I greatly enjoyed. In fact, I saved a link for further study of your use of timing, fades in/out, compositions, etc -Thanks for sharing -Diego

BTW, the music made me want to tap my foot. Did you know the artist? was it "buy-out"? -Diego

Another beautifully shot/edited clip--it works! Well done!

Jay

Black Eyed Peas- "Let's Get it Started (Radio Edit) The original is called "Let's get Retarded"...I kid you not. At first I thought it was a parody of this song but it truly is the "original" version.

Not only is the "Let's Get it STARTED" version policically correct it actually sounds better.

Yes I feel interpretation is a big part of art in any respect- as much for painting as it is in editing. This peice actually IS a highlight montage of the day that proceeds the main program. I figured it might draw interest from people at my work that weren't present or affiliated with this Ceremony. After all the only ones who would really want to watch the program from beginning to end are the honorees and possibly some of the attendees. Having catchy opening and highlight vignettes sort stretches it's range in regards to audience. I can show people that wouldn't even normally be interested whatsoever. I feel it adds a broader appeal.

Thank you for the kind words regarding timing etc. I think I've heard somewhere that editing "TO" the music (to exact beats, etc) is bad editing and is only an "effect" that deters from content. Because I'm my own worst critic I never feel satisfied with my finished work....it's something I've been plagued with since my illustration days. I can keep going back and tweaking and tweaking and tweaking.... It's endless. I have to exercise control and simply cut myself off on many works just because it starts to exceed the time that is even worth putting into a particular peice. Most of my time isn't assembling footage, it's going back and making changes. I often change something...only to change it back, then look at it a couple hundred more times and change it again.
Whenever I begin a vignette or montage I never have a particular direction....I guess you can say the timeline is my blank canvas and my clips are my paints. I start by breaking the clips down finding shots I like and testing how they work together on the timeline with a music bed. In other words I wing it- I make it up as I go along. Thus I would never be a good candidate for storyboarding...the the complete opposite of my style I suppose.

" I can keep going back and tweaking and tweaking and tweaking.... It's endless." . . . You R in good company >>> "Sometimes you just gotta walk away from a project!" - Frank Zappa ... .

Grazie

GEM:

I really enjoyed this clip - the editing was skillful, rhtythmic and inventive. I like your technique in taking a short clip and quickly cutting to various rotated pan/crops with B/W effects to add the illusion of many different camera angles and takes. It adds lots of interest to o/w routine headshots. Also your transitions were hip and not distracting.

Keep up the good work. I'm going to flatter you by trying to emulate some of your techniques in my own home Vegas projects. Thanks,

MarcS, MD

GEM:
Question: What method do you find easiest to create the very quick, on the beat, sequences of images? Do you just expand the timeline and lay each short duration image in by hand and add quick fade ins/outs?

I imagine that you could take a short clip, split in into one beat segments, and then pan/crop each segment to different views with short fades...

Thanks,
MarcS, MD
www.clayeyecenter.com

See what you did Grazie- now he's calling me "GEM" too...lol

Anyway thank you Marc- I appreciated the feedback. Yes that pan crop effect to the beat was something I experimented with for the first time. I needed a way to keep up with the beat and didn't have enough exciting shots. The inclusion of the black and white was a last minute decision. I wanted to further differenciate the pan/crop shots all the while sticking with the b&w/color theme I instilled on the opening shot.

Feel free to emulate some of the techniques- that's what we are here for - to help learn from one another. I, like Diego, have saved clips I liked and studied the timing and pacing...sometimes going as far as viewing them on the Vegas timeline to control the speed etc. Thanks again for the compliments.

If I'm going to be doing a lot of timing editing I first lay down the music track and expand it to get a good look at the waveform. I then go over it about 10+ times and listen to it with my finger on the M key to make markers to the beat. Sometimes it's better NOT to look at the waveform as your reflexes sometimes aren't fast enough to do it visually. I'll often times close my eyes and just listen to the song tapping the M key along to the beat.

After I'm done I have the foundation by which I do all my timing in my edits.

Thanks for the information. I didn't mean to give you a moniker (GEM) that is wrong. Grazie (GRZ) did that first.

MJS, MarcS

I thought it was very well done. Having sat through many similar award ceremonies, I thought you made it into a presentation that will hold interest.

Like many others, posting, I'll mark this as an example to be emulated.

One minor issue I did have was that the award category was a little too small for me to read quickly. However, it may be OK on a TV (and for someone who does not have 60+ yr old eyes ;-))

Yes- I can see how that can be an issue, especially with a lower res compressed version. It's actually pretty easy to read on a TV, though a little fast. I originally had the text animated but scratched that idea beings the pace was so fast it would have made the titles even harder to read. Thanks for the input.

well done!
both your pieces have gone in my reference folder.
thanks for sharing!
ben

Wow, very nice. So seamless I couldn't perceive the effects.

Funny, I thought that the original setting comes through (ie, the possibly "flat" cafeteria & ceremonies). This honesty is a good thing. But your editing made the people fun and sympathetic. A case of the editing whole being greater than the parts.

Congrats.

Pierre

PS Just watched it again, without the audio (much easier to see the editing work)... how did you do the "flash white" transitions, if you'll share?