Looking for constructive Criticism - Fashion film on 16mm

[Borja Llorens]

A week ago we released this shortfilm we shot on just one day on location, filmed near Barcelona on Spain. We were using a Ronin 2 with an Arri SR3, with 50D stock on exteriors and 200T on the interiors. The sequence soon inside the locker room was illuminated with mirrors and one big Nanlite source, and some Nanlite led tubes on the showers. Looking for constructive Criticism! Thanks!

 

[Steven Buckwalter]

Really great work Borja. It's not often that you see an SR3 on a stabilizer, it feels stylish and looks interesting. It's a lot of interesting setups considering you only had a day to do it. 

Here are my opinions (that's all they are).

Likes:

1. The movement and lighting at :36. 

2. Shot design at 1:10

3. The switch to handheld at 2:19 and the shot coming through the bleachers. 

4. The backlit shot at 2:06

5. The way that evening light renders on film towards the end of the handheld sequence and at 3:01.

6. The way that film will hold skin tones even in cool light. (3:18) 

7. Interesting use of flares in the last sequence.

Dislikes:

1. I'm not sure if the light on the main character at :45 is a conscious choice or an artifact of how you had to light the whole shot, but I wish it was a little softer on his face, and the color of the light mixes poorly with his skin tone, giving him a little bit of a pink pasty look. 

2. The tracking shot at :52 is so close that it lost all sense of motion because it cropped out any foreground that was moving faster. It was an impressive technical feat, but I like the wider tracking shot that comes a little later. OTOH, you or the director may have decided it served the story better to stay that tight, or to make the shot seem dreamier. 

3. The coach's eye socket at :31 is just slightly burned compared to the runner's skin at :55. That's an incredibly picky thing to nitpick at, I'm not saying it's something that ruined the whole movie. I'm more just curious as to how that one highlight on his face couldn't seem to hold compared to the rest of the footage where the skin tones in direct sun held just fine. Even the backlight on the shot at 2:06 is way over, but rolls off or reads in a much more pleasing way. I'd be curious to know the difference in time of day between the two shots, and it's possible that just getting a frame of very light diffusion, or some powder on the coaches face could have softened it just enough.

 

Could you give us some insight on your lab and transfer process? Did you do a one-light at the lab, or get a log transfer and grade it yourself? Also, what kind of prep did you do with the director? Sometimes it can be hard to get on the same page with a director about some of the visual language, and then you only had one day and were changing mags on a ronin, there had to be some challenges. Also, how involved was your color grade? A lot of the tones seem pretty straight on for what I would expect from Kodak film, but did you find that you had to do a lot of exposure or tone matching as the sun dropped toward the end of the day?

Thanks for sharing.

[Tyler Purcell]

I enjoyed it. Where the fight in the field and the gun scene were over the top for the story, that's not the DP's job to figure out. 

I have zero complaints, it's not a major motion picture and having shot it all in a day, corners were clearly cut. However, the look and feel of the film works well. It's clearly a homage to Jean Pierre Jenuet and Wes Anderson.

I have zero complaints, looked really good and nobody will notice the stuff Steven complained about, I for sure did not see any of that.  

[Craig Benson]

Really great, I couldn’t take my eyes off it! It looks gorgeous. 

[Garett McKelvie]

Stunning!

[Birk Rønningsbakken Groven]

I don't really mind the gun, but I'm missing a couple of medium close ups on their faces communicating what they're thinking/a shift in mood right before they start making out. Of course you may have had that covered, but the director preferred the more  abrupt shift in tone when cutting. 

Otherwice a really beautifully shot, film!