nathan coombs Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 A short documentary shot on film. It is only 8 minutes long but the file size is large so be patient. I am happy to say that it has been described by others as 'dreamlike' and shot 'masterfully'. I am going solely for online distribution of the film so excuse my shameless plug. I would rather prefer that more people saw the film than less. Any opinions are of course welcome. I hope you can find the time to check it out. The Burning of Girolamo Savonarola Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon-Hebert Barto Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Saw it about two days ago on another site...love it. I saw a 16mm doc on Jochen Pieper shot the same way, being narrator as voice of subject on historical facts. I love these "unearthly" feeling films either doc or short narrative. Your film is quite unique and provoking. Your film is most def dreamy! It is like I am transported into anothers strangely beautiful dream, or nightmare as it might be... One critique. You could have used a pop-stopper in front of your mouth during the recording session. Just to cut down on the sharp edges of the "pops" anyones voice makes when recording. However, the style in which the material was read can't be beat ! Fantastic. It single handedly made the images become dreamy. If you had Larry Hagman read it the film would suffer greatly, if you see what I'm trying to say. Can't wait to see more of your stuff. Thanks for posting this, it made my night that much better!!! -Jonnie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LondonFilmMan Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Nathan, you'd make a darn good hypnotist! I like... your mov-ie...it is gre-at...and I like lem-on sher-bert...please give me some lem-on sher-bert.. seriously, your movie is a wee bit strange...but alright at that! some shots were great whilst others were average. You cut it together well and narrated it well. I agree about the pop shield! Did you use a cardoid condenser mic? 7 sher-berts out of 10! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Burke Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I loved it, was really sucked in. The only thing I would critique is the audio mix. Spend the money have it done. Clean up the vocal track and lower the vocal volume a bit. At least the audio mix coming over the internet on my system has booming vocals and much softer music. Needs some tidying up. Otherwise a great piece. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathan coombs Posted March 13, 2006 Author Share Posted March 13, 2006 Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Believe it or not I think I did a much better job on the sound than on my last films, but this is still the most tricky area for me. I use FCP3 and the mic on a Canon Xl1 to record vocals. How do I clean up the pops? The balance seems ok on my tv (which I use as a monitor whilst editing) how do I calibrate for optimum balance over the net? Perhaps I need a good pair of headphones to plug into my comp whilst editing. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Munden Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 I liked it very much ( Don't know much about the sound , I'm a Photographer so only take in images ) . It put me in mind if the photographs of Josef Sudek . Can I have some tech info ( stock - Telecine info etc ) Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest santo Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 I'm sure you'll hear a lot about that scratch. Somehow, it does something for the film. Maybe it's just me, but it adds a disturbing dimension -- this big gouge ripping through many shots. The dialogue/voice performance is good except for the over-loud sound level (and popping) as noted. You sure don't want to send that to a festival like that. (edit -- I see you're looking at online distribution only. A shame, this is a good length short film for broadcasters to buy to put in the inbetween spots when they show features. TLC or History or other channels like that). Honestly, I've watched the other stuff you've put up on your site and found it hard to sit through. Droning ruminations on the nature of existence are very grueling, no matter the imagery. But this one is more interesting. It has me asking questions about this person and connections with current times and repeating patterns. Doesn't give me a bunch of answers. This is better filmmaking than what I've seen on your site before. And it's a good length. Maybe it's that you've got a unique character to work with. When you find that in a narrative or documentary, you can ask a lot of deep questions and do all sorts intellectual investigations you otherwise really can't do effectively and hold an audience. Good films are made for audiences to watch, not for the filmmaker to do mental masturbation in his own little corner. The voice performance is good and the images are overall pretty good -- some really nice slow mo stuff. Time lapse. It has a kind of hypnotic quality which is I think what you want in something like this to achieve a transcendence to another time or era blending with the current one. The book, the dishes breaking, all could have been corny, but somehow you manage to avoid that. The guy with the loud speaker is a nice bit of business. Is this a plant or is this a lucky shot or what? The fire is great. How did you film that? In autoexposure? Girolamo Savonarola seems like a strong enough character for a feature length project. A narrative one or maybe a documentary. Drawing parallels with charismatic leaders across time periods. A narrative one would be stronger as this is a terrific part potentially for a charismatic actor and there's a lot of drama that can be played out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Burke Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Believe it or not I think I did a much better job on the sound than on my last films, but this is still the most tricky area for me. I use FCP3 and the mic on a Canon Xl1 to record vocals. How do I clean up the pops? The balance seems ok on my tv (which I use as a monitor whilst editing) how do I calibrate for optimum balance over the net? Perhaps I need a good pair of headphones to plug into my comp whilst editing. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Do you have access to Soundtrack Pro? If so, give your audio track the once over. It has a rather good, sort of sound soap, that cleans up popping, clicking and otherwise unwanted audio glitches. chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon-Hebert Barto Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 SANTO QUOTE: I'm sure you'll hear a lot about that scratch. Somehow, it does something for the film. Maybe it's just me, but it adds a disturbing dimension -- this big gouge ripping through many shots. I concur. Makes it seem like an unearthed relic from the past...An artifact of the renaissance. PS: no one respond to me, "...there was no film at that time...", ok? I'm not a jackass! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Munden Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Just watched it again and like it even more this time , well done . Some shots were better the other . Would like to have seen a shot of the Piazza Degli Uffizi with no one on it , it looks amazing at 5:00 am . Made me wanna go back to Florence and my fav country Italy . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andres victorero Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 (edited) great work ;) this doc has some kind of magic that make it different. the music is strange but very aproppiate to the images. please can you tell us the technics aspects of the doc? film, camera, lenses ...? one question more, are you happy with the telecine´s work? thanks Edited March 18, 2006 by andres victorero Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lionel Pina Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 I loved it! Very poetic and dream like. Shot very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathan coombs Posted March 19, 2006 Author Share Posted March 19, 2006 great work ;) this doc has some kind of magic that make it different. the music is strange but very aproppiate to the images.please can you tell us the technics aspects of the doc? film, camera, lenses ...? one question more, are you happy with the telecine´s work? thanks Many thanks for all the positive response. I shot the film on a Beaulieu 6008 PRO Plus-X 100ASA and Plus-X 50ASA, Vision2-500T. The Plus-X was red filtered (x4), slo-mo was shot at 70fps. The fire scene was shot on auto exposure, which locked down at f1.4 - it was probably exposed up to 2 stops over like this. 11 rolls in total for the whole film. Transfer to MiniDV (Pal) by CinePost, who did a great job on the negative but transferred too dark on a lot of the reversal. If anyone can help me cleanup the voiceover I have posted it at: http://www.workhorse.tv/Savonarola%20Voiceover.mp3 cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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