Hey everyone...

Just wanted to let you know about a very interesting site by one of our members, Steven-Marc Couchouron. The URL is http://www.ShadowGirlProject.com. I highly recommend you check it out, not only to see the trailers and read about the production...but also to pick up some tips on how to make your own skateboard dolly.

One thing, though...it's in French. So, for those who need a translation, go to http://babel.altavista.com and in the text box under "Translate a Web Page" paste in http://www.shadowgirlproject.com, then select "French to English" (or whatever language). The translation isn't anywhere near perfect, but it's good enough to understand the general meaning.

Check it out...it's worth it.

Thanks John !

The translation with babelfish is a bit... awkward! But we should have some info in English fairly soon.

I'll be happy to answer any questions here.

We are very happy that the film has been selected for the WorldFest in Houston next month. It will actually be the film's world premiere ! If any texans on the forum are planning on attending the festival it will be a pleasure to meet you. I will be there for a week with my co-director Isabelle.

Just tried to use the babelfish automated translator to translate a letter I wrote in English to German. I know some German, so was able to correct some of the more glaring mistakes.

Couldn't help but laugh when I saw my signature:

"Hans Henrik Bang"

had been translated to

"Hans Henrik Knall"

("knall is German for an explosion sound")

- but then my last name is rather unfortunate in English too :-)

Hans Henrik

Yes, babelfish gives weird results !

For those of you in the Houston area, the movie will be premiering at the WorldFest on Saturday, April 12, at 9:30 PM.
I believe it's at the Meyerland Plaza. You can get more info at www.worlfest.org

If any of you feel like attending please let me know as I can certainly get you some tickets.

I saw the first clip (http://www.projetshadowgirl.com/Teaser/DemoSG-DivX.avi) and many of the shots are very good. I especially like the medium and close shots of the female faces and the running shot in the forest. The contrast of the branches behind the girl with the ponytail as she seems fearful is an excellent composition.

I would love to hear a technical discussion about how you pulled off some of these shots. I'm impressed that you pulled these off with that PD150.

On the critical side, I think you should compromise on the size of these trailers. They are on the extreme side as far as downloading goes and I am on a very fast connection at work.

Oh and the music for all the clips is very good. Good choices.

for those of you wondering why its taking forever...this is a 46 MB file...click this page for full options (may want to translate in babel still)
http://www.projetshadowgirl.com/trailers.asp

Uh, yeah, sorry about that... I meant to put up some new material and a shorter clip a long time ago (and also translate the entire website) but producing an entire 95' feature almost by yourself (thankfully there's two of us) gets a bit time consuming. Especially when you also have to earn a living on the side ! :-)

I'm uploading a smaller (20MB) QT version as I write this, and will put up a smaller WM9 version also. The links will be on the page linked by Trey.

Don't bother with the ones under "Premier Teaser" as they don't contain actual footage from the movie.

The images from the Demo are untouched (ie. not color corrected) except of course for deinterlacing. This is a demo we made some time ago when we were only about halfway through shooting the film. I mean to put up some new trailers, but see comment above... ;-)

All the shots in the forest where done with our homemade stabilizer, using it as a low-angle grip for the shots on the running feet.

The shots I'm personnaly most proud of are those in the painter's studio where we were able to create a very clear environment without the highlights appearing all washed out or blown out, which tends to be a problem with video.

As for the medium and close shots of the faces, as I pointed out in another thread, I insisted on us not using traditionnal contrsty backlighting. The result being that the light in the shots is very soft, which (IMHO) helps achieving a nice "filmlike" effect... I only wicsh mini35 had existed at the time we shot the movie. There are certainly many things I would do differently today.

Thanks for the comments! :-)

Oh. And although the whole film was shot with an extremely low budget (what you'd call no-budget) we tried to always keep a very professionnal approach every step.

The QT and WM9 versions of the demo are now online and ready for download.

The musical pieces for the film are all original compositions by David Gordh. The "asian" sounding theme is by Nick Collins.

So, anybody else going to the WorldFest in Houston?