hmpf: Cole and Ramse from the show not actually called "Splinter" (stay)
hmpf ([personal profile] hmpf) wrote2006-04-21 12:40 am

I am pleased to announce...

... that we have a beta version:

http://www.allabouthmpf.com/ab17.wmv

(Yes, that '17' does indeed mean that this is version no. 17 of my vid.)

Comments, especially from more experienced vidders, are very welcome. Doesn't matter if you know the show or not - what I'm most interested in are comments about technical issues like timing and the many oddities of Windows Movie Maker, anyway. (And yes, I *am* going to use a different program for the next vid. WMM is too much of a pain in the eema to make more than one vid with, unless you have an insanely high tolerance for frustration.)

Notes:

- There's still odd little image hiccups in it which I can't seem to remove in Windows Movie Maker. Will have to try another program for that, just don't know what yet.

- Windows Movie Maker screwed up the timing ever so subtly during rendering, I think. Or maybe I'm just tired. Will have to look at it again tomorrow when I'm not so exhausted.

- A couple of clips still need replacing.

- At least half a dozen clips still need to be re-timed.

- There's silent speaking in a number of clips. In most cases this is due to there simply being *no* footage of the characters in question in a fitting situation that does *not* involve talking. (Considering that we only have something like five minutes of footage of Sam in 2006, and I had to find all my 'A' material in those five minutes, it's a miracle I found as many usable clips as I did.) In the cases where better clips can be found, the clips will be replaced.

- There's silent shouting, too. That is due to my needing shots of angry!Sam, and he does a lot of shouting when he's angry. Personally, I think those shots work pretty well, but if you think otherwise, do tell me. After all, this is still only a beta version.

- I still need to figure out how to save this in a format that will not appear squished. For now, please set your players to widescreen; that should fix the problem on your side, at least until I've found a way to fix it on my side.

- I misspelled my name nickname in the credits. How embarrassing. It's actually Hmpf MacSlow, with an 'a'.

- Yes, I am aware that some of the lyrics don't *really* fit. Still, the concept of the song was so nice for a Life On Mars vid that I couldn't resist.

***

Useless trivia: This vid contains 74 separate clips.

Nope, he's just a guy who's hit by a car and then...

[identity profile] hmpf.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 09:08 am (UTC)(link)
wakes up 33 years in the past, not knowing whether he has travelled in time or is just having a particularly vivid dream while in a coma. I favour the latter explanation, and so does he. I used his present-day persona for the 'A' lines of the song and his 1973 persona for the 'B' lines and the rest of the song.

I think he gets guns pointed at his head such a lot because he's technically very close to death all the time. He also has more surreal near-death experiences, such as the one where he's visiting someone else in hospital in 1973 and suddenly all the lights go out, and then he hears voices and sounds that suggest that in 2006 his life support has accidentally been shut down. I used that scene in the vid, too. Oh, and the phonecall scene I used a lot of footage from is where he gets a 'call' from his mom who tells him that she has agreed to have him 'switched off', so that's a kind of death-threat scene, as well.

The guy who points a gun at him at/near the end of the vid, in the woods, is his dad, btw.

Re: Nope, he's just a guy who's hit by a car and then...

[identity profile] jazzymegster.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 09:21 am (UTC)(link)
The guy who points a gun at him at/near the end of the vid, in the woods, is his dad, btw.

Shh! You're not s'posed to tell 'em that! ;)

If they watch the show...

[identity profile] hmpf.livejournal.com 2006-04-24 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
and have seen the vid they'll recognise him now, anyway.

Re: If they watch the show...

[identity profile] jazzymegster.livejournal.com 2006-04-24 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, yeah, there is that...