The Beautiful Lie

[Josh Caldwell]

Hey everyone,

Nearly 16 months after we wrapped principal production, The Beautiful Lie is finished. We shot for three days in December 2004 on a Canon XL2 with the Mini-35 adapter. I then shipped off to Florence for the spring and started editing when I returned in May. The picture was locked in the beginning of December and we've spent that last couple months (on and off mind you) editing and mixing the sound, as well as composing the score.

I know that when I posted the trailer on here there was a lot of interest from you guys regarding the piece. You can view the trailer here: www.meydenbauerentertainment.com/film1.html

I'm awaiting the delivery of the final mix, which should be in my hands by Friday, and I will post the film for you to download this weekend. (It's 23 minutes).

Sorry for the tease, but I thought I'd start getting some interest going.

Looking forward to hearing what you guys think of it.

[Andy Graham]

The trailer looks good.......I'v heard the music you used before and I just can't place it and its driving me nutty, can you put me out my missery!.

Andy.

[John C. Chu]

I think that is the music from the CBS TV show "Cold Case".

[Josh Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Andy Graham

The trailer looks good.......I'v heard the music you used before and I just can't place it and its driving me nutty, can you put me out my missery!.

Andy.

I assume you're referring to the second piece. That is by a group called E.S. Posthumous and the song is called Nara. It's the theme to Cold Case. You can buy their CD at CDbaby.com and it's a great CD. Another song of theirs was used for the first Spiderman trailer.

The first piece is from Road to Perdition.

[Riley Stearns]

I remember this one. I was hoping that you'd be able to find a somewhat simple way of removing the blemish on the lens from the final product, but I guess that'd be a huge undertaking. I think the footage otherwise looks great and am very excited to see the film.

I do have to ask why you would use music which has been used already for successful projects instead of finding new ones. I love the pieces, don't get me wrong, but why not find something new?

[Josh Caldwell]

Hey Riley,

Yea, the blemish is annoying and I haven’t yet found a way to completely remove it without going through and painting it out or something. I do plan to do that at some point, but not quite yet.

As for the music, I didn’t know the E.S. Posthumous music was used on other projects until after I used it. I had the CD before I made the film and love the piece and felt it fit well. So…I figured too, it’s just the trailer, and a personal trailer and for showing you guys. The film is really my main concern. But, I don’t know. I used the music and then found out it was popular and by that time I didn’t want to search out for new music because the trailer was done and served its purpose. I had to turn my attention the film, rather than trying to seek out new music,

I’m getting my final mix tomorrow (hopefully, praying…praying…) and if I do I’ll make the film available for download. I’m sending it out to festivals though, so it will be a private link that I suggest you download.

If anyone has an effective way of removing blemishes I’d be glad to hear it. I do plan to take it out during the more obvious points, but the version you’re going to see will not have that done yet, so just ignore it.

[Barry Gribble]

Josh,

I really like your stuff... I remember seeing a bit of it before. It's a sweet look. What kind of color correction are you doing?

My only hangup with the trailer is that the framing is all very tight... almost like it was shot for 16x9 and then just matted down to where is it (2.35:1?). Especially the close-ups. Certainly it's a style choice, I just felt a little cramped by it.

Anyway, I am looking foward to seeing the full piece. Congrats on wrapping it.

[Josh Caldwell]

Hi Barry,

Thanks for the comments. The film was shot in 16x9 but framed for 2.40:1. That was a choice on my part in early pre-production, not an after thought. The frame was composed for a 2.40:1 output. However, working with a frame like that is a challange and has been a learning experience for me. When working with digital you tend to forget the notion of composing for a screen 40 ft long.

So, I probably used more close ups than I should have. However, the story and the style I chose to shoot it in, dictates a more cinematic frame, rather than a more conventional 16x9.

Most of the color correction was done in Avid. All I really did was some light tweaking of brightness and contrast. We tried to get as close to the look as possible in camera.

[Barry Gribble]

Josh,

Cool... I've always wanted to shoot something in that ratio, but haven't had the right piece to do it with. Boy, it works great for the sweeping landscapes, but it can also be really nice for conversations and such. No better way to learn it than to do it...

Anyway, I'm looking foward to it.

[Ben Gurvich]

Just wondering what lenses you used. It looks great!

[Josh Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Ben Gurvich

Just wondering what lenses you used. It looks great!

We shot with a 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and 135mm. They were all Zeiss Primes.

[David Chapman]

I am watching all the trailers now. I am very impressed. So you guys are still in high school or just graduated? I was looking at your awards section. I wish I was doing projects like this in high school. But... college isn't a bad place to start either.

—Chapman

[Josh Caldwell]

Okay everyone. I didn't get the final mix today (frickin' USPS) but I decided to post the film anyway. The mix in there right now was mixed and mastered, but I had two small things to change. Most having to do with flashbacks. Other than that, everything is the same.

So, without more yapping, here, finally, is The Beautiful Lie:

http://www.meydenbauerentertainment....utiful_Lie.mov

Right click, Save File As, and download it.

Please be patient. The film is 23 minutes long and about 260mb. I figured that a lot of you really wanted to see the visuals, so I set the quality to high, which means it's a big file. It's encoded in MPEG-4. If anyone has a better compressor in mind to get the same quality but a lower file size, let me know.

Otherwise, enjoy.

[Joseph Tran]

Hey Joshua,

Have you tried encoding your video using QuickTime's new h.264 codec? The file is still saved in .mov format, the quality is very good; only the compression is better. I believe all of the new NLE's carry the new codec for compression; or you can use Quicktime Pro to reencode an uncompressed video file to h.264.

[Josh Caldwell]

Hey man,

I'm trying the encoding now. I wish I was able to repost this to let people know it's now available. But whatever. Maybe if I re-upload a file in h.264 format I will.

Did you download it? How long did it take you?

Josh