2 Minute Films

Justin Schroepfer · March 11, 2012

I made a couple of 2 minute shorts and I was just looking for some feedback. Thanks.

Bill DiPietra · March 11, 2012

I made a couple of 2 minute shorts and I was just looking for some feedback. Thanks.

http://vimeo.com/36703048

http://vimeo.com/37548111

Very nice! I liked the concepts and photography of both films. Tell us a bit more about the making of them (stocks, camera, lighting, etc.)

Justin Schroepfer · March 12, 2012

Very nice! I liked the concepts and photography of both films. Tell us a bit more about the making of them (stocks, camera, lighting, etc.)

I'm glad you liked them. Both films were shot on a Bolex H-16 REX. Alpha Cine in Seattle processed and scanned both films.

'Good Morning' was shot on Kodak Vision 3 500T Color Negative and all the lighting was natural, utilizing street lights and sun light at dawn and pretty much shooting wide open until near the end. For the shot of the bike wheel, I used duct tape to attach the camera to the back of the bike (with some foam padding in between them to protect the camera). The moving shots were done by just shooting out of a moving car window. I made it look like a Super16 aspect ratio in post.

'It Had to Be You' was shot on Kodak Double-X B+W Negative. The actual film used was a tail end of a friends shoot from 2 years ago. However, who ever respooled the film after they chopped it off wound it up backwards, so I had to respool it yet again. This accounts for the scratches and dust marks. I also shot this with an anamorphic lens, which I adjusted in post. For lighting, I utliized equipment that the theatre had, like spotlights for stage shows, as well as bringing in a some halogen construction lights I got from a hardware store.

I'll gladly answer any other questions you might have. Thanks for watching!

Manfred Lopez · May 9, 2012

Very nice work! I especially liked the black and white one (It Had To Be You). Very good lighting and editing and camera work. I like how the detective moves in and out of the light, especially the shot where we see for the first time that there is someone else up above. I also liked the counter angle insert when the detective turns up. Great editing/camera direction right there.

My only minor nitpick is that the very last shot seems to jump the 180-degree line. I say "seems" because the previous shot (the second-to-last where he turns around) was right on the line and it could have gone either way. But then the hand with the gun that comes into frame from the right (<--) pushes the detective and his gun to the left of it (-->). So in the next shot, which is not a reversal but just a move-in, the detective's gun should still be pointing from left to right (-->), but you switched directions and it therefore jumps a bit.

But maybe I'm overseeing things. I still loved the short. I have a question: Did you storyboard the sequence before shooting or did you figure it out in the theater as you went along?