I hope you have fun watching this film. I had a lot of fun making it with my four granddaughters and the dog Bugeye. Bugeye belongs to my mother in law, but really belonged to Gordon Hevern my father in law who passed in August. This is Bugeye's 3rd appearance in one of my films.

I documented in another thread the fact that I had another film planned, but my illness ended that shoot. In some ways I am glad I had the chance to do this with my grand daughters.

This film was shot with the Canon 5D Mark II, primarily with a Nikon 50mm F 1.4 non-AI lens. I did use a Canon 28-80mm for the outdoor shot, a Nikon 135mm lens for a shot too.

Sound was a bit of an adventure. Since it was just me and the kids, I mounted a Rode NTG-2 on a boom mic stand getting it as close as possible without being in shot. I recorded it to a simple Tascam DR-07 using my a Sign ENG44 field mixer. I did not go with Magic Lantern on this shoot because I just didn't have anyone to wrangle cable on direct hook up to camera. If I had it to do over again, I probably would have done that, because it was a pain trying to match shots to the sound track. Since recorder was away from me, I would not go over and turn it off between takes.

Here are links again:

YouTube - Aunt Matilda's Present (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh27g8TOGlA)

Aunt Matilda's Present on Vimeo

Chris,
This was fun to watch. I enjoyed it.
Nice to see one of your videos with actors too, since I have seen many of your uwol entries already. You did well, and so did the actresses too.

The soundtrack was a good choice.

Well done! Thank you for sharing.

Chris- I laughed when Bugeye ate (slobbered) the meat off the bread, then later the kid finished the bread.
The oldest girl is like Drew Barrymore.
'Whatever' , and 'I hate raisins...' were funny lines, delivered perfectly.
I'll never look at fruitcake the same again...Great comedy.

Chris,

It's fun to work with kids. Love your grandchildren. Like the bohke of the Christmas lights as kids turn to go inside. Love the colors in the kitchen. Love the dog. Liked him eating at the dinner table. Looks like he’s done that before. Dog was a good actor. Loved him growling at the fruitcake.

Kids started eating their pizza when fruit cake arrived Reminded me of my grandmothers fruitcake cookies. She had an excuse though, she had a lobotomy in the forties.

This fire is nice, no blown out white when you show the flames. BTW, it was some of your 5D footage that convinced me to get the Canon 7D. I might try to rig out my camera like you have with a follow focus and such. Greate youtube video showing how you did that.

Love the little girl lighting by the fire. But the wider shot of the group of kids was pretty dark. Don't know if you meant it that way, but I might have tried for soem back edge lighting in that one.

Good girl screams. Thought the fruitcake took the first fall a little to easily. Like to see him bounce up and couch a bit like he's a wounded animal ready to spring. But I don't know After Effects, and you probably would have to use something like that to get some movement in your fruticake. Dog had a much wider emotional range that the fruticake. Just saying...

When the kids go to hhunt down the fruitcake, I'd like to have seen few shots of hide and seek, like they were goign after an Alien. Maybe the fruitcake POV of the kids through a small crack in the door.

You grandkids were bad shots. Point blank range and couldn't take out the fruitcake. Maybe add a little slow mo there, as I had to rewind to see if they missed or not. I'd like to have seen a fruitcake dodge move.

Raisens? I suppose it's what a fruitcake would use for defense. Walnuts would sting more ;)

The best thing about working with kids is knowing you are doing a job they will remember for their entire lives. You are creating memories, and that's a very good thing. Keep healthy and keep on making them!

The last of your entries I saw used a revolver. I think I prefer raisins. And I loved the warpaint. A fun story, as always. It was reassuring (as a camcorder guy) to hear the real skinny on what it's like to live with video and audio coming from different machines.

Great fun, Chris, I and my gf really liked this piece!
One of my fav moments was when that fruitcake started acting all strange and prepared to attack - I even spilled my drink and we were laughing aloud.
For some reason remembered "The attack of killer tomatoes". :) The dog was a great addition, really loved him in the role.

I agree with Dick that a few more battle/stealth scenes would have enriched the experience and also the final battle could have been longer, and the dark scenes asked for a bit of more light on the subjects, but it's just details.

Kind of interesting on the dark scenes. I played my original upload, and it is more detailed and better in the dark scene, but it seems the transcoding to both Vimeo and Youtube has resulted in a bit of loss. Has anyone downloaded my original from Vimeo to compare ?

Thanks everyone for the comments and input !

That was a funny film, I like how the fruit cake is sort of floating outside the door waiting for them. I also liked the underlining theme music and how you added the dog growl in the scene when it was clear that Bugeye more wanted eat the cake then growl at it (and his eyes are really Bugeyed!)

I love it, Chris. It was very well done and your actors did a great job!

The 5d looks absolutely beautiful, as usual, and I love the way you're using DOF.

The lighting is fantastic, and I personal like the fireplace scene the way it looks. The eerie flickering light with the dark edges gives it a perfect ominous feel.

It was a great story as well, very creative with plenty of humor.

I haven't posted much on this forum yet, but I've been around, and I've seen a lot of your previous projects and this one is my favorite of yours so far.

Great work!

Kind of interesting on the dark scenes. I played my original upload, and it is more detailed and better in the dark scene, but it seems the transcoding to both Vimeo and Youtube has resulted in a bit of loss. Has anyone downloaded my original from Vimeo to compare ?

Thanks everyone for the comments and input !

Youtube does seem to darken things a bit. My bedroom scene ended up darker than I intended. I think the youtube transcoding boosts contrast a little bit. Something to think about.

You could be on to something very big.
My 9 yr old daughter watched it, loved it and wanted to watch it again.
Hannah Montana, and iCarly watch out, here come The Ferguson Sisters.

*If anyone is reading this and hasn't seen the film, be warned there's a spoiler here.*

Chris,

The more times I watch this film the funnier it gets! (I've seen it about four times now.) There's a lot going on here. You and the girls wove a great tale, and subtleties can get lost if a person only views it once.

Setting up Aunt Matilda for what she is the way you all did it couldn't have been done better, in my opinion. The dark room, the fire...perfect setting for perfect dialog. Then later I had to laugh that a witch could conjure up the technology to shoot raisins from a fruitcake--"muzzle flash" and everything! Loved it!

Can't forget to mention that Bugeye *almost* stole the show. Him growling at the fruitcake was hilarious.

Tell the girls they did a great job writing and acting. Funny lines, funny expressions, raisins up the nose... :)

And that last line from the youngest one with the great timing, "Well, thank you, Aunt Matilda..." just cracked me up.

As always, Chris--great job!!

Chris,

I had a good laugh with this one and it holds up to what I always expect from your work!

The kids were great but the little one was my favorite, the end was awesome!!!!


My biggest laugh was the dog growling!!! that made it!!!!

I also expected the oldest to come back from the door and eat some of the pizza after the dog had his off it!!! then open the parcel!! Of course that may have been to much for what your intent was!! You had me hanging though!!!


thanks ever so much for this film!!!

Thank you all for the nice comments.

Kenzie (the youngest) has avoided my films since we did Light Rider a ways back.... she got blown up in that one, and with it, and the one where she played the little girl who was blinded by her mother dropping a Christmas Angel and blinding her, she shied away for a while. But she got enthused about this one, so I thought the closing scene would be fun with her being the hero...

Yeah, if we had more time, I would probably have added another scene with the fruitcake coming to life, adding some scare factor....

Once again, thank you all for watching !

So there I was today, minding my own business, not bothering anyone, when suddenly the image of the barrel of a gun wiggling out of a fruitcake popped into my mind and I started chuckling. Hopefully no one noticed, sheesh...

Damn that Bugeye has got the skillz!

As I post my comments on each of the films tonight I finally come to Chris Barcellos's. For those who don't know, Chris and I often collaborate, and in fact I had written a script for the film he had planned to do but which didn't happen. (This year for other reasons I was unable to assist in the making of that film, or for that matter the film he did make and post here. Like the rest of you I had to wait and see it here, knowing nothing about it in advance.)

So, anyway, I know Chris pretty well. My observations therefor come from a slightly different vantage.

Chris has always been better behind the camera than I am, and while I keep learning, in most of our productions he generally acts as principal camerman, I sometimes fill in or shoot 2nd camera. When Chris got his 5D, I noticed that his camera work started showing changes. Less formulaic, more varied in angles and moving camera. I think in this film his camera work is the best he has done. I felt the editing was unobtrusive as well. (Chris and I usually edit differently but he is much better overall than I am, so I usually do the fine tuning when we disagree on something and then we revisit it).

I do however generally handle sound, and am constantly chiding Chris about this or that and being fussy - and he rolls his eyes. In this film, he did it all himself, and I know he had to mix at least 3 tracks of sound on the timeline. I guess my fussiness must have rubbed off because I thought the soundtrack was terrific - something I have not always said in the past. He has me (in a way) to thank for the Fruitcake sounds... Buffalo noises we gathered for my last entry in the UWOL challenge... he still had them on his computer.

The actors (including Bugeye) were very good I thought. His grandkids probably have more acting experience than some young Hollywood starlets. They are a fun bunch to shoot with. Their enjoyment was evident in their performances.

I know Chris had fun with this one. It thought it was a very enjoyable watch, especially for someone who knows him well and his grandkids too.

Great film Chris. Technically and thematically.

Chris S.

Hey Chris,

Great job... I think the real 'Gift' here is to be able to share your work and passion with your grandchildren. That is awesome.

Gotta love Bugeye!