View Full Version : "PAIRED"- A Fifth Click Film
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/pairedpostertwilightfeSTFINALcopy.jpg
BASICINFO:
PAIRED is Fifth Click Films' actual entry into Twilightfest. We had originally been planning on shooting a film called "Childish," but after a reevaluation, we decided to move in a different direction. I'm going to try to keep the plot details to a minimum as to not ruin the actual film for anyone, but I can say that this one is going to be far more interesting than our previous entry was going to be. And yes, I know that we're getting a late start on this new film... I think we'll be able to make a solid entry in time though. Thanks for checking us out, I'll keep this thread updated as production develops.
PLOT:
All that I can say until the films are up for viewing is that the entire film hinges on its location: a laundromat.
PAIRED
a 5th click film
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/dj-1.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/sebas.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/me-1.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/actors.jpg
productiondiary:
|| SEPTEMBER 13 ||- Came up with new better idea than "Childish." Began conceptualization and pre-writing on script called "Laundromat."
|| SEPTEMBER 15 ||- Finished conceptualization and pre-writing on "Laundromat." Began first draft of script.
|| SEPTEMBER 16 ||- Worked furiously on script. Finished first draft around 8 PM. Hit some roadblocks that took a couple hours to resolve. I completely changed the ending at least three times, but I am pretty comfortable with it now. This was hard because I wrote the entire script around the ending, but it just wasn't working.
|| SEPTEMBER 17 ||- Began rewrite of script. Decided on title, "PAIRED." Not much work to do, just got to refine some dialouge. Made temporary poster and banner for PAIRED.
|| SEPTEMBER 19 ||- Received several good responses to our craiglist casting ad. So now we're going to have an actual audition (our first). Really excited! Strange- there are about 4x as many girls interested than there are guys. Still working on the final draft of the script.
|| SEPTEMBER 20 ||- Pretty much consider my script final, but I'm gonna wait on calling it that until I've reviewed it once or twice more. Casting is nearly complete, just solidifying some terms with the leads. Tonight, at 10:45 pm, the producer, dp, and myself go location scouting. I'll post some pics in a little bit. Tomorrow we'll be working on locking the location, but we just want to take a closer look at our options tonight.
|| SEPTEMBER 21 ||- So the location has been narrowed down to 1 of 2 laundromats...with an apartment laundry facility as our backup. Updated the cast/crew list. Casting is essentially complete: its looking like we'll be casting Jason Burghorn as our lead for Alva, and Kristina Plisko as our lead for Louise. Though, nothings set in stone-- they don't even know for sure yet that they've been cast. Things are looking good! Btw... the new cast/crew icons are dryers.
|| SEPTEMBER 22 ||- After completing my 3rd draft of the script-- I can finally say: THE SCRIPT IS LOCKED. I successfully went from a weaker 5 pages, to a verbose 7 pages, and now to a clean, lean, tight full 6 page script. I'm very happy with the script and I think its definitely going to be a blast to shoot. I just found out that a school-related event I'm participating in (sort of a popularity contest for Mr. "Enter your school name here" and Ms. "Enter your school name here") falls directly on the primary weekend of my intended shoot. Considering that I'm not backing out of either event, I may be dropping out of my local 48 hour film competition in order to finish the film on time. The refund from that contest would also bump my budget up $100, so it may be for the best.
|| SEPTEMBER 27 ||- Okay! So, bad news: one of our top 2 location choices has backed out on us. Good news: the other one has given us informal permission to shoot there. So we're pursuing formal confirmation on that permission from the store owner. We'll see what happens.
|| OCTOBER 4 ||- Finished the recasting of the female lead and physically met the male lead for the first time (though we've had many phone and email conversations). She hasn't done any acting before but has been a proffesional model for several years, hoping to now do something a little different. We would have been shooting this weekend but my crew is participating in a local 48 hour film competition, so we're delayed until next weekend. We only have a total of 6 hours (3 hours 2 nights) in our location, so we'll be shooting a page and hour...or a minute of the final film per hour. We're pretty efficient usually so I think it'll happen.
|| OCTOBER 9 ||- So I had a production meeting with the rest of the crew yesterday and we worked out some of the issues-- mainly the color pallet. I also finished the blocking overheads-- the entire film can be covered in 20 set ups. Then the DP and I went to the location where we found out that the employee we talked to did not in fact clear everything with the higher-ups...so we did it personally and she said she saw no problem in our short film being shot there. Phew, that would've been bad. Plus, we got her to agree to letting us get 6 more hours in the laundromat on other nights (12 hours total access to the location now)...because its free advertising for them. Tonight I have another rehearsal with the female lead-- Its gonna be good! First shoot tomorrow! Oi vey...
|| OCTOBER 10 ||- So I got back from the first shoot about an hour and a half ago... wow, it was great but we didn't get as much finished as we hoped. Luckily, the attendants/store owners love the production so they're letting us use their facility for at least 1 more day in the next week. We're taking our time with this film to make sure its really really gonna entertain everyone! The laundromat we're shooting this film in is a real-live-operating laundromat... oi vey! But the attendants and patrons seem to love the production stuff so they just watch and try to talk to us whenever we call cut. :thumbup: Anyway, we've basically got everything done for scene 1 except for some cutaways, and maybe one reversal... but the master was what killed us. Its basically one of the longest dialogue pieces and it took us about an hour just to get that one shot (not including the camera/light set up time). But the film is looking great, and our color pallet/color research is really helping! Plus- did I mention my crew and talent are the best people on earth?
|| OCTOBER 11 ||- So we shot some much needed shots to fix Scene 1, got all of Scene 3 done and now all we have left are Scene 2 and 4... which should take less time overall because there is no dialogue and thats whats been slowing us down most of the time. Overall, production has been going great-- the actors are doing very well. I felt like they were both much more comfortable in their roles today, so they were even more smooth than the day before. I'm very pleased with how this project is turning out. I'll post a screen grab or two up asap.
|| OCTOBER 13 ||- On Wednesday, we go back one last time to finish principal photography. Should be fun, theres no dialogue- two montage-esque bits and a final scene to complete. If we shoot as well as we did during the second shoot, we'll finish no problem. There are a couple shots I would love to go back and get, but we'll see what kind of time we have Wednesday night. I don't want to have to ask my actors to come back for another shoot...primarily because they both live an hour away, and I'm not paying them THAT well. Anyway, since all the dialogue has been shot already and ..now... has been edited, ADR will also be done on Wednesday, before the shoot. However, our sound guy is busy when our actors are available so I'll be doing it solo. If we have time before the shoot... I may also grab the only VFX shot in the entire film while the main actor is still at my house. Tomorrow is prop day- I'm finishing 2 major props for the final day of shooting... I would show them but they'd give too much away.
About editing- the laundromat has a radio blaring in the background so obviously it would be completely out of the question to use the field sound whatsoever...its good because it forces us to ADR. However, the constantly changing song in the background does make my edits more pronounced, so watching through my edited scenes, I felt like I had done a horrible job. However, when I muted them and rewatched, they felt SO much better. I can't wait to see how good it turns out when we've got good audio to help smooth the cuts as well. I'm super excited just to see my own film haha. :)
|| OCTOBER 17 ||- Sorry about the long wait everyone, but I've been crazy busy these past couple days. So, on Wednesday, we had our third, and (supposidly) final shoot. We had the actors stop by a couple hours early to complete ADR for the entire film (the last scene had no dialogue) and to get the couple visual effects shots down. The crew then loaded up and went to the location. We quickly found out that the relaxed, easy going attendant who was supposed to be working had been fired a day earlier, and now we were stuck with a (much) older, grumpy, married couple who were obviously only fill-in employees... i.e.- relatives of the owner/supervisor. Now, this shouldn't have been a problem because we do infact have permission to shoot there after 7 when we need to because the place basically empties out. Anyway, so, we started shooting under the watchful eye of these attendants for about 2 hours. We have a couple shots left till we wrap that are crucial for the film and we're all saying "we're gonna finish, we're gonna finish." Then, out of nowhere, the older lady attendant comes up and says "The owner just called and says we should close up early." Now, immediately, I know this is B.S.- they've been trying to leave since about 8 and they just wanted an excuse to leave once there when there were no customers. But of course, I'm polite and just request 30-45 more minutes, telling them that our actors have to drive about an hour just to be here and that we don't want to have to make them come back for ANOTHER day just for an hour of production. The woman promptly says they can't go against the owner's orders. Then I tell them I will pay them and they can just close shop but still get paid for their time if they stay with us another hour. They repeat the line about the owner's orders. So at this point its pretty obvious-- you aren't leaving because the owner told you to, you're leaving because you don't care about the pay and what to get out of here early. Anyway, I immediately offer my actors a 30% pay raise for a final shoot, which they agree to, and begin to pack up. So, at this point, we've got 75% (more in pure time , but thats in terms of scenes) edited, all the ADR recorded, the color has already been locked, just waiting on the fourth scene, and the visual effects are also nearly completed. All we have to do is finish that last darn scene and edit throughout the week to finish this up. The next time the actors were both free was Tuesday, the 21st, so thats the last shoot. Then I have 6 days to finalize editing, ADR, and sound design.
|| OCTOBER 19 ||- Woohoo! Woke up around 10, worked for about 4 hours on VFX straight... and I'm done! With the fx that is. I had about 6 compositing shots I had to do and they are complete. I worked with AE for a year or so before switching to FCP, so I was quite suprised with how difficult the masks work. I had started the VFX a couple days ago and had been working on them for about an hour or two a day. Now that thats all done, I can focus on ADR and sound design.
In other news, my sound guy came over yesterday (he's still waiting on Soundtrack for his Mac) and we recorded all the ambient and foley. Went pretty well, and I even figured out that scene 2 and 3 don't need ANY foley. I hadn't even thought of it before. So we put in all the foley and ambient for the scenes that needed it and now we're just waiting on shooting the last shots in Scene 4 so that we can work on that next Saturday. We'll basically be sitting down for half a day and foley-ing scene 4... making the levels precise on all the audio, doing some panning. We're still contemplating the music... whether we want it or not that is.
Anyway, besides all of that, all I need to do is shoot the remaining shots of scene 4 (about 9 shots, none full-length, already got the master down.) Then I've got to quickly edit scene 4 before thursday (its the shortest scene). After that comes the hardest part, trimming down to 6 minutes. Currently, I'm looking at a 7 minute movie (once scene 4 is added in, and thats generous). I have a couple ways of cutting it down, I just have to find the best way without hurting the story-- oi vey! Really starting to feel that deadline. Thanks for all your support everyone!
|| OCTOBER 20 ||- Finished laying down all the audio. ADR, ambient, and foley are all laid down correctly. Tweaking to perfection will happen throughout the week... I'm not sure if I stated it before but the coloring has been finalized and has been applied to all the scenes even though we haven't finished shooting scene 4. We shoot the last 9 shots of scene 4 tomorrow evening, from 7-10 PM. Excited for the wrap.
|| OCTOBER 21 ||- ITS A WRAP! Finished principal photography with only 6 days until the deadline. All I have to do is finish editing the last scene and we're good to go for some audio tweaking on saturday and finalize and export saturday evening/sunday morning. I managed to cut off 50 seconds from my film, its looking like this thing will be ready to compete come monday! Woohoo!
|| OCTOBER 22 ||- ITS A TRAP! I went back for about 4 or 5 hours just now and edited out about 1 minute 45 seconds of the film. WOW, it was difficult! Its hard killing your babies-- there were parts of the dialogue I just knew weren't completely necessary, so I threw them. before I do the final audio tweak on saturday i'm gonna have someone with fresh eyes watch it and make sure it still makes sense in its somewhat butchered form. Anyway, I've got 15 seconds to go, but I know a couple places that'll work, and a couple places where edits can be tweaked still to take off a second here or there.
|| OCTOBER 22 ||- 5 minutes 58 seconds 4 frames. The final cut is complete. Picture LOCKED. Sound design is all layered in, final level/pan to finish on Saturday afternoon. Color LOCKED. Score being contemplated.
|| OCTOBER 25 ||- That's a wrap-- finished!
Behind the Scenes:
||Production||
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/-1.jpg
THE CAST & CREW OF "PAIRED": (from left to right)
Jason Burghorn (talent), DJ Dodd (producer), Kasey Hettig-Rolfe (Writer/Director), Sebastian Baron (Director of Photography) and in the center, Casey Lynn (talent)
** our sound guy was not there the last night so, unfortunately, he is not pictured **
||Teaser Stills||
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/Picture3.png
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/Picture1.png
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/Picture7-1.png
Michael Anthony Horrigan
09-17-2008, 07:27 PM
Very cool! Love the poster as well.
Good luck.
Mike
ZazaCast
09-17-2008, 10:55 PM
NICE... looking forward to it!
alex whitmer
09-17-2008, 11:01 PM
Also digging the poster!
That reminds me. Laundry day is approaching!"
A
Rodney V. Smith
09-18-2008, 07:58 AM
welcome to the fest (again), so glad you could make it. Good luck with the location hunting.
Simon Höfer
09-18-2008, 08:08 AM
Welcome to the fest with this one! Me likes the poster as well! :)
pauly_the_hitman
09-18-2008, 11:31 AM
Cool good luck.
Pauly
clarkage
09-18-2008, 11:51 PM
I really like the poster for this entry it has me hooked! Can't wait to see more!
Hey thanks everyone for the kind words! I really hope we can get this in on time... as anyone who read the other thread in the main forum can see... we are probably the most behind (at least out of those who were actively discussing that topic). We haven't cast yet or set the script in stone yet...nor is our location solid. However, we did only decide to actually do something for this fest about 5 days ago...so I'd say we're moving at a decent pace. I'm giving us about 2 weeks for preproduction, 2 weeks for production, 2 weeks for editing.
So we've cast our two lead roles-- check out the first post for the details!
Things are looking good for "Paired"!
Simon Höfer
09-22-2008, 07:20 AM
Haha, great! Love your headshots :D
David j. Dodd
09-24-2008, 11:53 AM
Its gonna be goooood.
Tim Joy
09-24-2008, 05:52 PM
:beer:Script is locked!
Wow, in only 3 drafts? I'm jealous, it took me 11... and counting. Is there such a thing as half-locked? If so, that's mine.
Wow, in only 3 drafts? I'm jealous, it took me 11... and counting. Is there such a thing as half-locked? If so, that's mine.
Well, in that case your script is probably simply better than mine! Haha :thumbup:
Mike Manning
09-25-2008, 05:36 PM
The script isn't locked until after you've wrapped. I was at draft 6 when we shot.. but even then it changed on set.
Actually I take that back... it's locked once the film is cut and done! haha.. I know it's going to change even more in the editing room!
Okay so I've got bad news and good news...
Bad news: One of our first choice locations has informed us that they think our filming there will be "too invasive" despite the fact that we were coming during a time when they get little to no business (literally about 1-3 costumers).
Good news: The other prime location choice has offered us their building... sorta... the attendant there on the nights we'd like to shoot has stated that he would be completely fine with our film being shot during his business hours...and that he's let other short films shoot there before. Only problem- thats just an attendant, and when we asked for a store owner's number to legally confirm our ability to film there, the attendant informed us that the ownership just changed hands and he has no idea how to contact the "real" owner now. Oi vey
More bad news!
Our lead actress just informed me that she won't be back until late October (she left to California for a shoot a week or two back). So now we've got to go through the casting process again in a week to find a replacement. :(
Sorry to hear about your setbacks, but keep on plugging away at it. You may find that all the last minute changes work out in your favor. I had to schedule an additional shooting day because we got behind schedule on our original shoot. In the end, I was able to get more material and a couple of picks ups for shots we missed the first time through.
Good luck!
thanks Amy! I think our team tends to be pretty good at making its weaknesses into strengths, so we'll see what happens. Luckily our shoot schedule is already pretty deep into the competition (Oct. 10th-12th) so I think we'll be fine, we just gotta get back up on our feet and running before then.
MOVIE MASTER
09-29-2008, 09:23 PM
Paired is that like paired?
Like diffrent color socks?
Paired is that like paired?
Like diffrent color socks?
Uh oh! They're catching on! :)
So, just for quick updates... we're obviously one of the late-shooters for this fest, but its finally coming together. Last night we re-finished casting (the original female lead couldn't make it back from another shoot in California early enough...so we recast and now found someone new). Our new female lead doesn't have acting experience, but she has done some professional modeling, and I think she'll work just fine for the part. I'm a big believer in the idea that the most important part of succeeding is showing up and wanting to do it. This girl seems like she's really excited about this so I am, in turn, excited to work with her.
Anyway, the entire shoot happens next week... Friday and Saturday evenings from 7 onwards. At the very least, we're going to have a total of 6 hours in the location.. we tend to be really efficient (team of only 4) and we've shot a 9 minute movie in 6 hours before... and that was a little more dynamic than this setup, so I think we'll be fine. Just keep telling myself that. We'll be fine.
Ahhh.. shooting starts tomorrow at 7 PM. Excited, but nervous!
Mike Manning
10-10-2008, 12:04 AM
Good Luck!
Good Luck!
Thank you!
So I got back from the first shoot about an hour and a half ago... wow, it was great but we didn't get as much finished as we hoped. Luckily, the attendants/store owners love the production so they're letting us use their facility for at least 1 more day in the next week. We're taking our time with this film to make sure its really really gonna entertain everyone! The laundromat we're shooting this film in is a real-live-operating laundromat... oi vey! But the attendants and patrons seem to love the production stuff so they just watch and try to talk to us whenever we call cut. :thumbup: Anyway, we've basically got everything done for scene 1 except for some cutaways, and maybe one reversal... but the master was what killed us. Its basically one of the longest dialogue pieces and it took us about an hour just to get that one shot (not including the camera/light set up time). But the film is looking great, and our color pallet/color research is really helping! Plus- did I mention my crew and talent are the best people on earth? Anyway! Heres a grab
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/Picture3.png
Maximus
10-11-2008, 05:43 AM
This production looks top drawer! :thumbsup:
This production looks top drawer! :thumbsup:
Thanks! Unfortunately that shot was rushed so its a little wobbly :crybaby:. We're probably gonna have to back and get it again. Our team consists of a total of 6 people... Myself, the director of photography, a producer/asst. director, a sound guy, and the 2 actors... I don't understand how I would even operate with many more people on set, or why I would need them. Anyway, thanks again! I may post another grab from tonights shoot around midnight again! :beer:
Tim Joy
10-11-2008, 08:15 AM
A little "wobbly"? But was the ACTING good? That's all we really care about. Maybe the wobblyness will give it more energy?
Hope it goes well! Looks great!
David j. Dodd
10-11-2008, 01:32 PM
Haha I would have to say the actors were very good, especially for the first shoot. Acting in front of a crowd of eager laundry do-ers can't be that easy either.
Can't wait for tonight's shoot!
A little "wobbly"? But was the ACTING good? That's all we really care about. Maybe the wobblyness will give it more energy?
Hope it goes well! Looks great!
Thanks! Haha, you don't have to worry about his acting-- Jason is perfect for the role... he's doing an AWESOME job.
So today, we shot some much needed shots to fix Scene 1, got all of Scene 3 done and now all we have left are Scene 2 and 4... which should take less time overall because there is no dialogue and thats whats been slowing us down most of the time. Overall, production has been going great-- the actors are doing very well. I felt like they were both much more comfortable in their roles today, so they were even more smooth than the day before. I'm very pleased with how this project is turning out. Heres a grab-
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/Picture1.png
woohoo! Just finished cutting the dialogue!
On Wednesday, we go back one last time to finish principal photography. Should be fun, theres no dialogue- two montage-esque bits and a final scene to complete. If we shoot as well as we did during the second shoot, we'll finish no problem. There are a couple shots I would love to go back and get, but we'll see what kind of time we have Wednesday night. I don't want to have to ask my actors to come back for another shoot...primarily because they both live an hour away, and I'm not paying them THAT well. Anyway, since all the dialogue has been shot already and ..now... has been edited, ADR will also be done on Wednesday, before the shoot. However, our sound guy is busy when our actors are available so I'll be doing it solo. If we have time before the shoot... I may also grab the only VFX shot in the entire film while the main actor is still at my house. Tomorrow is prop day- I'm finishing 2 major props for the final day of shooting... I would show them but they'd give too much away.
About editing- the laundromat has a radio blaring in the background so obviously it would be completely out of the question to use the field sound whatsoever...its good because it forces us to ADR. However, the constantly changing song in the background does make my edits more pronounced, so watching through my edited scenes, I felt like I had done a horrible job. However, when I muted them and rewatched, they felt SO much better. I can't wait to see how good it turns out when we've got good audio to help smooth the cuts as well. I'm super excited just to see my own film haha. :)
Robbie Comeau
10-14-2008, 11:26 AM
Second grab looks out of focus on the background (girl)
I guessed the A1 and I was right. Color seem to look good in this. Crushed blacks, and nice depth.
Where's your ZOMBIE FILM!
Robbie
Second grab looks out of focus on the background (girl)
I guessed the A1 and I was right. Color seem to look good in this. Crushed blacks, and nice depth.
Where's your ZOMBIE FILM!
Robbie
Your right, but they were quick grabs and the focus is following her-- she just turned around, so the focus hits her in time for her line.
My zombie film is lost to the depths of history-- due to my old hardware crashing :( . I have no digital copies of it, and only 1 dvd left.
Sorry about the long wait everyone, but I've been crazy busy these past couple days. So, on Wednesday, we had our third, and (supposidly) final shoot. We had the actors stop by a couple hours early to complete ADR for the entire film (the last scene had no dialogue) and to get the couple visual effects shots down. The crew then loaded up and went to the location. We quickly found out that the relaxed, easy going attendant who was supposed to be working had been fired a day earlier, and now we were stuck with a (much) older, grumpy, married couple who were obviously only fill-in employees... i.e.- relatives of the owner/supervisor. Now, this shouldn't have been a problem because we do infact have permission to shoot there after 7 when we need to because the place basically empties out. Anyway, so, we started shooting under the watchful eye of these attendants for about 2 hours. We have a couple shots left till we wrap that are crucial for the film and we're all saying "we're gonna finish, we're gonna finish." Then, out of nowhere, the older lady attendant comes up and says "The owner just called and says we should close up early." Now, immediately, I know this is B.S.- they've been trying to leave since about 8 and they just wanted an excuse to leave once there when there were no customers. But of course, I'm polite and just request 30-45 more minutes, telling them that our actors have to drive about an hour just to be here and that we don't want to have to make them come back for ANOTHER day just for an hour of production. The woman promptly says they can't go against the owner's orders. Then I tell them I will pay them and they can just close shop but still get paid for their time if they stay with us another hour. They repeat the line about the owner's orders. So at this point its pretty obvious-- you aren't leaving because the owner told you to, you're leaving because you don't care about the pay and what to get out of here early. Anyway, I immediately offer my actors a 30% pay raise for a final shoot, which they agree to, and begin to pack up. So, at this point, we've got 90% shot and edited, all the ADR recorded, the color has already been locked, just waiting on the fourth scene, and the visual effects are also nearly completed. All we have to do is finish that last darn scene and edit throughout the week to finish this up. The next time the actors were both free was Tuesday, the 21st, so thats the last shoot. Then I have 6 days to finalize editing, ADR, and sound design.
ZazaCast
10-17-2008, 12:35 PM
Cutting it close... but I'm sure you can get it done! Hang in there. This is looking good. I'm a people-person, but sometimes...don't you just hate people? No worries, you handled it totally professionally and hey, Karma will take care of that older couple someday.
Best of luck...looking forward to the film.
Cutting it close... but I'm sure you can get it done! Hang in there. This is looking good. I'm a people-person, but sometimes...don't you just hate people? No worries, you handled it totally professionally and hey, Karma will take care of that older couple someday.
Best of luck...looking forward to the film.
Thanks! Yeah, it was funny, I had an entirely different film that I was planning on making when twilight fest first was announced. But, money and time issues came about, so I dropped out. Then, i came up with a good idea and decided to check the dead line. Then, after figuring out I had about 5 weeks left, I came up with an EVEN BETTER idea and ran with it as fast as possible. We always knew we'd be cutting it close, but now that we're hitting the final push, I'm really feeling it. Anyway, thanks for the support! I hear you've got two films in this fest? I'm excited to see both!
Kyle Stebbins
10-17-2008, 09:12 PM
Wow. That really gets me angry. I'd like to have a word with the crotchety couple.
--
I love the first teaser still.
Excellent!
Woohoo! Woke up around 10, worked for about 4 hours on VFX straight... and I'm done! With the fx that is. I had about 6 compositing shots I had to do and they are complete. I worked with AE for a year or so before switching to FCP, so I was quite suprised with how difficult the masks work. I had started the VFX a couple days ago and had been working on them for about an hour or two a day. Now that thats all done, I can focus on ADR and sound design.
In other news, my sound guy came over yesterday (he's still waiting on Soundtrack for his Mac) and we recorded all the ambient and foley. Went pretty well, and I even figured out that scene 2 and 3 don't need ANY foley. I hadn't even thought of it before. So we put in all the foley and ambient for the scenes that needed it and now we're just waiting on shooting the last shots in Scene 4 so that we can work on that next Saturday. We'll basically be sitting down for half a day and foley-ing scene 4... making the levels precise on all the audio, doing some panning. We're still contemplating the music... whether we want it or not that is.
Anyway, besides all of that, all I need to do is shoot the remaining shots of scene 4 (about 9 shots, none full-length, already got the master down.) Then I've got to quickly edit scene 4 before thursday (its the shortest scene). After that comes the hardest part, trimming down to 6 minutes. Currently, I'm looking at a 7 minute movie (once scene 4 is added in, and thats generous). I have a couple ways of cutting it down, I just have to find the best way without hurting the story-- oi vey! Really starting to feel that deadline. Thanks for all your support everyone!
the pics you posted look great! good luck in finishing i am looking forward to watching your flick!
the pics you posted look great! good luck in finishing i am looking forward to watching your flick!
Thanks hoz! It appears you're doing two films? I haven't seen any screens yet but the titles are very intrigueing...can't wait to hear more!
Anyway! Good news! I just friggin finished laying down the ADR and adjusting some of the ambient noise (which is like 6 layers...well I guess 12 layers... deep). I just plowed through two dialogue scenes and got all the ADR laid down correctly. The last scene, which is being finished up tomorrow evening has no more dialogue so we're all set on the audio end. As I've said before VFX is complete. And the rest of the editing is quite straightforward. All I have to worry about is completing tomorrow's shoot and trimming down to 6 minutes. The end is near but I'm excited for it. I just got to watch through my scenes for the first time with the real (not necessarily final) cuts, audio, and color...so I'm pretty stoked. Its finally in somewhat watchable condition. Woohoo!!:beer:
Simon Höfer
10-21-2008, 03:56 AM
Congrats on the developments! Everybody is cutting down their film to 6 minutes, except me :D I hit in at 4.40 incuding DVXuser leader and credits :D
Lucky... It takes a very efficient filmmaker to actually finish a film under a predetermined length... so my compliments to you! I'm already 1 day over shooting schedule and 1 minute over time. Anyway, last shoot tonight (with only 6 days till this is all over!) !!
ZazaCast
10-21-2008, 05:30 PM
Best of luck...you can do it...and this looks like a very interesting film!
I had a bit of work cutting 'Enchanting Twist' down to 6 minutes....but 'Twisted' fell right into place at 6 on the nose! Finally...a little bit of luck.
Best of luck...you can do it...and this looks like a very interesting film!
I had a bit of work cutting 'Enchanting Twist' down to 6 minutes....but 'Twisted' fell right into place at 6 on the nose! Finally...a little bit of luck.
I can't even imagine doing 2 films but I did start later than most. I wish mine fell into place at 6 minutes, I'm really having a hard time cutting it down. I did however manage to cut out 50 seconds eariler today (took me 2 hours!). Anyway.. heres the news...
ITS A WRAP! :beer:
Finished all the remaining shots... now we're done. We may go back and pick up one or two things for the "director's cut" with an intro but nothing with the actors or anything. So friggin' relieved right now, I can't even explain it. If I can, I'll post up a new grab from tonight in a bit, but the final scene's shots give away alot, so it may be hard to find one that doesn't. Now I just have to finish editing scene 4, cut back down to 6 minutes and I'm done.
Michael Anthony Horrigan
10-21-2008, 10:58 PM
Congratulations! Now get this baby under six minutes. :thumbsup:
Good luck.
Thanks! But I have horrible news... I just did a rough cut of scene 4... (its 2 AM here btw, but I just couldn't help myself) and my film comes out at just under 8 minutes. Oh no! That gives me 3 days, (saturday is saved for final audio touch up and finalizing) to cut nearly 2 minutes of my film, which I already considered quite lean. I know that it all comes down to how ridiculously long scene 1 came out, if I can shorten that, the rest of the film will be fine. I have a lot of work to do. Thanks for all your support everyone!
A new grab, as promised, this is the only one we shot tonight I could find that wouldn't give anything away .... Enjoy!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/NevakHonko/Picture7-1.png
Wow! I had no idea how hard it would be to cut down my film. Lets just say this- when I turned my computer on this afternoon, my film was a little over 8 minutes long, sitting here, typing this at 1 AM, it stands at 6 minutes 15 seconds. Those last 15 seconds will be the hardest to shave, but i'm gonna get it down to 5 minutes 50 seconds tomorrow I think. Why 5 minutes 50 seconds you ask? So that I have room to mess around a little before exporting the final copy.
Jack Daniel Stanley
10-23-2008, 12:23 PM
Love the colors in the poster and how the linked washing machines express the title visually.
Yeah cutting those last 5-10 seconds are the hardest. Sometimes it's like "Wow my film is so much better and tighter since I had to cut it down" and sometimes it's like "wow things feel really rushed, nothing lands like I want it to". Hope your experience is the former.
Either way - it's good practice / experience to have to cut for time.
Looking forward to it :beer:
Love the colors in the poster and how the linked washing machines express the title visually.
Yeah cutting those last 5-10 seconds are the hardest. Sometimes it's like "Wow my film is so much better and tighter since I had to cut it down" and sometimes it's like "wow things feel really rushed, nothing lands like I want it to". Hope your experience is the former.
Either way - it's good practice / experience to have to cut for time.
Looking forward to it :beer:
Hey thanks alot! I just want to add that your film is one of my top must-sees! Not only am I a huge fan of cash cab (watch it nearly everyday), but I've also been considering joining a fest for like... well.. ever since zombie fest, and I've seen some of your entries and they're always on the top of the heap!
Anyway! I just saved my project in fcp, closed it all down, and came on here to say...
5 minutes.... 58 seconds... and 4 frames.
Wow. I did it-- when I first saw that I was a little over 8 minutes a couple days ago I nearly died. I had the rest of the film edited and for some reason I heavily underestimated the length of scene 4. After wrapping and quickly putting scene 4 together (its relatively simple but probably my favorite scene in the film) I found out I had estimated it to be 2 minutes too short. Wowza. That was shocking. Anyway, I cut down some oddly paced parts in the other scenes, literally had to butcher one of my favorite sequences (it still made it in though!), and made every shortcut I possibly could find-- and here we have it 05:58:04. I've never had to do that before to a film of my own... usually I run too short...not too long, so this was a new experience for me. In response to the statement above about how my film feels after cutting it down by 2 minutes-- I'd have to say its a definate mix of both. There are certain lines of dialogue I love that I had to take out because they simply weren't relevant enough to be necessary. There are certain shots that I cherish that I had to cut because they didn't NEED to be there. However, it did make the film FAR more efficient.... which is of course one of the most important parts of short films and filmmaking in general. I was planning on just submitting the short version to TwilightFest and using my previous long cut for other fests, but now I think I'll probably mix the two. There are certain portions I'd like to keep on screen a bit longer, and some lines I want to add back in... but some of the scenes are paced much more quickly now, which is in their favor I think (especially the first scene, it really dragged on.) Anyway... I'm glad thats over, now I can finish the small sound edits before finalizing on saturday.
Speaking of sound, I previously had decided that I didn't really want any sort of score on this peice. It seemed out of place for the type of film I was going for. But a complete lack of background music seems sort of empty (despite the ridiculous amount of ambient sound we've created and layered in). So I may go back in and do a very minimalist, light score for the film either tonight or tomorrow... we'll see. That'll give me a 6th hat in the production of this film haha. :beer:
Simon Höfer
10-23-2008, 03:12 PM
Congrats! That sounds like long journey :)
Okay, so I'd say I've edited for nearly 10 hours today.... maybe a little more. The sound guy and I worked on the audio. The rest of the crew came over and took a gander at the film, everyone loves it but the common comment was that there needed to be some more sound-- songs, score, foley, something. So, my dad, who happens to be a musician, created 3 spankin new songs on his computer for us in one day... and now they're in our movie as background songs on the radio. The film is essentially complete, to the point where I'm confident enough to export a final copy of it--- however, i plan on showing it to a couple people (cast/crew/family/friends) tomorrow afternoon to get their quick opinions so that I can toy around with anything that I recieve overwhelmingly negative reviews on. Woo-- I didn't think I'd finish on time!
jojopop
10-27-2008, 12:32 AM
Congrats on the upload!! Based on the poster alone I'm really anxious to see this one. Good luck!!
David j. Dodd
10-27-2008, 09:00 PM
Fwew! Thank goodness it worked. So stoked for this bad boy.
gabrielflorit
10-28-2008, 09:54 PM
Dude you've got some great grabs. I love the CC on this one - for some reason the high contrast really works on this one. I'm looking forward to this one.
Brian Parker
10-31-2008, 03:07 AM
Awesome BTS and grabs. So much info...love it. Looking forward to seeing your film. Cheers! :beer:
Postmaster
10-31-2008, 05:46 PM
Oh boy, oh boy.
This one was a real surprise.
Great actors, grat acting, great cinematograpy, lovley color.
The end was a bit thin, but otherwise the film is marvelous.
I know, focusing at full open socks err.... sucks - but sometimes it feels like you got the wrong person in focus.
Full score - 10 stars.
Frank
Horncastle
10-31-2008, 09:44 PM
A great film, one of the best I have seen so far. I'll watch it again but in the meantime I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it.
Jason
Me too
Susanne
Ah man.... You guys have no idea how great it is to hear that you enjoyed it!
Postmaster- I'm really glad you were happily surprised! Most of the focus things you're thinking of were intentional, though in post, they seemed to develop into a bit of a hassle... so there are points where the character speaking the dialogue is not in focus... I chose to do that on set because I wanted the viewer to be watching the reaction of the other character instead of the speaker, but, as you mentioned, I completely agree...it did come out a bit awkward. (I'm still working on getting myself a monitor, because the little XHA1 flip out screen is really an obstacle for focusing... especially when following movement)
By the way...Thanks for the 10 stars!
Horncastle- Thanks! I really appreciate the compliment! I'm working through all of the films myself and let me tell you-- a bunch of them make me sweat!
I'm incredibly flattered by the praise. I was hoping this would be a crowd pleaser! :D
stinkpot
10-31-2008, 10:50 PM
Clever story. I like your ending shot. Some of the focusing threw me but overall I really liked your movie.
:beer:
Clever story. I like your ending shot. Some of the focusing threw me but overall I really liked your movie.
:beer:
Thanks stinkpot! I feel like this film is sort of a turning point in not just my screen writing but also just in storytelling. I did quite a bit of research on story (read a couple books) before I jumped into the script this time around. I really wanted to do something location based... and I wanted to take something that would usually be very mundane and ordinary and make it into something special and interesting.
Darkline
11-01-2008, 01:40 PM
Great film. Really nice way to interpret the twilight theme. Similar to' teachers pet' you wrap an emotional story around the background element of the twilight zone and I Loved that!
The wierdness of the machine did not need to be explained any more than it was as it was their to bring the character togethers and worked perfectly.
I felt you nailed everything, and there's only a couple of films in this fest that did that. Really really well done. Great little flick with perfect technical execution. I hope this gets the attention it deserves.
Great film. Really nice way to interpret the twilight theme. Similar to' teachers pet' you wrap an emotional story around the background element of the twilight zone and I Loved that!
The wierdness of the machine did not need to be explained any more than it was as it was their to bring the character togethers and worked perfectly.
I felt you nailed everything, and there's only a couple of films in this fest that did that. Really really well done. Great little flick with perfect technical execution. I hope this gets the attention it deserves.
Thank you, that really means alot to me :). I love that the meaning you derived from the film (that the machine was there to bring them together) was exactly and correctly in line with my purpose and vision. Having read and seen the film an innumerable number of times, it is hard to tell if I conveyed my original message, because I get so lost in noticing the technical aspect. I was hoping that this one would contrast nicely with what I figured would be generally a creepy, sad, or generally haunting collection of films, so I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I'm gonna go quote you to my crew and tell them the line "perfect technical execution." They will be very flattered- as I am! Thank you again!
Btw, I really enjoyed your film. I've already posted my comment in your thread, but I might as well give it a spot here- a truly visually impacting film-- its astounding what you did with nearly no dialogue. The music mixed with the awesome imagery sold it for me. It is tied for my top rated film with 2 other movies. Congrats! :thumbup:
This is a great short. It is in my top ten list. Awesome work.
Richard J. Johnson
11-01-2008, 07:55 PM
Great film. The focusing issues bothered me a little and I didn't like the girl her delivery was too choppy for me. The man was great. The final scene was brilliant. I was dying when the dryer snatched his pants off. damn good job.
ZazaCast
11-01-2008, 08:30 PM
GOOD film! This was really a lot of fun. The ADR seemed off to me and sounded out of place, but I can only imagine trying to capture nat sound at that location! Loved the look (colors were brillant) and edit...solid. Interesting story that kept me watching.
KUDOS to the entire team!
galbach
11-01-2008, 09:27 PM
I hear ya on losing objectivity during editing... Great work man!
Zim- woah. I'm extremely flattered. Top 10? Thanks man!
Filthrich- One of these days when I get the funds I'm going to invest in a field moniter-- I swear! haha. Thanks, I really appreciate the constructive criticism as well as your compliments! :)
Zazacast- FUN-- thats the word we're shooting for. No pun intended. I was hoping that would be the reaction you'd get from it. I'm really glad you enjoyed watching it. I've only made horror films before this... so this was my first venture into anything that would be considered "fun" or "enjoyable." Thanks! :thumbup:
I hear ya on losing objectivity during editing... Great work man!
Haha, its funny because it seems like when you work on a film from conception to export... you wok and work and work on this one idea that you're obsessed with and in love with from the start... and then when you've finished you can't really enjoy it because you MADE it. Well, maybe you can enjoy it but its certainly hard to tell if its any good after working on it for so long... maybe thats just me!
alex whitmer
11-01-2008, 10:11 PM
What a kick!
Spoilers
Loved the concept. Really fun. Nice ending with the machine rejecting the ball.
One faux pas is the woman walking away from her own laundry after she tells him to stay away from her and then exits. Maybe she should have tossed the armful of panties in a basket and then left with everything. Also, that looked like more than 7 pairs of panties (lost one everyday this week), and who does laundry in a laundromat every day?
Also, why was she so friendly next time they met? That jumped out as odd.
And, much as I love the word 'panties', I think it may have been overused here. Probably could lose one or two and still get the humor across.
I think the actors worked well together. There was a nice rhythm between them.
This stands out as a great one-location film. Plenty of story without going any further that a few machines away. Nicely done.
Opening sound was low for me. didn't here anything until she spoke.
She said something about the one on the left, but the button she pushed was on the right. What did I miss?
Overall very good film. really enjoyable.
aw
Michael Anthony Horrigan
11-01-2008, 10:11 PM
This was damn good! Funny too.
Loved the shots from within the "dryer". The whole thing suits the theme very well.
When he got the fishing rod I expected to see a bit more movement from the line early on. It almost looked like the line wasn't moving but the rod was shaking?
Loved the final ball shot as well, very nice touch.
This really looked great, very well shot, minus the odd blurry focus once or twice.
Great work!
Mike
What a kick!
Spoilers
Also, why was she so friendly next time they met? That jumped out as odd.
And, much as I love the word 'panties', I think it may have been overused here. Probably could lose one or two and still get the humor across.
She said something about the one on the left, but the button she pushed was on the right. What did I miss?
aw
In the longer version of the film, the first scene is extended by about a minute...so the flirtation lasts a little bit longer. If that helps, it makes the comfort-level in the third scene a little more believable I suppose.
The panties. Oh the panties. Perhaps we may have noticed that too if we weren't all cracking up on set during that scene. There were many times when the female lead would drop a handful of them because there were just so many of them. It got pretty ridiculous.
The right/left button issue. The button is in fact on the left. In the opening shot, you can see that there are 2 consoles, one to his left and one to his right, around waist level. When she comes over, she leans across him to the left to press the start button on the left console. The button is in the right hand side of the left hand console, but I guess I still considered it to be generally on the left.
Anyway, thanks you guys. I really appreciate all of the compliments+criticism, I'm glad that everyone is getting a kick out of this film! :)
armisiano
11-01-2008, 10:51 PM
I'm a fan of anything that ends on a cute/sweet note, it's true. So far every film that had a sweet ending I've enjoyed, including this one. Thank you for making people smile. :)
I'm a fan of anything that ends on a cute/sweet note, it's true. So far every film that had a sweet ending I've enjoyed, including this one. Thank you for making people smile. :)
No problem. So far we have accomplished our goal- girls go "ahhhh" and guys smile at those last couple shots. :thumbup:
Maximus
11-02-2008, 10:15 AM
I really enjoyed your film alot. Based on your thread (poster, grabs, etc...) I had high expectations for this one, and they were met! You have a great sense of design (I knew that from your thread alone) and the films looks beautiful because of it. Your actors were very good. The story was original and is memorable (fishing in the washing machine is genius). One of my favorites!:beer:
David j. Dodd
11-02-2008, 10:25 AM
It is so good to finally see this bad boy up! I have been watching a lot of the other films and they are all SO GOOD! I'm glad everyone thinks this movie is as "sweet" as we all invisioned it to be. Finally getting away from the blood and guts, and moving into the romantic and cliche :]
Haha thanks for everyone who watched it so far! I can not wait to see who wins.
MrKilloran
11-02-2008, 10:37 AM
This was a lot of fun, great work!
Robbie Comeau
11-02-2008, 11:19 AM
Hey man, I enjoyed this.
Nice shots.
The audio seemed off at times, was it ADR'ed?
Also, how on earth did you do the shot where his clothes rip off? I noticed some "painting" in the background that looked off, but it was extremely well done.
I'm sure you explained this in this thread so I'll take a look!
Thanks for sharing,
Robbie
Hey thanks you guys, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Robbie- Yes, it was all ADRed, theres not a single blip of nat sound in the entire film. The location had a radio blaring, several different machines running, a loud AC unit, and several costumers having their own conversations all while we were shooting. So about 5 minutes into the first shoot, we decided it was going to be ADR'd. I believe I know the portions where you speak about it being slightly off... they're mostly due to the fact that those shots were usually picked up quickly on the last day and we didn't capture nat sound what so ever on the last day. So lining up the audio became incredibly difficult.
As for the clothes ripping off... there isn't any "painting" as far as I know (I did the effect.) What you may be seeing is some weird compression because of the motion, some heavily out-of-focus cars moving outside the window, or perhaps the blurring over the laundry machines because of the fishing pole/line's movement when the clothes hit it on the way into the dryer. If its okay, I'm going to leave this to discussion for a little bit longer, we were hoping people would wonder about it.
Thanks for watching you guys!
Tim Joy
11-03-2008, 09:09 PM
Nice casting. Your lead actress is a cute one, (and my wife says he's cute too) both very likable.
The story is one that we all can identify with, and the whole fishing bit is fun and comical.
I really want to see your blooper reel, because it seems like they were struggling not to laugh a couple times, but it played well as their shyness towards each other.
The cinematography is very nice throughout. I especially liked the shots from inside the dryer. The sound design in those moments worked well too. The colors were great all around. I also liked the time-lapse jump-cut sequence. Fun and interesting.
The Ball moment was sweet, with their feet together. "Paired" takes on more meaning at that point, (even though you kinda know it's going to happen, it's still satisfying when it does) and I said out loud, "awe, how cute"
It's too bad about the ADR. Lesson learned. In the future, do whatever you have to to control the environment. Bring some donuts for people who agree to be quiet, or offer to pay for their laundry, or rent some wireless lavs and build a big background track- anything to preserve the on-set performances. I would like to see (hear) a cut with the production track. Maybe it could work?
I thought the script was very good, and maybe 1 or 2 revisions away from a great one. Just a feeling, as I don't have specifics.
Very nice entry for one of the love story twilightfest entries. Looking forward to seeing more from you.
David j. Dodd
11-03-2008, 10:01 PM
I can see a few parts where the ADR either does not match EXACTLY, mostly in scene 1. There is also another part where "Alva's" level drops lower than normal. Other than that was our ADR really as bad as everyone says?
I am sure if our actors were not from out-of-town working on a tight schedule we could have squeezed a better performance out in post. Thanks for all the praise and criticism everyone!
Tim Joy
11-03-2008, 11:12 PM
I can see a few parts where the ADR either does not match EXACTLY, mostly in scene 1. There is also another part where "Alva's" level drops lower than normal. Other than that was our ADR really as bad as everyone says?
I am sure if our actors were not from out-of-town working on a tight schedule we could have squeezed a better performance out in post. Thanks for all the praise and criticism everyone!
I have never done extensive ADR, but I think it is VERY tough to do well. I would really love to see a version with the production track, even with all the noises.
It sounds like it was recorded in a room much smaller than the space of the laundry mat. A little bit of a room ambiance (med/short reverb/ambiance) would be needed to clear that up.
Unless you have access to high-end reverbs $$$ it's very difficult to get it to sound right, however, Logic pro has a plugin called Space designer that does this very well. Other than that, what I would suggest to people who must record ADR is to record it dry (use a very dead room or hang tons of blankets around) and place your boom mic 2-4 feet away from the actor (so you don't get that presence or "boominess" [no pun intended] sound) then once you figure out which takes have the best performance and edit them together as one track, take that recording and a nice speaker (just one) to a quiet room the same size and dimension/ quality as your location and play it through the speaker (at speaking volume) as you re-record it with your boom. This will give you a great room sound, and it won't sound like ADR. Another thing to have your actors do is move their heads as they did in the original, so you get those subtle differences when they should be getting a little off-axis from the mic.
The main thing about ADR is the ability to match the performance. Many times there's pure magic that happens on the set that can't be replicated weeks later in a studio. This is what I miss the most. Although, if done really well, ADR can improve a performance, but I think that's pretty rare.
After the competition is over, it would be great to see the noisy version as a comparison. The movie is still great, and many people would never know it's all ADR, but being a big audio guy, it bothers me more than most. It's a minor gripe for an otherwise fine piece of work.
David j. Dodd
11-04-2008, 04:41 AM
Yeah, I see what you are saying. About the production track, the original audio makes the cuts about three times as noticiable; the room had terrible acoustics and as each cut occurs there is a different song in the background.
Another factor in the ADR was our inexperienced female role. She was having trouble memorizing the lines the first day, so Kasey (director) had to feed her them off camera. After that first day however she suddenly got more comfortable and (I would say) improved her acting drastically.
Darkline
11-04-2008, 04:59 AM
ahhh, i thought it was my PS3 playing back a bit out of sync! I did notice but didnt comment because I thought it was some conversion issue. I didnt think it was THAT bad, only noticed at the start really.
if i have ever need to ADR , a piece of software called ' vocalign' can help to really match with the reference take. its not that user friendly but it time stretches the new vocal slightly to fit the original timing of the reference track and to me does not sound 'funky'.
I used it once where I just roughly VO'd the words without even watching the take back, and it still timed them very well. Just make sure your clips are not too long, feed it a sentence at a time.
Hey everyone! Sorry, I had been checking this thread like once an hour yesterday but I guess I stopped right before this. Anyway, I'll reply--
Anti De Presence- I've never heard that technique before for ADR recording, definately will check it out-- I would love to have used nat sound, but let me just flat out tell you- It would have been IMPOSSIBLE. The budget for the film (not including food) wound up being $300... half of which I couldn't even afford. That was only for the actors. The location was only acquired by us being OVERLY amiable to the attendant working that day. That means everyday we were dealing with a fresh, grouchy laundromat attendant who knew virtually nothing about our film or that we had previous approval by the owner. You can imagine the look on their faces when we started moving in the lights and camera. Then imagine us trying to ask them to turn off their radio, the arcade machines, the T.V. they're watching, and then trying to get the other disgruntled costumers to turn off their cell phones and stop talking for a couple hours. As you can imagine... it didn't work. The nat sound has changes in radio songs between different shots, several noisy machines right by our actors, and a surprisingly loud t.v. and arcade machine.
So we chose ADR. What is bizarre is that I showed the film to several testers (family, friends and crew) and there was only 1 line that they could tell was actually off. So I fixed that line as best as possible (one where we had disconnected our boom mic at the very end of the shoot because we were being rushed out by the attendant).
Anyway, I really do appreciate the constructive criticism-- it'll help me further refine this film to its best possible state. And coming from a guy with strong audio background, I know its information I can rely on. Besides that, thanks for all the praise! (btw, there was a HUGE amount of laughter on the last scene's takes. primarily because we were in public, with a man in his whitey tighties yanking on a laundry machine! But in the other parts of the film, suprisingly little haha. )
Darkline- I'll definitely check out vocalign, sounds like it could've saved me hours of strenuous work.
Anyway, I'm going to make sure to run through the film a couple more times and see if I can line up the couple off lines are better aligned. I'll also look into refining the effect on the ADR to see if I can make it sound "in place" a bit better. Thanks!
ilauzirika
11-04-2008, 10:26 AM
Congratsm I really enjoyed this film!
Susanne G.
11-04-2008, 11:04 AM
Your film is full of creativ ideas and touched my emotional side. Your male lead's acting is very good and so charming! I love the detail when he entered with the fishing rod in the laundry and the first thing what the audience could see is a close up from his feeds with only one sock and then in the second framing the audience could see the fishing rod. It seems that now he is going to be a hero with a fishing army coming in the laundry. The whole idea to fish in a dryer is fantastic and when the dryer sucked his shirt and his pair of trousers, I felt with him and liked to jump in your film and I wanted say: "No, it's not the end - go, go fight with the dryer, please don't let the dryer feel like Audrey from the Little Shop of Horrors - you will win". Oh no, this dryer beast is so hungry! But then the little surprise at the end - the dryer isn't bad - the dryer wanted only bring this both together. This is a film full of imagination - I adore it! BTW a detail - I like the camera view from the inside of the dryer, it gives the film little mystical part! I enjoyed it very much - Compliments! :2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08:
Susanne
Steve Strickland
11-04-2008, 11:04 AM
My comrade with the A1/Letus combo, you've done a fine job here. Really entertaining.
You took someone everyone can relate to and ran with it.
I won't go over the ADR stuff, 'cause I'm right there with ya. It makes your job a heck of a lot harder, and I commend your effort.
The actors in Paired were really strong. I connected with them, and they made me laugh. Two great things. Their performances were natural and you deserve a lot of credit for getting that on screen.
I loved some of the angles you chose, like the inside the dryer shot. Excellent! Nice camera work here. You made the Canon sing. That shot at the end with the clothes flying off was priceless. I was rolling in laughter.
Overall, a great little film. I've watched it a few times and still chuckle. A high rating on my scale. Bravo!
pauly_the_hitman
11-04-2008, 11:17 AM
Dug the whole concept and overall loved the film. Aside from some ADR issues already discussed. Doing sound design sucks just watch mine. I did it all myself and have never even tried it before so kudos on at least making it sound good. My only other question is why so few clothes being washed, why waste time going to the laundry mat with like one out fit, was it so they could see each other more often or what. I would have used at least two different laundry baskets seems only one was there.
Pauly
Your film is full of creativ ideas and touched my emotional side. Your male lead's acting is very good and so charming! I love the detail when he entered with the fishing rod in the laundry and the first thing what the audience could see is a close up from his feeds with only one sock and then in the second framing the audience could see the fishing rod. It seems that now he is going to be a hero with a fishing army coming in the laundry. The whole idea to fish in a dryer is fantastic and when the dryer sucked his shirt and his pair of trousers, I felt with him and liked to jump in your film and I wanted say: "No, it's not the end - go, go fight with the dryer, please don't let the dryer feel like Audrey from the Little Shop of Horrors - you will win". Oh no, this dryer beast is so hungry! But then the little surprise at the end - the dryer isn't bad - the dryer wanted only bring this both together. This is a film full of imagination - I adore it! BTW a detail - I like the camera view from the inside of the dryer, it gives the film little mystical part! I enjoyed it very much - Compliments! :2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08:
Susanne
Wow! Thanks Susanne! I'm incredibly flattered. Especially that you compared my film to Little Shop of Horrors- I am a huge fan of that film (still wanna make a dark/comedy/musical some day). Its funny that you mention that intro shot to the fourth scene... it was one of those bits that was going to get cut for time issues but everyone kept letting me know how awesome it was-- So I made sure to leave it alone.
My comrade with the A1/Letus combo, you've done a fine job here. Really entertaining.
You took someone everyone can relate to and ran with it.
I won't go over the ADR stuff, 'cause I'm right there with ya. It makes your job a heck of a lot harder, and I commend your effort.
The actors in Paired were really strong. I connected with them, and they made me laugh. Two great things. Their performances were natural and you deserve a lot of credit for getting that on screen.
I loved some of the angles you chose, like the inside the dryer shot. Excellent! Nice camera work here. You made the Canon sing. That shot at the end with the clothes flying off was priceless. I was rolling in laughter.
Overall, a great little film. I've watched it a few times and still chuckle. A high rating on my scale. Bravo!
Fine job yourself on "Teachers Pet"! One of my crew's favorites of the fest! I've already forwarded your kind words to my actors! Its interesting that people are mentioning that dryer shot a lot, it was really hard to get. I may post up some BTS of what we had to do to get it later on. Theres only a couple pictures of what was actually going on there and they're from a cell phone...so we'll see. Thanks again!!! :)
My only other question is why so few clothes being washed, why waste time going to the laundry mat with like one out fit, was it so they could see each other more often or what. I would have used at least two different laundry baskets seems only one was there.
Pauly
There were different clothes in the laundry baskets but we tried to stay in our color themes... so much of the clothing was very similar looking. I always figured that he came back so much because he was investigating the dryer after it started taking his socks. But thats just my interpretation-- they were also interested in each other, so its highly probably they were hoping to bump into each other again.
David j. Dodd
11-04-2008, 08:33 PM
Nice praise! Thank yallz. Intense election bee tee dubs.
EDIT: Congrats Obama.
Chris Messineo
11-05-2008, 09:23 AM
I don't comment on a lot of films, but I had to stop by and say how much I liked this one. Great story. One of my favorites in the fest. Very well done.
John LaBonney
11-05-2008, 01:17 PM
A very imaginative concept! My favorite part was when he enters with a fishing pole; I got a big laugh out of that one. The acting was good all-around.
I noticed the ADR, but I thought it was very well done and distracting only in a few small places.
I am also curious about the clothes ripping off. I thought that was great! I'm guessing what you did is slit the clothing in the back and tape/pin some fishing line/invisible thread/whatever to the clothing, then yanked it off him. Can't figure out how from where you pulled it though (obviously from inside the dryer). How about some BTS pictures/footage of this? I'd love to see it.
Nice work!
David j. Dodd
11-05-2008, 03:45 PM
Hey everyone, unfortunately we have very little BTS pictures of the shoot, but plan on posting before and after stills of that shot to reveal how we did it. That will be coming later, we still want people to try and figure it out :]
Thanks everyone for commenting!
Hey everyone, unfortunately we have very little BTS pictures of the shoot, but plan on posting before and after stills of that shot to reveal how we did it. That will be coming later, we still want people to try and figure it out :]
Thanks everyone for commenting!
Unfortunately we are notoriously bad at taking BTS
I could not have been happier with the way this movie turned out. It's incredible to read some of the kind words that have been written about our movie, especially seeing all the other stunning work that is out there. I can't wait to come back and compete in the next festival and see what kind of work we can all put together. It's a scary world out there for filmmakers and it's good to know there is a place like this where we can come together.
Unfortunately we are notoriously bad at taking BTS
I could not have been happier with the way this movie turned out. It's incredible to read some of the kind words that have been written about our movie, especially seeing all the other stunning work that is out there. I can't wait to come back and compete in the next festival and see what kind of work we can all put together. It's a scary world out there for filmmakers and it's good to know there is a place like this where we can come together.
^^The director of photography for PAIRED (a.k.a- the reason it looks so damn good). :beer:
really liked the images you got for this film, you made the laundromat pop with color.
great imagination with the fishing pole and the dryer too, loved the shots from inside the dryer and that of guy walking in without a sock. some funny lines with the panties too. good acting and nice ending. the music was a bit weird. won't comment on the ADR, i tried to ADR a scene in my flick and removed it because it was soo bad, so you did a whole lot better than me!
cool flick, keep filming!!
really liked the images you got for this film, you made the laundromat pop with color.
great imagination with the fishing pole and the dryer too, loved the shots from inside the dryer and that of guy walking in without a sock. some funny lines with the panties too. good acting and nice ending. the music was a bit weird. won't comment on the ADR, i tried to ADR a scene in my flick and removed it because it was soo bad, so you did a whole lot better than me!
cool flick, keep filming!!
Hey thanks! About the music-- it really wasn't even meant to be heard whatsoever, it is just part of the ambient sound for the laundromat, which is why its supposed to sound very muzak-ey and as if it were coming out of a crappy radio. Its not meant to be a score by any means... so I hope it didn't come out that way. We decided that we wanted all of the sound to be very industrial/locational, so we thought a score or anything orchestral sort of stuff would take away-- hence the elevator music and the 80's rock solo haha. Anyway, thanks again!
Brian Parker
11-05-2008, 10:44 PM
Definately one of my favs this fest! Great story, actors, chemistry, location. Awesome cinematography and lighting. Gave the laundromat a warm, yet industrial feel if that makes any sense. I mean there's not much else for me to say because I don't have any nitpicks. Really well done. Great job!
Definately one of my favs this fest! Great story, actors, chemistry, location. Awesome cinematography and lighting. Gave the laundromat a warm, yet industrial feel if that makes any sense. I mean there's not much else for me to say because I don't have any nitpicks. Really well done. Great job!
Thanks Champloo! Good to hear it. I'm really glad you think it hit all those great points. I'll pass the kind words about the cinematography and lighting over to the director of photography-- he did a great job, especially since we we only had 1.5 lights (one was basically a CFL household bulb that we threw around) to work with (primarily because the laundromat is a functioning, open-to-customers business during the shoots...so an excessive amount of equipment would have scared the costumers away and got us kicked out!). Anyway, thanks again and I hope others feel the same way! :)
edit: And whats this all about-- someone must have rated our thread a 3? We went from a 5 to a 4 today. :(
King Cole
11-07-2008, 04:57 PM
It's a great little short. Very enjoyable, very imaginative. Your images are gorgeous. There were a few focus misses (just like in my short), but overall, this looks like a high-end production. I haven't read the entire thread, but I think the ADR has already been discussed. Distracting in some parts, but does not distract enough to take me out of the story. The acting was solid, the sound design (minus the ADR) was great, the visual feel was consistent. I have very little to critique. If there was one thing, and it's not a very good critique because I can't put my finger on its source, it was that the "feel" seemed to change. It wasn't as consistent as I felt it should've been. I think it mainly stemmed from the shot within the dryer that was a bit more sinister than it should've been. Once I realized that the dryer was just bringing them together, the quirky, smart feel returned for a great ending. Hmm, this comment reads strangely, but it's the best I can do after watching and commenting and watching and commenting and watching and commenting.
Again, I really really like this short. Job well done.
JC
Dick Campbell
11-07-2008, 09:05 PM
started out with a good premise (sock eating dryer) and thought the fishing pole idea clever plot element.
Horncastle
11-08-2008, 08:49 PM
edit: And whats this all about-- someone must have rated our thread a 3? We went from a 5 to a 4 today. :(
I think you can take that as a compliment round here. Last fest the better films were getting the lower thread ratings! :)
I really enjoyed your film. I think you touched all the chords for a feel-good comedy everyone can relate to (what is it about washing machines? they really do eat your clothes!). I don't really have any particular criticism. I went back and listened for the ADR having read about it here and now I know about it I can hear the problems, but I didn't notice them before so I think you didn't do such a bad job at all. I do think the stuttering in the actor's lines must have been hard to do convincingly. His clothes being sucked off was great - fishing line led through something inside the machine I imagine.
One of the best in the fest in my opinion, :thumbup:
Jason
Bryce A
11-08-2008, 09:18 PM
I, I, I, I, I, I liked the film overall. The concept is very cute and quirky (which I’m sure you were going for). It was nice to see you had mastery over your location. The only issue I had (which I felt was fairly large) was the blocking and line delivery. The actors did great job, but the dialogue and actions were stilted. I’m not sure if it was on their part or the director’s call (editing probably had an impact as well). Anyway, it kept me from being 100% involved in the film. I’m thinking it was all too purposeful (as in more concerned with setting the quirky tone than a natural flow). But the film is still well made. A solid entry!
Danielleus
11-10-2008, 10:14 PM
Hey,
Just caught the flick. I really dug the story on this one. It was a cute little piece revolving around a wonderful situation. The writing worked for this and I thought the lighting was nice. The part where the guy gets his clother sucked off? Priceless. Very very nice.
The thing that I don't get about this piece is that there isn't really anything about the characters. The guy comes off one way and then switches. Like, why doesn't he know how to use a dryer? Or why has he never had to do it before? These tidbits of characterization seemed to just get tossed aside and I think could have made this a better piece.
But I still enjoyed it and thought it was well done and very fun. Thanks for showing. It was entertaining.
It's a great little short. Very enjoyable, very imaginative. Your images are gorgeous. There were a few focus misses (just like in my short), but overall, this looks like a high-end production. I haven't read the entire thread, but I think the ADR has already been discussed. Distracting in some parts, but does not distract enough to take me out of the story. The acting was solid, the sound design (minus the ADR) was great, the visual feel was consistent. I have very little to critique. If there was one thing, and it's not a very good critique because I can't put my finger on its source, it was that the "feel" seemed to change. It wasn't as consistent as I felt it should've been. I think it mainly stemmed from the shot within the dryer that was a bit more sinister than it should've been. Once I realized that the dryer was just bringing them together, the quirky, smart feel returned for a great ending. Hmm, this comment reads strangely, but it's the best I can do after watching and commenting and watching and commenting and watching and commenting.
Again, I really really like this short. Job well done.
JC
Thanks... perhaps the tone does shift too dramatically, didn't really even consider that-- I was hoping that the inside of the dryer shots would just establish the dryer as more of a living presence than anything else. Anyway, thanks for all the praise!
started out with a good premise (sock eating dryer) and thought the fishing pole idea clever plot element.
I'm glad you liked the concept and the fishing pole part-- whats weird is that there were about 5 other ways I had written out the last scene and I'm glad I seemed to have chosen the right one.
I think you can take that as a compliment round here. Last fest the better films were getting the lower thread ratings! :)
I really enjoyed your film. I think you touched all the chords for a feel-good comedy everyone can relate to (what is it about washing machines? they really do eat your clothes!). I don't really have any particular criticism. I went back and listened for the ADR having read about it here and now I know about it I can hear the problems, but I didn't notice them before so I think you didn't do such a bad job at all. I do think the stuttering in the actor's lines must have been hard to do convincingly. His clothes being sucked off was great - fishing line led through something inside the machine I imagine.
One of the best in the fest in my opinion, :thumbup:
Jason
Phew, I'm glad about that rating thing. Thanks about the ADR, the team and I don't think we really did all THAT bad of a job on it, so we were hoping we wouldn't get completely crucified for it haha. In fact, we showed it to about 5 friends/family to see if they found any blatant errors and they could only pick out 1 line they thought looked weird-- and that was after 2 viewings. So I'm hoping it won't hurt us to hard. I'll discuss the fishing line trickery once viewing is over haha.
And about your last statement... :dankk2: That means a lot to me, I'm happy everyone is finding it entertaining, because thats all I wanted.
I, I, I, I, I, I liked the film overall. The concept is very cute and quirky (which I’m sure you were going for). It was nice to see you had mastery over your location. The only issue I had (which I felt was fairly large) was the blocking and line delivery. The actors did great job, but the dialogue and actions were stilted. I’m not sure if it was on their part or the director’s call (editing probably had an impact as well). Anyway, it kept me from being 100% involved in the film. I’m thinking it was all too purposeful (as in more concerned with setting the quirky tone than a natural flow). But the film is still well made. A solid entry!
Haha, gotta love Jason's (lead actor) stuttering. We did a couple takes and he looked over at me and said-- "the stuttering is okay right?" I replied- "I love the stuttering." Its good to hear a constructive review on my directing-- especially the part about the "too purposeful" nature of the dialogue/blocking. I'll make sure to tone the purpose down a little to achieve some more naturalism in future projects. Thanks!
Just caught the flick. I really dug the story on this one. It was a cute little piece revolving around a wonderful situation. The writing worked for this and I thought the lighting was nice. The part where the guy gets his clother sucked off? Priceless. Very very nice.
The thing that I don't get about this piece is that there isn't really anything about the characters. The guy comes off one way and then switches. Like, why doesn't he know how to use a dryer? Or why has he never had to do it before? These tidbits of characterization seemed to just get tossed aside and I think could have made this a better piece.
But I still enjoyed it and thought it was well done and very fun. Thanks for showing. It was entertaining.
Thanks! This film was really a fresh start for me in terms of story-- all my other films were horror/action sort of things... so it was a big shift and it means a lot to me that you thought it was good. About the characters- There is a little more dialogue in the first scene that was cut because it ran 2 minutes over...but I don't know if it would have solved the problem here. In the character backgrounds I worked out before writing, he is essentially on his own for the first time (just moved out of his mother's house) and hasn't ever really had to do his own laundry-- especially in public for that matter. However, this piece of background basically got cut down to "I've never really had to do it myself before." No excuses, just explaining my original idea for the character to clarify it up.
Thanks again, I'm really happy you all are enjoying our film! :)
SparkyZa
11-13-2008, 11:58 PM
Ha! Really great job on this one. Being new here it's amazing to see how much raw talent there is out there. I will be looking forward to more of your movies.
Ha! Really great job on this one. Being new here it's amazing to see how much raw talent there is out there. I will be looking forward to more of your movies.
Hey thanks SparkyZa! We really enjoyed being part of this fest, so I'm sure we're going to enter in the next one as well (as long as it doesn't conflict with the schedule for the next project we're working on.) I'm glad you enjoyed it! :beer:
John LaBonney
12-11-2008, 02:07 PM
So are you ever going to clue me in about the clothes being ripped off? Time to share!
The_Happy_Haole
03-06-2009, 03:39 AM
nice film