Look At Me

[Colin Minihan]

www.smiley-films.com is my site.... I recently had my film CHOICE screen at the minidvfestival in cali, it recieved a direcors pick- best cinematography nod. Anyways i was hopeing you may check out a few of the scenes from it. One being a brutal beating that takes place in a highschool, and the other being a vandalism scene.

I also just shot my first music video for the band DRIST, and i am most proud of this. Its recieved 500 downloads this month!!!pretty good for my little site.

Thanks for taking the time.... if you have any words of advice or anything please post a responce.

Colin Minihan

[Spencer Houck]

Hey Colin, nice work my friend. Glad to read that you shoot with a VX2k. The stuff looks very nice, especially the lighting in that music video. Tell me, did you just use practicals to light that scene, the single hanging bulb, or were you working somethin else? Also it appears as though it was color corrected(maybe 24p'd?) whats the word on that?

Anyway, I like seeing good work from others around my age, not to cross-promote, but my friend Devin and I are both around your age and have a site up at www.par-t-com.net. I'd love to hear what another filmmaker my age thinks about it.

Thanks, and good work,
Spencer Houck

[Colin Minihan]

hey thanks!

In the music video around 30% of the light if just coming from the swining light.. The other light was just a low end construcion light and it was pushed way back just to flood the area a wee bit.
Magic bullet was used on the music video aswell.

and i will try check out your stuff right now, but im on 56k, so i may not be able to untill after the 4th of jan (when i go back).

[Ozan Biron]

colin,

Love your shiznat! where abouts in Vancity you live in.

[Dylan Couper]

Colin, nice stuff!
Where did you shoot your paintball movies?
I shot two paintball tournaments in the Vancouver area for Badlands Paintball last year, and am an avid player.

How old are you anyway? I remember seeing your paintball video pick up best young entry (or something like that) in Videomaker magazine 2 years ago.

That bathroom beating scene was particularily brutal. Excellent work.

[Sharon Fraats]

Very good, I love the action and the pace.

Keep it up

[Colin Minihan]

thanks for all the positive feedback!

-I shot those OLD paintball movies in my hometown of Port McNeill B.C, its on the nothern tip of Vancouver Island.

-Im living in Burnaby... where do you live in van? oh and im 18years old

And thats sweet you remember Open Fire from Videomaker magazine a few years ago haha. I didnt manage to send anything to them this year, but last year a different short of mine got the comedy award and now i can finally use the lav mics they gave me because i just got a senhieser boom and an xlr adapter for my vx2000 ! !

[Ozan Biron]

I live in the North Van... just turned 20!

[Randy Reyes]

Hey Colin! Just downloaded your Drist video (took a while being stuck on this 56k!!) But it was well worth the wait. Awesome video. Great use of color and good cutting!! I really liked the beginning with the swinging light effect. A polished piece indeed!

I was just wondering what camera(s) you were using. Did you use color filters or did you color correct in post? And how did you get to do a video for the band? :]

[Colin Minihan]

thanks Randy!

i didnt use any in camera color correction. I just used Magic Bullet in post.... LONG render times!

And the way i got to shoot the bands video was because i got permission to use a few of their songs in CHOICE, and then when i finished Choice their manager saw it and told them to get me to start writing treatments for their single Normalcy asap.

[Rob Lohman]

I think I saw all of the movies on the site. Some excellent work
indeed, althought I think in Choice there's a bit too much blood.
Nice work though.

What I was wondering from seeing most of the stuff is that you
don't seem to have trouble getting locations (especially indoor
like department store [twice] etc. etc.) and people and things
(like police/fire/medical + all equipment). How are you getting all
of that?

I got some interesting stories I want to make, but having a hard
time getting things like that.

[James Duffy]

Hey dude, just wanted to say your stuff is awesome. The acting's not top notch, but that's not exactly within your control... The editing and cinematography are brilliant. I like your style. Looking forward to your next works.

[Colin Minihan]

i used to have no problem getting locations for JEt and CHOICE because they were made in association with national crime prevention , icbc, and the rcmp (canadian police). They wanted me to make a few movies that could be shown to public schools for a kinda anti crime thing. They wont show CHOICE though, because they say its too violent.....sucks...... For the locations it was easy because the town i was living in and making the movies in only has 2500ppl in it .. everyone knows everyone and ppl just did favors, like letting me shoot in fields at night and make it look like the place gets trashed. Usually i was only given about 2 hours to get the job done..... like in JEt, i only could use the er room for 10 minutes... so i shot it all in one take with 2 cameras and let the doctor (who is a real doc) do what he would do. I really wrote the scripts with all this in mind too..like i only wrote a scene i thought i could film, and could think of the location... now that im in the city and going to school i have NO WAY of making a film like CHOICE, i just wish that when i made CHOICE, there was more effort from the actors.

[Rob Lohman]

Nice to have such things available. Here in Holland movie making
is almost never seen and people are much more like "ehm.. what
you want to do?" and "why?". Oh well.

Good luck on your future projects!

[Colin Minihan]

anyone else care to give any feedback on my music video please??