Show Your Work 2003

Adrian Seah · February 14th, 2003, 07:42 PM

Dear one and all,

I just thought I'd share some stills of my new film, Last Day of Work with you. Presently, it in the rough cut stage so I'm not posting the film. It tells the story of man who is having problems dealing with the loss of his wife. It currently runs at 8mins but I'm hoping to trim it down a little bit.

http://homepage.mac.com/ilovedumplings/PhotoAlbum1.html

Production notes:

1 month of pre-production- finding actors, locations, refining script, hunting for props, begging for equipment etc.

shot in 1 day

Canon XL1S
mini35
Canon EF lenses, 17-35 f2.8L, 50 f1.4, 70-200 f2.8L

Cheers!

Adrian

Bruce A. Christenson · February 16th, 2003, 12:58 AM

Looks great. Totally has that film DOF going for it. Is it a thriller of some sort? Shot #6 scared the **** outta me. Guess I'm just afraid of basements, heh.

Ken Tanaka · February 16th, 2003, 01:21 AM

Looks very intriguing, Adrian! Has a very dark, sullen feeling. Within the context of the deep personal loss subject this should be good. I'm anxious to see your final cut.

I gather you had fun with the Mini 35! That stair shot was really rubbing it in. <g>

Adrian Seah · February 16th, 2003, 04:14 AM

heheh... yah I guess, because I had the mini 35 for one full day only, picked it up the evening before and returned it the morning after, so I guess I went a bit crazy with the DOF thing... and shot everything wide open. But as it turned out, I didn't have enough lights, 2 cheapo 300W halogens (that started smoking after 5 mins) so I had to shoot everything wide open anyway.

Now my XL1S looks so lonely with just the stock 16X lens...

anyways.... I'll endeavour to finish the film as soon as possible and will post a link up as soon as its done!

Cheers everyone!

Adrian

Michael Robinson · February 16th, 2003, 10:30 AM

looks great Adrian, I really love the tone you've got going on in this one. Can't wait to see it!

Rob Lohman · February 16th, 2003, 02:08 PM

The more I see from the mini35 the more amazed I am. I'm gonna
try renting one near the summer overhere. Those are beautiful
shots, keep up the great work!

Shane Duff · February 21st, 2003, 11:07 PM

After having snooped about at the professional and near-professional work of the people in this forum, I feel a bit over my head, but what the hell.

My fellow compatriot and film geek extrodinaire, Curt, wrote a little short because he thought he could make something better than your average atomfilm... we just so happen to be putting the finishing touches on a feature length dv film, but that's for another day.

Two things, 1) nothing revolutionary here, just having fun 2) we can't afford a damn G4, so we edit on my ol' trusty PC, the file is in Windows Media format - sorry MacHeads...

www.american-ocean.com has it right there at the top, just look for Stuffing.

Shane

Ken Tanaka · February 22nd, 2003, 12:12 AM

Nice work, Shane! It looks like you had alot of fun on this project. Give us some production and post-production notes.

Dylan Couper · February 22nd, 2003, 12:19 AM

Heh, I liked it!
Good script. The actors were interesting. It held my interest to the end, and that's all I ask for.

My only major complaint is that the sound level was so low I had my speakers set on max and was still straining to hear some of the dialogue.

Do you want a detailed technical review/breakdown or just general comments? There were some things I would edit differently for smoothness.

I guess it's too late to point out that you should have put something over that window/light source to bring the intensity down a bunch. :)

Shane Duff · February 22nd, 2003, 09:13 AM

That sound problem has been noted by a few people... for some reason it sounds great on my machine. My sister couldn't hear it at all... Anyone have any thoughts on that?

As for the overflowing light, we tend to overlight our stuff to play with it in Premiere later... but for some reason Curt wanted to keep it like this... I didn't agree with him, but hey - far be it of me to put down someone's opinion ;)

As for production notes, Curt and I are roomates and just wanted to do something to tide us over. We shot this in about 4 hours on last Saturday. We had a bunch of outtakes and just had a great time. The last effort we went through was our feature length - 20 plus speaking roles, none of which being paid, over 6 locations not including our house... so this was a nice change of pace. Just Curt, Me and the camera... oh, and the remote ;)

This was my first time just acting, was a great change of pace... this was also Curt's first time directing and editing. I was teaching him how to use Premiere as he went along, I think it was a worthy effort for an amatuer, amatuer.

He was having fun yesterday putting together the outtakes, but that was longer than the short... so who knows what's going to happen with that... Keep the feedback coming, I keep passing it along to Curt.

Ken Tanaka · February 22nd, 2003, 12:46 PM

OK. Well aside from Dylan's observation about the window's brightness here are my thoughts.

You shot selections were pretty good! Your technique of shooting the car trunk sequence from the dead frog's pov was excellent and really draws the viewer's imagination into the shot. I think that the stretch of voice-over blackness (from within the closed trunk) went just a bit long. I began to wonder if I'd lost video. I'd cut it in half.

I like to walk away from a "final cut" for a few weeks and then view it with new eyes. I always see something I didn't originally see when my nose was pressed against it.

Hey, you guys need to stay at it. A great way to spend a Saturday!

Paul Tauger · February 25th, 2003, 08:56 AM

I've been doing travel videography as a hobby for a number of years. I've finally gotten to the point where my technique and my equipment are good enough to produce some fairly decent stuff. My videos could almost pass for the kind of travelogues I see on Globe Trekker and similar programs, except for the inclusion of some "personal" things (these are really "home movies" after all) and lack of a narration.

I've seen a number of websites that feature clips of travel videos, and they seem to be well-received. My projects range in length from 90 to 150 minutes or so, making web-based distribution impractical.

Does anyone have any ideas about what I can do with these things? My audience is currently limited to my wife, my mother, my in-laws and a few select friends. Given the amount of work that I put into these (post takes me one to two months of working nights and weekends), I'd like more people to see them.

Dan Holly · February 25th, 2003, 11:21 AM

Contact all the travel agents in your area and see if they are interested.

Corey Doyle · February 25th, 2003, 05:01 PM

Does anybody know of a movie, new, old, or upcoming, that has been shot on DV? Completely? I don't mean the Blair Witch Project. I want to see something that has used DV to it's advantage, so that obviously excludes Full Frontal.

Corey

Ken Tanaka · February 25th, 2003, 05:08 PM

When you say "DV" what exactly do you mean? On prosumer cameras like the XL1s? On higher-resolution SD or HD digital video formats?

February 14th, 2003, 07:42 PM	#61
Adrian Seah Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: London, England Posts: 87	mini35 stills from my new film Dear one and all, I just thought I'd share some stills of my new film, Last Day of Work with you. Presently, it in the rough cut stage so I'm not posting the film. It tells the story of man who is having problems dealing with the loss of his wife. It currently runs at 8mins but I'm hoping to trim it down a little bit. http://homepage.mac.com/ilovedumplings/PhotoAlbum1.html Production notes: 1 month of pre-production- finding actors, locations, refining script, hunting for props, begging for equipment etc. shot in 1 day Canon XL1S mini35 Canon EF lenses, 17-35 f2.8L, 50 f1.4, 70-200 f2.8L Cheers! Adrian

February 16th, 2003, 01:21 AM	#63
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	Looks very intriguing, Adrian! Has a very dark, sullen feeling. Within the context of the deep personal loss subject this should be good. I'm anxious to see your final cut. I gather you had fun with the Mini 35! That stair shot was really rubbing it in. <g> __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

February 16th, 2003, 02:08 PM	#66
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	The more I see from the mini35 the more amazed I am. I'm gonna try renting one near the summer overhere. Those are beautiful shots, keep up the great work! __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

February 21st, 2003, 11:07 PM	#67
Shane Duff New Boot Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Moreno Valley, CA Posts: 23	Baby steps After having snooped about at the professional and near-professional work of the people in this forum, I feel a bit over my head, but what the hell. My fellow compatriot and film geek extrodinaire, Curt, wrote a little short because he thought he could make something better than your average atomfilm... we just so happen to be putting the finishing touches on a feature length dv film, but that's for another day. Two things, 1) nothing revolutionary here, just having fun 2) we can't afford a damn G4, so we edit on my ol' trusty PC, the file is in Windows Media format - sorry MacHeads... www.american-ocean.com has it right there at the top, just look for Stuffing. Shane

February 22nd, 2003, 12:12 AM	#68
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	Nice work, Shane! It looks like you had alot of fun on this project. Give us some production and post-production notes. __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

February 16th, 2003, 12:58 AM	#62
Bruce A. Christenson Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Forest Grove, OR Posts: 122	Looks great. Totally has that film DOF going for it. Is it a thriller of some sort? Shot #6 scared the **** outta me. Guess I'm just afraid of basements, heh.

February 16th, 2003, 04:14 AM	#64
Adrian Seah Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: London, England Posts: 87	heheh... yah I guess, because I had the mini 35 for one full day only, picked it up the evening before and returned it the morning after, so I guess I went a bit crazy with the DOF thing... and shot everything wide open. But as it turned out, I didn't have enough lights, 2 cheapo 300W halogens (that started smoking after 5 mins) so I had to shoot everything wide open anyway. Now my XL1S looks so lonely with just the stock 16X lens... anyways.... I'll endeavour to finish the film as soon as possible and will post a link up as soon as its done! Cheers everyone! Adrian

February 16th, 2003, 10:30 AM	#65
Michael Robinson Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Philly, PA Posts: 40	looks great Adrian, I really love the tone you've got going on in this one. Can't wait to see it!

February 22nd, 2003, 12:19 AM	#69
Dylan Couper Wrangler Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Vancouver, British Columbia Posts: 8,314	Heh, I liked it! Good script. The actors were interesting. It held my interest to the end, and that's all I ask for. My only major complaint is that the sound level was so low I had my speakers set on max and was still straining to hear some of the dialogue. Do you want a detailed technical review/breakdown or just general comments? There were some things I would edit differently for smoothness. I guess it's too late to point out that you should have put something over that window/light source to bring the intensity down a bunch. :) __________________ Need to rent camera gear in Vancouver BC? Check me out at camerarentalsvancouver.com

February 22nd, 2003, 09:13 AM	#70
Shane Duff New Boot Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Moreno Valley, CA Posts: 23	That sound problem has been noted by a few people... for some reason it sounds great on my machine. My sister couldn't hear it at all... Anyone have any thoughts on that? As for the overflowing light, we tend to overlight our stuff to play with it in Premiere later... but for some reason Curt wanted to keep it like this... I didn't agree with him, but hey - far be it of me to put down someone's opinion ;) As for production notes, Curt and I are roomates and just wanted to do something to tide us over. We shot this in about 4 hours on last Saturday. We had a bunch of outtakes and just had a great time. The last effort we went through was our feature length - 20 plus speaking roles, none of which being paid, over 6 locations not including our house... so this was a nice change of pace. Just Curt, Me and the camera... oh, and the remote ;) This was my first time just acting, was a great change of pace... this was also Curt's first time directing and editing. I was teaching him how to use Premiere as he went along, I think it was a worthy effort for an amatuer, amatuer. He was having fun yesterday putting together the outtakes, but that was longer than the short... so who knows what's going to happen with that... Keep the feedback coming, I keep passing it along to Curt.

February 22nd, 2003, 12:46 PM	#71
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	OK. Well aside from Dylan's observation about the window's brightness here are my thoughts. You shot selections were pretty good! Your technique of shooting the car trunk sequence from the dead frog's pov was excellent and really draws the viewer's imagination into the shot. I think that the stretch of voice-over blackness (from within the closed trunk) went just a bit long. I began to wonder if I'd lost video. I'd cut it in half. I like to walk away from a "final cut" for a few weeks and then view it with new eyes. I always see something I didn't originally see when my nose was pressed against it. Hey, you guys need to stay at it. A great way to spend a Saturday! __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

February 25th, 2003, 08:56 AM	#72
Paul Tauger Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Los Angeles (recently from San Francisco) Posts: 954	What can I do with these videos? I've been doing travel videography as a hobby for a number of years. I've finally gotten to the point where my technique and my equipment are good enough to produce some fairly decent stuff. My videos could almost pass for the kind of travelogues I see on Globe Trekker and similar programs, except for the inclusion of some "personal" things (these are really "home movies" after all) and lack of a narration. I've seen a number of websites that feature clips of travel videos, and they seem to be well-received. My projects range in length from 90 to 150 minutes or so, making web-based distribution impractical. Does anyone have any ideas about what I can do with these things? My audience is currently limited to my wife, my mother, my in-laws and a few select friends. Given the amount of work that I put into these (post takes me one to two months of working nights and weekends), I'd like more people to see them.

February 25th, 2003, 11:21 AM	#73
Dan Holly Major Player Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Anchorage, Alaska Posts: 336	travel videos Contact all the travel agents in your area and see if they are interested. __________________ Dan Holly Anchorage, Alaska

February 25th, 2003, 05:01 PM	#74
Corey Doyle New Boot Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: New Braunfels, Texas Posts: 6	Can somebody tell me the name of a movie...... Does anybody know of a movie, new, old, or upcoming, that has been shot on DV? Completely? I don't mean the Blair Witch Project. I want to see something that has used DV to it's advantage, so that obviously excludes Full Frontal. Corey

February 25th, 2003, 05:08 PM	#75
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	When you say "DV" what exactly do you mean? On prosumer cameras like the XL1s? On higher-resolution SD or HD digital video formats? __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com