David Sweetman Posted October 11, 2006 Share Posted October 11, 2006 Written and shot one day, cut the next, sent to the contest the next. For better or worse, here it is. Neither of the actors had acted before, and considering that, I thought they did great with the admittedly expository and largely improv dialogue. I think the pacing turned out alright but the max rt was 3:00, and we hit it on the button. I would have liked to have held more shots longer. The Montresor Killer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon-Hebert Barto Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 I couldn't see poop after they got into the car most of the time. The coverage in the diner was too much. Also the framing....too quickly composed maybe? The editing during the drive was nice, I see what you were doing there. Other than that.....I can tell you this. That dude you have there, keep working with him. You may have found yourself a diamond in the ruff/rough. Excellent voice....I could feel restrained nuances in his 'almost' jestures, like with his hands in the diner. He could be a natural. Get him a haircut. Let him loose to see what he can do and then reel him back in to polish up. He seemed pretty comfortable with himself. With someone like that, you need to work with him and keep the camera on him. The girl is not a natural but she did a nice job, put out a nice effort. This is what friends do. I know you like the thriller/horror stuff just from being a member here and seeing your other posts. I dig it. I grew up watching the same stuff as you probably. IMHO, you should def stick in this 'vein' while learning. It seems natural for you. And I'm telling you, that guy should have roles in your future flicks. Get a little stable going with him and some other talents, like sound guys etc. Even if they aren't 'in to film'. That guy could surely fill the "suave-killer" role....write for him. He's like a cross of Durmont Mulroney and Jeff Kober. All in all, you did this on a whim. It's what I call a "sketch". Like a doodle. A fine doodle it is. You never waste time practicing like this. It would be like telling picasso to stop drawing on paper napkins at the cafe! Keep on it! -Jonnie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sweetman Posted October 13, 2006 Author Share Posted October 13, 2006 I couldn't see poop after they got into the car most of the time. The coverage in the diner was too much. Also the framing....too quickly composed maybe? The editing during the drive was nice, I see what you were doing there. Other than that.....I can tell you this. That dude you have there, keep working with him. You may have found yourself a diamond in the ruff/rough. Hey, thanks for the feedback! Yeah the .wmv render turned out way more contrasty than the source .avi for some reason. Plus I'm viewing it on an LCD screen which is often overly bright. Of course we were working with an unacceptably low level of light, since our torches didn't work and we couldn't find a generator. I agree with you about the composition, I wish I'd had more time all-around for this one. I was really happy with that performance too, I've worked with plenty of first-time actors and this guy was something else. The next film will be on 16mm, and we'll put a lot more time and thought into that. The thing is, we've already amassed all the capital we need to shoot it, we just need the script to end all scripts! But it's coming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jason Debus Posted October 13, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted October 13, 2006 How did you do those driving shots with the camera outside the car? Whatever you did it was pretty convincing for low budget! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sweetman Posted October 14, 2006 Author Share Posted October 14, 2006 How did you do those driving shots with the camera outside the car? Whatever you did it was pretty convincing for low budget! Thanks, yeah I like that trick - the car was stationary and a 500w home-depot shoplight was held by hand and walked across the side of the car. The camera was given the appropriate movement to simulate driving. We were lucky enough to be able to frame out all the street lights and even get some moving car lights in the background at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon-Hebert Barto Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 Yeah, I liked that too....but I thought there was a cut with every passing of the light....am I confusing? Kind of like mini jump cuts, like they were driving awhile, passing of time slightly... :unsure: Here is my quote from the first reply: "The editing during the drive was nice, I see what you were doing there." Who cares, it was convincing and that is all that matters. Pumped to see your 16mm! Keep us up to date with it when the time comes. I wouldn't even mind seeing daily journals on the "In Production" thread. Keep us informed....I'll be looking for your future posts. Oh, I almost forgot! David, have you seen the movie "Feast"? It was that Project Greenlight thing? It is coming out on DVD and I was wondering what your thoughts were on it... -Jonnie :ph34r: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sweetman Posted October 15, 2006 Author Share Posted October 15, 2006 Yeah, I liked that too....but I thought there was a cut with every passing of the light....am I confusing? Kind of like mini jump cuts, like they were driving awhile, passing of time slightly... Oh, I almost forgot! David, have you seen the movie "Feast"? It was that Project Greenlight thing? It is coming out on DVD and I was wondering what your thoughts were on it... Yeah there were also cuts between the light passes - the idea is she's calling multiple times. Actually this film has almost made me purpose to never cover a driving scene from in front of the car - since for realism's sake, we never see a car from that perspective. Not when we're 'with' the characters in the car, at any rate. It would take some thinking to figure out how exactly to cover it though. Not that realism should factor into all coverage, but for some reason that perspective just seems set-up to me. Of course I'm sure there are also scenarios where it's exactly what is calld for. I've never heard of Feast; I heard bad stuff about Project Greenlight from my film teacher once and just stayed away from it after that. I've added it to my netflix queue though, it looks interesting. I'll definitely post more about the next film as it draws closer and production starts, which hopefully will be this semester or over winter break. I'm kind of engineering it for festivals - or trying anyway, it seems to me a lot of films that do well at festivals have the same kind of 'tone' going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sweetman Posted November 27, 2006 Author Share Posted November 27, 2006 So this film won Grand Prize which is pretty sweet. I figure it's something else to put on the resume, even if the contest isn't considered a real 'festival'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zamir Merali Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 I'm kind of engineering it for festivals - or trying anyway, it seems to me a lot of films that do well at festivals have the same kind of 'tone' going on. What is the tone that festival winning movies seem to have in common. Just out of curiosity because it seems like it could be a pretty helpful piece of information. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sweetman Posted November 27, 2006 Author Share Posted November 27, 2006 (edited) What is the tone that festival winning movies seem to have in common. Just out of curiosity because it seems like it could be a pretty helpful piece of information. Thanks Well, if you watch films that do well at festivals, like the recent Junebug and Squid and the Whale, also Schultze Gets the Blues, Magnolia, and several others I can't call to mind, they're all very thoughtful and heavy; even their light-hearted moments say something serious about life. Edited November 27, 2006 by David Sweetman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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