Orchestra of 52

Hello everyone, my name is Eric Walling. This is my first flourishing video that I have decided to make. I suppose that Theory 11 receives a lot of videos that are not worth posting so I decided that instead of bothering the Theory 11 staff I would first receive your opinions on this video. I am hoping to purchase a better video camera soon since the one used for this video, for lack of a better term, "sucks". The titles used in the video are almost illegible so I have written them separately in the description.

The flourishes are all self created aside from the Jones Change by Dan & Dave Buck. Any constructive criticism is very much appreciated. Don't hold back, I can take whatever you throw at me and use it to better myself. So, without further ado... I present...

Orchestra of 52.
http://www.vimeo.com/1214343
or
http://youtube.com/watch?v=79irsb1TTwE
 
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Eric. I generally think most cardistry/flourish stuff being put up these days is pretty bad, but this really really shocked me. This is pure poetry in motion, my friend.

The camera work and cinematic feeling of the video was spot-on, and this is what a card video should look like and feel like.

As what others have dubbed me, "the best film maker in the cardistry world", I myself work to achieve a more cinematic and poetic look to card videos.
Naturally I am way too modest to claim that what I make is even good. You definitely succeeded in making a memorable first video.

Your technical ability with cards is very very good, and if you keep at this, both the film making and the card work - you're going to get far. This is really good stuff. =)

Keep it up!
 
Dec 22, 2007
567
1
Long Island, New York
Well normally watches are worn on your left hand. And it matters because it was in the video and I noticed it. Your moves were all good along with the cinematogrophy but I shouldn't notice anything besides your moves and your nice editing. I wasn't saying it took away from your video it just stuck out.
 
Well normally watches are worn on your left hand. And it matters because it was in the video and I noticed it. Your moves were all good along with the cinematogrophy but I shouldn't notice anything besides your moves and your nice editing. I wasn't saying it took away from your video it just stuck out.


Man, who cares? Whenever I've worn a watch in videos I've worn it on my right hand. So have friends of mine. I've NEVER EVER heard ANYONE make a negative remark about it. Neither should you. There is no fixed hand to wear a wrist watch on.
I should be able to wear mine around my neck without you questioning it.

Allan.
 

Andrei

Elite Member
Sep 2, 2007
439
24
35
Las Vegas
www.youtube.com
As Allan said, I didn't expect this to be as good as it was...especially given the camera quality which is usually a first sign of noob...you've proved me wrong!

Your technique and ability is great! I don't think I can critique something that is supposed to be artistic...I can only give you technical criticisms that might be obvious such as getting a better camcorder quality and adding some color correction to make it feel more cinematic.


I liked the intro, aesthetic shots, and conclusion as well...I can only repeat what Allan said that more Cardistry videos should be following this guideline of having a storyline or purpose which makes them that much more interesting to watch, something this obviously had!

Great job!

Little side note: Never forget that amazing editing will never be a substitude for great cardistry. No matter how good your productions might get someday, someone who is artistically skilled and creative will always be ahead of the pack.

-Andrei Jikh
 
As Allan said, I didn't expect this to be as good as it was...especially given the camera quality which is usually a first sign of noob...you've proved me wrong!

Your technique and ability is great! I don't think I can critique something that is supposed to be artistic...I can only give you technical criticisms that might be obvious such as getting a better camcorder quality and adding some color correction to make it feel more cinematic.


I liked the intro, aesthetic shots, and conclusion as well...I can only repeat what Allan said that more Cardistry videos should be following this guideline of having a storyline or purpose which makes them that much more interesting to watch, something this obviously had!

Great job!

Little side note: Never forget that amazing editing will never be a substitude for great cardistry. No matter how good your productions might get someday, someone who is artistically skilled and creative will always be ahead of the pack.

-Andrei Jikh
Thank you for the kind words Andrei!
 
Sep 1, 2007
319
1
I thought the video was fantastic. I couldn't agree more with everyone's thoughts on videos being cinematic and purposeful, because without at least ONE of those two things they are often disgustingly boring to watch. The camera work and angles and such were great. However you wanted criticism and I know I always enjoy well thought out constructive criticism on my own work, so I'm going to watch through it and type up some comments as i go.

-start-

The fact that the music changes at 10 seconds from the E2 productions intro to the actual video's intro messes the flow up a little bit. Especially since it's such a contrast to go from the (Linkin Park?) in the E2 intro to the beautiful cello music in the video itself. It's a very strange and unnatural transition.

You've already expressed your concern with the titles, which I think could have been solved by simply making them larger and using a cleaner font. It looks like the font has all kinds of crazy artifacts around it to "spice it up" so to speak which really end up making it harder to read.

Someone else already made a comment about the intro being too long and drawn out...I think if you look purely at the timing of it you might say it is but the cinematography and scenery and everything is very nice to look at so I didn't feel like it was long at all. I didn't for a second think to myself "alright, start already." However, that might be due to the fact that I had already read Allan's comment and was looking at it not so much as a card moves video but an artful short film involving cards. So I was concentrating on the shots instead of waiting for the moves.

As far as movies go I can be a real cliche hater, and throwing cards at the camera has really become one of those, but because you added the nice twirl and it was an interesting angle and you weren't being all serious and d+M'y about it, it worked.

I like the fact that you included the barbed wire in a bunch of shots...especially because it contrasts a LOT with the pretty green field and makes for a very interesting visual.

I LOVE the shot of the cut at 1:36...I'm always a sucker for nice moving camera and it follows the flow of the cut around VERY nicely.

1:52 is another VERY abrupt change in music...for a few reasons. Again because of the contrast in style, it goes from rock vocals and crunchy guitar to nice piano. Also because it fades out very rapidly in the middle of a line, and also because if you're not looking at the timeline for the video you don't expect it to be almost over at that point, so it doesn't feel like you're changing the music for the ending. I very much understand and agree with you wanting to use different music for your ending, but i think it would have worked better if you had chosen a different place to fade out the first song, or changed them at a place that was more evidently the end. Because there's a few more moves after it, it just feels like a very random cut, almost like you changed your mind while you were editing or something.

I like the use of the fence again at the end and the credits, as well as the repeated shot of your hand. The spinning sky is also cool, but it stops kind of abruptly. I think it would be in your best interests to fade to like two seconds of black and THEN end the video. The way it is right now it ends with a half faded out sky, which makes me feel like I was either cheated out of some more video, or you didn't finish editing it completely. It just feels like a sloppy way to end a very well made video.

-end-

That was longer than I expected, but I hope that it will be helpful for your future projects and filmmaking endeavors. I'm glad to see some other people making artistic and well done card-related videos. GREAT job overall :) I'm excited to see more from you
 
I thought the video was fantastic. I couldn't agree more with everyone's thoughts on videos being cinematic and purposeful, because without at least ONE of those two things they are often disgustingly boring to watch. The camera work and angles and such were great. However you wanted criticism and I know I always enjoy well thought out constructive criticism on my own work, so I'm going to watch through it and type up some comments as i go.

-start-

The fact that the music changes at 10 seconds from the E2 productions intro to the actual video's intro messes the flow up a little bit. Especially since it's such a contrast to go from the (Linkin Park?) in the E2 intro to the beautiful cello music in the video itself. It's a very strange and unnatural transition.

You've already expressed your concern with the titles, which I think could have been solved by simply making them larger and using a cleaner font. It looks like the font has all kinds of crazy artifacts around it to "spice it up" so to speak which really end up making it harder to read.

Someone else already made a comment about the intro being too long and drawn out...I think if you look purely at the timing of it you might say it is but the cinematography and scenery and everything is very nice to look at so I didn't feel like it was long at all. I didn't for a second think to myself "alright, start already." However, that might be due to the fact that I had already read Allan's comment and was looking at it not so much as a card moves video but an artful short film involving cards. So I was concentrating on the shots instead of waiting for the moves.

As far as movies go I can be a real cliche hater, and throwing cards at the camera has really become one of those, but because you added the nice twirl and it was an interesting angle and you weren't being all serious and d+M'y about it, it worked.

I like the fact that you included the barbed wire in a bunch of shots...especially because it contrasts a LOT with the pretty green field and makes for a very interesting visual.

I LOVE the shot of the cut at 1:36...I'm always a sucker for nice moving camera and it follows the flow of the cut around VERY nicely.

1:52 is another VERY abrupt change in music...for a few reasons. Again because of the contrast in style, it goes from rock vocals and crunchy guitar to nice piano. Also because it fades out very rapidly in the middle of a line, and also because if you're not looking at the timeline for the video you don't expect it to be almost over at that point, so it doesn't feel like you're changing the music for the ending. I very much understand and agree with you wanting to use different music for your ending, but i think it would have worked better if you had chosen a different place to fade out the first song, or changed them at a place that was more evidently the end. Because there's a few more moves after it, it just feels like a very random cut, almost like you changed your mind while you were editing or something.

I like the use of the fence again at the end and the credits, as well as the repeated shot of your hand. The spinning sky is also cool, but it stops kind of abruptly. I think it would be in your best interests to fade to like two seconds of black and THEN end the video. The way it is right now it ends with a half faded out sky, which makes me feel like I was either cheated out of some more video, or you didn't finish editing it completely. It just feels like a sloppy way to end a very well made video.

-end-

That was longer than I expected, but I hope that it will be helpful for your future projects and filmmaking endeavors. I'm glad to see some other people making artistic and well done card-related videos. GREAT job overall :) I'm excited to see more from you

Thank you so much for your help. I couldn't agree more with you on the points you've made. I will definitely take your critiques to my next video (which I hope will be sooner than later).

Awesome! More critiques please!
 
Sep 3, 2007
2,562
0
Europe
Very awesome video; I really enjoyed it.

And about the watch thing- the correct way to wear it is on the hand you DON'T write with. Therefore, I wear mine on my left hand. I don't see any problem with wearing it on your right hand, though.
 
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