Burn it to the Ground

[Benjamin Haines]

So apparently "Night Without a Title" wasn't the last documentation-type video I had left from this past semester at college, because I forgot that I had this footage here still on a tape. One night, a couple friends and I went exploring through this abandoned and allegedly haunted house in the middle of the woods. The very next day, for reasons unknown, the house went up in flames! In this video, one of my friends and I go back to the house a few days after the fire to see just how bad the damage is.

vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=35961164

This isn't exactly in the same vein as my four prior documentation-type videos, which were straightforward and linear and just covered some bullshit college antics that we got into. This one has an actual purpose to it beyond candid irreverence, and I employed some editing tricks and added some music for effect. You Godzilla fan Dwellers may recognize the cue from GMK (2001) that plays when we reach the house.

[mediko]

hi ben. the intercutting with the earlier footage worked well but some sequences were way too long or irrelevant. lose the walk over the bridge and the comments about the swimmers, lose the convo with the tub o' lard in the car park and cut back on the wind noise sequence. the run into the woods is also too long and you need to pan more slowly especially round the ruins so that the viewer has time to take it in. i don't think you made enough of that dreamcatcher (if that is what it is). most of the backing music was cringeworthy. 'we didn't start the fire'? purleeese.

half the length, tight editing, atmospheric music at end sequence and fade to grey on the dreamcatcher.

[Benjamin Haines]

May 28, 2008 14:47:52 GMT 2 @mediko said:

hi ben. the intercutting with the earlier footage worked well but some sequences were way too long or irrelevant. lose the walk over the bridge and the comments about the swimmers, lose the convo with the tub o' lard in the car park and cut back on the wind noise sequence. the run into the woods is also too long and you need to pan more slowly especially round the ruins so that the viewer has time to take it in. i don't think you made enough of that dreamcatcher (if that is what it is). most of the backing music was cringeworthy. 'we didn't start the fire'? purleeese.

half the length, tight editing, atmospheric music at end sequence and fade to grey on the dreamcatcher.

Thanks for the feedback. I put this video up mainly for the folks I know at my college, which is why I kept in the explanation at the beginning of what was going on and us discussing what we thought happened (the rumors that the house was haunted and that it was a Bloods hangout were infamous around those parts). You're right that I should have done a lot slower panning around the ruins. I hadn't planned on setting the footage to that music when I shot it, so it was originally a lot of footage of me walking around examining one area at a time while narrating it myself or talking about something irrelevant for the viewer's entertainment (like the new politically-correct Sesame Street). I don't know what the deal with that dreamcatcher was but I figured it would be cool to sync that footage up with that eerie point in the music cue.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, though. Very greatly appreciated.

[mediko]

May 28, 2008 20:58:29 GMT 2 Benjamin Haines said:

May 28, 2008 14:47:52 GMT 2 @mediko said:

hi ben. the intercutting with the earlier footage worked well but some sequences were way too long or irrelevant. lose the walk over the bridge and the comments about the swimmers, lose the convo with the tub o' lard in the car park and cut back on the wind noise sequence. the run into the woods is also too long and you need to pan more slowly especially round the ruins so that the viewer has time to take it in. i don't think you made enough of that dreamcatcher (if that is what it is). most of the backing music was cringeworthy. 'we didn't start the fire'? purleeese.

half the length, tight editing, atmospheric music at end sequence and fade to grey on the dreamcatcher.

Thanks for the feedback. I put this video up mainly for the folks I know at my college, which is why I kept in the explanation at the beginning of what was going on and us discussing what we thought happened (the rumors that the house was haunted and that it was a Bloods hangout were infamous around those parts). You're right that I should have done a lot slower panning around the ruins. I hadn't planned on setting the footage to that music when I shot it, so it was originally a lot of footage of me walking around examining one area at a time while narrating it myself or talking about something irrelevant for the viewer's entertainment (like the new politically-correct Sesame Street). I don't know what the deal with that dreamcatcher was but I figured it would be cool to sync that footage up with that eerie point in the music cue.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, though. Very greatly appreciated.

glad you didn't mind. you must play around with it more because it
could be really something spooky! you guys look like you're making the most of college.

[trashcanman]

I liked the Billy Joel and Maiden! Cheesy, but amusing. The wind drove me nuts, though. And to think that people thought Blair Witch and Cloverfield were shaky. Homegirl is cute; don't act like you didn't get it on in the ashes. I dig your Jokerface in the corner of the page, too. Our local haunted house has pentagrams and death threats spray-painted inside and a nasty habit of making the car you rode in break down upon arrival. No towering inferno though....yet.

[Benjamin Haines]

I gave the video another trim-around, I was able to shake a good two minutes of footage out of it. Most of the "on the way there" stuff is nixed now, including the two rock songs. Trashy, you'll appreciate that I was able to axe most of the wind-plagued footage too. I also took the opportunity to add a bit more flashback shots to the night that we explored the house when it was still standing. I didn't change anything about the footage once we arrive at the house though, so all of those shots of destruction and the GMK theme playing over them remain as they originally were.

vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=35961164

Thanks for recommending I go back and do this, Mediko. I'm much happier with this cut.