for sure, thanks. I posted this in a 5D forum too and someone said this...
"Nice job!
I think the first minute would benefit from some pans over old photos from the riots and maybe old newspaper headlines. Although the budget doesn't allow for it, later in the video it would be great to see an aerial overview. Maybe a practical substitute would be shooting some pans from tall buildings overlooking the areas you're discussing. You could intercut those with full screen fly-bys/zooms of the area from Google Earth. Also, old pictures of some of the famous buildings when they were new would be fantastic. There has to be some public domain photos of Packards rolling off the line in Google Image search. It probably wouldn't be too hard to find B&W footage of a car plant and video of period architecture free for the downloading over at
http://www.archive.org.
In terms of composition I'd like like to see more variety in close-up and very distant shots. Many of the shots seem to be roughly medium. Tight shots of architectural detail and even graffiti would be interesting. This kind of material could really benefit from a DIY slider or dolly that would allow your camera to peek around corners and 'reveal' through doorways/windows. It would also be good to have a few shots with some people walking around the streets/buildings. It'll liven it up while adding a sense of scale.
I'd also suggest working on the pacing of the edit. The shot duration could be varied to create more visual interest. Documentaries often seem to shine with slow cross-fades and composites. You could even experiment with texturing a wide shot of a building that has visible graffiti by fading a tight pan of the graffiti underneath the shot."
Then I responded with "Markran, thank you, thank you!! I will defiantly look into that. No slider or arial views yet, however I am going to continue this. I made a first cut a while ago, for a class project however I hated it, but it had potential. My old teacher saw this and really likes it. He wants to me continue it even more, like to a 45 min video and look into PBS or something like that. However a few things you said are not far from real ideas. I was cleaning out my aunts old house and found a Detroit Newspaper from 1967, and its all about the riots: perfect. My friend, is a friend of pilot. They both have flown over Detroit and took photos. He charges $100 for about an hour. As for the slider, well that shouldn't be an issue.
How could I get a grant or something to help pay for anything? Could that work?
Anyways, thanks for the ideas!!"
Anyways, I would like to get this to about 45 minutes, and have interviews and what not. I wouldn't have "Morgan Freeman" narrate it again, I would have someone else local do it, so then I can make changes and what not. This is my idea, I got all summer
