The Expendables 2 Video

            Although technically not part of Griffeth Galaxy Productions, I felt the need to put the Korsgaard’s Commentary videos that I was a part of on this site and to talk about them because in a lot of ways these videos and other failed collaborations we had more or less spawned GGP. 

             As you can see, the first video I had anything to do with that found its way to the web was Korsgaard’s Review of Expendables 2.  I had actually been toying with the idea of doing videos for a while, more or less stopped by a lack of a decent camera and over the course of the 2012 summer the two of us had discussed various ideas concerning it extensively.  Sadly, none of them have, as of yet come to pass and when I finally got a working camera and a basic grasp of Windows Live Movie Maker I somehow got drafted into making this video, (still not sure how it happened).

            To put it kindly, the video is a bit of a mess with more problems than I care to count.  Some of the problems were Korsgaard’s fault.  Some were my fault.  Some were just technical problems I had with the editing equipment.  For example, I clearly had no idea how to frame a shot or how to properly light him, (something that is still a bit of a challenge for me today I am sad to admit), and probably should have made him done more takes as there is a clear lack of energy in his performance.  There was also some problems with Windows Live Movie Maker, (you may have noticed a clear delay in between the live footage and the voiceovers), as a lot of the movie footage kept corrupting before I could finish editing, causing me to make a more rushed second version in order to meet the deadline that Korsgaard wanted.

            But in all honesty, as much blame can be put on Korsgaard.  The guy insisted that we record everything a few hours after seeing the movie, with no script resulting in the vast majority of it being made up on the fly, insisted that the video be out Sunday night of that weekend and only showed up to record the voiceovers needed that afternoon.  And because of all of this, the result was something….less than perfect.  Still, when all was said and done it wasn’t bad for a first effort on either of our parts and I quickly learned what to do and what not to do when approaching these videos.  The ultimate lesson that I took away from this video was that the writing and filming should be done on different days and that I had to have a written script from Korsgaard a day in advance so I could decide what should be live and voiceover and what needed rewriting; something that, believe it or not, would be shockingly hard to do and continued to be a problem up until I decided that I no longer wished to help him with his videos.  But more on that another time.  Until then, thanks for tuning in, reading my ramblings on what I should have done better and please subscribe to us on YouTube, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and follow us here on blogger.

Trey Griffeth