Show Your Work 2007

Brian Duke · October 19th, 2007, 07:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loney Childress

4. Some fake-DOF was to hide logos on the actresses shirt. But others were on purpose.

Don't worry about logos. You are doing a short, not a feature for commercial release. It takes away from the movie.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loney Childress

. I have to argue with you on my music though. I thought I did a good job. Better than the techno loops and crap most indie movies I see use. I recorded it myself and I've received many complements on it. Also I did 6:17 of music in a day and half which is really something. Of course, you're entitled to your opinion.

Yeah, it is my opinion, but I will say this in my defense. I have a good eye, and 99% of people that praise your work, either they don't know any better, or are trying to be polite. It happens to me too so I try to surround myself with people that not only KNOW what they are talking about, but more importantly are honest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loney Childress

6. As far as my effects, some are good, some not. Hey I'm new. And every shot had effects. It was all day to night converted. Sky replacements were my best effects. The wraith just needed a little extra to look like more than just a guy in a costume.

Everyone is "new." That's no excuse for making bad choices. I have seen new people make amazing and original stuff and unfortunately majority of new people make unoriginal films. Again, you can't put a disclaimer in the beginning of your movie saying you are new, we had only so much money and time, we had problems etc. No one cares about that. They will judge your movie as they see it. If you are just doing this for fun all the comments won't matter, but if you are trying to advance a career the comments do matter. If I can't get it to where I want it to be I leave it out. I don't use effects or other bad stuff.

I think I hear the excuses from pratically everyone, and I have done so myself, but a friend told me what I am telling you, and I know he is right. "Don't use excuses because others are." Bacsially I was saying the same things you and everyone are telling me. No time, no money, new at this, its not as bad as others, etc.

I am only being harsh because most won't. Its the same reason why you have people going on American Idol who can't sing, but no one wants to tell them, except Simon. Now, I'm not saying you can't make films. I'm saying make better choices with what you have and you will improve. Hopefully also learn.

Another lesson is you can't improve and learn from great comments. You can, however, improve and learn from constructive comments.

Don't compare your music to the bad music that are used in many indie films. Just because they use a poor choice of music, doesn't mean you should. The music isn't bad, it just doesn't work unless you are making a comedy. Its distracting the scenes and overly dramatic.

Loney Childress · October 19th, 2007, 07:46 AM

:To Brian Dunke

I thank you for your review and you don't have to defend your opinion. I was mostly explaining why some of the things you saw were there. Like, for example, the audio at the beginning. I would've reshot those scenes had I had the time.

Of course on the music, we'll agree to disagree. That's my style. And I'm not offended, in fact I thank you for telling me what you think.

And as far as the logos, this is for a contest and this will play on the Chiller Channel. I've already sent them a DVD to be part of the Halloween Marathon. I'm thrilled to get my first attempt on TV.

This whole process was alot of fun, stressful, but alot of fun. I'm looking forward to making another and fix as many things as I can.

Jeff Mack · October 19th, 2007, 08:29 AM

Yeah, the Z-1 is the one in the balcony. He stayed around the stage normally but later in the show he was trying to add a few new shots to break up the whole concert. The first two were on sticks so not much variety there other than zooming in on solos and such. We iso'd the cameras and I did the multicam edit in FCP2. This is just rough audio. the mix just got finished and will go to mastering in a week or so. BTW, I captured to Pro Res 422 HQ, even the Z-1.

Jeff

Lori Starfelt · October 19th, 2007, 10:24 AM

Very nice. it was fun to see Michael Murphey after all these years as well. Looks fantastic. Sounds terrific. I was totally comfortable with the amount of coverage that you got. We shoot a lot of live shows, and as a viewer, I didn't feel like you skimped at any point. If you hadn't talked about your plans to have more cameras, it wouldn't have occurred watching that you needed more.

I'd say less zooming next time out, though. There were a few times I wanted the camera to just hold still.

But overall, really very nice. Congrats.

Jeff Mack · October 19th, 2007, 10:53 AM

Lori,

Thanks for the comments. I only used the zooms because I thought the movement would take away from the fact of viewers "noticing" the same old shot. I almost thought it gave the air of doubling the profiles.

Thanks again.

Jeff

Josh Bass · October 19th, 2007, 12:56 PM

I will redo the end vocals in a lower register.

Jack Zhang · October 19th, 2007, 04:06 PM

Yeah, the max bitrate is 12Mbps. Best quality at the cost of a huge file.

Marcus Marchesseault · October 19th, 2007, 09:49 PM

Crap, I can't tell if you are joking or not. Humor just doesn't work on the internet. You do know I was joking, right?

I was partly serious about how scary your movie is. I had a dream once that I got up and did all the steps necessary to get ready for school then the alarm went off. I had to do all the drudgery of getting ready all over again. The real problem was that I hated school and when I woke up I thought it was one of those Saturday morning nightmares and I really didn't have to go to school at all that day. Unfortunately, it was a school day and the feeling of dread that came over me was chilling.

"I was partly serious about how scary your movie is." I can't figure out how to end that sentence without using a preposition.

BTW, I made my first comment vague so I wouldn't spoil it for anyone. It really is quite good for a no-budget movie with a small crew. I actually felt bad that it has some corporate logos in it because that would prevent it from distribution. This would be a perfect short for something like IFC.

How did you do the silhouette against the setting sun? Was it just a luminance key against a white background?

Josh Bass · October 19th, 2007, 11:26 PM

That really is me singing at the end. I can't really sing period, but I can be less awful in a lower register.

Corporate logos. . .I don't fret too much about that stuff. If someone really wants my film, we'll work out some kind of arrangement. I can blur it if need be, or maybe whoever makes lucky charms will be thrilled. Not like I portrayed them in a bad light. Filmmakers get too caught up in worrying about this stuff. If you make a big enough splash for someone who has any reason to care to notice your work, that's a good thing, right?

Sunset, it was complicated layering stuff all done in Vegas.

When we actually shot it, we used a coral or something grad filter, sunset grad that is, over the lens to turn a regular colored evening-ish sky to a deep red. It is actually shot in silhouette (though I probably deepened the contrast later) I found the red keyed out pretty well with Vegas, so there's a background layer that's the image with nothign keyed out, a layer that's the silhouette, with the red keyed out, and a sunset layer in between. The sunset's a solid color layer with some FX for the gradient look, plus a cookie cutter or something (sorry, I did this part about a year ago) to make it circular. I recall I had issues with the tree leaves jittering from the chroma key, and may have used still frame/mask combo to reduce that where it was an issue. I can look at the proj file deeply if you're really curious.

Marcus Marchesseault · October 20th, 2007, 03:45 AM

"That really is me singing at the end." I know. I thought it was pretty funny, as intended. It's a rather good parody of many "metal" vocalists. I certainly don't think you should redo the vocals. They were perfect for what you intended. I think all the casting was excellent. I believe you played Slash convincingly and I couldn't say enough good things about the lingerie woman. The main character played a perfect Joe Average.

"Filmmakers get too caught up in worrying about this stuff. (logog)" You are probably right as long as things aren't put in a bad light. I do recall that Insinkerator sued the producers of Heroes last year because the indestructible girl put her hand in the garbage disposal and their company name was clearly shown.

No need to elaborate on your FX. You did it as I figured it must be done.

This movie sometimes reminded me of "Army of Darkness" in certain scenes. It was also in a similar overly dramatic comedy tone which I liked. Again, good job. I hope to make a movie this entertaining some day.

Josh Bass · October 20th, 2007, 04:19 AM

Glad you liked. Even the metal guys hit their notes most of the time, though.

Anyway, I will send it out to appropriate fests, and if people have a problem with the logos, I'll deal with it then. I should be so lucky to the get the viewership of "Heroes".

James Clarke · October 20th, 2007, 06:32 PM

Hi all i just finished this music video by a local group called LXG
fell free to comment

here is the link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo3NzGeuLTI

Bruce Nelson · October 20th, 2007, 09:27 PM

Why not try to upload a smaller file..a lot of computers cant play streaming video at that rate( at least mine cant). I managed to dowload the first 40 seconds or so but all I got was jerky slow motion. In the digital age, our attentions spans are not that long. Grab us in the first 10 seconds or loose us.

Jon McGuffin · October 20th, 2007, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Nelson

Why not try to upload a smaller file..a lot of computers cant play streaming video at that rate( at least mine cant). I managed to dowload the first 40 seconds or so but all I got was jerky slow motion. In the digital age, our attentions spans are not that long. Grab us in the first 10 seconds or loose us.

Maybe we could start learning to be a bit more patient? Besides, he provided the secondary link for a direct download.

Hyun De Grande · October 21st, 2007, 06:59 AM

Kind of... The adversity is that she has nowhere to go, nor someone to talk to. She's all by herself. So she's constantly in search of human contact by hitch-hiking randomly at gas stations. That's her sad routine.

But ask yourself these questions:

- Does she really adapt to it?
- Does she feel content?

..Hope that helps a little bit.

By the way: yes, I was a little zoomed in for the opening shots.

October 19th, 2007, 12:56 PM	#1026
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	I will redo the end vocals in a lower register. __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB

October 19th, 2007, 11:26 PM	#1029
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	That really is me singing at the end. I can't really sing period, but I can be less awful in a lower register. Corporate logos. . .I don't fret too much about that stuff. If someone really wants my film, we'll work out some kind of arrangement. I can blur it if need be, or maybe whoever makes lucky charms will be thrilled. Not like I portrayed them in a bad light. Filmmakers get too caught up in worrying about this stuff. If you make a big enough splash for someone who has any reason to care to notice your work, that's a good thing, right? Sunset, it was complicated layering stuff all done in Vegas. When we actually shot it, we used a coral or something grad filter, sunset grad that is, over the lens to turn a regular colored evening-ish sky to a deep red. It is actually shot in silhouette (though I probably deepened the contrast later) I found the red keyed out pretty well with Vegas, so there's a background layer that's the image with nothign keyed out, a layer that's the silhouette, with the red keyed out, and a sunset layer in between. The sunset's a solid color layer with some FX for the gradient look, plus a cookie cutter or something (sorry, I did this part about a year ago) to make it circular. I recall I had issues with the tree leaves jittering from the chroma key, and may have used still frame/mask combo to reduce that where it was an issue. I can look at the proj file deeply if you're really curious. __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB

October 20th, 2007, 04:19 AM	#1031
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	Glad you liked. Even the metal guys hit their notes most of the time, though. Anyway, I will send it out to appropriate fests, and if people have a problem with the logos, I'll deal with it then. I should be so lucky to the get the viewership of "Heroes". __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB

October 20th, 2007, 06:32 PM	#1032
James Clarke Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: BARBADOS Posts: 125 Images: 4	New Music Video Hi all i just finished this music video by a local group called LXG fell free to comment here is the link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo3NzGeuLTI __________________ There Can Be Only One

October 20th, 2007, 09:27 PM	#1033
Bruce Nelson New Boot Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: San Benito, tx Posts: 9	the files too big Why not try to upload a smaller file..a lot of computers cant play streaming video at that rate( at least mine cant). I managed to dowload the first 40 seconds or so but all I got was jerky slow motion. In the digital age, our attentions spans are not that long. Grab us in the first 10 seconds or loose us.

October 19th, 2007, 07:46 AM	#1022
Loney Childress New Boot Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Pahrump, NV Posts: 24	:To Brian Dunke I thank you for your review and you don't have to defend your opinion. I was mostly explaining why some of the things you saw were there. Like, for example, the audio at the beginning. I would've reshot those scenes had I had the time. Of course on the music, we'll agree to disagree. That's my style. And I'm not offended, in fact I thank you for telling me what you think. And as far as the logos, this is for a contest and this will play on the Chiller Channel. I've already sent them a DVD to be part of the Halloween Marathon. I'm thrilled to get my first attempt on TV. This whole process was alot of fun, stressful, but alot of fun. I'm looking forward to making another and fix as many things as I can.

October 19th, 2007, 08:29 AM	#1023
Jeff Mack Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: McKinney, TX Posts: 195	Yeah, the Z-1 is the one in the balcony. He stayed around the stage normally but later in the show he was trying to add a few new shots to break up the whole concert. The first two were on sticks so not much variety there other than zooming in on solos and such. We iso'd the cameras and I did the multicam edit in FCP2. This is just rough audio. the mix just got finished and will go to mastering in a week or so. BTW, I captured to Pro Res 422 HQ, even the Z-1. Jeff

October 19th, 2007, 10:24 AM	#1024
Lori Starfelt Major Player Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Los Angeles, california Posts: 228	Very nice. it was fun to see Michael Murphey after all these years as well. Looks fantastic. Sounds terrific. I was totally comfortable with the amount of coverage that you got. We shoot a lot of live shows, and as a viewer, I didn't feel like you skimped at any point. If you hadn't talked about your plans to have more cameras, it wouldn't have occurred watching that you needed more. I'd say less zooming next time out, though. There were a few times I wanted the camera to just hold still. But overall, really very nice. Congrats.

October 19th, 2007, 10:53 AM	#1025
Jeff Mack Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: McKinney, TX Posts: 195	Lori, Thanks for the comments. I only used the zooms because I thought the movement would take away from the fact of viewers "noticing" the same old shot. I almost thought it gave the air of doubling the profiles. Thanks again. Jeff

October 19th, 2007, 04:06 PM	#1027
Jack Zhang Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Burnaby, BC, Canada Posts: 3,053	Yeah, the max bitrate is 12Mbps. Best quality at the cost of a huge file.

October 19th, 2007, 09:49 PM	#1028
Marcus Marchesseault Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,961	Crap, I can't tell if you are joking or not. Humor just doesn't work on the internet. You do know I was joking, right? I was partly serious about how scary your movie is. I had a dream once that I got up and did all the steps necessary to get ready for school then the alarm went off. I had to do all the drudgery of getting ready all over again. The real problem was that I hated school and when I woke up I thought it was one of those Saturday morning nightmares and I really didn't have to go to school at all that day. Unfortunately, it was a school day and the feeling of dread that came over me was chilling. "I was partly serious about how scary your movie is." I can't figure out how to end that sentence without using a preposition. BTW, I made my first comment vague so I wouldn't spoil it for anyone. It really is quite good for a no-budget movie with a small crew. I actually felt bad that it has some corporate logos in it because that would prevent it from distribution. This would be a perfect short for something like IFC. How did you do the silhouette against the setting sun? Was it just a luminance key against a white background?

October 20th, 2007, 03:45 AM	#1030
Marcus Marchesseault Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,961	"That really is me singing at the end." I know. I thought it was pretty funny, as intended. It's a rather good parody of many "metal" vocalists. I certainly don't think you should redo the vocals. They were perfect for what you intended. I think all the casting was excellent. I believe you played Slash convincingly and I couldn't say enough good things about the lingerie woman. The main character played a perfect Joe Average. "Filmmakers get too caught up in worrying about this stuff. (logog)" You are probably right as long as things aren't put in a bad light. I do recall that Insinkerator sued the producers of Heroes last year because the indestructible girl put her hand in the garbage disposal and their company name was clearly shown. No need to elaborate on your FX. You did it as I figured it must be done. This movie sometimes reminded me of "Army of Darkness" in certain scenes. It was also in a similar overly dramatic comedy tone which I liked. Again, good job. I hope to make a movie this entertaining some day.

October 21st, 2007, 06:59 AM	#1035
Hyun De Grande Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Oostkamp & Ghent, Belgium Posts: 32	Kind of... The adversity is that she has nowhere to go, nor someone to talk to. She's all by herself. So she's constantly in search of human contact by hitch-hiking randomly at gas stations. That's her sad routine. But ask yourself these questions: - Does she really adapt to it? - Does she feel content? ..Hope that helps a little bit. By the way: yes, I was a little zoomed in for the opening shots. __________________ My movies:http://nl.youtube.com/user/somatichdg -> Comments are welcome.