bond if you've got 25 minutes that really couldn't be better spent.  I mean really.

Comments (like Evi has apparently absurdly skilled friends who work for free and Nathan.W. doesn't know the meaning  of bad arty shorts clearly, since he made a good narrative short by mistake) at some later point.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bucho 

Loved this. Great story, great momentum and a very fun watch. There's even a kind of moving moment when he talks about his divorce and what his wife was telling him. I particularly like the shot about 5:28 where you can just see the interviewer's knee bobbing along with the music. Michael Saltino might not have Julio Iglesias level of production behind him but the power of his music is undeniable.

Thanks mate, though to be fair I'd leave him too, he's an awful singer ;) it'll probably please you to know that he is back with his wife and has recently released a third album no one will ever listen to.

Here's another news promo I made a few years ago.  Looking back on it the music choice was terrible (as was our graphics package at the time) and I hate that you can see the green screen reflected on the table, but I'm still rather proud of how it came out, mainly because I hadn't learned AfterEffects yet so I did all the compositing and keyframing IN FinalCut (and brother lemme tell ya...)

Thanks for the kind words! And yes, this is how all Finnish films look like except some are 50 times longer. I did the lights, camera operating and as much make up as my homophobic psyche allowed me to do. I might've came up with the title, I don't quite remember. Can't take credit for the idea, that was something the director talked about for a year.

Director: A guy washes a body. It'll be AWESOME.

Someone: What else happens?

Director: WHO GIVES A SHIT? NOTHING!

Quote:

Originally Posted by JGButler 

I hadn't learned AfterEffects yet so I did all the compositing and keyframing IN FinalCut (and brother lemme tell ya...)

 

 

Really? And you're still an operational human being not out of his mind? Massive respect from here. You're like the guy who can solve a Rubik's cube with his feet.

Eh, why not. I too went to film school with delusions of making it into Hollywood.

Here's a video I did for some friends in a kick-ass local band called The Dead Eyes of London. The band uploaded the video to youtube, and something happened in the upload where it turned out much darker and choppier than the original video. But, whatever.

Total rush job for a class deadline, and the owner of the pub screwed up scheduling, and cut our time in half -- and left the doors open, so most of the people in the crowd shots are buzzed day drinkers. Good times! Still, there are a couple of shots I'm still proud of.

And here's me doing a little bit of acting for some classmates, back in my chubbier and hairy-er days.

Rip 'em to shreds, people.