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A dream for Paris


Ckulakov

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Here is a short 3 min film that I directed, photographed, edited and acted. Mainly a musicly motivated concept film inspired by a photoshoot a few months before. The shoot was spontaneous and with no script or planning. I wanted it to be something beautiful, something that reminded me of a animated children's book with a few inspirations from the French film Amelie. Thanks to my cousin Barbara, the main actress, I was able to accomplish some great shots. Shooting with a 4 year old consumer camera was a little problem so I decided to shoot the reality in color and add some sepia to make it appear "French" (don't ask why). To my surprise, for some of the shots the sepia worked out beautifully and I am proud of it. The black and white, however, has been a trick of mine used to battle the amateur colors of DV and it worked out beautifully for the "dreamy" scenes. The camera moves where done using a 20 dollar tripod from wal-mart and the last shot woked out amazing with me balancing the tripod on top of the bed with me standing on it. PLEASE CRITIQUE.

 

GO HERE :

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXsOm4pdRsM

 

(SORRY ABOUT THE POOR COMPRESSION)

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Guest peter orland

Hello Ckulakov...

 

The shoot was spontaneous and with no script or planning.

 

Possibly there in lies the problem. For me there wasn't enough of anything (artistic, technical, mood, story etc), for it to work at all.

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Possibly there in lies the problem.

 

On the contrary, that's the best way to learn. My buddies and I would do that almost every time we hung out. After a while, you develop an eye for what's right and what works. That kind of learning would take a heck of a lot of time and effort if it was all planned out. I'm a huge proponent of spontaneous filmmaking; if you don't keep an element of spontenaity in your work, you get locked into what's normal and average, and just repeat and recycle what you always do.

 

...that's my take on it anyway...

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Guest peter orland
On the contrary, that's the best way to learn. My buddies and I would do that almost every time we hung out. After a while, you develop an eye for what's right and what works. That kind of learning would take a heck of a lot of time and effort if it was all planned out. I'm a huge proponent of spontaneous filmmaking; if you don't keep an element of spontenaity in your work, you get locked into what's normal and average, and just repeat and recycle what you always do.

 

...that's my take on it anyway...

 

G'day David.

 

Did you watch the clip?

What was your take on the clip?

Or are you just emotionaly responding to the thought that I am against spontenaity, which I am not?

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I did watch it, I do completely agree with what you said concerning the clip itself. Still, I don't think that the spontenaity of the shoot factored into those shortcomings. (I would have responded to the clip, but I don't think a student should ever be discouraged from this type of shoot...that's what spurred my response)

 

But concerning the clip - the b/w thing didn't work for me. It removed any color problems, sure, but it still looks like desaturated DV, and this has always been my problem with people who go this route - it looks like you're REALLY TRYING to cover up for shooting on DV, and comes off as more amateurish than if you had just worked with the colors, because it appears that you assume you're fooling someone.

second - I feel sepia has a much more "dream-like" look than black and white, so I would have reversed the sepia with the b/w and added a bunch of contrast to both. (you didn't do those in-camera did you?)

 

One note - for the shots of the man & woman interacting, the profile angle distanced the viewer from the conversation. An OTS or an angle closer to the POV would have been nice, to put the viewer into the conversation. Some more stuff happening in the bg/foreground would have been cool too.

 

What kind of setup did you have? looks like you had a few lights for the dream sequence? or was it all available light?

Edited by David Sweetman
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I'm reposting my response from the "general discussion" topic here, just to keep the conversation going:

 

Nicely done, but the "dream" was less visually appealing and engaging than the "reality" of the woman reading in bed. The bedroom scene had nice compositions and camera movement, and created a feeling. The dream, in comparison, was too distant and repetitive. It seems to me the dream should have been more evocative than the reality.

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I think you have something here, just not yet fully realized. I would encourage you to keep pushing to see where your imagination can take you. I think it's heading in an interesting direction. I'd like to see the result of what can come when you really begin to experiment.

 

By the way, I was impressed with the moves you pulled off with your $20 tripod. And I agree, the sepia look works well. Did you do that in your NLE?

 

Keep going.

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Thank You very much everybody.

 

Peter,

 

Yes, I totally agree and beleive planning is the ultimate thing to do. I have been working on a script for the last 7 months, which is almost ready for pre-production. BUT, when you have 4 hours of free time, some people, a camera, some lights, tripod, and a mac, I dont see any harm in having a good time and playing around with a little concept that you wanted to create.

 

 

David,

 

Thanks, and yes I agree the B&W could have been more dreamy but I had a vision and to me the B&W was almost a look I wanted for Paris. I did not want the emphasis to be on the actual dreaming I wanted it to be the way that the woman sees Paris, not just a cliche blurry/hazy colorful dream. Yes, I have 2 lights, but again, I wnated Paris to be depicted in a B&W low-key style (it just the way I see Paris, and I wanted it that way when the woman dreamed of it). I agree with having a lot more planning for the B&W white like foreground elements, and more of perspective shots, to get the audiance into how she sees everything.

 

Thank you everyone.

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Michael Nash,

 

In my opinion dreams ARE distant and I wanted to capture that real feeling. To the woman the images where just a distant dream. What do you think?

 

 

 

MORE CRITIQUE PLEASE!

I really would appreciate more feedback.

 

Thank You

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Michael Nash,

 

In my opinion dreams ARE distant and I wanted to capture that real feeling. To the woman the images where just a distant dream. What do you think?

MORE CRITIQUE PLEASE!

I really would appreciate more feedback.

 

Thank You

 

Well there's emotional distance and then there's literal distance. But regardless, the dream footage just didn't evoke any particular feeling or engage me in any way. Whereas the bedroom stuff did have a slight romanticized and impressionistic feel.

 

There are thousands of ways you could have shot the dream sequence so I can't really tell you what you should have done. But I can tell you how the choices you did make struck me, and that's that the dream came off a little plain and "observant," instead of "engaged."

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