I was mulling a couple of small projects and decided on this one to produce.

This method that is still in use today for air combat is a manoeuvre called rolling scissors. It occurs when two aircraft come into the same airspace, and begin trying to get the shooting advantage on the other plane. While this principle will be illustrated, and then demonstrated in this up coming video, deflection shooting is another topic that will deserve some attention. For as you are rolling around the sky with someone who also wants to end your air corps career, you will see demonstrated the important aspects of this air combat manoeuvre.




See http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1587380

I was inspired by Dart's instructional videos, but this is definitely an attempt at something more my own style along those lines. Had originally planned on a running narration via voice over, but enjoyed my selection of background music so I decided I didn't want to cover it up. That and I felt the background music added to the frenetic pace of the video

Over all I felt pretty good about the result; was pleased with the animations in the Deflection Shooting Bad/Good segment, as well as the illustrated rolling scissors. After working on something like this so intensely for 3 days I sort of get lost in it and lose my objectivity, so I was curious as to what some other impressions were of it.

Feedback welcome and thanks.

Hi res here http://www.mediafire.com/?bxhdnyvmlhz

Cheers

Triad

This message has been edited. Last edited by: triad773,

Do you have a high res version? It's hard to make out what's going on in this low quality version.

Hi Joe- see here http://www.mediafire.com/?bxhdnyvmlhz

Also edited original post

Thanks

Triad

Bumpage

Hi Triad.

Thanks for the higher quality download. Why did you pick .mov format? It's OK, but not the best in the PC world IMO.

Some interesting stuff in here.

First point - what was your idea for this movie?

Was it just for a training movie? That didn't come across, so I doubt that. If it was a training movie there would have been more explanation of the rolling scissors and certainly more of the actual rolling.

Or were you trying to make a cool video with some cool visuals? This looks more like the result, though it's not really a great 'idea' for a movie. A good movie needs a good idea behind it. From that idea grows the movie. It might turn into a fantastic story (the best type of idea), it might turn into a training film (useful, though not as much emotional impact as a story), it might be for display of an historical aircraft at a museum (can be a pretty darn good idea!)

By the end of a movie, the viewer should be able to walk out of the cinema and get the idea.

Other general points:

Pretty cool music

Too much text and not enough time to read it

The graphic display of the rolling aircraft was still hard to make out even in the quicktime format.

Action on screen too fast to follow the details (if this is intended to be a training movie).

Some interesting visuals, nonetheless.

Check your spelling!

Finally, you gave credit to Dart for inspiration. He does deserve it. Now go watch his training movies again and compare to this. You will see what you need to do for your next one

quote:

Originally posted by Joe-90:
Why did you pick .mov format? It's OK, but not the best in the PC world IMO.

Being graphics oriented, that is the preferred format- that and my XViD plug in was acting up.

quote:

First point - what was your idea for this movie?

To show the Rolling Scissors move. I got some decent footage that inspired the supplementary animations and I needed a good exercise to keep my video skills current.

quote:

Was it just for a training movie? That didn't come across, so I doubt that. If it was a training movie there would have been more explanation of the rolling scissors and certainly more of the actual rolling.

Not really a training movie as much as demonstration. Though I did feel that if one watches it a few times that they'd walk away with more information on how to handle such a situation.

quote:

Or were you trying to make a cool video with some cool visuals? This looks more like the result, though it's not really a great 'idea' for a movie. A good movie needs a good idea behind it. From that idea grows the movie. It might turn into a fantastic story (the best type of idea), it might turn into a training film (useful, though not as much emotional impact as a story), it might be for display of an historical aircraft at a museum (can be a pretty darn good idea!)

When I had selected the music for the background, that changed the course of the project: the original idea called for voiceover, but felt that the music added more to the project than voiceover.

quote:

Other general points:

Pretty cool music

Thanks- I am a big Django fan

quote:

Too much text and not enough time to read it

Yeah I had watched it until I was ill from it, thought the timing was OK if one read fast. I was aware that this may detract somewhat from the concept.

quote:

The graphic display of the rolling aircraft was still hard to make out even in the quicktime format.

Granted

quote:

Action on screen too fast to follow the details (if this is intended to be a training movie).

Admittedly, the music sets the pace of the video but it should be the other way around. The track plays at 108% because of some last minute edits, but it could have benefited more from perhaps slowing down the end credits, or the animations.

quote:

Some interesting visuals, nonetheless.

Thanks! It is certainly one of the strengths of the video. Though now to take that to the next step in a later project (too busy: not enough time to work on fun stuff )

quote:

Check your spelling!

Yes- not one of my strengths Spellcheck in the software would be great; I have become too dependent on that.

quote:

Finally, you gave credit to Dart for inspiration. He does deserve it. Now go watch his training movies again and compare to this. You will see what you need to do for your next one

Joe thanks for all your comments. I will use them to make the next project more focused.

~S~

Triad

No worries, Triad. Good luck on your next.

The idea is everything, it is the soul and the driving force of a movie.

...and it CAN change it's mind half way through, lol

(when I made my first movie, I had no idea...)

* blush *

Thanks for your kind words.

Not a bad little video!

Really good parts:

I liked the specs for the plane splash - very nice!

Straight forward introduction.

Good choice of music.

Captions were short and easy to read.

What might be better:

The initial graphics before the in-sim footage needed to be brighted up.

Narration. I have a crappy voice and usually make my videos in one take (without a script) at around 2:00 a.m., but it's important to tell people what's going on.

There wasn't much of actual scissors - the video with captions looked more like a "how to hit at 90 degree deflection" than how to instigate scissors (and why to) or how to get out of them.

====

Anyhow, great effort - we need more instructional videos!

Feel free to email me at gigerfr (a) bellsouth.net if you have anything I might help you on.

Natually, I have to pimp an old effort:

http://www.darts-page.com/movies/When_to_say_when.zip

42MB of horizontal and vertical scissors....

Hey Dart! Thanks for checking it out Yes there were some things you do that I gravitated to.

The Rolling Scissors Demonstrated shot that was a bit too dark was capturing some in game video at night with wing tip smoke on. I had tried a visual solution using Illustrator and After Effects, but the other technique proved more fruitful for the time I had for the project.

Narration was a non-issue for me once I selected some good music. Imagine if you will someone with a voice like Carlton the Doorman from Rhoda the TV series from the 70's doing the voice over (which I went so far as to develop a script, that ended up being the caption). That'd be me-- unless I had about 6 good beers in me So I opted for the subtitles based on the strength of the sound track.

As for the footage really being rolling scissors or not, I had about 45 more seconds of footage that I cut, that while being kind of boring to watch, was more like a 45 degree scissors. Anyway, once I'd captured the footage the project took on a life of it's own

The next video will be an exercise in incorporating real people into the scene. It's been done before I know, but it's something I really want to explore anyway

Anyway, thanks for your feedback and glad you liked it.

Cheers

Triad

I'm convinced that cutting for length is the biggest challenge of editing.

Some of my movies I cringe at, as they're about two thirds too long. But I loved the footage and couldn't resist at the time.

Then again, I have cut some too short.