Yes, this video may contain some slight female nudity. Please don't hold that against it.

It is a 2-3 minute long B&W short film called Fade that I made a few weeks ago. It is a bit of an experiment visually, so I'm looking for feedback on my photography more than anything else if possible.

It's the story of a woman who died and is haunting her old house until one day her husband brings a new lover home to replace her.

It isn't a final edit, but is very close. I still have some minor changes to make (like the contrast). The music is a temporary piece until I find someone to score it for me. It will likely end up with a classical piece instead of the heavy industrial music that is on it now.

http://www.pyroglyphfilms.com/gallery/video/FadeNIN.mov
Give it a minute to come up or so, once you click it. Quicktime format.

Thanks for watching.

Excellent Dylan! I don't remember what I said about your last project but this was festival worthy. (Maybe even sponge worthy).

I didn't think the music was quite 'on' for the visual mood but, of course, the words of the song fit well.

Loved the fact that you used black and white. The house and the sky were overexposed. You might consider b&w filters (red) to darken the sky.

Enjoyed it. Keep up the good work!

PS: Didn't see any nudity. What a ripoff. That was the only reason I watched! :)

Thanks Rob!
Good point about the filters, I didn't even think about it, since this was my first B&W project. Next time!

The nudity is very brief, wait for the ghost to walk down the stairs and you might get a quick flash.

"The nudity is very brief, wait for the ghost to walk down the stairs and you might get a quick flash."

That's really reaching, Dylan... I'll never know when to believe you again ;)

I thought the b/w gave it a nice texture, especially with the ghosting effect.

Damn, bandwidth limit exceeded!

dylan certainly knows how to generate interest in his projects, hehehehe.

<<<-- Originally posted by Joe Carney : dylan certainly knows how to generate interest in his projects, hehehehe. -->>>

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard... :)

My video apparently got lots of hits and put me over my 2gb limit. Thanks to quick action by my pimp webmaster, it's back up and running now though.

Hi Dylan,

Good to see the video is back online so that I could watch it. It looks good, B&W suits the movie very well. Good location and photography.
And it doesn't need nudity ;-)

You could consider making this more dark or moody, the shots could have that. Make it more ghost-like by using different sound and other music. To give it a combination feeling of after-life and remembering good moments. Storywise the ending could have been brought further.

....Just my 2 cents....

Best,
Peter

Hi Dylan...

I really, really liked your film! The B & W definitely added to it. The overexposed house and sky kind of add to the feel of the film... giving it a lonely, washed out, faded feeling. However, other filters you can use that are less dramatic as red, are yellow and orange.

You said you needed to make minor changes in the contrast. I guess I can see some shots looking washed out here and there... but again, I think it adds alot to the mood of the film and hope you don't adjust too much. The lighting, to me, gives me the feeling of emptiness and loneliness which is probably how the ghost feels.

The music... I like it. But classical... what composer do you have in mind?

Also... what camera did you use and what did you use to edit it?

Oh.... by the way.... yes, I saw the "shot"!

Hey!
Thanks for the feedback (especially the praise!).

About the nudity, I was going to put in my first post that it was actually completely unintentional when I shot it, but I figured no one would believe me (although it IS true!) so I didn't bother. :)

The changes in contrast I have to make are minor. The overall look won't change.

It was shot on a Canon XL1 using the 3x lens and edited on Vegas 4.

I'm currently recutting it to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which is the music I had in mind for it when I first came up with the concept. Hopefully I'll have a preview of the final version by this weekend.

Peter, I know what you mean about the ending. In retrospect, I wish I had worked on it more, or done a bit more with it. Oh well. Live and learn. I shot it 2000 miles from here, so I can't quite go back and do a few extra shots. :)

Good job. I especially liked the editing, and just to be contrary, I thought the music you used really worked pretty well.
looked and looked and looked again, also saw no nudity.
The quality of the piece made up for the lack of skin, though.
I would be very intersted in seing more of your work.
Michael

Dylan,
I say leave it the way it is minus the score.....
It rocked IMO.

The dissolves worked perfect for what you did, and I think it really added to the "ghost" realism in a short piece like yours.

Keep pumping them out.

I'm working on the commercial from hell at the moment......ugg <;~)

Thanks guys!


UPDATE!!!!

Here is the newer version, set to different music, as well as a few changes in the footage.

I'd like feedback specificaly on the new music,
thanks!

http://www.pyroglyphfilms.com/gallery/video/fadesonata.mov

Also, this version is a little more compressed than my last, so hopefully it doesn't use up all my bandwidth in 3 days.

Hi Dylan, here is my take...

For me, Moonlight Sonata sounds better if accompanied by strings and other instruments. Personally, I think another version of it would be better suited for your film.

However, the changes in the footage seemed to be in sync with the music. I also liked the "whooshing" sound you added when the ghost sees her husband with his new lover.

All in all... I liked it. I do have to say that I liked your old font for the titles, etc. better!

Another example of why you should always go with your first thoughts. And why you can't edit by committee. And why movies get ruined by comment cards.

The music is tired. Making the cuts on the beat is predictable. I can't think of the term but the "whoosh" takes away from the scene. The end is, now, too long.

Moonlight Sonata really was my first choice for the music.
I like that version because I can get the rights to it for $50 instead of $5000. :)

The ending may get shorter. I'm going ot put it away for a few days and then look at it again on Monday.

Very nice. I love the black and white, and particularly like the shots of the house, field, etc. in the beginning. The "ghost" effect came out quite well.

Perhaps change the cuts in the intro to crossfades?

Good work!

Dylan,

Nice Work! Being a musician, I respect the use of Moonlight Sonata, though I have never heard a version with string orchestra, although it may exist, I am a purest. Knowing the work, I thought some of the cuts in the beginning were sometimes early, sometimes late, and sometimes dead on. That said, it may be beneficial to experiment with crossfades as Josh suggested as I think that transition would lend better to the "smoothness" of the music. I have found that direct cuts work well in more "hard" music, but that may just be my taste. All in all though, I love the "ghosting" effect and the B/W looks great. Good Luck!

Clay

I thought this is mixed bag (the new version). The titles might be
a bit too much and I think the ending is a bit too long as well.
I liked the empty shots of the house at the end, but I thought the
outside shots where too much.

Cutting to the music: it was really visible in the beginning. Probably
because it happened there a lot as well. I would probably tone
that down myself. I thought it really worked well with the first
showing of the house and the shot with the tree and the woman
and the shot following that.

What's wrong with cutting to the music?

It's predictable to the point of distraction.

I don't think so. This new cut works pretty well for me! great job Dylan! The end could be shorter, but it is a really great job!

<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : What's wrong with cutting to the music? -->>>

Nothing in my opinion. It's just that I noticed it on many of the
places where it happened. I've expiremented with that myself
as well and never got it working good for my little movie I was
working on at the time. It seems to be a difficult thing to do
well (so that it doesn't distract).

As I said I thought it worked well in 3 locations.

I'm a terrible editor so I won't comment on any of the cuts. I will say that I enjoyed the video very much. I like the music, love the look of the leading lady, and the ghosting effect.

How do you do that? I assume it's pretty simple, place two layers of video over eachother and take the opacity down on the top layer? Of course shooting the same scene w/out moving the camera is required.

Thanks!

I also found cutting to the music slightly distracting. I guess maybe because the music was soft and gentle but it was a fast cut. Maybe a slower transitiion?

Hi Dylan.

I liked the film with the new music and fonts, but re-edit it...It boring when the editing follows the exact beats for too long...

Regards..Chr

I have to say I liked it. Worthy of a festival. However, work on making the ending a little shorter and make the cuts to music a little less at the beginning.

I know it makes sense to sometimes do that with your work, however I think the best effect is to have your music go with action. It's tough, but when you pull it off it can be quite intriguing.

Was Trapacode Shine used for the text effects?

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

It will be a few weeks or so before I get back to editing on it, but I'm going to take a fresher look at the music and where it lines up with the cuts. I'm by no means a master editor, so it might take some time.

Yes, the ghosty effect is just two layers from a locked down shot, the top layer has the girl in it, with a reduced opacity (around 80%).

I beleive the font I used for the text is called Brickhouse.


Thanks again all!

Notice all the positive comments you got before you changed it and all the negative comments you got after you changed it.

Don't go over editing this thing. It was top notch in the beginning. It'll be hard to beat "top notch".

Rob, I had to change it from the first one because I didn't have (and wasn't going to get) the rights to that music.

This was the first time I'd ever seen someone attempt special effects with DV, nicely done

As for the comments about the cutting on music, I think there is some truth that cutting on music too long will become predicatable, especially if you do it too long. Sometimes cutting to music is highly effective when it is motivated.

For example I think the criticisms are coming because the beginning, its just a bunch of establishing shots cut on music, its not particularly motivated. However I think also its the nature of your music, in that it stands outside the action. Like Kubrick's 2001, the music he used was transcendental, in that it wasn't written to underline the action, but exist outside of it(in the words of Roger Ebert), so he didnt cut to music.

So my suggestion is, to make a few cuts on music if you like, but not enough so that audiences catch on and it ends up being predictable and lose its surprise appeal.

Overall, I still thought it looked great

Thanks Young
I'm planning on changing most of the cuts in the first part. I'm just getting swamped with work (yay?) so I don't have time to get to it until the middle of July. Still, it will be done! :)

I really enjoyed watching this - especially thought the B&W compositions were great. The Moonlight (Sonata quasi una fantasia) fits well. The minor key really enhances the feeling of mystery. But listeners familiar with this piece expect it (especially this movement) to convey a sense of tranquility. It is marked to be played "most delicately" ("Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissamamente e senza sordino.") while this performance seems quite ham fisted. That would not be noticed by people unfamiliar with the piece but is disturbing to those who are. Perhaps that is exactly your intention?

A.J.

Hey Dylan,

I get a "file not found" notice. I wanna see!

Since it's B&W, have you considered using some post filters that mimick black and white photography films? I've seen some that with a simple click will give you a Tri-X look, an Ilford look...whatever.

John: the first link is gone indeed, but the second link is still
working. It's halfway down the thread.

Very nice, Dylan...it looked like a black & white coffee table book come to life. Nice imagery. And forget my suggestion on filters (I hadn't seen it yet). Some of the whites are overblown, but I expect that's because I'm on a Mac.

I think that was by design, John! (the overblown whites)

Thanks for the comments on the music and photography!

John
Rob is correct, it is blown out on purpose (done in post).

AJ
As far as the music goes, I chose that one because I could get it cheap! :) Sorry, I wish I could say that variation was chosen on purpose. I don't really know enough about classical music, so your comments are very appreciated!

Well now...I knew you intended it to be somewhat overblown...but remember the gamma is different between PCs and Macs. On a PC, it looks perfect. On a Mac, it's a tad too overblown, in my opinion.

John
What's a Mac?

Heh heh heh...
Just kidding.

Seriously though, you watched it on both a Mac and PC and it seemed right on the PC but overblown on the Mac?
There is quite a bit more brightness/contrast work for me to do in it. There are a few shots that I'm going to tone back a bit, and some I want to bring up. Just too much other editing on my plate for now. Sigh.

Hi Dylan...

I have an eMac (has a CRT) and what I said still stands. It did looked a little washed out in some areas, but it suited the film.

A.J. hit it right on with the music. Dylan, I don't know how one goes about buying rights to music... is there any way to find another rendition of Moonlight Sonata? This version did sound harsh, not soft like I have heard in the past. It would suit the film better.

What's a Mac? Boy, I oughta....

Anyway... I'm not sure of the equivalent software for PC, but Cleaner compression software allows you to output Mac and PC versions (different gamma levels), and also gives you the web page code that'll sniff out which platform is being used by the visitor and fetch the appropriate film for them.

Cleaner is also available for the PC, but I've had some troubles
when testing that product once. The only other thing that comes
to mind for the PC is Canopus ProCoder. I'm not sure whether it
has this very specific feature (most PC software seems to be PC
oriented only).