DVC 12 "Guests"
 

This is an experimental piece showing different guests of a hotel room at the same time of day on different days.

This is my first time entering the DVC, what an experience! It was brutal, but I'm looking forward to DVC 13

Technical specs: Shot on a hd100 using true color V3, Letus adapter with a Nikon 14mm AI lens, Audio technica mic. Cut in FCP 6 with no color correction.

Enjoy!

I really enjoyed this piece. I think it fit with the theme of change perfectly. What could possibly see more change than a hotel room!??

The only thing I would suggest would be to have used one solid lock down shot so that when you cut between all the guests the only thing changing would have been the people not the background. Hard to do with so many people coming in and out of the room.

I loved the concept. Very artsy. I agree with Jeremy the only thing I would have changed was the lack of a locked down shot.

great job
Best of luck

Not a good day for my computer monitor to be between two windows, I'll tell you that much. Once I pulled the curtains, things got much more viewable, but I'm still having trouble making out the details of the characters involved. Is there a thread that runs through all these different people, or is the lack of same what makes you classify it "experimental"? I still think the experiment was mostly successful. Could have been brighter, but I know what that's like, I've shot plenty of dark footage myself.

The idea was intriguing, and beside the slight jitter, I think you pulled it off. About the hotel room, may I ask how you did it? Real hotel, redressed living room, something else? Looks like the real thing to me. Speaking of which, I wonder how often they 'change' the sheets in these places. But that's another DVC.

Interesting editing (in a good way). It definitely shows that you didn't let yourself get lazy. The picture was well done (though I concur that a locked-down shot would have been better), but, oddly enough, I felt that the sound was the most powerful aspect of this piece. I could almost have watched this with my eyes closed and still had a rewarding experience. Thanks.

Thanks for the comments guys, they really mean a lot.

We were actually going for a locked down shot, I didnt notice the camera moved until we were in post! Same goes for the white balance. It was also a bit brighter in the LCD/Viewfinder, but the clips are really dark on my mac. They are fine on the DP's PC. Our lens only opened up to f3.4, If i had one of Alex's nifty pieces of change i would've probably sacrificed the wideness of the 14mm lens for a faster lens.

We actually rented a cheap hotel room and just shot for 7 hours without telling the management (definitely not reccomended, but when you only have 10 days.....)

Alex, the picture/sound editor/composer thanks you. this was the third short he's cut and second he's scored.

Keep 'em coming!

Jay

Heres an higher rez version (and slighly brightened) for the folks that could'nt see much on the youtube link
http://thepegasuscompany.com/vids/guest_h264_480p
http://thepegasuscompany.com/vids/guest_h264_720p

THe brighter high res version makes this much easier to watch. The mood music is good, and I get a creepy feeling watching it like I'm a voyer spying on motel guests. I wanted to jump out with my knife and start slashing...

Seriously, I was expecting a sex scene somewhere in there. It's a motel room... If not a sex scene, maybe a drug deal. See a little extreme behavior we wouldn't normally get to see... That's all I'd add. Beautiful piece though and very original idea.

I saw the 480p file, and Dick's correct, the brighter version is much more pleasant. Nice to see everyone's face, would you mind telling us which part you played?

But seeing sex scenes and drug deals, Dick...are you sure we didn't? I could swear some of that audio suggested more than met the eye. Thought I caught an "oh yeah" and a "baby" in there.

re "Guest"
 

Hi guys, my name is Lee Stokes and I am the co-producer & co-director of "Guest".

Regarding the sex element, I definitely agree that was one element missing and should have really been in place.
But you know how it is using actors that we couldn't pay, and also, none of the production team had met any of them, so it would be difficult to ask nearly total strangers act out sex scenes!

There is one drug scene, the dude in a white t-shirt with really short hair has just gotten back to his room with a score.

The older fellow with a light blue shirt that keeps looking out the window is waiting for his hooker, thats as close to the sexual element as we could get.

Thanks everyone for watching & taking the time to comment!

Lee

Great concept, you guys. I get frustrated, because I wonder about some of the stories going on there and I’m not smart enough to figure out ANY of them! Thanks for explaining a couple of them; now, what’s the story on the guy with the dog? :)

By the way, I get tired of movies including what I call "obligatory" sex scenes in them. I expected one here and am delighted that you left it out, regardless of the reason.

I also enjoyed the concept. I think it is difficult to pull this one off in a 3 minute film, because you really want to know more of about the characters. I also would have liked a little more lighting on the scenes. I will have to give the higher res versions a try. Good effort all around.

I like it -- a bold experimental piece that leaves you wondering about the characters. I enjoyed the fact that not everything is spelled out, and you're left to your own assumptions about each individual. How'd you come up with the idea?

Yeah, but for every high class person like Lorinda out there, there are five of us gratuitious, leering, um, ...

I missed the drug score first time through. I did sort of get the guy looking out the window. I kept expecting the hooker to show up too.

Thanks Joseph (and everyone else!). We were eating mexican food and shouting out ideas and someone mentioned looking at change from a more abstract perspective. After a while we ended up with this.

Robert, your gonna have to guess which one I am.

Lorinda - the guy with the dog is missing a key portion of the scene, he's audtioning for something. I'll have to persuade the editor to let me show it to you all.

Dick - Next time, all smut! just for you ;)

Any chance you're the one on the right (our right) sitting at the table with his buddy, laughing, in the white t-shirt?

HA! close! Thats the DP. I'm the big guy in the hoodie.

I think this was a really great idea. I love the story/concept :-) I also like experimental films like this one ;-) The music is great for setting the mood.

I love the way it's cut. These fast cuts works very well for me. When you're starting to get a clue of what's happening it disapears in the exact right moment to keep me interesting to see more ;-) I think that's great and keeps me interested in watching it to the end... and to see what happens in the end ;-) it could have been booring with slower cutting ;-)

My critique must be that the image is a littlebit to dark for my taste for wide shots like this... Especially on that low resolution youtube clip, I have to concentrate a lot to see what's going on in that dark room. Another critique is that I'm waiting for something really interesting to happen that never comes... This film would have been a winner if there was happening something more interesting things in that hotel room. I'm sitting all the time and wait for something more interesting than people just brushing their teeth and reading a book... I'm waiting for someone to dress up in a crazy outfit, prepairing for a crazy party... someone to be killed... take drugs... or to call a prostitute and have sex... SOMETHING controvercial in a way or another to keep me entertained. The film keeps me interested all the way to the end, but when the film is finished, I feel a bit disapointed that the film didn't show me what I expected if you know what I mean ;-)

Except from that, I LOVE this idea/story. I would love to see a remake of it with more dramatic content... because that would make this film a really excellent piece of work in my opinion ;-)

Hey Tor-Atle...
I agree that the darkness of the video is a little disappointing for us as well. We used a lens we didn't have time to test beforehand. Now we know. Hopefully you can view the links that Jay posted earlier in this thread, as they show up much better.

And two of the things you mention actually do take place in our piece (the drugs & the guy wiating for his hooker). But I know exactly what you mean about the overall effect when seen in its entirety, like it leaves you wanting more.
Two factors led to that... 1) using amateur actors we had never met before in a seedy motel in South San Francisco. Hardly the circumstances which makes them comfortable with anything too edgy. If we had more time to get to know them, and maybe having everything written down (we literally came up with a scenario for each of our actors as the arrived), maybe we could have pulled somethng more satisfying overall.
And 2) simply the length of the piece. I would love myself to see a longer cut of the movie. I will work on enticing the editor to re-cut it!

Thanks for your thoughts, very much appreciated!

Lee

Thanks! But seriously, no smut required.

However, a little good clean sexual chemistry is always welcomed!

Ah, man, I never get these things right. That's why I didn't guess the first time.

In the downloadable, brighter versions, did you have to compensate for vignetting from the lens, or is it just naturally that even across the picture? I've got my own adapter (not as good as a Letus, I'm sure), and a few lenses that work wonders, but I have one with a 35mm focal length that's a 3.5, and it vignettes like you wouldn't believe. I expected it to be dark, sure, but it falls off around the edges like crazy. Your lens is even wider, with a smaller aperture, and looks brighter edge-to-edge.

Strange, but then again I'm using a different camera, adapter, lens, and mount system, so any number of things could cause my problem. And I have a zoom lens, of all things, that goes to 35mm on the wide end but is bright as day and looks perfectly flat all the way across the image, so ... I just don't understand optics well enough, I suppose is the answer.

Lee: You're right, the drug is there ;-)
Please let us know if you make a re-cut... post it here ;-)
I'm sure we all would like to watch it ;-)

Robert, it totally was the lens. We rented some special one that had some kinda fancy correction (at least thats what the rental guy told me). I'm new to the whole 35mm adapter thing so I'm not sure, ill ask the dp about it more.