Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Filmfights.com

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Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 09-12-2004, 12:55 AM:

Yes, another annoying thread telling you to check out a link...

But this one might actually spark some interest for some of you out there. Maybe, maybe not...

From what I've browsed so far, you can submit your own digital short videos into a contest. And the viewers choose the most worthy. I think they give you a topic or situation to work with and make in under 3 minutes... Something to that extent.

Edit: These videos are not really up to par with my standards... Very amateur as you might say. So, what I'm saying is... don't checkout the site unless you have nothing else better to do.

http://filmfights.com

[ 09-12-2004, 02:31 AM: Message edited by: Jennifer Pan ]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-12-2004, 01:56 AM:

I really wish people would stop calling videos films.

Moreso, I wish people would stop making videos that are so bad it's embarrassing to watch. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-12-2004, 02:04 AM:

Just like movies & films.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-12-2004, 09:26 AM:

I think we've lost the battle on that one, Brad. 'Film' now seems to have become a generic noun and verb meaning 'recorded moving image sequence' / 'to record a moving image sequence'. Media production students at the university where my archive is based routinely describe their videos as films, and the teaching staff don't try to discourage it, as far as I can see. Only yesterday on the radio they were talking about Islamic terrorists 'filming' themselves murdering hostages, though I really can't imagine them in some Iraqi dungeon with a machete in one hand and an Arri 565 in the other, somehow.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-12-2004, 11:12 AM:

I know Leo, but that doesn't stop me from looking these "directors" straight in the face at film festivals and telling them "not to worry, we'll get the aspect ratio right for your video". It's actually pretty funny to see some of the director's eyes light up when you use the evil "v" word.

Anyway, I refuse to use the word "film" when describing something shot on video. I will use it if the show was shot on film but is presented on video though. There is a local festival going on with the slogan "presenting films right", yet there are only 2 actual films in the program and the rest are 80+% horribly amateurish videos. But hey, the slogan isn't lying. The films WERE presented right! [Big Grin]

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 09-12-2004, 11:25 AM:

Brad, Leo... AMEN!

So, Jen, 'not your standards'? Why don't you show us what ya got!

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 09-12-2004, 04:20 PM:

Awesome! I was wondering if anyone would comment me on that. I love eating my own words. [Big Grin]

Well, Tim... my videos are most likely not up to your par. Ones opinion can vary from someone else’s. I'll let you know when I come up with some quality work. In the mean time you can just check out my site and see my videos. More like video journals. But I'm not after the best effects award. Just something simple and to the point. Not really planned nor drawn out on a story board or anything like that. Plus I don't plan on submitting to any contest for that matter. The videos that I have made in the past were from high school projects. Mostly history classes.

http://www.jenniferpan.net/video.html

The level of which were on that site are how shall I say this... gross. My standard is that 'one' does not need to say the "f" word every second nor do they need to be outlandishly gory. Where they take a baby doll and slaughter it using fake blood. But what cuts the cake is showing poop in a public restroom stall. Not my opinion of quailty 'video' making. But I guess they weren't going for quality. It is their video... they choose to do whatever they please. I gave it a shot and watched what they had to offer.

I'm not a professional in amateur 'films' nor am I a pro at full feature length 'films'. But I can tell when I see effort and thought put forth in a project. I have great respect for those who can come up with something spontaneous and witty.

Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 09-12-2004, 09:35 PM:

quote: Jennifer Pan
Where they take a baby doll and slaughter it using fake blood. But what cuts the cake is showing poop in a public restroom stall.

Jen, you should have put SPOILERS AHEAD before that statement. I recommend you be banned for blatant rule breaking. [Wink]

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 09-12-2004, 09:53 PM:

Yes, I should be banned... But did I even mention the titles of those videos? So you have no clue which videos I talked about. There are at least 5 other 'somewhat' decent videos left within that category. Plus there's also the achieves and any other video left on the site I have yet to mentioned.

Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 09-12-2004, 10:12 PM:

Good point. [Cool]

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 09-13-2004, 02:20 AM:

Now this is what I call good amateur video making...

It's from the creator of "Filmfights.com"
If you thought chick flicks were bad... watch this trailer.
You might have second thoughts.

'My "Drama of the Year" trailer':

http://www.collegehumor.com/justin/onetrick/ff3-justin.wmv

And more from this 'director' check out his site:
http://onetrick.net/videos.htm

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 09-13-2004, 09:37 AM:

quote: Brad Miller
I really wish people would stop calling videos films.

Yes, that bugs me too. I've been watching the fairly new Benny Hill DVD set of the early years and the box says the set includes "three rare shows FILMED in black and white". These black and white shows are obviously from quadruplex video tape (the banding is obvious and the number of bands is correct (18.4 visible on the screen since 20 are used for each entire field for PAL). What's even more interesting is that color artifacts are visible in these black and white episodes, so it seems these particular episodes (6, 7, and 8 on the set) were recorded in black and white using a color-capable quad machine. Dropouts often have color to them. Why did they do this when the episodes 1-5 were in color?

Anyway, it's possible that a show could be filmed, then transfered to quad video tape, but if that were the case, print blemishes would be visible, and I don't see any, so I'll bet the quad videotape is the original.

The same thing applies to the David Bowie 2-disc set of videos. I noticed banding on one video (18.4 bands -- PAL quad) that was said to be "filmed" in the intro.

Posted by Ron Yost (Member # 1850) on 09-13-2004, 04:09 PM:

Jennifer,

You seem a sweet, completely unpretentious young lady, and having been somewhat connected with the music industry in the past, I have a small suggestion for you. [Smile]

I'd strongly suggest you add a copyright notice to your musical material. Intellectual works are copyrighted automatically once they're in 'fixed form', but the appearance of a notice in/on your work will serve notice to the public that you know you have rights. [edited by Ron Yost to be more accurate. Thanks for pointing out my errors, Daryl] [Big Grin]

It wouldn't be wise to do this if a song of yours is directly derived from a published song, of course. Same melody, different words, for example. But if you honestly believe your work to be substantially 'original' the notice won't hurt anything. And there's nothing pretentious about it at all. You're just protecting your work.

A line like: "Words and Music Copyright © 2004 Jennifer Pan" would suffice. Or just "Copyright ..", in the case of your printed lyrics.

The copyright sign is obtained by holding down the ALT key and pressing 0169 on your keyboard's numeric keypad (won't work using the number keys above the keyboard). Assuming you're on a Winblows machine, of course. Just the word Copyright will do, if you can't do the © thing. [Big Grin]

I like some of your songs, BTW. They're obviously from a place deep in your heart. Have you ever heard of a "hook" in music? You might want to find out how to create them for some of your music, if you don't know already. It's what makes most songs memorable. You almost have one in the tune you sing on your video. Even ballads have hooks, sometimes. [Wink]

Hope this is of some help to you, and don't give up .. hold on to your high standards, not to sound like a priest! Your parents obviously raised you up right, as we say around here.

Ron Yost .. old-time, very small-time, Rock-and-Roller. [Big Grin]

[ 09-13-2004, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: Ron Yost ]

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-13-2004, 04:46 PM:

Do you really still have to include a copyright notice to enact copyright rights in the US? You haven't had to do that in Canada for years. Any work in Canada is automatically protected by copyright.

Posted by Ron Yost (Member # 1850) on 09-13-2004, 05:30 PM:

No, it's not 'required' anymore. However it does serve to 'give notice' to the greedy, like the snakes and sharks that infest the music biz [Mad]

, that the 'author' is aware they have rights under the law. That's how I look at it, anyhow.

Here's a small portion of the U.S. Copyright Office's FAQ:

"Use of the notice may be important because it informs the public that the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year of first publication. Furthermore, in the event that a work is infringed, if a proper notice of copyright appears on the published copy or copies to which a defendant in a copyright infringement suit had access, then no weight shall be given to such a defendant's interposition of a defense based on innocent infringement in mitigation of actual or statutory damages, except as provided in section 504(c)(2) of the copyright law. Innocent infringement occurs when the infringer did not realize that the work was protected.

The use of the copyright notice is the responsibility of the copyright owner and does not require advance permission from, or registration with, the Copyright Office."

More at:

U.S. Copyright Office

I do quite a bit of photography these days, so, like a sheep perhaps [Big Grin]

I always add it to my work. Especially for online galleries.

So, it's possibly overkill, but I feel more 'secure' adding it to my humble works.

Ron Yost

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 09-14-2004, 12:07 AM:

Ron,

Thanks for the tips. I thought about putting little copyright notices for my music. But at the time I didn't think it would matter, plus I highly doubt anyone would want to take my "songs". [Wink]

Yeah, there are greedy people out there... but my music... very unlikely... If they so choose to use my songs, they can go right ahead.

I am glad you enjoyed my songs though [Cool]

. Just something I like to do for fun. But my motivation is someday in the future I'll have my own songs to use as soundtracks for my movies. My parents didn't even want to buy me a guitar... My cousin got it for me for Christmas about 5 years back. I'm in one of those families who doesn't believe in creativity. So growing up it was really hard to get them to even except the idea that I wanted to be a director. I'm kind of the black sheep of the family... completely involved in the Arts.

You were talking about 'hooks', I heard of them... I guess I could improve my songs that way. But what I usually write just takes 10 minutes and I'm usually just happy with that. If I put too much thought in writing that one song it comes out to be too 'premeditated' or in other words fake to me. The songs I write is exactly how I'm feeling at that moment in time. Or poems is more the term I would use. As spontaneous as possible. When I was younger I used to make up songs left and right, but I never wrote them down because I didn't think they would become of anything. I wish I was motivated to write them down back then.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 09-14-2004, 01:56 AM:

ah, don't worry about hooks. they can be great, or not. you only really need them if you're selling out. i can't listen to your tunes now on this computer, but i checked them out a couple weeks ago. my impression was that they were pretty good (didn't need hooks), but not suited to film. maybe a vincent gallo-type film. oh, and copyrights are bad. wait, this thread isn't even about your music... wha' happened?

carl

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 09-14-2004, 02:39 AM:

Yeah... got off topic there [Frown]

sorry guys...

But back to the main attraction. Another video from one of the regulars at filmfights.com

This one is pretty good. Not sure what movie it was adapted from but it looks familiar. The typical hitman movie I guess.

"Same Time Tomorrow" by C-Independent:

http://c-independent.com/videos/same_time_tomorrow.wmv

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 09-17-2004, 10:19 AM:

quote: Jennifer Pan
Well, Tim... my videos are most likely not up to your par. Ones opinion can vary from someone else’s. I'll let you know when I come up with some quality work.

Umm, not sure what you mean by not up to my 'par'? Are you referring to films I've made... or that I'm middle-aged and won't like the style?
[Confused]

Regardless, I checked out a couple of your videos. You're very talented and have a beautiful voice! [Smile]

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 09-17-2004, 10:29 AM:

I was referring to the fact that my videos are immature and are not thought provoking or even moving in any shape or form. I was saying that you probably have your own views of what a good video is. I had no intention of bringing forth your age range into the matter.

Thanks for checking out the videos. I appreciate your comments. I hate my voice. I want to shot myself after I listen to my songs. The only pleasure I really get from writing/playing my songs is that they are my words put into a form that I can express. Basically the first time I sing a song I write is very rewarding to me and also playing it for someone for the first time and seeing their reaction makes it worth my time. After about awhile of listening to myself I become very annoyed by it.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 09-17-2004, 01:15 PM:

quote: Jennifer Pan
I was referring to the fact that my videos are immature

So, then... I'm... mature? [Wink]

quote: Jennifer Pan
I was saying that you probably have your own views of what a good video is.

Oh, okay. Depends on their purpose. In terms of narrative in entertainment works, yes, there should be a familiar or classic underlying story structure to make it understandable, and enjoyable, to audiences. If it's an instructional video, a different approach is needed. A commercial announcement, another. And, if it's just for you, anything goes. You do what your creativity inspires you to do and have fun with it. You have no one to please but yourself. [Cool]

Btw, you have a very sweet voice. And, I'll let you in on a secret... you'll never be happy with anything you create. There'll always be something that you think could've been done better. In the intermission clock trailer I made, I had to make myself stop working on it, or it would've never been released! And, if you keep plugging at refining something like that, you'll lose your objectivity and there'll be a point of diminishing returns. A shot will be too busy or you'll lose your pacing. While I'm proud of them, to this day I see things in all my films that I'm not happy with (yes, they're "films", guys... shot on 35mm).

Posted by Greg Davis (Member # 2687) on 09-17-2004, 01:39 PM:

My brother and I made 2 seperate videos.... one of me dressed up as a Ninja trying to find Paris hiltons dog in my backyard.... and another where I am searching for the elusive mountain man. Summer can get boring, this is what we did. I stand by it.

icreation.tk

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 09-17-2004, 02:53 PM:

The guy was in a dress...............................

.................... [Razz]

How are you able to wear a sweatshirt on the second video in the SUMMER?

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 09-17-2004, 05:57 PM:

Greg: Your videos are too funny! Loved them!

The "Guitar crawl" and the "Over Yonder" quote from a Ninja were too funny! [beer]

>>> Phil

Posted by Greg Davis (Member # 2687) on 09-17-2004, 09:13 PM:

The trick to doing a movie:

1. Put one guy in a dress, another in a panda suit
2. Find some dumb stuff around the house (i.e. fruit, baby toys, etc)
3. Ummmmm thats about it. The dress was his girlfreinds halloween costume, and my "mask" was a Survivor season 3 buff.

Posted by Ed Inman (Member # 2583) on 09-18-2004, 05:41 PM:

As far as the film vs. video thing I'm not too crazy about every dufus in the world with a DV cam calling themselves "filmmakers," but I wonder...

If it's ok to call a video projected image a "film" if it was shot on film, but not ok to call it a "film" if it originated as a video, what do you call something like "Super Size Me" that was shot on DV cam then transferred to 35mm? Is it a "film" or should we call it comething like a "telecine movie?" LOL

Ed

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 09-18-2004, 11:33 PM:

Actually, I more-often refer to my film subjects as "pictures".