For my senior film project last semester, I created a pinball documentary. I had to share with all my high school friends the magic of the silverball! This documentary features interviews with Steve Ritchie (game designer), Terry Dezwarte (Pinball Life), Mike Schudel, Brad Czernik, Mike Gaspar, and Chad Dentandt. I hope you enjoy it! 
I would like to give this thread a bump as it was my son's project and passion. I'd also like to take time to thank everyone who allocated time for his interviews. While I have always enjoyed pinball machines, I have said it before and will again, the people is what has kept me involved in this hobby. I am sorry there is so much of me in the video, his editor either liked me or was playing a cruel joke on Christian.
Brad
Quoted from mwong168:Video not available
I am not sure why that would be, maybe something to do with YouTube Canada? He has the video embedded in his post. Does this link work for you?
http://tinyurl.com/newflippingdecade
If not, maybe it is indeed something on YouTube's end.
Brad
Excellent work. I was very impressed with a professionally edited documentary.
Not to criticize, but I would have liked to have seen some appearances by you with your input and opinions of what you have learned, or maybe some background narration by you between the interview segments with your impressions.
Quoted from helicopter:Excellent work. I was very impressed with a professionally edited documentary.
Not to criticize, but I would have liked to have seen some appearances by you with your input and opinions of what you have learned, or maybe some background narration by you between the interview segments with your impressions.
I that that idea and agree it would have been good to give some perspective. He had planned on including more footage of play and B-roll especially while interviews were being done, to keep those that might not already be involved in the hobby interested. As a Dad and pinhead, I appreciate your comments!
Brad
Quoted from jellikit:I am not sure why that would be, maybe something to do with YouTube Canada? He has the video embedded in his post. Does this link work for you?
http://tinyurl.com/newflippingdecade
If not, maybe it is indeed something on YouTube's end.
Brad
Nothing wrong with original link and video works fine on my laptop but not my smart phone. Looking forward to check this out later as I'm heading out now. Thanks for the tinyurl and probably a youtube video setting not allowing video to be watched on mobile or possibly even tablet devices?
Thank you guys for all the nice comments! I put a lot of time and effort in the making of this and am glad so many people can now appreciate the end product! 
Quoted from helicopter:Excellent work. I was very impressed with a professionally edited documentary.
Not to criticize, but I would have liked to have seen some appearances by you with your input and opinions of what you have learned, or maybe some background narration by you between the interview segments with your impressions.
That's a great idea! Originally I was going to have this, as well as some of my friends talking their knowledge of pinball before they knew me... I ended up having lots of other footage and used that instead.
Quoted from jorro:For some reason video not availebe on both links on my tablet.?
Hopefully you can watch on mobile soon! I disputed a claim because at the end I used the song Silverball by Barenaked Ladies, but it is within copyright law because I made it for my film class. That is why YouTube blocked it from some devices though.
Very well done. A lot of time and chasing down people including myself to get it complete. Now if I was not so camera shy....
Quoted from pinballlife:Great job!
Can't believe I look and sound like that, but the camera and mic do not lie.
Terry.
You mean awesome? Actually you're a little more energetic than that usually, they must have filmed that right after pinball explosion.
Things to look out for moving ahead. There's some good stuff in there, but some things I noticed you might want to file away
* Camera during Schudel's interview is not level, or the painting is crooked which amounts to the same thing.
* Gasper interview I wouldn't include, just too dark. Never go anywhere without a light.
* A reflective surface is going to bone us all over at one point or another. Always shoot at an angle so you don't get yourself in the reflection.
* Headroom Headroom Headroom. SR way too much, and shot looks unlevel, soft focus, always remember your critical. Schudel's is a little high as well, but at least there's a image behind him. Always remember to keep it uniform unless there is a reason not to.
* Chad interview needs a better location. Subject too close to a wall is never good, plus he appears to be right under a light that's blowing out one half of his face, and no fill light on other side.
* Audio just as important as video, are you using onboard mic? Sounds hollow/distant in some settings. If you can, a good Lav or Shotgun is worth it (High school probably don't have access to that stuff though.
Quoted from desertT1:Nicely done. Chicago area folks have quite a pool of resources for interviews.
Yes indeed and even more were willing to help, but he knew there was only so much material that could be used.
Quoted from TheLaw:Things to look out for moving ahead. There's some good stuff in there, but some things I noticed you might want to file away
* Camera during Schudel's interview is not level, or the painting is crooked which amounts to the same thing.
* Gasper interview I wouldn't include, just too dark. Never go anywhere without a light.
* A reflective surface is going to bone us all over at one point or another. Always shoot at an angle so you don't get yourself in the reflection.
* Headroom Headroom Headroom. SR way too much, and shot looks unlevel, soft focus, always remember your critical. Schudel's is a little high as well, but at least there's a image behind him. Always remember to keep it uniform unless there is a reason not to.
* Chad interview needs a better location. Subject too close to a wall is never good, plus he appears to be right under a light that's blowing out one half of his face, and no fill light on other side.
* Audio just as important as video, are you using onboard mic? Sounds hollow/distant in some settings. If you can, a good Lav or Shotgun is worth it (High school probably don't have access to that stuff though.
These are all good and I appreciate you taking the time to point them out to him, as knowledge is power! 
Brad
Quoted from pinballlife:Great job!
Can't believe I look and sound like that, but the camera and mic do not lie.
Terry.
Agree with ToyotaBoy ... Aim a camera at Terry and let him rant for two hours. It'd be gold Jerry, gold!
Your comments at 3.55 in the video actually made me lol ... "Now they buy an 8 thousand dollar game and it better be good or else I'll go on Pinside and moan about it" haha
rd
Quoted from TheLaw:Things to look out for moving ahead. There's some good stuff in there, but some things I noticed you might want to file away
* Camera during Schudel's interview is not level, or the painting is crooked which amounts to the same thing.
* Gasper interview I wouldn't include, just too dark. Never go anywhere without a light.
* A reflective surface is going to bone us all over at one point or another. Always shoot at an angle so you don't get yourself in the reflection.
* Headroom Headroom Headroom. SR way too much, and shot looks unlevel, soft focus, always remember your critical. Schudel's is a little high as well, but at least there's a image behind him. Always remember to keep it uniform unless there is a reason not to.
* Chad interview needs a better location. Subject too close to a wall is never good, plus he appears to be right under a light that's blowing out one half of his face, and no fill light on other side.
* Audio just as important as video, are you using onboard mic? Sounds hollow/distant in some settings. If you can, a good Lav or Shotgun is worth it (High school probably don't have access to that stuff though.
Thank you for the constructive criticism. All footage was shot at expo besides Terry's which was shot earlier in October. Our school has Flip cameras! So we used my friend's DSLR, but it didn't have autofocus... I was unable to borrow/find a microphone and thus the audio did suffer. You are totally right though... Next time!
Quoted from TiltDis:Thank you for the constructive criticism. All footage was shot at expo besides Terry's which was shot earlier in October. Our school has Flip cameras! So we used my friend's DSLR, but it didn't have autofocus... I was unable to borrow/find a microphone and thus the audio did suffer. You are totally right though... Next time!
It's all a learning curve ... Sometimes interviews are just "hey Steve Ritchie can I borrow you for 5 minutes?" And you have to do what you can do.
Some of the interviews had background music playing, you probably didn't even notice it at the time but afterwards it'd be like "doooooh"
Terrys interview was sweet, good location, nice and quiet, good lighting ... Sweet.
rd
Quoted from swinks:nice work and hope you don't mind, shared on a Aussie Forum
I am sure he will have no problem with that!
Brad
Editing is everything.
I like that you attempted to chain the story through all the different guys by question (without even including a narrator or interviewer's voice), rather than sticking on one guy for 5 minutes, then moving to the next guy. While it's a more challenging format, it usually keeps things more interesting.
Well done.
-mof
Quoted from helicopter:Excellent work. I was very impressed with a professionally edited documentary.
Not to criticize, but I would have liked to have seen some appearances by you with your input and opinions of what you have learned, or maybe some background narration by you between the interview segments with your impressions.
Sounds like a sequel, or maybe an "extras" section when the DVD is released? Use the Stern business model, call it an LE and charge double for it! Lol
Again, thank you everyone for your nice comments and critiques. I learned a lot about not only pinball, but also group projects and filming itself. I hope to do possibly another one that is pinball related eventually! As the silverball keeps me coming back!
BUMP TIME! It's been almost a decade since working on this high school class project! WOW!! I would change some things in regards to editing, camerawork, B-roll, etc. However, I am still proud that I was able to chat and capture the conversations with so many great pinball people! It was nice to hear each of their perspective on pinball, the community, and the future! It's definitely an interesting timepiece watching it back now... Enjoy! 
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