Festival du Bois is an annual French-Canadian festival with its roots in Maillardville, a French-Canadian enclave in Coquitlam, BC, Canada that was established in the early 1900s. The video features some scenes from the festival as well as a clip of a performance by the Montreal-based band Les Gitans de Sarajevo (The Gypsies of Sarajevo). They cook: if they come to your town, go see them. Their website is here.
A note: the video is the second in a series that I’ve created as a way of exploring video both as technology and for storytelling. The video and embedded photos were shot with a small Canon digital still camera, which has video capabilities. The camera work is a little jerky. The Flash-format video is just over 10MB. Press the green arrow in the middle of the controls to start it playing (the titles take a few seconds to go by; be patient). Comments, as always, are welcome.
[...] As with the first one, this is part of a continuing attempt to come to grips with the technologies of video, and its storytelling possibilities. Vive les gitans suffers from some jerky camera work and an unfortunate portrait-oriented slice of video, but it does feature a clip of a hot gypsy-Balkan band, and some integrated still photos. [...]
Well, there’s video; there’s music, too. And there’s even a few of the H/W’s… But it’s missing content.
I’d be left with unanswered questions — whether this was meant to be ‘journalistic’ or not. I watched it, all the while waiting for the rabbit to appear.
My suggestion is that there’s still nothing like a good voice over enhancement…
1) To tell me what the heck Le Festival du Bois is all about — on screen. What if it’s severed from the webpage, or what if I’m too lazy to Google it (though I know what it is, being a Tri-Cities kid, myself)?
2) To mix things up. Much like adding in those still shots, there’s a reason long shots aren’t too common in video… er… shorts.
3) To humanize the production. While it’s true that intonaton can try to direct audiences, word choice does the same thing in the written craft, so add some voice (note: this might not apply to people with exceptionally bad voices like mine).
All that having been said, you did it with minimal turnaround time, while using point-and-shoot gear. I liked it. I watched the whole thing.
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By the by, thank you for placing it on a different post/page.
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DJ:
Thanks. Good points all. Something to consider for the next go-round in the great video experiment.
Mark
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The video is a great start – surely your skills will improve with more practice.
I love the bands – especially the first one. It reminds me of many folk festivals that i’ve been to over the years.
Anyway, keep up the good work!
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