DVC #3 "IRIS The KILLER" - Feedback

[Fredrik-Larsson]

Originally Posted by Bradley L Marlow

You mentioned: "...in the beginning there is a ride/cymbal that gets cut off too fast." Not sure I follow the meaning of ride/cymbal. Can you tell me more? I'm very interested.

It's about 0:31. It can be a crash, part of the drumset. It's about to whirl and then abrubtly gets cut off when you move to the flowers. A couple of seconds fade out would solve it.

[Meryem Ersoz]

you're a good sport, too, bradley. i'm glad you didn't take what i said personally, as i did not intend it that way.

the jackson hole wildlife film festival is taking place this week, and it is supposed to be fantastic. wyoming is big, though, and i'm not sure where riverton is in relation.

[Bradley L Marlow]

Originally Posted by Stephen van Vuuren

Very nice job with the shots inside the test, especially CU's of Iris' face.

Spill the technical details - camera, settings, lighting, post...

Thank you Stephen! I love getting these comments from past and current DV Challenge veterans.

I have some details on this thread concerning the equipment and a bit of the process:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthre...47&page=3&pp=15

Here is some more information-

Indoor Lighting: The lighting we used for Bert and Chuck was a small Britek kit literally just purchased and that was the first time I've tried that. It had one 650 watt with a 24x24 softbox and one 300 watt with barndoors and an orange gel. Set the camera on manual WB to a sheet of white paper and set the exposure around 0 to ¾ under.

Exterior Lighting: The only lighting (tent) used was the Coleman lantern, a headlamp and the faintest amount of natural light that was just beginning to come up. We shot this over two days very early in the morning…before sunrise with one shot at late at night.

Camera Settings: Wanted a cool/cold look so set the white balance manually on the Canon XL1S to an off blue (before going up there). Not totally blue like what you would see with mixing outdoor lighting and indoor WB. The weather was only agreeable late at night and early morning-which was most fortunate. Shot the majority of this in full manual mode and tried to keep the exposure between 1-2 stops under.

[Bradley L Marlow]

Originally Posted by Josh Johnson

"Nuttier than a two-timing ex-wife with a bi-polar disease"

I laughed so much after that line I about cried... I don't know why... (Actually I do, but that's a bit personal) :)

I really liked it... It looks great and the dialogue was great. I liked how it was based off a legend as well. I know in the town I grew up in we had a "Crazy Mary" and everyone thought she was an insane killer... (I think she was blind too)

-Josh

Hey Josh...lol! Crazy Mary!!! See? I think there is an urban legend in every town. I'm glad you laughed until you cried.

Perhaps now you might spill the personal reasons? Love to hear a bit about that!

[Bradley L Marlow]

Originally Posted by Lorinda Norton

BRADLEY L. MARLOW. I'm keeping an eye on the name and the man. He's an amazing storyteller, visual and lighting artist, is just nutty enough to keep things really interesting :) .......the list goes on and on.

As for this movie, it's multi-faceted: poignant, funny, intelligent, quirky. Great work, Brad!!!

Lorinda from Spudville-Yay! Thank you very much. You are very kind!

[Josh Johnson]

Originally Posted by Bradley L Marlow

Perhaps now you might spill the personal reasons? Love to hear a bit about that!

haha, well... basically, I have a two-timing ex-wife who I suspect is bi-polar. :) (And no her name is not Mary)

-Josh

[Bradley L Marlow]

Originally Posted by Sean McHenry

Simple really. If a visually impaired person can take noteworthy photographs, so miuch so that they would be used by major news organizations, then it goes to say that a blind photographer is apparently better than the bunch of photojournalists out in the field. Seems to say you have a dislike or distrust of photojournalism. I think that's about right but I will say photojournalists have stayed truer to journalism than the folks that deliver the evening news. Especially on a local level. I quit watching news because, for some unknown reason, it seems to have become OK for those unbiased bastions of journalistic integrity to give me their opinions. Opinions aren't journalism. In fact they are anti-journalistic.

Then again, maybe I'm just reading too darned much into that part.

I'm a bitter 16 year veteran of NBC and local news. Does it show?

Sean

Edit - sorry, dragging it OT again. I'm good at that.

No need to apologize Sean- I'm with you. Agree completely and actually have a wild conspiracy theory that our primary media is controlled by unknown and unseen forces that just want to spoon feed us dribble and spin. It seems I can get better and more accurate news from overseas sources. Dislike/distrust...yes I'll certainly admit to that all the while hoping not to offend those hard working souls in the business just doing their jobs and getting by.

16 years Sean...wow! Care to share maybe one bitter example? Most fascinating!

[Bradley L Marlow]

Originally Posted by Fredrik-Larsson

It's about 0:31. It can be a crash, part of the drumset. It's about to whirl and then abrubtly gets cut off when you move to the flowers. A couple of seconds fade out would solve it.

OH! I know exactly what you mean now! (duh...lol)

Yes...I actually wanted that abrupt cut off with the whirl/crash...straight to black...straight to the story deal but can certainly see how adding a few seconds fade might work. Thank you Fredrik.

[Bradley L Marlow]

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

you're a good sport, too, bradley. i'm glad you didn't take what i said personally, as i did not intend it that way.

the jackson hole wildlife film festival is taking place this week, and it is supposed to be fantastic. wyoming is big, though, and i'm not sure where riverton is in relation.

Thanks Meryem- I know you meant no harm and truly appreciate your comments. Helps me become more aware of such things. I remember one of my film teachers beating me about the head (not literally) for using a "heartbeat" sound. He explained it in the same way.

I need to get out mere Meryem...lol. Jackson Hole is about 3 hours drive from here. Beautiful place! I would love to try to enter their film festival!

[Bradley L Marlow]

Originally Posted by Josh Johnson

haha, well... basically, I have a two-timing ex-wife who I suspect is bi-polar. :) (And no her name is not Mary)

-Josh

JOSH- You poor guy...lol

[Tyler Baptist]

Really well done short, Bradley! At first, when I read the title, I thought it was maybe a take off of Ichi the Killer somehow. :P

Very good use of light and camera angles. I see you used the "Killer Camera Rigs" book. I just got that and can't wait to start building stuff from it. I really liked your dialogue and story telling. Excellent job!

[Bradley L Marlow]

Originally Posted by Tyler Baptist

Really well done short, Bradley! At first, when I read the title, I thought it was maybe a take off of Ichi the Killer somehow. :P

Very good use of light and camera angles. I see you used the "Killer Camera Rigs" book. I just got that and can't wait to start building stuff from it. I really liked your dialogue and story telling. Excellent job!

Hi Tyler,

Thank you very much for your comments and I'm glad you enjoyed the film.

Let me tell you, that book by Dan Selakovich is terrific! I spent about a month prior to this contest building the Kiss Crane, the Dolly, the sand bags and even the Car Mount (though I didn't use the mount in this film).

Hauling all the equipment up the mountain was a bit of a pain but on the grand scheme of things, if it was the real deal, I would have spent thousands of dollars on big heavy gear and had to rent a U-Haul. With this gear, was able to fit everything into my truck and was thrilled with the results. Of course, had plumbing pipe and a homemade camera mount sticking several feet out of the back of the truck so I tied an old orange rain slicker on the end.

Up at the mountain site, two old boys rode in on their quads...stopped...shut off the engine and stared blankly at the crane contraption mounted to the dolly. One guy said, "Uh, what the hell is that?" I said, "It's a crane for a camera. I'm shooting a short film up here." The other fellow said, "Huh. I thought it was some sort of shower." lol!

On another note: I wrote to Dan on two occasions with questions on some of the rigs. He replied very quickly and helped me through. Highly recommended! You will love that book Tyler.

[Nick Hiltgen]

Bradley, I totally dug the title, I think the rev cymbal (I belive that's what it's called) was the right decision straight to black not a fade out. I think raising the volume a little more on the rev leading to black would have made even more of an effect.

Also from a sound standpoint I scored my movie with soundtrack loops as well, a fun thing you can do in garageband is create your own loops after which you can lay soem other loops on top and even if you're using 80% stock loops with the noticble new one, you won't run the risk of sounding like everyone else.

All of your shots were really well lit and I enjoyed watching your movie. I think someone had commented on bringing the stories together a little better and I agree with that. I mean the story about a story thing is cool but being able to tie the two together is even cooler.

over all i think it's a great job.

[Stephen van Vuuren]

Originally Posted by Bradley L Marlow

I have some details on this thread concerning the equipment and a bit of the process:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthr...47&page=3&pp=15

Thanks so much for the info - I've used the manual WB as well with great results - yours looked great as well.

BTW, the link above is bust and I could figure out the missing parts.

[Sean McHenry]

OK, one quick reason I got out of TV - by request.

Ah, I'll start a thread someplace and point you to it later. Maybe I'll write a book about it someday.

More later on that.

Sean