According to the person who uploaded it to YouTube, the video was produced by a gentleman by the name of Abobakr Mohammed and it’s narrated by Yusuf Estes. I think it’s a job well done. I was anticipating the final video scene in the video would be all the text formulated as a map of the world. That would have been a great poetic touch.

I know it took the individual several weeks to produce, but I wonder how many hours of work it was specifically.

Last year at Ilm Summit 2009 I made a similar style video narrated by Wisam Sharieff. It was my first time making a of this style and it took me about 36 hours to put together.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the future I hope more videos utilize Kinetic typography as a style of presentation. It is very time consuming but the result is usually outstanding.

Remembering my experience of not having been able to really attend the sessions due to meeting post production deadlines, I recommended that he should keep it simple and straight forward. This way his class time experience wouldn’t be interrupted.

The following is what Shiraz delivered:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Afterward Shiraz requested I do a critique of the project and give some feedback. So, here it is!

My Critique & Advice

Shiraz,

Firstly, now that you’ve gotten your feet wet, enroll in Secrets to Video Production over at MessageMastery.com. It contains over seven hours of content you can benefit from and greatly improve your future videos.

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4 Tips to improve future talking head and interview videos with your current tools:

• Give a STRONG opening –
  Example: Scream! Do a funky dance, spin and stop to a STOMP! and yell “HEY THERE! You’re watching Shiraz – THATS ME! (two thumbs pointed to yourself) – at ILM SUMMIT! YEEAAAAHHH!” -  jumping up and down like you just won the lottery.

• Get out of your comfort zone -
  Sometimes the best people on screen are the kind that are loud and bouncing off walls. A static camera shot needs to have something on screen to bring it to life – like a monkey! You seem like a very calm and collected individual. Maybe in real life that’s cool, but on screen you need to break out some funk! Movements and expressions need to be exaggerated.  Body movement should demonstrate behavior. What fun, funky, outlandish character do you wish to embody?

• Do your research before the interview -
  Know who they are, what they do, when, where and how they did it, and why. Don’t let the onscreen video be your discovery period. Have that basic information to work with and take it deeper from there. Before you drill a hole in a wall, you first make an impression or mark as to where the hole will go.

• Tell/Pull a story from the guest -
  Have the interview be less of an interview and more of a conversation or discussion where a story is unraveling. During the interview I believe the audience wants to know about the person and what drives them as a human being. Who are they as a person? What can we learn about them that’s not already known?

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2 Production Tips to make the video POP! out

• Get a microphone -
  If you’re filming just yourself, a lavaliere mic would be appropriate. However if you have two or more people on screen, for your situation you’ll need a shotgun mic taped to a stick hanging over or under the people on screen. Don’t be afraid to get the mic caught on screen.

• Get in closer -
  Get someone to help film while you interview the people. Have the cameraman get in real close to the subjects/talents on screen. They can move the camera appropriately from one person to the other. This pulls the audience closer and be more engaged with the moment being captured.

  Take for example the following video which was filmed with one camera:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This next video from 2:15 onward may be closer to what you may have been trying to achieve.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Personal Branding Tips to make you more marketable

• Change your YouTube name -
  I don’t think all your future videos will be featuring you at Ilm Summit. For that reason, I think you should just call it something that doesn’t limit your personal brand to just Ilm Summit. I think it would be cool if you make your name cool and fun. If you’re going to do an off the wall personality have the name reflect it.

• Develop your online persona/character -
  What are some personality and character traits that you already embody and you can bring out more. Something that can be visually seen. Make a list and see how you can super exaggerate them. At first it may feel weird, funky or even embarrassing but it’ll make the video that much more entertaining and interesting to watch.

I hope that helps!

Again, check out Secrets to Video Production over at MessageMastery.com for everything you need to make some awesome videos for the future.

Firstly I want to give Rami Santrisi a shout out and congratulations on completing this project. I’m sure it had its fair share of challenges and lessons. I pray that he continues to practice keep putting forth work.

As the motto goes: It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to get going.

This is the trailer for the film:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re interested, you can also check out the article about the short film on the Muslim Link newspaper: DC Area Film Makers Join Forces On 3D Movie

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A well constructed film tells a good comprehensible story visually and audibly. To give the film a proper critique, I watched the full Leap of Faith short film four times.

• First, I watched it without sound
• Second, I just listened to it with no visuals
• Third, watched it normally in 2D
• Finally in 3D on YouTube

Below are my thoughts, feedback and a rubric for the review. All feedback I’ve given below is a means for all of us to improve our craft of story telling.

You can watch the film first by clicking the image below:

My Review (spoiler alert!):

Fun Factor — How entertaining was the film? — 2/10

It was cool seeing the film in 3D and it was fun seeing guys jumping off cliffs, but that’s as far as the fun factor went.

The film seems to drag during many parts making it seem much longer than it really was.

Performance – How was the acting? — 3/10

A sign of good acting and character directing is when you watch the film without any sound and you know what emotions the character is feeling. In the scenes of dialog, the characters didn’t have much dynamic range in either their body language or their facial expressions.

The best acting in the film was the professor. However, I felt his scene wasn’t needed for the story.

Eye-Candy — Quality of cinematography, production value, special-fx — 6/10

Visually the short looked great. The composed shots weren’t poster quality but the use of the Canon 7D HD-DSLR cameras certainly brought out the color saturation and lens usage certainly brought forth focus appropriately.

It think it would have been really cool if a water proof underwater rig was used to capture the splash of the actors as they fell in.

3D was cool and certainly different from most short film projects out there. There aren’t that many interesting 3D videos out there on YouTube either. I was certainly curious how this was going to look.

My only complaint about 3D on YouTube is that you can only watch the classic stereoscopic 3D (red/blue, red/green, etc) and not the polarized projection light technology they used in the movie theaters and special (expensive) monitors today. However, this isn’t something the producers budget or control.

Story — How well the plot and characters play out? — 1/10

When it came to story, there was much left to be desired.

I felt as though:

• There was no conclusive plot
• There were no believable character motivations
• Most dialog didn’t add to character or further story
• Most of the scenes were completely unnecessary.

I understand that there were two completely different plot lines.

• Plot Line #1: Man overcoming his fear of heights so he can jump with is friends off a cliff.
• Plot Line #2: Man overcoming his fear of financial insecurity to sponsor an orphan even, although he makes $200/week

The two stories didn’t really seem to connect. If two stories don’t connect and tie into each other, why tell them at all together?

Why was the cliff jumping scene necessary at all? He swallowed his fear and jumped off the roof of his house to save the girl. That should have been the end of the film. All other scenes that didn’t build up to that should have been cut out.

Something that I didn’t understand is how sponsoring an orphan is a life changing decision that the main character has to go about telling everyone about it. In the real world, someone making two hundred dollars a week has other financial priorities than figuring out whether or not they can sponsor an orphan.

After watching this film, I felt as though it would have been more appropriate to make this into two separate films.

Even if the two plot lines were separated into two films, what did him applying to the job have to do with his fear of heights or wanting to sponsor an orphan. Was he going to make more money in the new job? If thats the case, it wasnt clear. This scene didnt fit into the story at all.

If I had to approach the story using the resources the filmmakers used, this is what it would be:

Opening

Kareem, his brother and friend are hiking until one of them takes a tumble off a cliff and the brother is hanging on for dear life. He tries to save him but the extreme emotional stress anchors him to a fear of heights which makes him unable to pull up his hanging brother, watching him fall to the river below to his death leaving an orphaned son.

Everyday Life of Main Character

Its several months since the incident. Kareem still blames himself for the deaths and the depression keeps him from keeping a steady paying job and passing up lucrative opportunities because he believes he won’t be successful  just as he wasn’t successful in saving his brother, resulting in major financial difficulties which bears to question as to whether or not he can care for his orphaned nephew who’s mother died at childbirth.

Pressure Increases

Kareem being Jameel’s uncle and closest next of kin, risks loosing Jameel to child services if he doesn’t get his act together.

Situation Arises

One day Jameel and the neighborhood kid are playing catch and the ball goes on the roof. Jameel finds a ladder and climbs up the side of the house to get the ball, but the ladder is unstable and collapses, leaving Jameel hanging on the side of the house screaming for help.

Responding to the Situation & Facing of Fear

Kareem hearing the cries sees Jameel hanging on the side, climbs through a window and onto the roof in an attempt to save Jameel. All the while the ball is on the gutter and rolls down due to vibration from Kareem hitting one end of the gutter while reaching for Jameel. Neighbor’s kid goes for the ball but cant see the car speeding down the street. Kareem sees flashbacks of his brother’s death.

Triumph

With tears in his eyes, Kareem swallows his fear, with an burst pulls Jameel onto the roof and then immediately leaps off the roof leaving Jameel sitting on top to witness as Kareem dashes the neighbor’s kid out of the way of the speeding car just as we hear the deafening “POP!” of the ball as the car runs over it.

Aftermath

Kareem having overcome his fear of heights and is able to forgive himself for his brother’s death and is able to move on with his life. He starts a successful business and also spends his time going around giving motivational speeches helping people overcome their fears, using his personal story to inspire people.

Dialog – 2/10

There were many moments during the film where I felt the dialog wasn’t necessary.

The whole dialog between the main character and his friend while hiking talking about creation, the jummah salah scene of the main char falling asleep, the tennis scene and the whole “high class” cloths story arch  didn’t seem to have a place in the story. The dialog in those scenes didn’t further either of the plot lines much or add to character development that was necessary for the story.

I also felt that the pacing of the film between the characters lines was super slow. I’d recommend tightening up the editing to fix that.

Sound — How well is the sound used to enhance the film? — 3/10

There wasn’t much depth to the sound design. There wasn’t much use of Foley or environmental sounds to really bring you in. The slow dialog made the film seem that much slower.

Message/Theme — 5/10

The idea of overcoming your fears and donating or orphans is great. I just felt that the two themes presented together didn’t work well. If there was focus on one theme, it would have made the film that much more enjoyable.

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Overall Score — 3/10

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Final Thoughts

I’m wondering how well the film has been received by others. I haven’t seen too many comments on the particular videos that have been uploaded on Vimeo and YouTube. I noticed on the video trailer itself, most of the views came from it being advertised (paid). However, it seems that most of the views for the trailer came from India which I assume isn’t the target market. I hope Rami reaches his goals for the film.

In the future I’d love for the opportunity to collaborate with Rami in the scriptwriting and story phase. I believe I have a lot to offer and it’s an area that Islamic media as a whole is desperately lacking.

If you haven’t read Saqib’s post, you can do so by clicking the image below:

I believe a lot of the challenges that Saqib faced in production this video…

Click here to view the embedded video.

…came as a result of pursuing the “film look” which he believed lay in filming at 24 progressive frames per second.

When motion picture was invented in the early twentieth century, silent films were played at 16 frames per second. Later when sound was added, they had to speed up the film reel to play at 24 frames per second so that the audio would sound slow. This is why silent films seem like they’re moving really fast. They’ve sped up 16 fps films to 24 fps. The choice was to adapt to an technological advancement.

Today people equate the technical 24p with the “film look” or “cinematic look” which is an incorrect understanding. Proper film look consists of:

• set design/production value – does the place you’re filming look “expensive?”
• audio and sound score - the higher the fidelity and clarity of the audio, the better people tune in.
  
• composition – how the subject/talent is framed and colored on screen
• proper lighting setup - 3 point light setup with understanding light intensity
• camera movement – panning vs. craning vs. tracking vs. static
• lens choices - deciding between different depths of field, ie: blurry background vs non blurry backgrounds
• screen formatting - anamorphic vs. wide screen vs. full screen
• 24p - least important

24p is at the bottom of that list for a reason. It has the least impact emotionally on the audience.

If Saqib kept all filming at 30 fps, and focused on the top five items on the list, the result would be more impact. The following videos are examples of implementing the film look based on the points mentioned above. First is a shoe string budget example:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is an example of the film look on a professional budget:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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For those who are new to my work, just know I’m speaking from experience. My lecture video projects of the past have included:

• The Strangers
• The Opener Short Lecture Series
• AlMaghrib Teacher Training Seminar (16 hrs of lecture videos)
• Darkness2Light
• Desert Rose and the birth of IlmCast Videos and Syndication (lost count of number of videos I’ve put up)
• Divine Speech Prologue for Bayyinah – also search “divine speech prologue” on YouTube
• Time Traveler Seminar (16 hrs of lecture videos)
• DiscoverU speeches and DiscoverU Certification (60+ hrs of lecture videos)
• Ilm Summit 2009 wild cards

I’ve actually written out an entire process work flow outline for lecture content development from project development, to production, to post production, to online syndication. This will ultimately end up being a bonus module for all those who have purchased “Secrets of Video Production” over at MessageMastery.com

If you’re truly interested in production video content, either for regular blogging or for marketing an organization you work with – this course is for you.

My thoughts in brief:

Firstly, I commend the director for taking up the task to present a message and I encourage the individuals involved to keep sharpening their saw.

My critique of the film: It seemed the director was trying too hard to be visually creative while the film itself lacked a solid story and structure. This resulted in the film dragging. Personally, I would cut out at least half of the video to make it faster.

An audience will forgive a visually lacking film if its got a solid story. However, the reverse is not true. If there’s no story, then the film better have an artistically pleasing visual presentation to keep the audience’s attention.

Overall, I think it’s a great attempt without any real reply value except amongst the intimidate community that this was filmed. I encourage the director to keep working, but focus their efforts more towards the development of a solid story in future projects.

This post is a spotlight on Rami Santrisi from HIPURductions.com. Recently he completed a promotional video for Islamic Center of Maryland titled ICM: The Road Ahead.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The purpose of this post is to put the spotlight on someone who’s aspired higher and come through on a project. I didn’t work on this project at all. I’m simply providing an encouraging critique for the producer of the video and for those of you who aspire to produce something in the future.

We all measure success in different ways. For me success is having started a project, completed it, celebrated its completion, learned from its mistakes and knowing that I had fun during the journey and can’t wait to begin the next one.

There are many destinations in life, whats important is that we enjoy and cherish every moment of the journey to each of those destinations.

Background For ICM: The Road Ahead

Rami was assigned this project in the beginning of March and had a deadline of March 28th. He completed this project in the midst of balancing a fulltime job and a family, so as you can guess, this must have been a tight 4 weeks.

Rami had laid out that there were a number of technical issues related to this project and has laid out that there aren’t any plans to change them. My feedback in this section is simply on how I personally would address these issues on a future project.

Sound in a few of the “early” interviews was a bit bad, and in the outdoor one, wind was crazy.

There are three ways to deal with wind from my experience.

• One is to get a windscreen for the microphone.

• The other option is to have two people stretch out a large bed sheet next to the microphone to block the wind.

• Third option is to simply stand next to a structure where the wind isn’t approaching

It’s slightly longer than i’d hoped, but there was also a lot of information that we needed to convey, so we kept it long. It was actually much longer, but we cut it to 15 minutes while maintaining fluidity.

I’m not aware of how the development of this video was coordinated. From my experience the best way to crunch a promotional video is to do it with a script or outline. Even if one is shooting interviews, those interviews must be structured around a framework of how the video will be laid out.

A couple years ago I produced a project of a similar nature. I had three weeks to come through with a video who’s purpose was to raise funds from within the local community.

For more info: http://www.leechon.com/almishkat-promo-video-168.htm

I sat down with the commissioner of the project and had him lay out exactly what he wanted in the video, from that I geared my questions so that specific individuals would answer in a particular way for it to fit effectively into the framework of the video I had mind.

In my humble opinion, an informative promotional video shouldn’t go beyond 10 minutes. The way to effectively do that is to lay out the framework before a camera is even lifted and film in accordance to that timely structure.

The tighter the final product, the more effective it will be.

Some B-Roll (overlay photos and videos) were not the best choice, but that was a shortcoming of the Center itself since they do not have a person responsible for media; that takes photos and videos of events that they do, etc. That was addressed at one of the Board of Trustees meetings I went to. We did however try and get/take as many current photos and videos as we could as well.

For me, shooting B-Roll is the most fun part of production. This is where you get to REALLY be creative and have fun with different types of shots. Generally, when you try new things and experiment, you require more time. You either schedule it in, or you work with what you have.

When it comes to shooting interviews, I think the best B-Roll is shots of the individuals themselves. Something that pulls a specific emotion that you’re aiming for. Usually extreme closeup or composed shots make for the best B-Roll in my experience.

An example of simple, yet effective B-Roll is the following video I completed just recently:

Could B-Roll be shot more effectively? Sure, but one needs to start with the intention of capturing B-Roll or you’ll be left to work with what you have.

Two of the interviews were in the same spot and they were the most used interviews and I personally felt that shouldn’t have happened.

Personally, I think the background in the two most used interviews is quite nice. The use of the depth-of-field lens adapter certainly made it seem a bit surreal.

I would recommend applying the following for future works:

• Employ a dolly to add movement to the interview and make it seem more dynamic. Movement generates energy and causes the viewer’s eyes to move thus resulting in more attentiveness.

• Creative lighting makes all the difference. I would advise in purchasing a few work lights from Home Depot or Walmart and using them as a means of lighting the subjects on screen.

• When shooting the interview, spend at least five minutes before the interview and five minutes after the interivew getting B-Roll of the individual speaking

• I think it would be a good idea to frame the interviews like a photograph. This requires much more attention to detail, but that is something that is required when one gets into a creative craft such as this.Its a great idea to approach each shot composition as if you composing a poster that would be hung in Time Square. Of course it’s easier said than done, but when shooting, we should always aim for excellence.

The Producer

Some of you may remember Rami some of his past works. The following are some projects he’s produced or worked on in the past:

• Ummah Films: Tomorrow Never Comes
• LinkTV: An Average Moe

Currently he maintains HIPURductions.com

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

Overall, taking into context the time available and everything else, this project was a job well done. I extend my congratulations to Rami and I look forward to what he’s got coming up next inshaAllah.

The Word TRY is for People Who Don’t DO. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to get going.

Umar ibn Khattab-radi’ Allahu anhu (the second khalifa of Islam after the death of rasulAllah-sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam), would welcome criticism from the nation during his leadership. And he would take that criticism open heartedly, no matter how soft or harsh it was or how well grounded or unfair it was. May Allah be pleased with him, and may He guide us all to that which is pleasing to Him. Ameen.

So…here it goes

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Sensei (my friend, brother in Islam, teacher, and coach) said that there are two things that are critical to the success of a dawah project:

• Making sure intentions are for Allah
• Execution (getting things done), which is way more important then perfection (which, if you haven’t noticed, is impossible).
• Outstanding Optimism — alhamdulillah this is something the brothers and sisters over at Ummah Films have plenty of. May Allah bless it with more.

We need not be like the shop owner who won’t open his shop because he is too busy cleaning it. Open shop. Learn from the mistakes. And keep growing.

This is the formula for success.

Hats off to the brothers and sisters over at Ummah Films for their work on releasing their first short, “Tomorrow Never Comes“.

This short initially written by Ali Ardekani (Baba Ali) and produced by Yusuf Chowdhury (Abu Yaqob on the Ummah Films blog). This is a first for them and like all series of first steps we fall and bump our heads on the table. If you see a baby fall and cry, it doesn’t take long for that baby to get up and attempt to walk again. The baby forgets the pain and moves forward.

As Muslims we don’t blame anyone or anything. We only know results and lessons. Each of us alone will be held accountable for our actions and each of us alone will reap the consequences for them whether they be good or bad on the day of judgement. — That is the day that truly counts.

Just a note, the video below has music (I have a thing or two to say about that in the review below).

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First the short and then my critique
Below is a rubrick that I use for rating films.

Fun Factor — How entertaining was the film? — 6/10

I’ll admit that the film did keep my attention throughout. Having been an adviser to the team I got to see the initial cuts of the film as it progressed through its stages. I didn’t start skipping through the film until after the final release, and that was less about the fact that it didn’t keep my attention and more about the fact that it has instrumental music in it (I’m going to discuss this part further).

Performance – How was the acting? — 7/10

Considering that that actors are not real actors, they did an great job of playing their roles. Although at points it felt like they really weren’t into character, I think the main man did his job well.

Eye-Candy — How well the cinematography, visuals, special-fx — 9/10

For a first film to have the look that it did was excellent. One of the brothers went out of their way and personally bought a 35mm lens adapter (which costs over $1000) for the camera they used for the production. Adapter narrowed the depth of field to a level that you see in professional productions. This was excellent.

The use of the dolly in this film was superb. I still love how they director had the camera dolly back one the character at the end of the basketball scene. I’m definitely going to use that in a future production inshaAllah.

If you had read the script you must have through to yourself, “Excellent story but how will they show this?” — They answered my question. Job well done.

Story/Plot — How well the story and plot play out? — 7/10

When I initally read the script I loved the ending, mainly because I didn’t realize what was going to happen in the end. Of course I imagined this taking place in a city and it being more dramatic. Regardless I felt the story could be expanded a little more with a little more depth.

In the end you are left desiring more. What happens after he gets hit by the car?

Character Development — 7/10

I think a good amount of time was spent developing the main character, but at the same time the other characters in the film weren’t give much time. Even the main character could have been better defined in the sense of increased arrogance.

Dialog – 5/10

It seems as though that the film consisted mainly as an exchange of one liners. With the exception of the basketball scene there didn’t seem to be much substance in the conversation taking place between the characters.

Sound — How well is the sound used to enhance the film? — 3/10

In the professional world it is said “A good composure will lay a carpet for your film.” The carpet enhances the room, but it doesn’t stick out. You don’t really notice it but it makes it work. Sound works the same way in film. If used incorrectly thn it can hurt the film.

The use of sound effects was well placed. The crispness of the speech of the characters as well as the noise of the environment was quite clear and well positioned. The particular use of music was a major disappointment on a professional level and on an Islamic one (this I’ll explain further in the next criteria). The use of blunt emotional music to tell me “be sad” or “feel energetic” was misplaced.

In the basketball scene, the use of high energy music was misplaced. Its obnoxious to say “feel energetic” when you already have an energetic scene. Same with the whole contemplation sequence where the piano plays to say “feel sad and reflective”. It stands out way too much. Personally I felt that it took away from the film.

Content – How does the film rank up against Islamic standards of visuals, sound, and dialog? — 7/10

There was nothing wrong with the visuals and the dialog. The issue stands with the sound. More specifically the use of instrumental music.

Upon seeing the completion of this film I was happy at the fact that something great was accomplished but vastly disappointed at the use of the musical instruments. I’m not going to delve into the fiqhi discussion because this isn’t the place for it.

I’ve spoken with the producer (Yusuf) about the whole music issue and he said that he believes that it’s permissible (although as I’ve learned from my teachers and the Qur’an and sunnah that the evidences state the contrary). Personally I follow that musical instruments in general are haraam except the daff (open ended drum) and sounds made from the human body (mouth and otherwise) and If I was supervising a project I’d keep it to that principal.

Fact is we won’t go very far if Allah is not pleased with us.

Personally and professionally I don’t want to be answerable to something that as I understand that Allah has forbidden. As far as I know I don’t have any control over the actions and decisions of the brothers and sisters involved with this particular production. I’m just an adviser.

Upon giving my my advice to Yusuf we agreed that I would help in making a audio track that was along that lines of the principal that I follow.

I made a post about music stuff in the past, and if you wish to read it you may do so here:

• Who said you can’t make good music without instruments?
• Muslims in Acappella…in English!

Brother Kamal Elmekki did a program titled “The End of Music” in New York. I recommend everyone listen to it and think about the subject.

• The End of Music

Message — 10/10

Death and correcting oneself are very important reminders. Reminders such as these are what change people’s lives. I’m thankful to Allah-swt that he’s sent brothers and sisters who can deliver such a reminder. I pray that they don’t forget themselves in the process.

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Overall Score — 6.78/10
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Reply with your thoughts, comments, and reflections