DVC #17- Begetting Violence- Chris Barcellos

[Chris Barcellos]

Haven't had a lot of chance to respond to other submission, but I thought I should post a comment thread for mine.

Thanks for looking at this trailer, and thanks to Lorinda, Dylan, Chris and Guy Cochran of DVeStore at DVcreators.net for their involvement in these competitions. It certainly helps us hone our skills to have these competitions.

We shot this with the Canon 5d. I drafted the original script for the trailer, knowing that we would cut it up in smaller pieces for a trailer. We still have an idea of shooting this as an actual film, with Chris Swanberg indicating he will spearhead a full film script. We are going to look at a 20 minute short, for a local film festival.

I wanted to get different elements in this one, so I planned a dolly, jib shot, and a couple of steady cam type shots. I wanted to see how the 5D manage movement. All of the gear for those shots were my home made contraptions. Learned a bit about what I have to do to improve them from the shoot.

Thanks for checking this out. Here are links again:

YouTube: YouTube - Begetting Violence Trailer

Vimeo:

Begetting Violence Trailer on Vimeo

[Jesse Steele]

The shots are amazing! Especially the Jib and crane ones. Really good piece. The actresses were believable.

My only criticism is this...and it's small. Who was the guy? Was he the same guy that beat up the blonde originally? Or is she going to kill the guy because he beat up her friend?


Also and I mean no offense, compared to how beautiful the shots are, the titles look very "Cheese". I have no room to talk of course :) All I'm saying is I assumed from the titles that the movie was going to be very poor, until after I saw it and realized it wasn't. In a world where first impressions are everything I figured that was a good suggestion. Maybe you should try out some of the awesome tutorials at Video Co Pilot.com. He has some awesome after effects titles templates and walk throughs.

Overall Great piece my friend,
Jesse

[Keith Heyward]

I agree with the last post. You had some very beautiful shots and it was a very solid piece, but the titles I didn't think fit very well. I hate doing titles and usually have other people come up with them, so I have no tips for making them except for checking out some tutorial sites like video co-pilot.
Was that scar real? If it isn't then GREAT job on the make-up. Same with the blood and bruises in the other scene. It looked very real.

Great job. The last shot at the door was perfectly lit I thought and her attitude really added a good change to the plot.

[Chris Barcellos]

Jessee: See, now I got your interest.. you have to go to the movie to see whats up...

(Okay, idea is that she is flashing back to when she was beat up. The young girls she rescued and befriended is going down same road she did, and she decides after she is harassed to strike back. )

Keith: Scar was makeup. Fashioned by Chris Swanberg ( a dvinfo poster) and the actress (Leslie Goodman) herself. My daughter and others did make up on the young girl, who is my grand daughter.


Yeah, I am going to have to step to next level in graphics department.

[Bruce Foreman]

Chris,

You have some very powerful medicine there. The "never again" line is one I have heard from several of my women clients in my Defensive Handgun class. No explanations and I don't probe, I merely take that "vow" at it's face value and concentrate on what they seem to need in their training.

You've portrayed the victimization very strongly and I have to second all the positive comments above. On the "cheesy" title comment, I assume that is referring to the semi-transparent "sub titles" (what I omitted in my entry!), I would have made those solid and bolder. Our NLE's come with a pretty good selection of fonts. Even use of keyframes to make those "loom" out at the viewer.

The music was also very powerful. Very well done.

[Jeremy Doyle]

Agreed with over comments on the graphics. Compared to the very rich and beautiful shots they really bring the piece down. You had very, very strong visuals. The camera work, the make-up, the acting. Excellent work.

I like the music choice and the audio work when she says stop. I think you could have added a lot more sound to this. It feels empty to me. More sound bites or a narrator or effects that matched the action. I'm not quite sure what it needs, it just seems kind of sparse and empty to me in the audio department.

I also I recognized your granddaughter from Dead of Winter. Its fun that you can include family in your projects.

[Lorinda Norton]

When I'm watching trailers for the "big" films I don't expect to know what is going on, because some of the clips they include often get scrapped by the time the film is released anyway. So in your trailer it doesn't matter to me that I don't understand about the bad guy, other than the fact that he is a bad guy. Speaking of that, the most chilling shot for me is when he moves into the frame behind the car.

Your footage with the silhouettes worked out well. Good job on that. And Chris S., if you read this, I wish I had you around for times I need convincing makeup for wounds and stuff. Wow!

We sure can read the lips of the gal with the blond hair! LOL! My sentiments, exactly.

About the 5D, it seemed to me the shots in the park (and maybe a couple others) looked a bit yellow or maybe extra saturated, plus a bit darker like footage I've seen shot with a 35mm adapter. Do you treat your images in post or shoot with predetermined settings? Sorry to be so ignorant of such things, but this seems like a good time for me to learn.

Best wishes on the full film if you and Chris decide to do it. And one more note, your homemade contraptions worked great from what I saw!

[Julia Liu]

Really beautiful shots. Loved that shallow depth of field you get with the 5d. Love the last shot of the main actress- it's a very convincing performance. Make-up job was amazing. Agreed about the titles- probably something basic coming up over the footage would be better and doesn't require flashy FX. The only other thing I noticed was the audio from the mirror scene. It took me out of the moment a bit. Aside from that, this was really strong. Great work!

[Chris Swanberg]

Even though I played a small role in the shoot, I guess it is permissible to post here. Once we had the film in the can, everything from that point on was Chris B's work.

For those interested in the scar, we constructed that out of multiply applied stipple brushed layers of liquid latex, and then painted on some eyeliner to achieve a color Leslie and I agreed looked like a resolving scar. Pretty easy actually... just took about 30 mins for the liquid latex layers to dry. She managed to live with it overnight and even shower too, although we had to re-apply the coloring.

Julia, I was also "the sound guy" on this shoot (Chris B. did all the beautiful camerawork) and I too noticed the roominess and echo in the bathroom. I boomed it and was about as close as I could get but during the take wondered about the highly acoustically reflective environment. At the time it did not sound too bad in the cans. But in the final product the environment comes thru acouostically. I had used a Rode NTG-2 and looking back should probably have used a hypercardiod module on my Oktava MK-012...Anyone have ideas/thoughts/experiences on how to combat that problem in future shoots using similar locations? Obviously, a lav was out of the question <g>.. or was it? These are all good learning exercises.

Chris's jib is a very good likeness of the Pro-Am crane for a small fraction of the price. He is a McGuyver in the group for sure.

There are some really terrific trailers in this contest. Fun to watch them.

[Robert Martens]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Doyle

I think you could have added a lot more sound to this. It feels empty to me. More sound bites or a narrator or effects that matched the action. I'm not quite sure what it needs, it just seems kind of sparse and empty to me in the audio department.

I felt the same way, and as much as I'd like to avoid suggesting huge changes to anyone's work, in this situation I think the real problem is the length of the trailer. The wall to wall music, with such long stretches without dialogue or sound effects, is a little overwhelming, but if you cut this shorter I think it'd be a more comfortable fit. If it were up to me I'd get rid of as much of the stuff about the friendship as possible, namely the two women by the pool, walking down the street, and on the phone with each other. Go right from the hug to the truck, then the car (maybe swap those last two), threatening phone call, email, scar in the mirror (does it change places at one point or is it just me?) and finally the gun in relatively rapid succession to keep up with the pace of the score. Mind you, I wouldn't eliminate any of that from the film itself, but for the trailer I think just hitting the big plot points would be more engaging. All of this being dependent upon the music you've chosen; with a slower piece I might just like everything the way it is. I can't say with certainty.

"We need to talk" and the expression that goes with it were brilliant, she's got the greatest look on her face when she says that! Your granddaughter, too, turned in a wonderfully emotive performance, even without dialogue. It must be nice having ready access to willing, convincing actors.

Your camera work was pretty slick, nice focus, great color. What aspect ratio are we looking at here? Looks a little wider than 2.35, unless I'm just seeing things. And is there anywhere we can get a look at all the homemade thingamajigs you've cobbled together? I'd love to see what kind of stabilizer you've assembled.

To the other Chris, I have no personal experience recording audio in such irritatingly reflective spaces, but have you considered laying some moving blankets, or other treatment on the floor? I've also heard panels of 703 or 705 fiberglass, wrapped in bedsheets to prevent flying particles, make for handy portable reflection control. Clamp them in various places, mount them onto lightstands, that sort of thing. I've never tried any of that before, but as I type out the idea I'm itching to try it, pun not initially intended but definitely on purpose now that I see it onscreen.

[Chris Barcellos]

As Chris S. will tell, I was going to go through another cut and shorten this thing further. In fact I had also toyed with speeding up the clips to get it under 2 minutes.

The original scritp we shot the scenes in this "so called" trailer and in first edit, I was at 5 1/2 minutes. I cut and cut to 2min 20 sec. And frankly, I just didn't want to take the time for another cut, which I knew was needed. I had other priorities to deal with. I had wanted to run it down to no more that a minute and a half, but chose to leave it as it was, and I am satisfied it served it purpose as demonstration of what we are trying to do in the ultimate film.

As far as sound is concerned, I will note to Chris Swanberg, that while I replaced the in camera sound for the front door, I did not do so for the bathroom scene. Chris, I think we mic'ed that with one of the lapel mics planted behind that wooden drawer, didn't we ? In my quick listen to it, I thought the sound was to flat, and not a fit for the location, so I just used the camera sound. I actually was intending the sound there to run lower, but in my final editing I ran the volume up a bit, and the problem there. Its pretty clear by comments here that I was wrong, but then again, I consider sound my weakest point.

I am attaching a short clip, of that separately recorded sound, and I probably should have used it in retrospect. See what you think.

[Robert Martens]

It's hard to choose, honestly. The file you posted has less objectionable reverb to my ears, but sounds sort of muffled, whereas the original is clearer but exhibits more obvious reflections. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, I guess. I wouldn't know how to process either version to get a different sound, so I suppose I can't really judge.

Thanks for the extra tidbit!

[Chris Swanberg]

Ah, how soon my aged mind forgets. It was NOT boomed, but a plant mic as Chris noted. Still the location is a sound recordists nightmare.

[Jay Kavi]

to reiterate Roberts comments on the length, it definitely started to drag about halfway through. Other than that It was well shot, composed and acted. Great work.

[Alan Emery]

Being new to fiction on films (my background is science documentaries), I had to look up the definition of a modern fiction trailer: 2 minutes 30 seconds max, 3 acts - #1 sets premise, #2 moves story forward dramatically, #3 wraps with dramatic scenes and music to recap and entice.

This trailer did it all in my opinion. The story was very clear, it moved forward in the middle with lots of drama, and the wrap up scene was really lethal without completely defining the story. The last scene could have maybe had some more powerful music to underscore the final violence. All-in-all a greaat trailer in my opinion.