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I think the levels are fine it was just really quiet and I had to turn my speakers up a lot to hear the dialogue, not really a critique I guess since a lot of youtube videos have that. I didn't know about the tripod laws in new york that seems really dumb.
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May 6, 2011 03:31
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DookJones posted:I enjoyed this because I know for a fact that you guys cracked up most of the time and had a blast. I'd watch the entire film, but only if you keep the same punching sound fx. Well guess what? I just completed the feature-length screenplay. 
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May 6, 2011 03:49
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TheYellowFog posted:I think the levels are fine it was just really quiet and I had to turn my speakers up a lot to hear the dialogue, not really a critique I guess since a lot of youtube videos have that. Its weird, you dont need one if you are just placing a tripod but since we technically were claiming "exclusive use" of a certain part of the park(the bench) they asked if we had one and they told us no tripod and hurry up at the bench and to not block the pathway we were walking on. Most people dont care but this ranger in particular was being a dick. I also could not afford the $300 permit for this film, which used to be free for students.
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May 6, 2011 06:53
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzSAGjGKEIo Not safe for work or those with weak stomachs. A friend of mine is finally starting to do some great things. This is something he made with his new camera, a Canon 5D Mark DOS, I think on a whim. The sound fx were done in his bedroom on all nighter, so the comical effect is intentional. I totally adore this. 1337 haxxor pirate fucked around with this message at 07:41 on May 8, 2011 |
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May 8, 2011 07:36
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https://www.vimeo.com/23463640 I completed this short for my "Digital Media Thesis Production" course this semester--my first time taking on a project of this magnitude. Now that it's completed, and I've started being able to sleep again, I realize how much fun the whole process really was. Of course there are things I would change, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. edit- here's a classmate's piece that turned out pretty awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQQO9uHerQM& damaya fucked around with this message at 19:28 on May 10, 2011 |
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May 10, 2011 19:06
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Crosspost! I've been on a kick of making AV loop short films. Watching them is a great way to zone out. Conversely your head might explode from the repetition. http://www.vimeo.com/24091170 
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May 23, 2011 10:48
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Babby's first short film, entitled "Chronophasia."  http://vimeo.com/23978946 "Inter-dimensional adversaries play a dangerous game for dominion over souls of the damned. RTF Narrative 1 production for Spring 2011 at the University of Texas at Austin. Instructions were to create a short film with minimal/no dialogue. This version (minus a title change) is what screened at the end of the semester." problematic hug fucked around with this message at 08:48 on May 27, 2011 |
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May 27, 2011 08:45
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Here's my finished product for the Directing I class at a local filmmaker co-op. http://vimeo.com/24664765 Edit: New version with uncrushed blacks. Jalumibnkrayal fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Jun 5, 2011 |
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May 28, 2011 20:17
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I started this as a student, but it spent several years on the back burner as I finished school and went into the working world. I recently came across a piece of music that went well with it, and shot a credit sequence. https://vimeo.com/24671351
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Jun 5, 2011 17:23
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I liked that! Short and sweet. The rack focus was well done, and the movements really gave that meat more character than I would have expected. Good job on the compositing, too.
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Jun 6, 2011 03:47
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Kolchak posted:I liked that! Short and sweet. The rack focus was well done, and the movements really gave that meat more character than I would have expected. Good job on the compositing, too. Thanks. The lighting was a bit crap due to a combination of inexperience and living in a building with ancient wiring, and I shot a good portion of the live action before learning that the PD150's "progressive" mode looks considerably worse than shooting interlaced then deinterlacing in post, but it was a fun film to make.
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Jun 6, 2011 20:18
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Here is a teaser trailer for my upcoming mashup short film on sex http://vimeo.com/25583752 
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Jun 26, 2011 21:37
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I made this stop motion short a few years ago. There's an easter egg at the end. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqAvXr1_BI8
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Jul 3, 2011 01:09
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I really like Jump above, it's a great idea. Also Operation Klondike was cool Plague Of Meat was disgusting but awesome! I made a few films with some mates not long after I finished a media degree. They're pretty dated now. EDIT: I should add that all of these were made on tiny budgets with virtually no decent equipment. If there's one thing I could change, it'd be to have decent lighting equipment. The Pet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcvYTnDkU4E "Father decides to buy his spoilt daughter a sock puppet as a pet. Soon after he suspects the puppet of planning to murder him..." I wrote, directed, edited and did the camera work on this one. Engulfed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFBBq_vuNLY "Miners are trapped in a cave in and wait to be rescued, but will they kill one another before help arrives?" The idea for this one was sparked by the Beaconsfield Mine disaster. Written collaboratively, I directed and filmed. Entirely staged in a mate's garage, the idea was to put together a film we could shoot in one day. It's All Geek To Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqUyN2wikFE "Four gamer nerds have to face the real world when they forget to pay their internet connection bill. One of them has a plan, but it might be more trouble than it's worth..." Written and directed by a mate. I act in this one - I'm the gooniest goon. Bad Reception http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5431zjkouo "Two people find their friend unconscious and apparently suffering the effects of a vampire bite. They set off to find the fiend and save their friend's soul, only not is all it appears..." This was written by a friend who asked me to direct so she could act in it. It was a two-day shoot almost entirely done in her apartment's garage. ExplosiveBuck fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Jul 5, 2011 |
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Jul 5, 2011 04:57
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Music Video I DP'ed for. Turned out pretty good, I'm not too stoked on the opening but the rest of it is good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0fcQ8vaSRU
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Jul 10, 2011 19:34
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Here's a video i made to honour my room mate's dog: http://vimeo.com/26155213 schmuckfeatures posted:
I have not seen your film before, but it made me laugh very hard. Thank you!
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Jul 11, 2011 04:33
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I gotta say, writing a short script is by far the hardest thing I've ever tried to do creatively. It's extremely difficult to think of an idea that costs little and hits hard for the small amount of time you're working with. Do you guys have any tips on brainstorming a no budget short?
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Jul 15, 2011 19:58
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We just finished this as a pilot (20 minutes) for our web series. You can also check out our site to see what we've done in the past which includes other short films, and longer. The Director is a Lurker-Goon, so I told him that I'd post this for him. Hope you enjoy! http://www.skeleton-crew.net/series2eps.html
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Jul 16, 2011 01:45
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the Bunt posted:I gotta say, writing a short script is by far the hardest thing I've ever tried to do creatively. It's extremely difficult to think of an idea that costs little and hits hard for the small amount of time you're working with. Do you guys have any tips on brainstorming a no budget short? Honestly what my friends/crew have suggested for our own stuff is to just write what you want to, and then worry about the logistics when it's done. Once you have a script down, you can start paring out things that are too prohibitive to do. That said, if you think you've got the chops for it, doing something with only one or two sets can be very effective. "Cube" was shot on the way cheap.
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Jul 16, 2011 09:55
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It can also work sometimes to work the other way, to look at what you have available and maybe take inspiration from that (interesting locations, for example).
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Jul 16, 2011 17:38
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My friends and I just had this same discussion. We wanted to start filming something just for more experience but have a budget of like $20, so I wrote 3 short films, each one set in or around our houses. It is an interesting exercise to see how you can take a mundane location and try to make something out of it.
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Jul 16, 2011 17:53
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Magic Hate Ball posted:It can also work sometimes to work the other way, to look at what you have available and maybe take inspiration from that (interesting locations, for example). Seconding this - think about what kind of compelling images you can make with what you have at your disposal, and work from there. Terrible things can happen when you're not realistic about the stories you can tell with the resources you have.
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Jul 16, 2011 22:32
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Well, here's my first actual attempt at a short film. Hoping this gets me into Tisch and a few festivals. http://vimeo.com/26647636 Special thanks to fellow SA member Earwicker (sp?) for letting me use his music in the film.
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Jul 27, 2011 21:51
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My first short film: The Final Police Quest, based very loosely on the 1987 Sierra game. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AOZmDI5Lfo Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97XyhEv90bQ Below is the movie website with the two trailers and an archive of the funniest of my OfficerBonds social media trolling on FormSpring, Twitter and Facebook: 
St00ert fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Jul 29, 2011 |
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Jul 29, 2011 23:31
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Video I just made for a film festival a few weeks ago. The festival said no. Click link to find out why! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHlYP78ULPg&feature=channel_video_title
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Aug 3, 2011 23:42
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjtTbuoCY0I My first short film, "Violet Lee". I never took film classes or anything. Just wanted to make a film. Shot on a Sony DSR-PD170 borrowed from a friend that teaches TV production. You can check out the director's commentary at my website. Would love to hear what you think about any aspects. I wrote, directed, and edited (using Final Cut Pro 7). First time really doing any of this stuff. Okay thanks!
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Aug 18, 2011 01:12
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i am seadonkey posted:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjtTbuoCY0I Did I miss something, or is this just 13 minutes of two women eating food? Is this a fetish video? No plot, pretty much no dialogue, no acting. Just...eating food.
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Aug 18, 2011 21:17
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Jalumibnkrayal posted:Did I miss something, or is this just 13 minutes of two women eating food? Is this a fetish video? No plot, pretty much no dialogue, no acting. Just...eating food. Well, I put the director's commentary link right below it. The main character, played by the Asian girl, has some bad social anxieties and OCD. You can see this by counting things - for example, how she stirs her food, the number of blueberries she puts on the oatmeal, how many steps she takes in between running her fingers through her hair. Also, the time signature of the music (5/4). The other character, she's staying at a hotel, so she's a tourist. A friendly, maybe annoying tourist, who just tries to be friendly to the wrong person. The girl interrupts the Asian girl's routine a few times - she's late to work, after she has lunch. So forth and so on. Then, the one day, where it says Thursday, we've established her routine. Everyday for breakfast she does this, everyday for lunch she does this, everyday for dinner she does this. Well, Thursday is an unusual day for her, a break from her routine. That's why she's not at her office, she doesn't leave for lunch, and the other girl, we saw her leave lunch and go back to the hotel and then come back out. Well this time she leaves lunch, goes into the hotel, but doesn't come out. Well, that's because the other day she told the girl exactly where she could find her. So the Asian girl was just waiting at the hotel for her to come there. When the music changes later (trying not to give much away), the time signature changes to 6/4. The stirring changes, the number of blueberries changes, etc. And then, at the end, when she looks around her table, it's still empty, but she sees six empty chairs, whereas before there were only five. So there are lots of audio and visual cues to follow. spoilers here The idea here is that the Asian girl has very bad social anxieties and OCD and has to follow her strict routine. She looks around at the emptiness and loneliness in her life. With the volume up, all she can hear at breakfast is the sound of her own chewing. She gets frustrated by this, dropping the spoon loudly and sighing loudly. She doesn't really smile except at the end. It looks like she's not social at all and has no friends or anyone around her. The changing of the numbers from 5 to 6 is a means to indicate that she is a serial killer. Before, she'd had five victims. Now, though, after killing the tourist, she has six victims. It's a short film and I felt like I needed to pack a whole lot into the film. I didn't want to just spell everything out through dialog, like, "Hey I saw you running your hands through your hair five times, what's up with that?" "Oh, I have OCD." "Hey, why are you looking at me and not just answering my question about where a good place for breakfast is?" "Oh it's because I have to catch my train or I'm going to freak out cause I can't be late." So instead of just spelling everything out, I included lots of audio and visual cues. I know it's hard to pick up on and is asking a lot of attention from the viewer, but I felt like that's how it needed to be. I know it seems like a lot of just eating and stuff, but I felt like, so much of people's days revolves around their mealtimes. Breakfast before you go to work, lunch is when you're out of the office and enjoying some time away from work, and dinner is when you're back home, unwinding, relaxing, etc. I didn't include it so much for any fetishistic reason, just that those times are really important parts of people's days. I cut a whole lot of stuff out, and originally before you see the Asian girl doing her daily routine, I had title cards up that said, "Everyday for Breakfast", "Everyday for Lunch", and "Everyday for Dinner". But I felt like that stopped the pace of the film a bit so I took it out. I know that I probably have a terrible reputation here at CC, and I know it's not entirely unearned. So when I posted the short film, there were things I expected, like, "Wow that's a lot of eating." But I also felt like, listening to the director's commentary and such, that it'd be easier to understand and more enjoyable. I'm pretty happy with the final product. Having never done anything like this in my life - writing, directing, editing, etc - I feel like it's an admirable first effort, especially from someone with no experience or background in film. So I guess, I mean, the finished product is what I wanted and what I expected from the start. Some people might think it's bad but I feel like it's pretty good given what it is. My next effort would definitely include more dialogue, it will be longer, and probably more of a powerful end result. But overall I mean, I feel pretty satisfied with it. After reading all this and maybe listening to the director's commentary, do you get a little bit more of what I was going for, or does it still seem pointless? What about the editing, directing, or any other technical aspects, like, isolated from what you otherwise think about the lack of dialogue and the plot and stuff? I do intend to make more films, because I really loved writing and directing and editing. So I would like to hear any comments or critiques or anything at all. While I do feel like I am very happy with the final results, I also know that it was my first effort and that I will get better in all areas of film. So any critiques and suggestions and stuff like that are appreciated.
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Aug 19, 2011 02:43
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None of that comes through. Absolutely none of it. What you've produced now is eleven minutes of inept tedium, a lame serial killer twist, and then an even lamer pun, And then number cues, director's commentary, a 15-dollar DVD with "bonus clips"? The only positive thing I can think of to say is "good job on making a movie". You made a movie. Good job. I'm being honest, making a movie requires effort and that's more than most people do, but this isn't the kind of movie that you sell for fifteen dollars, it's the kind you quietly file away and take what you've learned and apply to your next movie. You put an incredible amount of thought into the concepts behind the film. Next time put more thought into the film itself. It's overlong, it's badly edited, it's pretty crappily shot, the sound design is naive at best, it's basically nine out of ten first student films. Or is this a troll?
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Aug 19, 2011 04:52
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So my film group is just getting started. Our latest film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfwA_gbf8cw http://www.filmlovables.com/ is our main website. The local newspaper wants to interview us, so I guess we are doing alright.
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Aug 19, 2011 06:40
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Magic Hate Ball posted:None of that comes through. Absolutely none of it. What you've produced now is eleven minutes of inept tedium, a lame serial killer twist, and then an even lamer pun, And then number cues, director's commentary, a 15-dollar DVD with "bonus clips"? The only positive thing I can think of to say is "good job on making a movie". You made a movie. Good job. I'm being honest, making a movie requires effort and that's more than most people do, but this isn't the kind of movie that you sell for fifteen dollars, it's the kind you quietly file away and take what you've learned and apply to your next movie. You put an incredible amount of thought into the concepts behind the film. Next time put more thought into the film itself. It's overlong, it's badly edited, it's pretty crappily shot, the sound design is naive at best, it's basically nine out of ten first student films. Not a troll. And I guess if the one thing I accomplished is actually making a movie, then I'll take that. I'm not saying I plan on ever re-visiting this idea or anything, but how would you suggest I take the concept behind everything and translate that into a better film? More dialog, more action, or is is maybe just a lost cause? I've finished it and don't really ever plan to open this up in Final Cut again, but I guess the advice would help. I'm working on finishing the screenplay for what I'm gonna do next - a film about a slave revolt - that I'm gonna film in North Carolina. So anything I can learn at all from this will definitely help with that. Thanks.
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Aug 19, 2011 16:40
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Make more small things. Longer doesn't necessarily mean better. Reworking this concept isn't a bad idea. Consider cutting it way, way down, for one thing. Eleven minutes is a long time for such a sparse film. You could probably do it in four or five minutes, and probably even less. Work really hard on your cinematography, too, consider locking the camera down to a tripod. Focus on what you are trying to communicate to the audience with your camera and your editing. You have an interesting moment at about twelve minutes in which Violet's repetitive motions are cut short so they almost seem like a looping replay, and consider more things like that to accentuate her behavior and worldview. Frankly, most audiences are not going to pick up on your audio cues, and they aren't going to pick up on your varied-meter trick, and generally audio has to function as a sort of third dimension. Think of it as a soundscape, think of what Mansell's music did for Requiem For A Dream (a film, by the way, that effectively communicates many of the things you failed to get across here, consider watching and studying its techniques; a terse but excellent example is Burstyn's character eating breakfast). Also, the best way to make movies is to make movies but education on the subject is always a good idea (as is watching a lot of movies). Also, work on your lighting and sound. Both were horrible. Keep working on small things. You don't seem ready for a film about slave revolt unless it's really, really low-key. The next short films you will make will all also probably be pretty bad, and the very next one will almost certainly be just as bad as this one, but at some point they'll stop being so bad, but that probably won't happen for a while. Keep working and sucking until you stop sucking.
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Aug 19, 2011 18:02
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I didn't have the patience to sit through the whole thing, I have a few bits of general advice that may help your filmmaking: -Construct a narrative flow. Introduce your characters, establish a conflict, build tension and resolve the conflict. In your film it was very important that we understand the girl is not normal right off the bat, and this didn't come across. Either her eccentricities needed to be much more exaggerated, or she should have been contrasted with people who are "normal." A short scene of her being mocked by her peers or gawked at by strangers in public for her behavior not only would have established her character and introduced her struggle, but would have added some meaning to her staying in her home for significant portions of the run time. -Consider what you are trying to communicate with each shot. What you communicate should act as part of the plot arc, and your content, framing actions, dialogue, lighting, etc. are all tools that can communicate things to the audience. If you're trying to emphasize the compulsive placement of blueberries in a bowl, we don't need to see the girl's upper body, face or surroundings. Once it is established that she is at a table with her cereal, you are free to crop all that out and frame a close-up of her hand putting blueberries in a bowl. To communicate that this is part of her OCD, and to justify making a scene out of it, something about her behavior needs to be much more exaggerated. Her performance in your film may have been realistic, but it came off as just an awkward performance on screen, and wasn't really clear what you were trying to get across to us. Exaggerating reality on screen is not to be avoided in narrative film. -White balance your camera. Hold a white card/paper in front of your lighting, zoom the camera in on it, select the custom white balance setting (the one with the wedge-looking things) and click the selector wheel. Until you start working with more elaborate lighting setups and mixing color temperatures, you should do this for every camera/lighting setup you create. You can tweak things in post within reason, but that gets very difficult when your entire frame looks orange/blue. -Shoot on something that's capable of 24p if you can get access to it. My school was stocked with PD150s and PD170s, and i regret putting so much effort behind 60i footage. This has some good pointers for beginner filmmakers: http://www.filmmaker.com/DUMPS Find some basic guides to cinematography and lighting, and give them a read. Don't be afraid to experiment, and don't be afraid to make bad films - filmmaking is the culmination of dozens of small tasks that each take a lot of practice to perform competently, so you can't expect to make good films right away. Don't be afraid to butcher your films in the editing room - sometimes throwing out footage that took a lot of effort to create will improve the film overall. When you see something you like in a film, think about what was done to achieve it, and how you can apply the same principles to your own work. I hope this helps and is more encouraging than discouraging - keep at it!
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Aug 19, 2011 18:52
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i am seadonkey posted:I'm working on finishing the screenplay for what I'm gonna do next - a film about a slave revolt - that I'm gonna film in North Carolina. So anything I can learn at all from this will definitely help with that. You're gonna do what you're gonna do, but consider making a very simple 2 minute narrative short film. Protagonist has a goal, encounters a few obstacles, and the situation is resolved. This can be as simple as a person in a diner trying to get a waiter's attention. Don't shoot until you've gone through 3-4 revisions of the script. Put the camera on a tripod. Light every scene or at least understand where your lighting deficiencies are. Capture good sound. Hire people with acting experience. I shot the following commercial in 3 hours. Aside from the actresses closeup being horribly out of focus (learned my lesson), I think it was a decent shoot. http://vimeo.com/25793760 (password is lag)
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Aug 19, 2011 19:09
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Thanks to everyone for the help. I'll definitely take it all into consideration. Although I'll never become some super-huge famous filmmaker, I really did enjoy the whole process, so I'd like to keep doing it. Thanks again and if there's anymore stuff anyone wants to share, please do so.
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Aug 19, 2011 22:10
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i am seadonkey posted:You can check out the director's commentary at my website. This is amazing. The fact that you recorded a commentary suggests a lot. That you wanted to make a movie after listening to a lot of commentaries, especially ones where they pointed out little details that really blew your mind. Here's the problem though - those little details were serving a much bigger story. The "She touches her hair every five steps" and "She stirs her oatmeal five times" are details that serve nothing. Watch it again - if you were a normal viewer and not counting how many times a character does things, what greater purpose do these things serve? Instead we get people eating food and walking around. The biggest thing is that it's boring. You know everything going on, imagine that you didn't and watch it. It's boring. Person goes to a place, then another person goes to another place, then another place.
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Aug 19, 2011 22:58
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Ok, here's an older short that I DPed/edited from 2008. This was the one we shot before Chinese Winter (the one in the OP), stars the same actor/director, but is a bit lighter of a movie. http://vimeo.com/5693588 I like this movie even though there are lots of technical niggles with sound and lighting (lack of equipment). It's fun and I think is a pretty decent premise. It's actually a remake, but I had nothing to do with the original, which was embarrassingly amateur.
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Aug 20, 2011 06:27
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Momonari kun posted:Ok, here's an older short that I DPed/edited from 2008. This was the one we shot before Chinese Winter (the one in the OP), stars the same actor/director, but is a bit lighter of a movie. Password protected.
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Aug 20, 2011 16:23
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfwA_gbf8cw We had a two hour time limit to make a short film. This is what we came up with.
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Aug 21, 2011 04:35
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Jalumibnkrayal posted:Password protected. Oooh, forgot about that. Unlocked.
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Aug 21, 2011 13:26
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