Teamwork suggestion: The definite introduction to psychopathy (video)

[sHiZo963]

Good: you have a conscience

Looks like we've got a winner :D

Looking back over the thread, there were a few people who said they'd like to help out. Now that we pretty much have the script finalized, perhaps it would be a good time to start pooling some stuff in.

I will volunteer the bandwidth. I have set up an ftp account at my web host. All that want to participate can email me off-forum to receive username/password or alternatively I can use the forum contact form and send it to you.
If you want I can host a domain where you can upload the video and stream it. Just let me know.

Dominique, this would be MOST helpful! That way I can stop using my school's servers ;)
I'll e-mail you with my intention to have access to your ftp account.

EDIT: I have edited all of my previous posts with the new location to the flash movie.
Thanks to Dominique, it can now be found here.

I ain't much help with video editing, but I would be VERY happy to create some illustrations/backgrounds. Some disturbing picture of a city/dark streets with exaggerated perspective/spooky lighting for example.

Definitely, man. If you can cook something up, we can integrate it into the video, and I can even work on animating whatever it is you make. Some abstract, dark images could be perfect for transition scenes between different parts of the video.
All in all, I'd like to see some creative input to this video - not just photo/clip after another photo/clip with text on the bottom.

I'll gladly surf up images and/or video footage based on: "a wish list of pictures/clips."

Great! Take a look at the new script and try to find us some high-quality, 'legal' footage. You've got some skills in video editing we could use :)

I'm currently playing around with ways to animate all the text in the script in an interesting way, as well as working on possible 'transition' animations from one phrase/slide to another.

Thanks all for the help!!

 

[domi]

I will volunteer the bandwidth. I have set up an ftp account at my web host. All that want to participate can email me off-forum to receive username/password or alternatively I can use the forum contact form and send it to you.
If you want I can host a domain where you can upload the video and stream it. Just let me know.

Dominique, this would be MOST helpful! That way I can stop using my school's servers ;)
I'll e-mail you with my intention to have access to your ftp account.

All that are interested, please contact me for instructions.
Since this forum is public and indexed very well by search engines I am not going to post the account info here.

Best,
D.

 

[Iconoclast]

ah! progress is being made! excellent! ;)

i also like the updated version of the script.

as i write i am listening to 'lux aeterna' and i have to say it fits perfectly!

here are some resources that might be useful (if not already known)

www.archive.org
(motherload of all sorts of media, downloadable in various formats)

www.morguefile.com
(public domain high resolution photographs)

 

[Cyre2067]

I like the Good, You have a Conscience or the Good, You're Human, fwiw.

 

[domi]

EDIT: I have edited all of my previous posts with the new location to the flash movie.
Thanks to Dominique, it can now be found here.

I have watched the animation in both Firefox and Safari on Mac and there are are no audio effects. Is this the correct behavior of the flash movie at this point? Or should I be hearing the wav files that are present in the directory?

 

[sHiZo963]

I have watched the animation in both Firefox and Safari on Mac and there are are no audio effects. Is this the correct behavior of the flash movie at this point? Or should I be hearing the wav files that are present in the directory?

Yes to the former. I have not yet added any sound effects to the Flash because of the reasons explained in post #48, namely:

I found that by publishing a Flash file inside an HTML, for some reason it slows it down by a number of frame rates. This is why I manually adjust the frame rates of the original .swf file UP so that it plays as it should when embedded and viewed in HTML.

This has a weird effect on sound, however. I've been trying to embed the flash presentation with sound effects, but when published, it plays differently from how it should. So, I've been thinking that the best way to deal with this would be to add sound AFTER the flash itself is done and converted to a .mov or .avi (I found programs online that do the conversion but haven't tested yet), and then using editing software to add the sound and music, as needed. I don't have any experience doing the actual video editing, however, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I also found great sound effects of a beating heart and EKG machine at theFreeSoundProject, which I then edited using free sound editing software (Audacity). All of these along with the music (Lux Aeterna sounds amazing) can be then compiled into a grand master mix (.wav or .mp3) of a definite length using the same software and embedded in the finalized .avi and/or .mov video file.

The sound files currently on the FTP server are those I have already worked on using Audacity, ready to be put into the aforementioned 'master mix'; that is, if you all find them good enough to include in the video.

No one has yet commented as to the feasibility of this idea. Like I said, I have little to no experience in film/sound editing - but I'm learning! :)

 

[Darren]

I found that by publishing a Flash file inside an HTML, for some reason it slows it down by a number of frame rates. This is why I manually adjust the frame rates of the original .swf file UP so that it plays as it should when embedded and viewed in HTML.

This has a weird effect on sound, however. I've been trying to embed the flash presentation with sound effects, but when published, it plays differently from how it should.

The event audio gets out of synch. That'll be okay once the main audio track is imported and set to 'stream'. Everything will be synchronised then.

So, I've been thinking that the best way to deal with this would be to add sound AFTER the flash itself is done and converted to a .mov or .avi (I found programs online that do the conversion but haven't tested yet), and then using editing software to add the sound and music, as needed. I don't have any experience doing the actual video editing, however, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I also found great sound effects of a beating heart and EKG machine at theFreeSoundProject, which I then edited using free sound editing software (Audacity). All of these along with the music (Lux Aeterna sounds amazing) can be then compiled into a grand master mix (.wav or .mp3) of a definite length using the same software and embedded in the finalized .avi and/or .mov video file.

The sound files currently on the FTP server are those I have already worked on using Audacity, ready to be put into the aforementioned 'master mix'; that is, if you all find them good enough to include in the video.

No one has yet commented as to the feasibility of this idea. Like I said, I have little to no experience in film/sound editing - but I'm learning! :)

How about mixing an audio track and using that as a base to work from. Spot effects and quotes can be added to the track as and when the visuals are finalised. I can work on that if you like.

I'm not clear on what format the final product is going to be - video or a Flash presentation?

 

[Renaissance]

I'm not clear on what format the final product is going to be - video or a Flash presentation?

I was thinking about the same thing tonight. Perhaps the ease of distribution and smaller file size of a Flash presentation assisted in the Pentagon Strike reaching so many people. Reaching an astonishingly high number of views on youtube is rather rare, probably in part because the amount of people who have broadband is limited. The most viewed video on youtube has 55 million views and the third most viewed video has 35 million views. Pentagon Strike blows these numbers out of the water. (there are also two youtube videos of Pentagon Strike that amount to a little more than 200,000 views) So perhaps using Flash is the equivalent of a well equip driver using a Ferrari rather than a mustang or something? Of course the driver has to be well suited for the job (I'm not at all discounting the powerful content in being responsible for the popularity of Pentagon Strike, just saying that flash may have provided the ideal format for widespread distribution). sHiZo, I remember earlier you said you could import video into flash; I don't know anything about the conversion from video to flash - does that have a pretty big impact on the ending size of the file? Could Flash still be video intensive while keeping a smaller file size? If it doesn't matter too much then we can pretty much go about as we were before, but if we decide on flash and would need to focus more on pictures then some of the material research would seem to need to change.

Another idea could be to just make two versions. One as a video and another using picture frames from the video in flash. Perhaps someone who has better knowledge of Flash can comment.

I'll be uploading some audio tonight at the site Domivr provided. I have a couple of heatbeats, a flatline, the music to Lux Aeterna (the longer version) and a mechanical vibration sound that I thought would be a good fit to the vibrating word 'psychopathy,' if it were to come back. The highs and lows of the sound give a good intro to the beginning of the highs and lows of the Lux Aeterna soundtrack. I know people said the vibration might give some a headache but I think the effect could be pretty cool if it works. I'll see if I can work on anything tonight that could provide an example of what I mean. I downloaded some trial software that converts swf to video but it doesn't do too good of a job. I'll fiddle around with it some more or see if I can find something else.

 

[sHiZo963]

The event audio gets out of synch. That'll be okay once the main audio track is imported and set to 'stream'. Everything will be synchronised then.

I'm not quite familiar with how sound streams in Flash. I guess I'll learn soon enough... ;)

How about mixing an audio track and using that as a base to work from. Spot effects and quotes can be added to the track as and when the visuals are finalised.

Great idea! Since we know what music we're using, we know when the 'highs' and 'lows' are supposed to be and can thus adjust the Flash animations to that.

I can work on that if you like.

Please! If only you're willing, DO help out. In fact, if you want, start creating another Flash presentation for another point in the script; it's easy enough to combine two projects together later. I will upload my .fla file to the FTP server in case you want to fiddle around with that, as well.

sHiZo, I remember earlier you said you could import video into flash; I don't know anything about the conversion from video to flash - does that have a pretty big impact on the ending size of the file? Could Flash still be video intensive while keeping a smaller file size? If it doesn't matter too much then we can pretty much go about as we were before, but if we decide on flash and would need to focus more on pictures then some of the material research would seem to need to change.

Well, consider Darren's PentagonStrike and Pathocracy videos:
PentagonStrike was image-intensive and longer (it seems) from Pathocracy and is close to 3mb. Pathocracy, on the other hand, is quite video-intensive and shorter than PS (again, it seems - I don't know the exact lengths), and it is about 5.3mb.

Flash does a great job condensing all vector animations into the smallest files possible, but when you upload a video to it, it's still going to be that video (which is nothing more than a collection of images in sequence). I've only ever worked with the actual animations done in Flash and using the in-program tools to semi-animate imported images. Working with video was never very feasible for me because my work centered mainly around creating Flash interactive web-sites, which had to be as small as possible.

I have a couple of heatbeats, a flatline, the music to Lux Aeterna (the longer version) and a mechanical vibration sound that I thought would be a good fit to the vibrating word 'psychopathy,' if it were to come back. The highs and lows of the sound give a good intro to the beginning of the highs and lows of the Lux Aeterna soundtrack.

Sweet! Also, check out the couple sounds that I fiddled around with and uploaded.

Edit: I just had a listen to your sounds, Shane. Nice find on the EKG beep - sounds exactly as it should! The accompanying flatline is also perfect. We can arrange it so that the 'vibrating' scary one fades in and overpowers the original flatline sound as Psychopathy appears and turns red.

Now, about the heart sounds:
The sound from Contact is freaky indeed, but it just doesn't sound like a heartbeat. Perhaps we could have this one fade in just before the flatline to symbolize a 'sick' heart? Also, the heartbeat I found and isolated sounds 'cleaner' than the one you uploaded - it's less 'staticy', fwiw.

Grrr... the Bush 'joke' makes my blood curl! Nice find :)
/Edit

I'll see if I can work on anything tonight that could provide an example of what I mean.

I think I know what you mean. I had a similar impression of how this part would 'sound.'

I downloaded some trial software that converts swf to video but it doesn't do too good of a job. I'll fiddle around with it some more or see if I can find something else.

Yeah, I haven't tried any of those programs yet. The in-Flash exporter only seems to want to export the main 'timeline' (of which there are many on several levels) so that won't do. I hope you'll have more luck finding a good program for this - otherwise, I guess we'll be sticking with Flash.

Thanks, guys :)

 

[j0da]

I ain't much help with video editing, but I would be VERY happy to create some illustrations/backgrounds. Some disturbing picture of a city/dark streets with exaggerated perspective/spooky lighting for example.

Definitely, man. If you can cook something up, we can integrate it into the video, and I can even work on animating whatever it is you make. Some abstract, dark images could be perfect for transition scenes between different parts of the video.
All in all, I'd like to see some creative input to this video - not just photo/clip after another photo/clip with text on the bottom.

Oh, so were moving ahead! Ok, I'll catch up to the speed - read the latest posts and will contact you when I'm done. We can talk about ideas/style/technical issues then.

 

[CarpeDiem]

Video with channel logo on them are OK or logo should be smoothed out or cut?

CarpeDiem: i'd say we should make the highest resolution we can get (dvd-quality) and then make various versions for different distribution channels (youtube, bittorrent, etc.)
(oh, and i don't think channel logos are a problem)

Is a general consensus in that channel logo are fine, and would not spoil the ‘end’ video quality? I work in Ulead Media Studio, and if necessary, can cut logo part of the frame, a bit of resolution will be lost then. If logos are OK with everybody, please let it know.

 

[sHiZo963]

All right, I've started part 2 of the video.

Check it out here and please tell me what you all think.

 

[Renaissance]

Is a general consensus in that channel logo are fine, and would not spoil the ‘end’ video quality? I work in Ulead Media Studio, and if necessary, can cut logo part of the frame, a bit of resolution will be lost then. If logos are OK with everybody, please let it know.

I've been searching for videos without logo's. I would think the one's with logos are copyright protected so if we used videos with logos cut out then that could be a plan for trouble, osit. The archive site Iconoclast provided is a gem and has a lot of open source videos that I think could be of use.

And it's just my opinion, but if you have a really moving video clip then I think the video quality is less important; both would be great, but I'd go with content over gloss any day.

 

[Zadius Sky]

All right, I've started part 2 of the video.

Check it out here and please tell me what you all think.

I really like the 'no love' part. But, wasn't there 3% of ALL people are psychopaths than 5%? I keep reading it's 3% or 2%. I could be wrong.

 

[sHiZo963]

But, wasn't there 3% of ALL people are psychopaths than 5%? I keep reading it's 3% or 2%. I could be wrong.

You are right - I forgot to change it.

science tells us
that at least 1% of all people
are born with a genetic defect
etc

Might as well use the latest data (I think it's 1.35%, but nice round 1 or 1.5 is prettier), as America probably has a higher % of psychopaths than did Poland.

I decided to use the 1% ;)