Please help us out by reviewing our latest sketch!

BottleCap Comedy

BottleCap Comedy

Well-Known Member
Hey guys! We are really looking to improve our videos as we move forward with our sketch group. If anyone is willing to help, we would absolutely love some tips and pointers on things you do and do not like about the video and channel. WE WANT TO MAKE WHAT PEOPLE WANT TO SEE. So let us know, please :)

Thank you!
 
That ending ^^. Anyway, just a few critiques:

1) The opening scene was a little too long and I couldn't figure out what was happening at first
2) The sister with the fan and the whatever was a bit too long
3) Some parts just seemed to drag... Just cut the clips a bit shorter and it would flow much better.
4) I wish I had friends who would play D&D with me :(

Hope this helps. Good luck with your channel!

PS: Subbed cause it was quite awesome.
 
Mithril said:
That ending ^^. Anyway, just a few critiques:

1) The opening scene was a little too long and I couldn't figure out what was happening at first
2) The sister with the fan and the whatever was a bit too long
3) Some parts just seemed to drag... Just cut the clips a bit shorter and it would flow much better.
4) I wish I had friends who would play D&D with me :(

Hope this helps. Good luck with your channel!

PS: Subbed cause it was quite awesome.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for subscribing it! I would agree that some things ran a bit long. I think we fell in love with the sister shots a bit too much to let go of. We're working on pacing for upcoming sketches. We see that as our biggest problem too. Thank you for taking the time to critique!
 
I liked the shots you used and the cheesy music worked well...but...I watched it all the way through and didn't really find it funny! :( There was no subtle humour or suprise in it...it was all just really obvious if you know what I mean? I know the British sense of humour overall tends to be a little more subtle, and maybe it is just me, but the video just didn't make me laugh.

As the above reply says, the fan shots were shown for a little too long. Also while the colour grading was okay on the fight scene it looked very presetty (is that a word?) and it stood out too much compared to the completely ungraded shots in the house. I would also (if you can) tweak your grade for each shot so that they all match - for example the shot where the camera pans up to the sky looks a little too yellow on the gain. I think you would benefit from shooting a flatter image both inside and outside and then matching all the shot's grades in post. Editing wasn't bad though!


Apologies if I have been overly critical but those were the points that really stood out to me!
 
NerdDigestive said:
I liked the shots you used and the cheesy music worked well...but...I watched it all the way through and didn't really find it funny! :( There was no subtle humour or suprise in it...it was all just really obvious if you know what I mean? I know the British sense of humour overall tends to be a little more subtle, and maybe it is just me, but the video just didn't make me laugh.

As the above reply says, the fan shots were shown for a little too long. Also while the colour grading was okay on the fight scene it looked very presetty (is that a word?) and it stood out too much compared to the completely ungraded shots in the house. I would also (if you can) tweak your grade for each shot so that they all match - for example the shot where the camera pans up to the sky looks a little too yellow on the gain. I think you would benefit from shooting a flatter image both inside and outside and then matching all the shot's grades in post. Editing wasn't bad though!


Apologies if I have been overly critical but those were the points that really stood out to me!
Click to expand...
Not at all, this is all very helpful actually. We're really working on our writing abilities. Hopefully that improves over time. It's hard to make jokes that 6 guys all agree on. I feel you on the color grading. The inside shots were supposed to look dramatically different and that's why I wanted them to look as plain as possible! Color grading and correction is very new to me and it mostly consists of me tinkering with various final cut settings until I find something that I like. Now, I actually have no idea how to make it look any more similar than it did. The shots on the wizard were very shaded in comparison because the light was shining on the brother so well. If I were to get an actual color grading program, would that be more doable? Thank you for all of your critiques and we all appreciate it. We are still very new and are trying to get the hang of all of this.

-Carson
 
BottleCap Comedy said:
Not at all, this is all very helpful actually. We're really working on our writing abilities. Hopefully that improves over time. It's hard to make jokes that 6 guys all agree on. I feel you on the color grading. The inside shots were supposed to look dramatically different and that's why I wanted them to look as plain as possible! Color grading and correction is very new to me and it mostly consists of me tinkering with various final cut settings until I find something that I like. Now, I actually have no idea how to make it look any more similar than it did. The shots on the wizard were very shaded in comparison because the light was shining on the brother so well. If I were to get an actual color grading program, would that be more doable? Thank you for all of your critiques and we all appreciate it. We are still very new and are trying to get the hang of all of this.

-Carson
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In terms of actual colour grading programs, there is a Lite version of DaVinci Resolve which is very good (and perfectly adequate for anyone who is not making something in 4K or Stereo 3D). Also, if you want to pay for something (though I actually prefer Resolve) then I would recommend either SpeedGrade or Apple Colour. My personal favourite out of these two options is SpeedGrade, but that is partially because I edit in Adobe Premiere primarily and the Adobe products allow for very smooth workflow between them. My personal preference out of the three would still be Resolve, and there seems to be a fairly large proportion of the professional film industry that agrees!

What tools are you using in Final Cut? When you grade in a specific grading program, you get given offset, gamma and gain wheels for each of the highlights, midtones and shadows - as well as overall controls too. You use these to pull the luminance band towards a specific colour or adjust the "brightness" of each band. For grading within an NLE, you have done a good job, as the vast majority of professional film-makers use a dedicated grading application.

In terms of matching shots, I usually go through all of my shots correcting them so that they all match. Then I go and apply a stylised look/grade on top of that, which helps to give it the filmic look yet match all the shots at the same time. It is a lot harder to match shots when you have already graded them, since you are both working with less colour data and also you will be distorting what colour you have left far more. This can lead to artifacting and it makes compression problems and noise in the original footage far more obvious.

If you are shooting in a dark environment, there is a plug-in called Neat Video (I don't know if it is available for Final Cut though) which is very good and I highly recommend it. If you don't want to grade fully manually, and would rather grade within your editor, then I would recommend the Magic Bullet Suite by Red Giant. They are very powerful plugins, and though they don't usually allow you to push your footage as much as a dedicated application would, they are still very useful if you are looking to roll a project out quickly and don't want to double your editing time.

Apologies for the long post, and I hope this helps!
 
T
NerdDigestive said:
In terms of actual colour grading programs, there is a Lite version of DaVinci Resolve which is very good (and perfectly adequate for anyone who is not making something in 4K or Stereo 3D). Also, if you want to pay for something (though I actually prefer Resolve) then I would recommend either SpeedGrade or Apple Colour. My personal favourite out of these two options is SpeedGrade, but that is partially because I edit in Adobe Premiere primarily and the Adobe products allow for very smooth workflow between them. My personal preference out of the three would still be Resolve, and there seems to be a fairly large proportion of the professional film industry that agrees!

What tools are you using in Final Cut? When you grade in a specific grading program, you get given offset, gamma and gain wheels for each of the highlights, midtones and shadows - as well as overall controls too. You use these to pull the luminance band towards a specific colour or adjust the "brightness" of each band. For grading within an NLE, you have done a good job, as the vast majority of professional film-makers use a dedicated grading application.

In terms of matching shots, I usually go through all of my shots correcting them so that they all match. Then I go and apply a stylised look/grade on top of that, which helps to give it the filmic look yet match all the shots at the same time. It is a lot harder to match shots when you have already graded them, since you are both working with less colour data and also you will be distorting what colour you have left far more. This can lead to artifacting and it makes compression problems and noise in the original footage far more obvious.

If you are shooting in a dark environment, there is a plug-in called Neat Video (I don't know if it is available for Final Cut though) which is very good and I highly recommend it. If you don't want to grade fully manually, and would rather grade within your editor, then I would recommend the Magic Bullet Suite by Red Giant. They are very powerful plugins, and though they don't usually allow you to push your footage as much as a dedicated application would, they are still very useful if you are looking to roll a project out quickly and don't want to double your editing time.

Apologies for the long post, and I hope this helps!
Click to expand...
THANK YOU. Wow, I will definitely try out the Resolve lite and I will look into Neat Video and Magic Bullet. This was very helpful to me because I had not even figured to fully adjust the entire film to match before grading. It seems obvious now, but not something I had thought about. I edit very quickly, but not very efficiently. If there are all of these things to make my job easier and more consistent, then I am all for it. So again, thank you very much for taking the time to help me out!
 
BottleCap Comedy said:
T

THANK YOU. Wow, I will definitely try out the Resolve lite and I will look into Neat Video and Magic Bullet. This was very helpful to me because I had not even figured to fully adjust the entire film to match before grading. It seems obvious now, but not something I had thought about. I edit very quickly, but not very efficiently. If there are all of these things to make my job easier and more consistent, then I am all for it. So again, thank you very much for taking the time to help me out!
Click to expand...


No problem - glad to help a fellow filmmaker any time! If you need any more help, just PM me or reply here quoting one of my posts - I will see it and try and reply as soon as possible!
 
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