Hey everyone,
thought I'd start my thread a bit early just in case I'm asleep when the link's posted. I put my name in the title because I guess my title wasn't as original as I thought it would be and there's another video with the same title, so make sure you're referring to the right video here.

Anyways, onto the technical: the "film" was shot with a Canon XL2 (I can share settings later if anyone's interested) and edited/compressed using Final Cut Pro 5. Other gear used included a Manfrotto M525/501 tripod and a few other minor things.

We shot most of it over one long day with about 2 more hours of shooting over a couple of days the following week. It was then edited in a few hours over a couple of days, mostly because it's exam season and we couldn't get together very often to get it done all at once.

It was shot in two locations, with the main backdrop being York University just north of Toronto and the second being in Mississauga.

All in all, we enjoyed this a lot and learned a huge amount by participating in the challenge and since it was my first one, I look forward to future ones and hope everyone enjoys the film.


I look forward to reading and responding to your questions/comments/criticism.

Andrew Khalil

well, I guess something strange is going on since the link to my film wasn't posted, hopefully Dylan can help me out since I just sent an email.

Hi Andrew,

I was just wondering where your film was as well. I remember you posting this thread. Will keep an eye out for it.

Best wishes~
Bradley

would it be a bad idea to just post the link myself here? I know it's not allowed, but I don't know why it hasn't been posted and I really hope nothing is wrong. Could some confusion have happened because my title was the same as someone else's?

Andrew,

I personally have no objection to you posting your link however, I am NOT the Rule Maker.

I see that you sent an e-mail to Dylan and would guess that when he receives it, he will contact you. May be best to hang on a little while longer.

Best wishes~
Bradley

yeah, that's what I'm thinkin too. I guess I'll wait to see what Dylan says.

Nice film Andrew, sorry we didn't see it.

You know what's funny too is that I thought I remember Dylan saying in a post somewhere there were 26 entries. By my count, we had 6 days of 4 posts, and todays had 5, so that makes 29, and we haven't seen yours yet. Go figure.

so could it be there are more tomorrow? He said that was it though, so I'm hoping mine still gets posted today or tomorrow morining.

I won't vote till we see some resolution....

it's finally up everyone - thanks Dylan.
Hope everyone enjoys it

Not bad, Andrew, not bad at all. I thought the voiceover was a bit unusual, I think some plain old "intimate, disembodied voice" would have worked better. The reverb here seemed to mix in with the music at certain points, made the dialogue somewhat difficult to make out, and beside that made it seem like she was trapped in a box somewhere. Not sure why that image sprang to mind, but the reflecty, small room sound to the voice implied confinement (of the narrator) to my ears. Maybe that's just me.

The color saturation in this really stood out, I like the look you've achieved. Lighting was good too, and I thought the shot of the rear view mirror in her car was outstanding. The light was maybe a bit orange to seem completely natural, but the half-lit, half-shadowed face made up for that. Nice job!

In all honesty, I was wondering how everyone would respond to the voiceover having the reverb to it - I originally tried it without it and it just felt too "dry." I do see your point however, I just hope it isn't too difficult to make out - I guess I've heard it so many times I'd never really have that problem, but I'm interested to hear other people give their opinion about the voiceover.

Glad you liked the lighting and colour - I'd have to say that cinematography is the part of filmmaking I enjoy the most, so good to hear that it looks nice.

thanks for the comments

I fully agree with all of Robert's assessments: the image quality of the shots was outstanding, and I also found the reverby voiceover a little distracting and occasionally hard to make out.

Very nice cinemetography! Did you do anything special to get the small depth of field in some shots (e.g., hands on the keyboard)?

Bill

I acheived the shallow depth of field by keeping the iris fully open and zooming in which pretty much accomplished what I wanted without much effort - the long lens on the XL2 is awesome for that, but there were a few shots which I didn't use where the depth of field was actually too shallow and distracted from the shot, so I try not to use it a huge amount. In the outdoor shots, I dialed the gain all the way down to -3 and was using both ND filters at certain points to keep the iris as wide open as I could.

I guess next time I'll get someone to help me out with the audio - if there is anything she says that you want me to clarify, let me know, but I hope is doesn't detract too much from it overall.

Andrew:

Images were great, but the voice over was just hard to follow. I had it up on my surround stereo system, and still had trouble discerning what was being said.

Hi Andrew!

Finally got that link up. Glad it got posted.

I really liked your cinematography. You achieved a very nice look throughout your film. Brittany seems comfortable in front of the camera too and I thought her performance was quite natural and very good.

I guess what seemed to be missing for me, was more conflict. This young lady seems rather well adjusted. For one to be asking such a deep question "Who Am I?" the struggle wasn't happening.

Maybe intercutting a sad/distressed face with a visual representation of self actualization. A pencil writing the words so hard the lead breaks, the paper shreads then a fresh spring flower. An empty chair, then a strange eyeball looking in the rearview mirror. Just a thought. Something to show the internal conflict as well as the many sides of such deep thoughts.

An XL2! Shot my flick on an XL1s. I noticed you mentioned a -3dB gain too. Was using similar settings. Did you record the VO on the XL2?

Keep making movies Andrew

Best wishes~
Bradley

I was able to get better sound the second time, and got a better idea of the film. I wasn't able to put my finger on what I felt was missing, but B. Marlow got it right. Seemed to be missing a real issue for resolution and the reason for the film therefore comes into question. Your subject's attitude and life seemed pretty normal, and going fine... so what's the problem?

Well, I think you win for the least troubled soul:-)

Nice positive feeling short, but I kind of missed the story or point you were trying to make. was she reflecting on who she was to confirm that she was on the right path? Let me watch it again.

Bradley, I know what you mean - at first, I wanted to make it somewhat depressing and have more conflict in it, but then we both thought about it and we wanted to make our character appear as someone who was happy with who she was, even though who she is is a mystery, if that makes any sense lol.
I'll make sure I show her the comments you guys made on her acting - she'll be really happy because it was her first time acting in front of a camera, so that'll be good news to her.
I don't understand the last question (sorry) - what do you mean the "VO on the XL2."

thanks for all the feedback everyone - I'm really happy with how everyone on this board is so constuctive - it really helps me and I can't wait to apply what everyone is saying to my next video.

Hi Andrew,

Yes, I'm sorry. I was wondering if you did the voice over (VO) with your XL2. Or, what recording device did you use for the voice over?

Best wishes~
Bradley

oh, for the voiceover I did record it on the XL2 using an AKG 535 (not 100% sure if that's what it was) condenser mic which has worked very well for many other scenarios involving voice as well - only thing is you have to be really close in order for it to pick up anything which is good to avoid background noise and stuff like that.

Thanks Andrew,

Was wondering. I used the stock mic on the XL1s for my film and also for the voice over in Meryems film "Still Life". Of course for hers, I got up real close to the mic.

Do you find the AT535 condenser mic pretty clean or does it tend to pick up a lot of room noise?

Best Wishes~
Bradley

bradley cut right to the heart of the matter...it's a profound question, but the exploration is a bit flat. i don't think i would need it to be depressing, exactly, but more profound, yes. i mean, there are entire schools of thinking devoted to pondering the illusory quality of this entire earth experience. which is maybe more esoteric than you would want to be. (i'm just suggesting that approach as a possible alternative to depressing....) but something besides simply asserting the protagonist's "am-ness" seems in order, otherwise what's the point? some sort of dramatic tension is missing.
also, i think the music bed you've selected gets a bit repetitive, which contributes to that effect of not enough dramatic tension.

but you've put together some nice looking cinematopgraphy and the acting is very good and natural, as everyone has already mentioned. i'm probably coming across as sounding more critical than i actually felt while watching it. you did a very nice job. i always appreciate someone tackling a subject with a bit of depth.

yeah, I think depth is something I'd agree it could use. In terms of music, I think audio in general is what I need to improve in - I usually work with people who are just devoted to audio, so I usually never have to worry about it but in this case, I guess that caught up with me. I don't mind critical - in fact, I don't think I get enough of it most of the time so I'm fully open to it.

In terms of the audio gear, I found the name of the mic and it's called the AKG C535. If that's the mic you're referring to, it's a very good vocal and instrument mic (not a shotgun) and it sounds very good and clean. It does eliminate room noise simply because you need to almost hold it up to whatever you want to record - it won't really record someone speaking from far away like a shotgun would. I've never used an AT535, so perhaps someone who has can comment on it.