Kit_L Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Liv's Pike Prep Follow-along Class 64'https://vimeo.com/ondemand/LivPikePrepClassThis one's black & white---please let us know what you think. I intend to blog on this, but if people like the look, then a huge fraction of the really difficult work is avoided. All the venue we use are multiple light sources, and while we simply don't notice these aspects with the naked eye, camera's sensors do, brutally clearly. Imagine warm (orange-red) skin tones, with a blue halo from the daylight coming in the window behind... If BW works, we will continue this theme.
Emmet Louis Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Just watched the trailer. Looks great in bw. Note to other just make sure HD option is set on Vimeo. Kit might be worth adding a little reminder on the intro screen as the non HD is a tiny bit grainy on my laptop.
Kit_L Posted March 30, 2015 Author Posted March 30, 2015 Probably the HD version had not finished processing (only an SD version is available until it does). Can you check and report back—looks great on my Retina display, but I don't see what their compression does to the video! Cheers, K
Jim Pickles Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 I find the black and white one more difficult to follow than the ones in colour unfortunately. To me, there is not such a clear distinction between the foreground (the presenter) and the background, as in the colour ones. I'm not sure how much this is because I am so used to seeing videos in colour now. But I wonder if some of the appeal of art-house movies in black and white is this lack of separation between the different objects in the frame, with the result that we see the movie more as an integrated visual composition, rather than as representing a number of separate objects. Obviously, for an instructional video, seeing it in the latter way is more important. My guess is that for a black and white version to work, there has to be a great deal of care given to composition, and to ensuring a clear separation of objects from each other. As I guess you have full control over colour correction, is it (as you imply) because of mixing daylight and artificial light?
Emmet Louis Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Probably the HD version had not finished processing (only an SD version is available until it does). Can you check and report back—looks great on my Retina display, but I don't see what their compression does to the video! Cheers, K I meant the SD looks a little grainy, there HD looks great to me.
Kit_L Posted March 30, 2015 Author Posted March 30, 2015 Hello Jim, Thanks for the comments. Can you still follow the instructions, and are the positions clearly shown, etc.? Re colour correction: Graeme's studio is a nightmare in this regard (and wonderful in others). Huge windows along the end mean that the RH side of a presenter is lit in daylight (which, in Melbourne, keeps changing, and is 5,000K or higher); the top lighting (which becomes a greater proportion of the available light the deeper into the room, or further away from the windows, is very warm tungsten, with a colour temp. of less than 3,000K) and no amount of colour correction can fully correct this mixture—without a shitload of work. So, it's a combination of changing light and the mixture. It takes more than a day to edit, sound sweeten, upload to Vimeo, make the required trailer and poster for Vimeo, etc., as it is. Composition can be vastly improved. Currently, I do not have long enough lenses to be able to get a head-and-shoulders shot from the back of a big room like this, and I need longer tripods, too (to get above attendees to 'see' the presenter), both of which will happen. But the biggest difficulty is managing three, or four cameras, two of which have a 29 minute recording limit, as well as the sound. And on this shoot I had to borrow a large-sensor camera (5D Mk II)—but the owner only had a 50mm lens for it (and she had not set the aperture to get deep enough depth of field) AND that camera has a 12 minute recording limit. We were lucky to get a program at all (and this is why the program ends the way it does). I will be employing a young man to help in this regard, as soon as I can. My larger question: if any of you have bought and watched the whole thing, does the program work, and is it worth $4 USD? I do have a colour version of the program; upload speed and bandwidth from here is a limiting factor though (upload speed from the house is 0.6Mb/sec; the programs are 2-3GB; long uploads have a high failure rate) and the 4GX modem (with an upload speed of 3Mb/sec) I use for this has a paltry allowance of 8GB/month, but that can be increased. That's probably too much on the technology side; we are pushing it to the limit as it is. If there's interest I can start a sub-forum for the tecchies here if there's interest; I know that more of you are shooting your own videos, and we could have a place to discuss these sorts of problems, if you want. 1
Emmet Louis Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 That's probably too much on the technology side; we are pushing it to the limit as it is. If there's interest I can start a sub-forum for the tecchies here if there's interest; I know that more of you are shooting your own videos, and we could have a place to discuss these sorts of problems, if you want. +1 on this idea 1
MT Nordic Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Personally, I like the black and white. I actually find it less distracting. though i am a bit of a luddite...
SwissDanny Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Downloaded and tested. B&W is aesthetically pleasing. I get Jims point, but for me more to do with the complex light and busy visual setting. Does the program work? Oh yes. As an ST student, I can honestly say while I do each of these stretches quite regularly, each of them was experienced in a new way during this hour. Not that I had been doing them wrong per se, but the precision and variety of the vocal cues in particular opened up new layers. As an ST teacher, aside from the cueing (vocal visual), the sequence, tempo etc all great input. Is it worth 4USD? Absolutely not... it's daylight robbery on our behalf having to pay so little. Now pretty please a monster anterior chain, chest, shoulder, arms and tspine episode!
Alessandro Mainente Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 I cannot purchase it since 2 days...very strange
piotro Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 <p>Just bought it without any problems Alex. Just very briefly went through it. No problems with B&W, exposure kept on the bright side most of the time works well IMHO, a bit of DOF play (camera behind Olivia to her left - I guess it may have been the full frame there) works well. Only small thing for me are shots (esp at the beginning) from the camera behind the group, where Olivia appears in between two standing persons, slightly distracting sometimes, but I take the artistic point of it . Waiting for next ones. Btw, back fascia release was mentioned there, is there a chance it (or maybe other fascia work you may have in your program?) will be available in similar format (like Master the pancake having movie with its release)
Jim Pickles Posted April 1, 2015 Posted April 1, 2015 My previous comments were based on the trailer. I've now got and downloaded the full version. I would say my previous comment still stands - it may be to do with the busyness of the background in one of the main shots in the trailer - the one with the camera at waist high on Olivia's left. I didnt notice it so much in the other shots. In the first shot I mentioned, the focus blur also helps Olivia to stand out, but I also cant help but think that colour would add more information that would make it easier distinguish figure from background. As a test, I took a frame from the Pancake class, and made a grey-scale copy. I chose a moment where the presenter was in front of a fairly busy background. In the attached composite, I can certainly distinguish figure from background, but I find it easier in the colour version. Of course, it nobody else finds this, it might turn out to be a subtle test for incipient Alzeheimers. Maybe I could then patent it, and become rich before my mind finally goes. As for a special thread on video technique, I would welcome that. I have a few other comments, which would be fussy in the context of an exercise discussion, but might have some point in the discussion of video technique. As for the Pike Prep video, yes I can see the presenter and exercises. Some place where I am looking between bodies it feels a bit crowded. I have skipped through but not done all the exercises yet. As I have said earlier, I like the format of a whole class shot with real people. I also wonder, do you have explicit releases from everyone in the video? It might not seem necessary now, but who knows what is going to happen in the future? (you probably need to click to see the full size version)
Mitko Posted April 1, 2015 Posted April 1, 2015 Personally I prefer with color, but I am commenting on the trailer alone.
PanBartosz Posted April 2, 2015 Posted April 2, 2015 Done this class yesterday, quality is outstanding as always. I prefer colour version though.
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