Cute cat. I personally am a cat person. I have two black cats at my house and I wish they were as easy to film as your cat. I love the editing of this video. The cuts were almost percussive, almost similar to the way that Stan Brakhage cut his films. Perhaps the video would be more effective if you removed all the sound. Maybe because this reminds me so much of Brakhage that I just subconsciously want it to be silent, but that's my opinion. Great job.
Nice start. What I would like to say on this video would be try to shoot with different angles. May be you can do zoom in or zoom out sort of tricks to enhance beauty or you can use a tripod. Other than shooting style, concentrate in sound. You can put your favorite music tracks, so it will reduce the flatness on the video.
I think I prefer (purr-fer? ha.) this video with its incredibly minimal sound. As Matt states above, the cuts are rather reminiscent of Brakhage, and I think it works here for the better. Working with a non-static subject is a fun take on the project as well. Not much to say needs improvement, I think it works just fine as-is.
The way you change up your camera angles is a real strong point of your video. Not only did you consider distance but you also incorporated rotation into your shot. I would do something else for the sound. There were some strange noises coming from within and behind the camera.
It's interesting that several commenters have mentioned Stan Brakhage, since he made his own cat film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cur2P5Ym3Yw
Check it out, nowhere near as gnarly as window water baby moving. It's related to another famous cat-film called "Fuses" by Carolee Schneeman. Worth taking a look at. Each of these films is sort of told from the perspective of the cat, or perhaps from the cat's place of vision.
Like people have mentioned, you have some good things happening here. The quick cuts, and the degree to which the shots on either side of those cuts are different compositions, does give it a sense of energy and forward motion, despite the apparent sleepiness of the cat. The sound of the lens autofocusing, which I normally find a pretty irritating detail of DSLRs, is kind of interesting here, in particular when combined with a few short hints at your voice addressing the cat. The perspective of these shots most definitely locates you, the author, behind the camera, and we are seeing these scenes through your personalized vision.
On just a quick technical note, while you exposed the cat's dark fur well, the details around it in the white comforter are severely blown out. This is partially just a fact of the kind of video DSLRs shoot, with highlights easily clipped, but I wonder if you'd dropped the exposure just a little bit if we might get some of that detail back. On an aesthetic level, it might lend the image a little more gentle tone, where it feels a little aggressively bright here.
I agree with the comment above that the video is a little short. It seems like there might be more to explore, and also maybe a way to expand out from the "Cat video" genre, showing us something we haven't seen before, or in a way that makes us think differently about it. The cutting and variety of angles is already doing this to some degree, but I wonder how you could take it further? You might take a look at the videos of Dani Leventhal, who often records her intimate interactions with animals (both alive and dead, I'll warn you). They build up really poetic, personal collages from images very similar to what you're working with here.
Cute cat. I personally am a cat person. I have two black cats at my house and I wish they were as easy to film as your cat. I love the editing of this video. The cuts were almost percussive, almost similar to the way that Stan Brakhage cut his films. Perhaps the video would be more effective if you removed all the sound. Maybe because this reminds me so much of Brakhage that I just subconsciously want it to be silent, but that's my opinion. Great job.
ReplyDeleteThat's it? :( I LOVE cats and I did enjoy this video, but I was expecting more.
ReplyDeleteNice start. What I would like to say on this video would be try to shoot with different angles. May be you can do zoom in or zoom out sort of tricks to enhance beauty or you can use a tripod. Other than shooting style, concentrate in sound. You can put your favorite music tracks, so it will reduce the flatness on the video.
ReplyDeleteI think I prefer (purr-fer? ha.) this video with its incredibly minimal sound. As Matt states above, the cuts are rather reminiscent of Brakhage, and I think it works here for the better. Working with a non-static subject is a fun take on the project as well.
ReplyDeleteNot much to say needs improvement, I think it works just fine as-is.
The sound of the camera zooming was interesting to me. A simple video edited well.
ReplyDeleteThe way you change up your camera angles is a real strong point of your video. Not only did you consider distance but you also incorporated rotation into your shot. I would do something else for the sound. There were some strange noises coming from within and behind the camera.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that several commenters have mentioned Stan Brakhage, since he made his own cat film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cur2P5Ym3Yw
ReplyDeleteCheck it out, nowhere near as gnarly as window water baby moving. It's related to another famous cat-film called "Fuses" by Carolee Schneeman. Worth taking a look at. Each of these films is sort of told from the perspective of the cat, or perhaps from the cat's place of vision.
Like people have mentioned, you have some good things happening here. The quick cuts, and the degree to which the shots on either side of those cuts are different compositions, does give it a sense of energy and forward motion, despite the apparent sleepiness of the cat. The sound of the lens autofocusing, which I normally find a pretty irritating detail of DSLRs, is kind of interesting here, in particular when combined with a few short hints at your voice addressing the cat. The perspective of these shots most definitely locates you, the author, behind the camera, and we are seeing these scenes through your personalized vision.
On just a quick technical note, while you exposed the cat's dark fur well, the details around it in the white comforter are severely blown out. This is partially just a fact of the kind of video DSLRs shoot, with highlights easily clipped, but I wonder if you'd dropped the exposure just a little bit if we might get some of that detail back. On an aesthetic level, it might lend the image a little more gentle tone, where it feels a little aggressively bright here.
I agree with the comment above that the video is a little short. It seems like there might be more to explore, and also maybe a way to expand out from the "Cat video" genre, showing us something we haven't seen before, or in a way that makes us think differently about it. The cutting and variety of angles is already doing this to some degree, but I wonder how you could take it further? You might take a look at the videos of Dani Leventhal, who often records her intimate interactions with animals (both alive and dead, I'll warn you). They build up really poetic, personal collages from images very similar to what you're working with here.