Journal #7219

That's me every day of school.

It's a bit hard to tell what you are saying with all the natural reverb, but maybe that's just me since English isn't my native language either. Some subtitles wouldn't hurt

Going to write notes as I watch this

• I don't know what you shot this on, but if it has manual settings, use them! The auto-exposure in this was making me cringe as it tried to keep up with the constantly changing lighting.
• Very shaky - use a tripod or build a fig rig out of PVC pipe.
• Lots of jump-cuts at the start with no continuity of movement.
• I can barely hear what they're saying. The on-board audio is very poor.
• Stop touching the zoom control! It makes the shots look unplanned and the motor controlling it is loud enough for the camera to pick it up, making the audio worse.
• Haha, I like the dream sequence where he's in every seat.
• Never use Bird is the Word.

Sorry to be critical, but I can't help it anymore because of college. Seriously, I can't even watch TV shows without going "oh ffs, continuity!"

Here's some advice: Use a separate sound recorder. Speech will be clearer and the zoom motor won't disturb the final product. Also good for not cutting the audio track on each and every different camera angle.

Photography could be improved. Some films make good use of mediocre footage, but this is mediocre use of bad footage

Slightly shaky and zoom shots are often used. You just need to know how to use them.

Also I find that chick's voice annoying.

I wrote up a transcript, Madcow:
(Don't read if you haven't watched it, it might ruin the joke[s].)

Mike: Oh I'm so sorry!
Teacher: Incomprehensible gibberish, possibly Romanian curses
Teacher: Good morning class!
Everybody: Good morning teacher!
Teacher: How are you today?
Everybody: We're fine, thanks you!
Teacher: I see you've got a lot of Adsense™
Teacher: Mike, you're gonna pay for that one day.
Mike: I'm sorry!
Teacher: Jay, you're beautiful as usual.
Jay: Thanks!
Teacher: And uh, Dike, have you learned something from math today?
Spike: SOOOEN PHOOEAUNE!
Teacher: Okay please let me Adsense™...
Teacher: Okay, we are finished here.
Teacher: So, today I'm gonna present you my new calculus lesson.
Spike: Good morning teacher!
Teacher: Oh good morning! It's very nice of you to show up so late at school!
Spike: I'm sorry, I was very tired, and I got up late!
Teacher: Go to your place Spike!
Spike: Thank you!
Teacher: Class, today we are going to learn....
Mike: Speaking Romanian
Spike: Mmm.
Teacher: Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah
Teacher: And that's how we do it, class!
Teacher: Spike! Are you sleeping!? Come to the blackboard!
Spike: Oooh...kay.
Teacher: Okay, please explain me this.
Spike: oh....kay....
Spike: HMMMM!?
Teacher: Class, are you bored!?
OH WELL EVERYBODYS HEARD ABOUT THE BIRD BIRD BIRD BIRD BUBIRDS THE WORD WELL BIRD BIRD BIRD BIRD IS THE WORD WELLA BIRD BIRD BIRD WELL BIRD IS THE WORD A WELL THE BIRD IS THE WORD...
Everybody: Have a nice day!

The audio quality is a bit bad. Hard to distinguish words.

What, just happend?

I don't know.

Crollo, it's absents not adsense. And Mike said "I'm dieing of boredom".

I don't have proper equipment. I had the tripod at me, but then I noticed the videos aren't so shaky really, so for more flexibility I decided to film from hand. I also don't have a dolly, that's why I used the noisy zoom.

I filmed with my camera, Nikon CoolPix P100. I can't turn off the AE during filming, and I can't manually set the focus during filming. I can only turn Single AF, so I can focus before starting the shoot, and then using the same focus throughout the shoot.
I really want a DSLR like the new D5100 :. One like D7000 is a dream, far awaaaay...

I know I could make the shoot better even with this camera by improvising a dolly and recording audio with something external(which I don't have), but... it's rather impossible then because I have to spend more time, making more cuts, and the "actors" have absolutely no patience. It's really annoying.

I appreciate the critics though, thank you.

Zooms are fine - a dolly would be way too elaborate for a shoot like this.
Handheld zooms, though? no. Very bad.

Zoom is not a replacement for a dolly. You're better off walking. Look in Youtube, there are plenty of videos showing how to build a makeshift steadicam with a tripod or other trinkets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW6AWmqa8ZM > No expense if you have a tripod.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-greCWhItUw > Some expense if you're feeling rich.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_svVd3Wv4 > I didn't watch this one. Seems like an intermediate expense. [edit: skip the first 3:00 of nonsense]

lol, I just noticed that in a scene I accidentally filmed to tripod too.