New HD100 Short - "The Fixer"

[Gil Whitney]

hey everyone -

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but work has been running me around a bit.

I shot this with the hd100, 24p with the stock lens. I used Paolo’s TC3 settings since the director wanted to control the look in post - it worked out rather nicely. Kinos, arri kit for the interiors - shinys through 250, bounces and an 8x silent frost for the exteriors. I tried to keep it real simple, since we only had about 12 hours to shoot - can't be too hard on a free cast and crew. (:

This site has been great resource - thanks to all who contribute. This was a fun piece to shoot, I hope everyone enjoys it.

http://www.gilwhitney.com/thefixer.htm

- Gil

[Jaadgy Akanni]

Keep up the good work. The actors were great. Is all the dialogue original recording or did you do any overdubs? What mike did you use? what lights, I mean, I know they were Kinos and Arri, but more specifically, what fixtures did you use and at how many watts, etc?

[Brian Duke]

My comments:

1. Thought it was a bit too long. Could be done much tighter. Reedit would do it justice
2. Didn't really get the music throughout. It may have been overused.
3. Acting was pretty good.
4. Didn't really understand the story. But shortfilm are difficult due to the limited amount of time to develop a story and characters.
5. It looked pretty good.

The one thing you should always take away is the learning experience.

Good luck

[Gil Whitney]

Originally Posted by Jaadgy Akanni

Keep up the good work. The actors were great. Is all the dialogue original recording or did you do any overdubs? What mike did you use? what lights, I mean, I know they were Kinos and Arri, but more specifically, what fixtures did you use and at how many watts, etc?

Thanks, I appreciate the comments. Tim who plays the lead does a lot of stand-up and had the perfect look and delivery – it would have been a very different film without him. Everyone else are local actors that we have worked with over the years. They all did an amazing job.

All of the dialogue was recorded on location. The narration was recorded in the bedroom of the opening scene.

Used a boom mic – not sure what type, but here is the sound recordist’s website: http://www.timduttonaudio.com/, if you would like to look around. He also did a great job on the sound effects and final mix.

As far as lights are concerned, I had 1 – 4x4 kino day/tung, 1- 2x4 day/tung. Arri kit consisted of: 1k open, 2 –650w, 1-300w and 2 -150w. and a small grip package of flags and nets, c-stands ect…

I’ll give you a quick run down of one of the lighting setups. In the opening bedroom scene, I used a 2x4 kino daylight (2 bulbs) with opal for the key, a topper to take the some of the spill off of the back wall, a 150w with 1/4 ctb for the alarm clock, 300w w/1/4 ctb for the closet door and back wall. I had a window behind camera and I covered it with a 4x floppy. No edge, no fill, I wanted a very stark look. I was pretty happy with that scene – others, because of time, we had to just light it and go – but that’s just the nature of shorts sometimes.

I’m glad you enjoyed it. We’ve had some good respond to it. It’s been accepted to a few film festivals that are coming up this spring and summer and it also appeared on the Independent Film Channel’s Media Lab show for February. Hope all of this info helps.

- Gil

[Jaadgy Akanni]

Thanks for all the insight, Gil. Looking forward to seeing more of this good work from you. You and Tim are meant for the big time, so keep it up.

[Miltos Pilalitos]

It had some good moments! Well done and keep'em coming! :)


Miltos Pilalitos
-------------
http://pilalitos.blogspot.com/

[Gary McClurg]

Originally Posted by Brian Duke

My comments:

1. Thought it was a bit too long. Could be done much tighter.

I can fix that...

[David Scattergood]

Hi Gil - really enjoyed that...cast were spot on. Enjoyed the other stuff on your reel also (just watching the barbershop doc).
As Milos says - keep them coming.

[Gil Whitney]

Thanks guys. I have something in the works that I should be posting in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

-Gil