watch "Just a Minute" Short Documentary Films.

Hello,

I was given a vague college project over the summer, so I thought I'd produce a mini-series of documentaries focusing on varied subjects given to different ages.

The first is my niece and her perspective on God.
http://vimeo.com/14178087

The second is a students perspective on recent politics.
http://vimeo.com/14752018

The third is my uncles opinion on what art means to him.
http://vimeo.com/15098005

And finally, the fourth is my mum and her revealing what it is like to lose a child.
http://vimeo.com/15175078

Each one I tried to make visually interesting, as they were all quite short. I also wanted to experiment with different styles to see what worked and what didn't.

I do realise the audio is not great on some of them, but I had a very cheap microphone that I used (after buying an expensive camera, I did not have enough for a decent mic) And it was really hard for a first time sound editor to edit in post-production.


It would be nice to have anyones opinions.

Thanks.

Not the 1st one. Maybe if it was part of a bigger prodject. Same thing for the 2nd. Also, I think its

interesting how in the UK Liberal (if I understand the vid) is for less government and conservative is

for more government. Do I understand that correctly. In the US its the opposite, supposedly.

Personaly I'm a Libertarian. Not 3rd. Its a totaly biased opinion, not a docu. The 4th stopped playing

@ 1:20. If I had to choose I would say do something else??? Or do better with one of these. I dont

know if you had to use a straight 1 minute of screen time or if you could edit. If you can edit, seems

that would be the way to go. You can maximize your use of 1 minute.

I seem to have trouble getting anything from Vimeo but from what I could get...

The sound on your mother and uncle was echoy and sounded like it was a video recording.
I would have preferred it if your mother were actually speaking on camera or showing clips of something in the past rather than a shot of her sitting in a vacant spot and her v.o. I watch a lot of documentaries and there are so many ways to make 'em.

I got cut off too early on the student one. I think that could be a really good one. Going around asking students about politics. It sounds like a scarey world we are living in when the goverment might stop someone from downloading anything...if what I got from it is correct.
Big Brother is here. Anyway, the sound in that was good...just a little dark.

Murdock said:

Not the 1st one. Maybe if it was part of a bigger prodject. Same thing for the 2nd. Also, I think its

interesting how in the UK Liberal (if I understand the vid) is for less government and conservative is

for more government. Do I understand that correctly. In the US its the opposite, supposedly.

Personaly I'm a Libertarian. Not 3rd. Its a totaly biased opinion, not a docu. The 4th stopped playing

@ 1:20. If I had to choose I would say do something else??? Or do better with one of these. I dont

know if you had to use a straight 1 minute of screen time or if you could edit. If you can edit, seems

that would be the way to go. You can maximize your use of 1 minute.

Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

I'm not sure I understand when you say "Not the 1st one". I am not expanding on them, it was just to cover a brief, and one admittedly very unclear. Each one was to quickly show an insight into a persons opinion on a subject. The running time i.e. "just a minute" was done on purpose. I wasn't going for full length, or even a 10 minute running time as I am one person and didn't have enough time over the summer. I also wanted to cover several subjects and experiment with each film so I could reflect back on the positives and negatives.

Could you explain how the third one is biased? Cheers.

Libby said:

I seem to have trouble getting anything from Vimeo but from what I could get...

The sound on your mother and uncle was echoy and sounded like it was a video recording.
I would have preferred it if your mother were actually speaking on camera or showing clips of something in the past rather than a shot of her sitting in a vacant spot and her v.o. I watch a lot of documentaries and there are so many ways to make 'em.

I got cut off too early on the student one. I think that could be a really good one. Going around asking students about politics. It sounds like a scarey world we are living in when the goverment might stop someone from downloading anything...if what I got from it is correct.
Big Brother is here. Anyway, the sound in that was good...just a little dark.

Click to expand...

Cheers for the feedback.

I think with the sound I have just sort of accepted as dire. I don't have great equipment to work with, and when I did try to edit in post-production it either made it worse, or just made it hard to hear. I obviously need more practice with sound.

Thanks for the idea. I am actually using old footage for a documentary next year for a college project, and didn't want to seem like I was re-hashing ideas. I do like the way the film is handled, as it is intentionally filmed in a cold manner. (cold meaning in a empty environment, not a harsh manner.)

With the student film I do not have any plans to expand on. As I have had close experience amongst students and it would seem to be a very narrow documentary. If I were to include a variety of different classes, then yes asking students would be ideal.

Sorry,By 1st 2nd 3rd I meant I watched them in order God, Student, art, Mother. as far as the biased thing, I reread and see that it says his opinion. The important thing I think is the editing. You could get a lot more info into your 1 minute if you would edit down a larger portion of footage.

Murdock said:

Not the 1st one. Maybe if it was part of a bigger prodject. Same thing for the 2nd. Also, I think its

interesting how in the UK Liberal (if I understand the vid) is for less government and conservative is

for more government. Do I understand that correctly. In the US its the opposite, supposedly.

Personaly I'm a Libertarian. Not 3rd. Its a totaly biased opinion, not a docu. The 4th stopped playing

@ 1:20. If I had to choose I would say do something else??? Or do better with one of these. I dont

know if you had to use a straight 1 minute of screen time or if you could edit. If you can edit, seems

that would be the way to go. You can maximize your use of 1 minute.

Click to expand...

over here In the US the liberal party is generally for less government, and the conservatives for stronger government.

stumpy said:

over here In the US the liberal party is generally for less government, and the conservatives for stronger government.

Click to expand...

I think you might be confused. I live in the US, and from my understanding, Liberals are for more government regulation of business, commerce, and industry. Where as Conservatives are for deregulation of business, commerce, and industry. I guess you could be refering to the conservatives beleif in strong military? But generally speaking Libs. are pro "big government" and Cons. are pro "small government". I'm neither, but this is my understanding.