Joined: Dec 25, 2001 Posts: 32,389 Location: Liberty City
Posted: Wed 7/Dec/05 1:51pm Post subject: Results For Vorb Video Comp 05
The Vorb Video Comp 05 had around 60 entries, getting well over 30,000 downloads and over 1,500 votes all up. Here's the winning entries complete with screenshots, descriptions, and judge's comments.
The top ten as voted by the viewers went on to be judged by:
* Toni "Milkman" Mundel - Director of Drop In Season 3, Drop In NZ and Genesis
* Ambrose Weingart - Cameraman/ Editor for the Back In The Saddle Series
* Jarrett Craig - Veteran of the Canadian film industry, 16/35mm cameras.
* Jason Naran - Director of X-Air Series
* Warwick Patterson - Director of Rise, Halfway to Nowhere and more
Who took time out of their busy schedules to judge and give their feedback on the final videos. Congratulations to everyone who made it this far, and a big "Thank You" to the judges and props to everyone who entered. Every one of the finalists wins a Vorb t-shirt, and Chris, Jon and Olly all win Seasons 1, 2 and 3 of Drop In.
We're expecting the 2006 Vid Comp to be a lot bigger, with a more international flavour. So keep your eye on Vorb in 2006 (or Register and signup for the Newsletter) to find out when the next comp happens.
1st - Wanaka Montage
By Chris Arnison: I went to Wanaka in the holidays with my friend Michael and we met Tim there, he showed us all the tracks, and I filmed him riding them, which makes up the first section of the video. Tim and Michael filmed the second section with me in it - Tim filmed the skatepark footage for his Rainy Day video.Tim also helped set up some of the shots of himself in the forest. When I got back to Dunedin I combined all the footage to make this montage.
Ambrose: I thought it had amazing imagery and colour saturation it's not easy to make use of hotspots in the trees but he did a great job making the less than ideal light work to his advantage ...even though it wasn't the sickest most progressive riding it as the best overall quality and feel.
Jarrett: Tunes, editing, flow, pace, graphics, all top notch. Very well executed with a professional looking finish. Good tempo of cutting together all of the static camera positions. Would have liked to see the camera move a bit more. It adds a 3rd dimension and some production value. Overall had a really good vibe and came together nicely. Riding bored me a bit.
Jason: A beautiful grad! A really nice look with the mix of Black and white, and red green and nrowns. Very nice cinematography with time-lapse, out of focus to focused shots. Very well edited, with nice timing to the music. A great choice of soundtrack. A nice mix of riding styles from Dirt jumps, singletrack and park. This video drew me in the best and made me want to go out and play on my bike. It definitely took me on a journey. This is definitely the winner in my mind! Well done.
Toni: This is one of my favorites because it has all the elements of a quality piece. The filming and editing is clean and artistic, I like the color management. The song suits the style of the video. Throw a couple pro riders in there and you have a marketable video.
Warwick: Very nice post-production and "feel" to this video. The camerawork is very good, and contains a nice mix of static and panning shots. Good to see someone taking the time to shoot with a tripod. Good eye for details, like the water splash, rack focuses, etc. There are some slow shots (long shot, slow riding) that could be shortened or cut completely, and the skatepark riding starts off with nice tight artsy shots, but the riding gets a bit boring. Nice use of timelapses to help capture the scene and environment that surrounds mountain biking.
2nd - Styled Airtime
By Jon Drew: This Vid was made up from a selection of shots I've taken all over the country.I used a number of techniques to create the images like pencil cameras on long pole gaffer taped to my TLD lid and a 8 foot jib arm at Krankin Park. All shot on my Panasonic DVX 102a then masked to 16/9 in Post.
Ambrose: I enjoyed watching this vid... it made me laugh and reminded me of the hours of reverse helmet cam footage I have from the early years, haha we called it the goof ball cam because of the faces the riders make when the ride with out the full face... I like the way the time lapsed it onto his head... some good jumping shots and some follow cam form a truck round out the production nicely.
Jarrett: These guys have been paying attention. Great tracking shots, low angles, dynamic camera angles, and some nice beauty shots in between. I really liked the helmet cam too. Tunes were great and the action felt like it was really married with the music. Not just background noise. Looked great. The travelling shots you threw in were a good way to transition from one location to the next. Felt a little disjointed but overall good feel.
Jason: Very nicely edited, well shot and a good choice of soundtrack. Well thought out camera placements and execution of shots. Talented riders and overall a very watchable piece of video.
Toni: This one definitely has good filming and the piece has flow. The killer riding didn't hurt it either. Another film maker with an aspiring future.
Warwick: This segment feels like a teaser, and has a really fast pace which is great for short segments like these. I liked the camera movement and can see there was an effort made to get different angles. The shot of the rider putting on the helmet cam is cool. Good production values and quality throughout.
3rd - Clips From The PerspectiveShort Film
By Olly:Perspective is a one minute collection of extracts from the Perspective short film. It can be broken up into four specific sections, namely: Freeride, Dirt, Street and Singletrack. The clip aims to explore each sections unique style, but also allow them to blend together so that the viewer can seeit as mountainbiking as a whole. It was filmed entirely around Sydney, Australia,with emphasis on places that are distinctly "local".
Ambrose: This vid a probably had the best variety of riding as well as great production quality Its nice to see some good sized gaps mixed in with the street riding but I would liked to have seen a little more woods riding but hey that just me.. as my friend Wade Simmons says "lets keep the mountain in mountain biking..."
Jarrett: Sick drop down that concrete stairwell!! Nice little street section with a couple tracking shots. Good use of selective focus, putting some foreground in the shot really makes it look not so 2 dimensional. Music didn't really fit well with the pace of the riding. Maybe a better choice of music would put a different feel to the piece. I liked the establishing shots at the beginning, never hurts to show people where the riding's taking place.
Jason: Nicely shot, A few attempts at nice grading, nice track selection, but need to have a few edits on the beat, a few good cinematic shots to space out the riding.
Toni: This vid had a few nice shots and some good riding.
Warwick: I like the opening and titling, and on the whole the camera work is solid, with good lighting and composition. There were a few shots that had a shaky bit or dirty lens. Be ruthless in your editing. Be very critical of what shots make it into your movie. If you do that, your standards will go way up and the finished product will look much more refined.
4th - M@dcore First Edition
By Chris Harte:Vic Park, Port Hills... 2 local riders hit up "Old Nat's" fullsus vs. hardtail, a 2 minute clip of both riders racing from the 15 footer over the 'A' frame and down the track over the drop's to the 40 footer, also small inclusions of "Nat's" and Drop Track.
Ambrose: It was a toss up on this one and "Clips From The Perspective" either could have taken the upper spot - this vid had some cool editing and good riding but in the end I felt it suffered slightly from Badly exposed shots and one dimension riding ( however good it was.) A few subtle changes and I might have chosen it over "Clips From The Perspective."
Jason: A good edit with some really nice action. Beautiful slow mo repeats. Good camera work. Well done opening title graphics. Tidy black and white film grade and fades to blacks works effectively.
Warwick: The first thing I noticed was the exposure on the camera work. Be careful when shooting a shady area with bright areas in behind...use your camera's manual exposure to "lock" the exposure so it's not changing mid-shot. The filmmaker uses a lot of mid-shot dissolves, and sometimes I just wanted to see the rest of the clip without them. The age-old truth still holds up...keep it simple. The fades to black between shots can work well at the right time, but there were a lot in this video and it kind of interrupted the flow a bit. Slow motion is a bugbear of mine too...use it to highlight shots that need slowing down to show detail (a pedal kick for example) or to showcase an amazing trick. It takes more skill to edit without slow-motion, but in the end, I think it makes for a better video.
5th - Scrimdiddy + Baddestbuzz'sVideo
By Michael Scrimshaw:The video is shot on location at the old Melling DJs, K-town single track and Maidstone Max in Upper Hutt. The riders are myself (Michael Scrimshaw)and Sam Gibbs.
Jason: Nicely shot. Good tension and anticipation at the beginning. Nice choice of Sound track. Some nice Shooting styles showing two lines on the same terrain. Don't ever let black gaps stay in your edit.
Warwick: I've always wanted to use that Pink Floyd track as an opener! The transition from that song to the hard song, unfortunately, is really abrupt and kind of ruins the feel. A little audio post-processing would help there (fade out, etc.). Camerawork is a bit shaky, and there aren't really many interesting angles. Try and get lower, or into locations that produce nice compositions. Again, slow motion is my peeve...especially when it is really jumpy. Digital video doesn't slow down very well (you are basically eliminating frames from the image, causing it to jump), so use it sparingly. Good pacing in this video, it kept my attention the whole way through.
6th - Trials Vid
By Tim Jurgens:My video is something that I made with me and my brother, and my mate. Getting the footage over a couple of weeks, then editing it in a few days using this bad software that I got with my camera. I made it before I knew aboutthe comp, and I tried to use camera angles and an editing style which I hadn't seen in a lot of trials movies. Most of the riding footage was taken around the Manuwatu and Rangitikei area, ranging from schools, to randomparks and our trials area that we have set up here.
Jarrett: Is this music from the 1970's Olympic games? Great trials riding though. Everything is shot from eye level, makes it like I was just standing there watching. There was a ton of opportunities to go underneath looking up, or looking down, follow cam, etc.
Jason: The best edit I've seen yet. Fast moving and snappy, makes me tune in more to keep watching. Well shot action from a variety of angles. Funny but appropriate choice of soundtrack. Good decision to include the natural sounds of the bike. Good collection of locations takes me on a visual journey. Terrible ending!
Warwick: Shaky, shaky, shaky. The intro shots were hard to watch because of all the shake. The trials footage, however, was much better. This video held my attention the whole way through, and that's pretty good for a trials video! Watch your exposures when pointing up at the sky, and use manual exposure to keep the rider from going dark. The music was a bit weird, but that's very much a personal opinion..
7th - Rainy Day
By Tim Pierce:"A rainy day" captures the journey of a rider, getting out despite the weather, and enjoying the simple aspects of riding. Getting out and enjoying rolling down some stairs, or weaving between cones. A different video to remind you about the simplicity and beauty of riding your cycle.
Jason: Nicely shot, nice edit, the best, most consistent cinematic shots yet. This video makes you feel warm and looked after on a rainy day. Haven't I seen a few of these shots in another video from this competition?
Warwick: Great opening shot from the garage, and the rainy reflection in the road was fantastic. The music is certainly a good choice for a "rainy day" and sets the mood nicely. Some of the other shots were far too long and drawn out though, and could have been a lot shorter to keep with the pace and rhythm of the song. Keep the images up long enough so that he scene can register and be understood by the viewer, then change shots. A lot of the footage I had seen before in the Wanaka movie too, but this footage didn't have the benefit of the post-production effects. I think this could be a great little segment if there was more variation in footage, and more images of rain and rainy day things.
8th - Vorb Mobbing Video (LongGully)
By Ben Soal:One week before the Vorb Mobbing I broke my wrist, so being unable to ride and wanting to congregate with the out of town Vorbii, I decided to makea video to fling up onto Vorb for all of those people that didn't come to Wellington, however the video was put together swiftly as time Ihad was inadequate with doctor and ACC appointments. This video shows off Long Gully's Nationals Track and the top section of the Freeride Track plus the recently build dirt jumps.
Jason: Good idea starts well, then tapers off unfortunately. I'm sure I've heard that same soundtrack in another video somewhere. Dirt jump section didn't carry me through. No grade, simple graphics.
Warwick: Looks like Long Gully has evolved since I was there! The first impression most people have of a video is the intro credits. Try and be more creative and unique when putting credits up at the beginning to draw people into the video. Plain text on black instantly screams "amateur video". Camera work is a bit shaky, and the dirt jump shots are a bit "point and shoot". Try and get down near the jumps, getting better angles, etc. It's easy to edit together a ride recap video for friends, but the difference between a good video and a great one is the production values and thought that goes into the camerawork. The graphics at the end are different, but really brought the video to a screetching halt. It had a nice flow going until that point.
9th - Vorbmob XC Epic
By Jono Baddiley:During the Labour Weekend Vorbmob event I led a group of people out to ride some of the secret singletrack that is dotted around the Wellington region.I decided to take a video camera, to show that you don't have to be jumping off cliffs or have a weenie-punk soundtrack to be a Mountainbike vid - it's unashamedly XC (and an excellent ride).
Jason: Nice idea for a documentary type video on a day ride. Good use of different transitions.
Warwick: Although the camerawork got better later in the video, the first few shots were very amateur and shaky which didn't start the vid off strongly. Firsts impressions are important. Cool to see some XC action, but I didn't get a sense of the "epic". Where did the trail take you, how hard was it? Those funky dissolves are fine once in a while too, but try not to use them too much.
10th - Thugz Not Soldiers
By Nathan Cunliffe: This video, "Thugz Not Soldiers" was filmed at Avalon Skatepark with of course a thug theme attached to it coz' thatz how we do it down here, fo' shizzle. The riders consist of Micheal Scrimshaw (scrimdiddy), James Charlesworth (Jimmy_C), and me, Nathan Cunliffe (nate_diddly.) The filming was done by Stephen Cunliffe (XPLICIT), and was edited by me. Thanks for watching, and voting
Jason: Simple and tidy edit. Nice Idea with the graphics, but it needed an ending. A video needs to take you on a journey.... Start, middle and end. This video didn't end anywhere?
Warwick: First off...water on the lens! I'll say it again...filmmakers and editors have to be extremely critical of the shots they use. Raise your standards and your end product will be that much better. I liked the opening shot and fadeout, and it left me excited to see more. The anticipation was lost though as I had to wait through the slow opening credits. The riding was okay, but the angles were repeated a fair bit. Although it may not have been, it came across to me as a shoot that took about half an hour to complete. Some more variation would be good.
Honorable Mentions
Here's a dozen more videos that didn't make it to the finals, but are definitely worth checking out.
Joined: Jan 20, 2003 Posts: 54 Location: Whistler, BC, Canada
Posted: Wed 7/Dec/05 2:56pm Post subject:
Just an FYI (Tama!) - my comments for 9 and 10 are reversed.
Man...I sound a bit like an old grump without the preface I sent along with my comments... I'll repost it here
I basically looked for a few key elements and the overall package. Good shooting (steady camera, unique and uncluttered angles); good editing (works with the music, good pace, not just holiday video style); and overall impression (did it make me want to ride or go shoot some video myself). While I didn’t put too much emphasis on riders and riding skill in the videos (after all, not everyone has pros to shoot with) I DID look to see how critical the filmmaker was in choosing their shots. The rider may not be the best, but it’s the filmmakers job to make him/her look good, and to leave any substandard shots on the editing room floor. I tried to be a bit ruthless and tell it how I saw it, but remember, these are based on my personal preferences and opinions, and you may disagree! No matter what any of us (the judges) think, if you enjoy riding and shooting…keep doing it!
Joined: Dec 25, 2001 Posts: 32,389 Location: Liberty City
Posted: Wed 7/Dec/05 3:15pm Post subject:
warwick wrote:
Just an FYI (Tama!) - my comments for 9 and 10 are reversed.
Whoops - fixed
warwick wrote:
Man...I sound a bit like an old grump without the preface I sent along with my comments... I'll repost it here
I wouldn't worry about coming across as a grumpy bugger - the reason why I asked you guys to judge is because you all live and breath the art of film. I reckon this is a great resource for aspiring film-makers to have a look at the vids, have a look at your comments - and step it up for their next try.
All I have to do is fix the broken video upload on Vorb (currently limiting to 2meg for some inexplicable reason) and people will be able to continue sharing their ideas with the world.
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