DVC 13 "A Sprinkling of Justice" by Paul Firth at DVinfo.net

Paul Firth · July 1st, 2008, 05:43 PM

The first two scenes from this movie actually happened pretty much as filmed. I was unable to find any actors except a friend of ours that actually is an opera major. My wife and I ended up with the other roles. We had a planning meeting the night before shooting that used up an entire bottle of scotch. The next morning we had 4 pages of notes that didn't make much sense and the title written really large and circled. The night before it seemed really important to have that title but none of us could really remember why.

I ended up doing the final editing while on a camping trip. There was no internet access so I drove to a nearby hotel with my laptop until I could "borrow" someone's wireless internet. Submitted 11:49pm local time.

We filmed with a Canon XH A1 and were very pleased with it. Like everyone else, my video also will view better if you select the "watch in high quality" setting on YouTube.

Notes I've made for future videos:
1. Save the cast party for AFTER the video is done.
2. Have the dialog written down. We filmed the phone scenes over a couple of days and had to do some serious cutting to get it to work. That's what happens when you go on memory of what the other person said.
3. If you are making a 5 minute movie, try not to have 48 minutes of footage to sort through.

Lorinda Norton · July 1st, 2008, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Firth

We had a planning meeting the night before shooting that used up an entire bottle of scotch. The next morning we had 4 pages of notes that didn't make much sense and the title written really large and circled. The night before it seemed really important to have that title but none of us could really remember why.

LOL! Well, after reading about your experience I have a feeling we may be in for a party here, too. Can't wait to hear more from you. :)

Hugh DiMauro · July 2nd, 2008, 03:49 AM

Let me get this out: Your montage cutting was awesome and it made your movie hilarious. In particular, your "director's" vocal timing was excellent. And that dude with the Viking hat? Priceless! Excellent acting all the way around! You lit the living room scene very well and I enjoyed this movie immensely.

You pushed the "luck" angle, however! Wisenheimer! ;-)

Paul Firth · July 2nd, 2008, 06:43 AM

Our first day of shooting, Jacob actually brought the viking hat with him--wasn't in the script. He keeps one in his trunk in case he needs it.

Lorinda Norton · July 2nd, 2008, 01:41 PM

“...and then, at the very end, maybe...” --Great line, and great cut for the response! Loved it.

Paul, you and your family work so well together it makes whatever you do enjoyable to watch. It’s an easy style that I like a lot. You did a great job of making the phone calls seem real, as well.

Then there’s the opera guy. Tell him I really appreciated his acting, too –in his first scene he somehow reminded me of Matt Damon in (I think) Oceans Eleven, and I thought he did very well. You did a marvelous job of improvising on the hat bit, by the way.

As Hugh noted, I think you reached some on the theme, but I don’t care; this was a fun film and I’m really glad we got to watch it.

Mugurel Dragusin · July 2nd, 2008, 06:04 PM

I enjoyed the editing on this one, was well done, enhancing the mood and story. You all did a good job as made the characters quite believable.

The step-zoom thing you did (probably done in post) was a good way capture attention. Obviously the part with the hat was hilarious! :) Thanks for the laugh!

Bruce Foreman · July 3rd, 2008, 12:00 AM

The more I watch this one, the funnier it gets. Lighting, camera work, audio all were very well done. And it takes very good acting to turn something nonsensical into something really funny like this.

I've got a hunch the title was something someone found incredibly funny towards the bottom of that bottle, but you folks made it work.

And that last spoken line..."Bring in..."

Totally cracked me up.

Dick Mays · July 3rd, 2008, 02:06 PM

"It wasn't that bad of movie last time," "Opera is probably close enough." "I felt good about that." "just like an Opera without the singing."

Very funny, funny lines.

Paul, Great honesty in your work. Loved the relationship between you and your wife. Also really loved the phone call to the actors. Been there done that. "SAMMMMYYY!"

Great lighting too. Enjoyed this one. Wanted to see the ninjas!

Kris Holodak · July 3rd, 2008, 02:27 PM

Ok, I really literally laughed out loud on the line "If you've done opera that's probably close enough." And then he sang. It was great. Trying to only watch once before I comment I don't even know if the production quality was good because I was so caught up in the story. Though I suppose it was good enough not to be distracting.

The phone conversation with the wife at the beginning was especially well written. Ad libbed? It felt very real. And while I'm not usually a fan of jump cuts, that whole opening bit of trying to find the actor was really great. As someone who's live through that, it also felt very real.

Smile,
Kris

Joseph Tran · July 4th, 2008, 03:22 PM

Hey Paul -- nice film! Well lit, nicely framed, and tight editing! I would've loved to have finished a bottle of scotch during my shoot... haha. And where in the world did you get that ice cream truck?

I noticed you've got some sound 'blips' from one cut to another -- for example, when you cut from you on the phone to your wife, and she's already in mid breath. It's only in a few shots, and not very noticeable. Perhaps if you try a quarter to half second fade-in of her audio, for example, you'll get a cleaner audio transition from one to the other.

Overall, I think the others pretty much covered everything -- it's a great project!

Matt McLain · July 6th, 2008, 07:41 PM

This was pretty funny. I really liked that opera singer, his interpretation of the director's instructions were always really fun to watch. And I have to agree, ninjas in anything automatically make it better. I don't think the jump cuts worked so well in the beginning, but they definitely made the scenes following move a lot better. Good work.

Paul Firth · July 6th, 2008, 09:01 PM

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. I agree--some of the cuts in dialog in the first scene were not as good as it could have been. We actually had taped twice as much dialog as was finally used. My first cut came in at 9 minutes and I had to cut out half of the dialog from every scene. Unfortunately, that left us with some cuts mid-sentence that was very difficult to "fix" in post. Same with some of the zoom cuts--we had to get rid of dialog but only had one take to work with. Next time I'll be sure to do at least 2 camera views of the dialog. In all my free time :)

I would have done some more work with the soundtrack as well especially some of the timing issues during the screening. I literally made the soundtrack in SonicFire in about 10 minutes, rendered, and posted to YouTube with less than 30 minutes before deadline.

Why is it with a 2 week deadline, I still waited until the last 3 days to do all the work?

I also agree that the "luck" theme was a stretch. Those lines of dialog in the beginning and end seem forced to me. The problem (which I'm sure you can all relate to) is that when the idea for the film came to me I couldn't seem to come up with any other ideas (and I wanted to shoot the film that I envisioned).

July 1st, 2008, 05:43 PM	#1
Paul Firth Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Elk City, OK Posts: 34	DVC 13 "A Sprinkling of Justice" by Paul Firth The first two scenes from this movie actually happened pretty much as filmed. I was unable to find any actors except a friend of ours that actually is an opera major. My wife and I ended up with the other roles. We had a planning meeting the night before shooting that used up an entire bottle of scotch. The next morning we had 4 pages of notes that didn't make much sense and the title written really large and circled. The night before it seemed really important to have that title but none of us could really remember why. I ended up doing the final editing while on a camping trip. There was no internet access so I drove to a nearby hotel with my laptop until I could "borrow" someone's wireless internet. Submitted 11:49pm local time. We filmed with a Canon XH A1 and were very pleased with it. Like everyone else, my video also will view better if you select the "watch in high quality" setting on YouTube. Notes I've made for future videos: 1. Save the cast party for AFTER the video is done. 2. Have the dialog written down. We filmed the phone scenes over a couple of days and had to do some serious cutting to get it to work. That's what happens when you go on memory of what the other person said. 3. If you are making a 5 minute movie, try not to have 48 minutes of footage to sort through.

July 2nd, 2008, 03:49 AM	#3
Hugh DiMauro Trustee Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 1,207	Oh What A Riot! Let me get this out: Your montage cutting was awesome and it made your movie hilarious. In particular, your "director's" vocal timing was excellent. And that dude with the Viking hat? Priceless! Excellent acting all the way around! You lit the living room scene very well and I enjoyed this movie immensely. You pushed the "luck" angle, however! Wisenheimer! ;-) __________________ Interesting, if true. And interesting anyway.

July 2nd, 2008, 01:41 PM	#5
Lorinda Norton Wrangler Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Southwest Idaho, USA Posts: 3,066	“...and then, at the very end, maybe...” --Great line, and great cut for the response! Loved it. Paul, you and your family work so well together it makes whatever you do enjoyable to watch. It’s an easy style that I like a lot. You did a great job of making the phone calls seem real, as well. Then there’s the opera guy. Tell him I really appreciated his acting, too –in his first scene he somehow reminded me of Matt Damon in (I think) Oceans Eleven, and I thought he did very well. You did a marvelous job of improvising on the hat bit, by the way. As Hugh noted, I think you reached some on the theme, but I don’t care; this was a fun film and I’m really glad we got to watch it. __________________ Lorinda

July 2nd, 2008, 06:04 PM	#6
Mugurel Dragusin Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Philippines Posts: 253	I enjoyed the editing on this one, was well done, enhancing the mood and story. You all did a good job as made the characters quite believable. The step-zoom thing you did (probably done in post) was a good way capture attention. Obviously the part with the hat was hilarious! :) Thanks for the laugh! __________________ Lost signature, if you find it, please return it to me, thank you.

July 6th, 2008, 07:41 PM	#11
Matt McLain Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: bloomington, il Posts: 40	Nice. This was pretty funny. I really liked that opera singer, his interpretation of the director's instructions were always really fun to watch. And I have to agree, ninjas in anything automatically make it better. I don't think the jump cuts worked so well in the beginning, but they definitely made the scenes following move a lot better. Good work.

July 2nd, 2008, 06:43 AM	#4
Paul Firth Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Elk City, OK Posts: 34	Our first day of shooting, Jacob actually brought the viking hat with him--wasn't in the script. He keeps one in his trunk in case he needs it.

July 3rd, 2008, 12:00 AM	#7
Bruce Foreman Trustee Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: San Angelo Texas Posts: 1,518	The more I watch this one, the funnier it gets. Lighting, camera work, audio all were very well done. And it takes very good acting to turn something nonsensical into something really funny like this. I've got a hunch the title was something someone found incredibly funny towards the bottom of that bottle, but you folks made it work. And that last spoken line..."Bring in..." Totally cracked me up.

July 3rd, 2008, 02:06 PM	#8
Dick Mays Major Player Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Atlanta, GA Posts: 690	"It wasn't that bad of movie last time," "Opera is probably close enough." "I felt good about that." "just like an Opera without the singing." Very funny, funny lines. Paul, Great honesty in your work. Loved the relationship between you and your wife. Also really loved the phone call to the actors. Been there done that. "SAMMMMYYY!" Great lighting too. Enjoyed this one. Wanted to see the ninjas!

July 3rd, 2008, 02:27 PM	#9
Kris Holodak Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 302	Ok, I really literally laughed out loud on the line "If you've done opera that's probably close enough." And then he sang. It was great. Trying to only watch once before I comment I don't even know if the production quality was good because I was so caught up in the story. Though I suppose it was good enough not to be distracting. The phone conversation with the wife at the beginning was especially well written. Ad libbed? It felt very real. And while I'm not usually a fan of jump cuts, that whole opening bit of trying to find the actor was really great. As someone who's live through that, it also felt very real. Smile, Kris

July 4th, 2008, 03:22 PM	#10
Joseph Tran Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 177	Hey Paul -- nice film! Well lit, nicely framed, and tight editing! I would've loved to have finished a bottle of scotch during my shoot... haha. And where in the world did you get that ice cream truck? I noticed you've got some sound 'blips' from one cut to another -- for example, when you cut from you on the phone to your wife, and she's already in mid breath. It's only in a few shots, and not very noticeable. Perhaps if you try a quarter to half second fade-in of her audio, for example, you'll get a cleaner audio transition from one to the other. Overall, I think the others pretty much covered everything -- it's a great project!

July 6th, 2008, 09:01 PM	#12
Paul Firth Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Elk City, OK Posts: 34	Thanks everyone for your kind comments. I agree--some of the cuts in dialog in the first scene were not as good as it could have been. We actually had taped twice as much dialog as was finally used. My first cut came in at 9 minutes and I had to cut out half of the dialog from every scene. Unfortunately, that left us with some cuts mid-sentence that was very difficult to "fix" in post. Same with some of the zoom cuts--we had to get rid of dialog but only had one take to work with. Next time I'll be sure to do at least 2 camera views of the dialog. In all my free time :) I would have done some more work with the soundtrack as well especially some of the timing issues during the screening. I literally made the soundtrack in SonicFire in about 10 minutes, rendered, and posted to YouTube with less than 30 minutes before deadline. Why is it with a 2 week deadline, I still waited until the last 3 days to do all the work? I also agree that the "luck" theme was a stretch. Those lines of dialog in the beginning and end seem forced to me. The problem (which I'm sure you can all relate to) is that when the idea for the film came to me I couldn't seem to come up with any other ideas (and I wanted to shoot the film that I envisioned).