"Dead Drop"

[dougspice]

http://www.madeoflead.com/extras/dead-drop/DeadDrop_poster.jpg




DEAD DROP

TAGLINE
How far would you go to get back the one you love?

SYNOPSIS
Mark Granger never imagined that he would betray his country – until shadowy agents kidnapped his wife. Now, coerced into trading in secrets, he's in over his head and ready to do anything to get her back.



Written and Directed by Doug Spice
Produced by Doug Spice
Associate Producer Jasmine Moeller
Associate Producer Ryan Sturz

Director of Photography Natasha Bedu
Production Sound Nick Lentz
Production Assistant Aaron Bennett
Editor Keith Schwebel
Music by Austin Wintory

Special thanks to Charla Teeters at the Imperial County Film Commission, Maria Timpani at SAG, Brian Feeney, Mike Celestino, Kevin Schwebel and everyone here at Lead Balloon or elsewhere who reviewed scripts and edits and gave me notes along the way.


Want to read the script? HERE IT IS. (http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/DeadDrop_FinalScript.pdf)

[dougspice]

Production updates!

– 01 February 2010: Pending final casting and a read-through by the actors, the script is now locked. This is the seventh or eight draft; it's a very different beast from when I started. It is also dramatically better – I cannot stress enough the importance of having a good feedback loop of smart people. Unfortunately, this is also the longest draft, at 6 5/8 pages. It is possible that the official festival version will be a little bit more confusing to some viewers than I'd like. ;)

– 01 February 2010: Crew is coming together. Had a lengthy meeting with my DP last night, and bar some scheduling catastrophe that she has to check on, I am very excited. We are now totally on the same page as far as tone, style, color palette, movement, and so on. She's actually excited about the run-and-gun limitations I am imposing on her. It is my goal to shoot this movie with nothing but practicals, if possible. Lucky for me, 2/3 of it is daylight exteriors! In any case I know it will be gorgeous. Sound is on board, as are a few swing crew. We're going to do this whole thing with about a half dozen person crew, I think. As much as anything I'm using this as a testbed to see how fast we can work and what images we can get with this small of a crew and almost no budget.

– 02 February 2010: Cast read-through was a great success and casting for the two principal roles is now final. I'm excited to be working with these guys.

– 12 February 2010: We wrapped principal photography Wednesday and the footage is now off to my editor! Poster is up and BTS stills have been added.

– 17 February 2010: We have wrapped all production! Tonight I will be viewing the first rough cut of the film.

– 21 February 2010: Picture lock! The edit of the 6-minute version is complete.

– 24 February 2010: The film has been handed off to the capable hands of composer Austin Wintory.

– 25 February 2010: All VFX are now complete!

[dougspice]

Cast!

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs236.snc3/22373_700582759371_7292_38504787_5703405_n.jpg
Chris Starr as Mark Granger

From the script:

Our driver walks hurriedly to the side of the cafe: MARK,
clean-cut but haggard, 30. Hard to pick out of a lineup.
Capable, a Type-A pushed to his limits, on shaky ground.




http://budwatson.com/assets/images/leather_315_72.JPG
Bud Watson as Solomon Teague

From the script:

The man standing here, TEAGUE. Corpulent. Sweaty.
Everything about him unappealing. But there’s that flash of
genius in his eyes, a weird smack of charm.


http://www.alishaseaton.com/Pictures/AlishaHS9.jpg
Alisha Seaton as Celia Granger

From the script:

CELIA, young, beautiful, but exhausted and grungy.
A trooper in extraordinary circumstances.

[dougspice]

Some BTS stills (all photos courtesy Aaron Bennett):

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4351972880_a54dbe1ec9.jpg
This is our camera. It may be a bit silly, but it is ours. Unless you're speaking in terms of literal ownership, in which case it isn't.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4351967016_f7020b60c3.jpg
Myself and Ryan Sturz observe the shot while Nick Lentz prepares to taze Natasha Bedu in the head for no good reason.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4351216927_358c958ac6.jpg
People in the desert doing something shady. Imagine that.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2729/4351215545_9122d16706.jpg
I try not to get hit by yet another car while Natasha Bedu and Nick Lentz don't do anything to help whatsoever.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4351962524_eefa723820.jpg
Nick Lentz reviews a shot with me because I told him it would look cool. Probably, it was actually a rickroll.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4351961672_d2b36b275f.jpg
I direct the hell out of some serious action, in a way that is not at all posed, I swear.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4351960730_552b1e3092.jpg
The enormity of the sky makes all of our futile gestures as humans unimaginably irrelevant, yet again.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4351958746_6e0830659f.jpg
I direct Chris Starr while Natasha Bedu and Nick Lentz do the whole crew thing.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4053/4351208681_69424ef16b.jpg
Natasha Bedu shows me an elegant frame, full of promise and hope.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4351956630_601846a9fa.jpg
Nick Lentz and Natasha Bedu bring the flavor.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2687/4351220687_b6da1eb1c6.jpg
Chris Starr and Bud Watson rehearse their showdown. This moment was so pure and raw that we decided it would be a disservice to actually film it.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4351222169_af4570b44b.jpg
Bud Watson lifts yet another luxury coupe. Later he discovers he has no way to drive them all back to L.A.

[dougspice]

Grabs!

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Mark02.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Mark03.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Mark04.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Mark05.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/MarkECU02.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Teague01.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Teague02.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/BMW.jpg

[ZazaCast]

We're going to do this whole thing with about a half dozen person crew, I think. As much as anything I'm using this as a testbed to see how fast we can work and what images we can get with this small of a crew and almost no budget.

First...welcome to the fest!

Second...you think a 6 person crew is SMALL? Damn, I'd be overjoyed to have a crew of one!:shocked:

[dougspice]

Yeah, I guess it's all relative. I've found I'm most comfortable with a crew of 15 or so. I've done much larger shoots and definitely much smaller. But I find with less than 10 people it can be pretty hard to keep track of everything and stay focused on the task at hand, especially on location. When I'm directing I like to concentrate on just that and nothing else – but life is imperfect after all!

Thanks for the welcome! Excited to be a part of it.

[Nitsuj]

Welcome in. I'll be using my cast as the crew for this one. Well pretty much always been the case. Maybe I should start looking for some crew. hehe.

[MSpencer]

man the only budget we had was 60 bucks for lunch. haha good luck though..

[Rodney V. Smith]

Doug!!! Good to see you in this fest. I was wondering if you were goign to throw down this tme around. Welcome!

Now: where's your poster? :-D You of all peopl I;d expect to have one already on the way...

[dougspice]

Gotta take some photos to make the poster, can't take the photos until I'm at the location, location is 3 hours away. So we'll have to remember to grab those on the shoot day! Coin flip says we forget to do it.

[Alan H. Chang]

You'll make it Doug. Rain or shine.

[Scott F]

Welcome to the fest. I like the title. (Not to be confused with the song DeadStop by Negative Approach)

I'm laughing at all the "crew" comments. Yeah, a lot of us are running lean and mean for this fest.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Gotta take some photos to make the poster, can't take the photos until I'm at the location, location is 3 hours away. So we'll have to remember to grab those on the shoot day! Coin flip says we forget to do it.

I wont let you forget. My current mission is to rag on you til you get a poster. :grin:

[ZazaCast]

Yeah, I guess it's all relative.
I don't have that many relatives in the area!:grin:



I've found I'm most comfortable with a crew of 15 or so. I've done much larger shoots and definitely much smaller. But I find with less than 10 people it can be pretty hard to keep track of everything and stay focused on the task at hand, especially on location. When I'm directing I like to concentrate on just that and nothing else – but life is imperfect after all!


I guess some of us have to be better at multitasking by necessity.:beer:
This one should prove to be in the top of the heap, can't wait to see it!

By the by... did that Kickstart project ever fly? (I think that was you...if not I apoloigze)

[dougspice]

Yeah, that was me. We got about 40% funded but not enough to get over the top. We're still looking at other funding approaches.

I totally respect that you guys are going it alone. In a lot of ways I miss the days when I did that, just me and maybe one other person and BAM it's a movie. But with the amount of effort it takes to do a film, it's just not worth it for me to do that anymore – there are too many things that I forget, too many factors that fall by the wayside. I'm a very forgetful person.

Part of the purpose of this film is to serve as a calling card and a promo for a similar feature-length film I want to do. If I'm going to be going out with it and asking for people to invest in it and in me it had better be pretty focused, pretty professional. I think it's remarkable that you can really do that now with very limited assets. I don't mean to give the impression I'm spending thousands of dollars on this movie... I haven't done the math but my total budget is probably close to $1000 – and a lot of that is hotel rooms since we're so far from home!

Anyway, that's part of what I like about these fests - there's such a wide spectrum of participation, people who have wildly different experience and perspectives on what film is and what you need to make a film. It's a lot more interesting than if everyone was working from the same palette.

[ZazaCast]

Yeah, that was me. We got about 40% funded but not enough to get over the top. We're still looking at other funding approaches.

I totally respect that you guys are going it alone. In a lot of ways I miss the days when I did that, just me and maybe one other person and BAM it's a movie. But with the amount of effort it takes to do a film, it's just not worth it for me to do that anymore – there are too many things that I forget, too many factors that fall by the wayside. I'm a very forgetful person.

Part of the purpose of this film is to serve as a calling card and a promo for a similar feature-length film I want to do. If I'm going to be going out with it and asking for people to invest in it and in me it had better be pretty focused, pretty professional. I think it's remarkable that you can really do that now with very limited assets. I don't mean to give the impression I'm spending thousands of dollars on this movie... I haven't done the math but my total budget is probably close to $1000 – and a lot of that is hotel rooms since we're so far from home!

Anyway, that's part of what I like about these fests - there's such a wide spectrum of participation, people who have wildly different experience and perspectives on what film is and what you need to make a film. It's a lot more interesting than if everyone was working from the same palette.

Sorry to hear about the kickstart project... but you should keep at it, I loved the trailer! That looks like a great film to me.

I agree, there's plenty of room for all of us...I like have guys like you around so I can learn. Knock it out of the park!

[dougspice]

I had the first face-to-face readthrough/pseudo-audition with the principal actors today. I was a little worried going into it.

I've worked with Chris before, he is a terrific actor who brings a ton of intelligence and perception to his roles. He's always willing to give back and forth with character motivation and backstory and does his homework. But, it's been about 2 years since the last time I worked with him, and there's always that chance that a role just won't click.

Bud is new to me, based on a personal recommendation. I met with him for lunch and we discussed the role (as well as boating, reality TV, the weather in Tennessee, and lord knows what else) but didn't do a real audition. I knew I liked him and the presence he could bring to the role, but I didn't know for sure if he would be a fit. With not very many days left before shooting, I would be in trouble if this didn't work out.

I'm happy to say they both performed fantastically and cemented my casting instinct on the spot. The first reading was of course a bit rough, a bit different from my initial intent, but it showed me we were in the ballpark and that both these guys could bring something interesting to the table. One of the best parts of working with actors is that moment when they show up with something completely different from what you expected/intended, but that just works. We had a couple little tiny moments like that in the half-dozen or so times we ran the scene. I feel like I'm standing on solid ground.

One role left to cast. I feel sorry for the poor young lady that gets this very lucrative part – it's going to be an unusual amount of standing around and waiting for very little screen time. But maybe that will help her get into character as a person who's been kidnapped!

[Nemesis TS]

Good luck Doug, I thought I started late... Your movie is right up my alley.

The good luck is for your 2/3 outside day shots... We have clouds and rain a comin. My shoot was cut in half due to weather and I wish I had those extra days back.

Looking forward to seeing it.

[dougspice]

Thanks man! It is a bit of a late start but I just didn't have an idea that really grabbed me until about two weeks ago. But I work better under pressure anyway.

Weather forecast says partly cloudy to sunny next week... rain supposedly gone by Monday. Doesn't really matter – whatever it is, we'll make it work!

[dougspice]

Did the pre-flight on our gear today. Cutting it down to the wire on a decision like this but looks like we'll be shooting on the GH1. I may or may not roll B camera on my D90 – I'll probably skip it unless it seems absolutely necessary, of course.

I am still planning to forget to shoot stills for the poster.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Just becasue I can (despite you reminding yourself): don't forget to shoot stills for the poster!!!!

[dougspice]

I'll consider it.

[Nemesis TS]

Can you match the two cameras fairly easily? I thought about using my D90 too. I did not because I haven't used the video enough with it yet. It was used for all our stills though.

[dougspice]

I honestly have no idea. Normally I'd say I plan to run some tests and find out, but there's just no time. I don't like to operate camera when I'm directing, so I would probably do this only as a desperation move if we are far behind schedule and I feel like doing so would cut some shots.

[dougspice]

Completed our first day of shooting. Too tired to say more. Later. Sleeeeeeeep.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Go Doug go!

[ZazaCast]

Congrats on day one!

[Marlon Ladd]

Good luck, Doug! Sounds like you're off to a good start.

[dougspice]

Hooobooooy. All right! Principal photography is wrapped! A half-day of pickups is planned but we've got 80-90% of the movie in the can.

So how was the shoot? Well, I said I wanted to test the limits of what I could do working with a smaller crew... and I did. What I learned is that I needed one or two more people to work super efficiently. We were racing against time all day long, fighting daylight – but we got through it. There were a lot of small catastrophes throughout the day which cut into our time and my money, but this one is my favorite:

We were recording to lavalier microphones which used AA batteries. I had stocked up on these just before we left town and drove out to the middle of nowhere. Nick, working sound, was coming to me every couple of takes worrying about the batteries, which dumbfounded me. That's when I discovered that we had two sets of AA batteries. The first set were a few loose batteries that had been in my backpack for over a year. Those seemed to work fine, with a 2016 expiration date. The 5 packs of batteries I had bought that morning over the counter at a gas station, however, had expired in 2009! Those lasted about 10 minutes each. Unfortunately we had no choice but to use them all.

This is the sort of thing that is hard to anticipate, and is only an issue when you're miles and miles and miles from any kind of civilization. So, there's an easy lesson for everyone: always check your expiration dates!

[dougspice]

BTS stills and poster added.

[Rodney V. Smith]

I like the poster. very nice Doug. Very nice indeed.

[dougspice]

I'm starting to think you're in this more for the posters than the movies, Rodney. Have you considered starting PosterFest? :P

[Rodney V. Smith]

:-P. I just like to see nice posters is all. Good posters make us ALL look good, expecially to outside viewers.. after all it's the first thing people see of a film.

[dougspice]

As of last night we have wrapped all production. I am going to see the first rough cut tonight. I predict it will be loooooooong.

[Marlon Ladd]

As of last night we have wrapped all production. I am going to see the first rough cut tonight. I predict it will be loooooooong.
How many pages was the script?

[dougspice]

Just a hair over 6. Unfortunately (for this 'Fest – it's good for the film!) it is also tight as tight can be – there is no fat to cut as far as scenes go.

But, while I expect the initial cut to be long, I am also confident that we'll get it in the right ballpark with the next cut or two. The goal is to be getting close to a proper running length by Monday.

[Marlon Ladd]

Well, the poster and bts are great! You guys win on location and cool camera set up alone.

[ZazaCast]

Congrats! Great poster and BTS picts...it looks so nice and warm....nice and warm....warmth....

(I just finished shoveling the fresh 7" of snow we got yesterday....will winter never end?)

[Bigmagic]

I really like the location shots, this film should have a great look. How many hours did you shoot each day? Is there any coverage you wished you would have gotten? How about sound coverage? I'm shooting on Friday so anything you can warn me to be ready for will help. Thanks I look forward to this film.

[Alan H. Chang]

Things are looking really well here.

[chriscurl]

I love that location, I would kill for some geography like that around here. Good luck!

[Alan H. Chang]

You guys record some AMB or Atmos at the location?

[dougspice]

Definitely. I'm not worried about gaps in our sound. I've had a sound design in my head for this film since writing it, and so far it seems to be working out.

There are a few shots that I wish I had. Some had to be knowingly cut, one was accidentally cut in the heat of rushing to beat sunset, and I didn't realize we didn't have it until later. Kicking myself over that one.

The gotcha of this situation is that the location isn't really that close to me, either. It's about 3.5 hours away; otherwise I would just run back out there with the actor and grab that shot. But sometimes you have to live with what you have, and not what you wish you had. This movie (or any other movie) will never match the vision I had in my head once upon a time, but that's the game. The trick is finding the ways it's better than what was in my head... another reason I prefer not to edit my own films. (hating editing is the other reason)

Bigmagic, we shot 3 days, a total of about 28 hours. But, a lot of that – probably about half! – was just travel time. We did a full 10-hour day yesterday and only got about 7 shots done, because we had to do them in 3 distant locations. I do not recommend this method, but when money and time are short...

Thanks for the interest, guys... I think it's gonna be a good film.

[Nemesis TS]

Poster looks great Doug as do the location shots. I'm with you on the editing, I'm doing it myself but not liking it so much. Looking forward to seeing your film.

[Scott F]

The gotcha of this situation is that the location isn't really that close to me, either. It's about 3.5 hours away;

Is that the Salton Sea?

Wherever it is....great location in the BTS!

[dougspice]

Thanks Nemesis.

Deepfocus, yes, it is.

We now have an 8.5 and a 6 minute version of the film. Neither is a final edit, but they're getting close. I genuinely can't decide which one I like better. Right now I like the longer version. But guess which one you'll be seeing! ;)

[Maximus]

My interest is piqued!

Poster, cast , locations, logline, bts photos... Wow, I'm hooked! Can't wait to see it!

Could you provide details on your camera, lenses and rig?

Good luck. :thumbsup:

[dougspice]

Camera was a Panasonic GH1 on a Zacuto baseplate/rod system and mattebox, sitting on a Varizoom Media Rig. RedRock follow-focus. Here is the largest resolution photo of the rig as we most often had it setup. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/unipus/4351972880/sizes/o/)

For lenses we used the Nikon 24mm f/2 and 50mm f/1.4 AIS lenses, I'm pretty sure. I don't think we ever used anything other than those two actually.

[jasonthewho]

Nice BTS! Looks like a fun shoot.

[Mark Harris]

Doug, been following your grabs on Facebook, and now here.

Was wondering if you wanted to add anything on GH1 or DSLR shooting in general from the experience on this shoot. Is this your first time?

We've been shooting all weekend with the Canon 7D. The moire got us in one shot, but it was an extremely easy thing to fix. Just swapped out shirts. Corduroy is the enemy of the Canon. You have been warned.

[dougspice]

Ah, yes. This is actually my first time using a DSLR on a real shoot. I've screwed around with my D90, of course, but nothing serious. So there were, of course, some interesting little quirks.

First of all, we ended up having a fair number of problems with reflections off the mattebox filters. After much effort, we just could not figure out how to get the mattebox as close to the lens as we would have liked... setting the rig up at NIGHT, this problem had never occurred to anyone, but in broad daylight it was a serious issue. Probably half a dozen takes were ruined by this any time sun would bounce off the back of the filters. We cured it for the most part with black felt draped over the rig, but it was still an issue from time to time.

Secondly, I actually did not know before shooting that the GH1 can't echo a video output while recording... so the monitor I brought along was basically useless. And, since it was so bright outside, my DP had to use a Hoodman eyecup on the LCD to be able to see – which made it impossible for me to also watch as she was shooting. Basically, I was cut out of the loop of my own shots... it became very similar to old-school film shooting. I would tell her what I wanted, she'd show me a setup before we rolled, and then I just had to have faith in what she was telling me. Usually I would watch playback of a rehearsal take and give adjustment notes from there, but we definitely didn't have time for me to review each take. So I had to trust her. In the end this wasn't a problem and I'm very happy with the shots and the overall look of the film.

Both of these problems are basic oversights that could have been solved with more preparation – train as you'll fight, as they say. But we had no time to spare in prepping this shoot.

As far as issues in the footage itself... I'll leave it to others to judge if they want. There are some minor things in there, results of the CMOS or the compression, but I think we've made a film that's engaging enough that you wouldn't notice those things unless you specifically went looking for them. Then again, this is DVXuser...


A little Sunday night status update: we have picture lock! It runs 5:59;23 exactly with no credits, and I wish I didn't have to cut those, but I'm quite pleased with the edit. It was a struggle to get there but I've watched it several times now and I'm more than happy. Keith has done a great job with the edit, both in interpreting my direction and in bringing his own improvements!

Now there are just a handful of mostly very small VFX touches, color correction, and music. Sound design is basically done, with just a bit of mixing left to go. Basically, we are in very good shape!

[dougspice]

Oh, and hopefully I will finally have some screen grabs up tomorrow! Sorry I've overlooked those.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Awesome news on the edit Doug. Good info about the shoot, so I'm glad Mark brought that up. Now I'm going to go back to being jealous...

[dougspice]

Ha! What are you jealous of now?

[Rodney V. Smith]

Confidence in completion.

[jasonthewho]

Hey, you have 7 frames, why don't you just put up a screen of all your credits at the end? Quicktime or whatever will freeze on the last frame of the short, so if people want they can take in all of your credits. Lot of people have done this in the past, and I'm doing something similar myself.

[dougspice]

At 24 frames per second I only have ONE frame. As far as DVXfest is concerned I am okay with not displaying any credits. They will be available in full here in this thread. As soon as the fest is over I will release a new version with full credits appended.

That's my plan, anyway. Subject to change.

The longer-form version of the film is also still in the works.

Rodney: c'mon now, you can do it! You've been in this thing since day one, haven't you? Muscle up! :)

[jasonthewho]

That's true, I wasn't thinking. But one frame is all you need. I understand though if you don't want to do it.

[Mark Harris]

Promised grabbage?

[dougspice]

Yikes, sorry guys, I've been swamped at work all week. I promise I'll get this stuff up tomorrow when I prep for our color session.

[dougspice]

Grabs! (not-quite final color work)


http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Mark02.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Mark03.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Mark04.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Mark05.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/MarkECU02.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Teague01.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/Teague02.jpg

http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/screengrabs/BMW.jpg

[Marlon Ladd]

Wow. The grabs all look stellar! I especially like the shot of the guy on the phone. Really looking forward to checking this one out.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Damn dude, you're really bringing it this time. Nice shot on the car, the guys... nice shot on everything. Excitement begins..

[dougspice]

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with the look we got.

I'm noticing the resolution is off on some of these... turns out for some reason Color exported some of the stills at like 1640xsomething and some of them at 815x400 or so? They were all done in same session with the same settings. I don't know.

The day I fully understand Apple Color is the day that – no, I'm just kidding... there's no such thing as "fully understanding Apple Color!"

[dougspice]

All of the VFX are now complete! This wasn't exactly an enormous task since there aren't many and they weren't very difficult, but it only took me about half as long as I was expecting it to!

[Mark Harris]

Ah, sorry did not know these were here when I heckled you on Facebook. Grabs do look great.

Some of the grabs read more yellow and others more blue-ish in tone. Is this due to like time of day in the shots, or dramatic reasons?

Great choices in the location. The cinder blocks and graffiti bring a lot of excellent texture. Was this dressed at all, or just as you found it?

Also, along the same lines - cinematography is 75% what you aim the camera at - the older man. His face has some excellent texture as well.

[Richard J. Johnson]

Fantastic Grabs! Locations look great. This one just jumped a few notches on my viewing list.

[ZazaCast]

Great looking grabs!

[dougspice]

Some of the grabs read more yellow and others more blue-ish in tone. Is this due to like time of day in the shots, or dramatic reasons?

Both! These are different scenes taking place at different times of day with different moods.


Great choices in the location. The cinder blocks and graffiti bring a lot of excellent texture. Was this dressed at all, or just as you found it?

Thanks - that's pretty much exactly as I found it. We cleaned or moved some debris around, that was about it. That scene was originally written to take place in a different location (a highway culvert), but when I found this place I knew I had to use it.

Thanks guys, I'm glad you like the look. I'm making some tweaks today but I think it's really come together.

[dougspice]

Just listened to the first pass at the score. It's headed in the right direction, with some very nice touches, and I think it will turn out excellent.

Unfortunately, with only 4 days left to really work on the film, I've started to worry about EVERYTHING not quite getting there... including the color correction which it turns out I now have to start over from scratch.

Nothing's ever in the can until it's in the can...

[Nemesis TS]

Don't feel to bad Doug, I'm right there with ya. I have to do all that stuff too. I'm sure you will nail it all down and show us a great flick to boot.

Good luck man.

[Marlon Ladd]

Just listened to the first pass at the score. It's headed in the right direction, with some very nice touches, and I think it will turn out excellent.

Unfortunately, with only 4 days left to really work on the film, I've started to worry about EVERYTHING not quite getting there... including the color correction which it turns out I now have to start over from scratch.

Nothing's ever in the can until it's in the can...
Don't sweat it, Doug. You'll find a good cc and it'll work out cool. CC for me is one of the funnest parts - that is when you can find a real good one.

[dougspice]

Oh no, I'm perfectly happy with what I have... just not happy with the fact that I have to rebuild it from scratch! It's not that bad though, just two hours or so probably.

[dougspice]

Color correction is DONE (again). :)

[dougspice]

Today's exciting update: I didn't do anything on this movie today.

[Rodney V. Smith]

I think that deserves a high five...

[Scott F]

Well alright! (I'm just spinning my wheels while my computer is rendering....)

[MSpencer]

haha scott... atleast you all doing something... i'm still working... i can't wait to see how this comes together... i like your poster...

[dougspice]

Thanks. I will get the hopefully-final soundtrack back tomorrow and then the only thing left is to do the final mix and export. I'm actually very happy with how it's come together, even in this short version.

[Chris Messineo]

I love the title. Great poster and the stills look awesome. I think my favorite though are your BTS shots and comments - hysterical. I'm looking forward to the film.

[dougspice]

I will try to make my next movie more like my captions. ;)

There are a handful of tiny little audio issues to deal with, but the score is now mixed in and barring disaster we are done. Thanks to everyone who has helped out, from the crew to the folks here who have been prompt in getting me new leader, etc.

[dougspice]

Reposting this from the "Cleaned Out" thread because it will probably become relevant to the discussion here!


... As far as the longer version of yours, I would definitely say do it up. I'm pretty confident that mine, and yours I would assume, would benefit from being free from time constraints and really allow us to play with the pacing, build more tension, like things unfold naturally as opposed to micromanaging each scene to make sure it gets all that needs to be said for the plot to make sense in a small amount of time. Festivals like this are great for teaching story discipline, but I know I'm hoping my short will have a life after this festival as well so I want to make sure it's the absolute best it could be, which may require more than 6 minutes!

I agree. But in my case, at least, it's almost as if the short version is a different film entirely. It's how, in making a film, you can't ask for anything better than for your cast and crew to offer up something brilliant that you hadn't thought of. Well, I honestly was skeptical that it could be done after seeing the initial cut, but my editor Keith did some really cool and impressive things with the footage which hadn't even occurred to me – and voila! Six minutes. The overall feeling is a little different, the actual story told is a little different... so it's just a question of whether that story, told how it is, resonates better with people than the more involved, slower story I had started with.

We're going to see what kind of feedback the film gets, and then decide how to approach the "director's cut."

[Mike@AF]

This looks great. I'm looking forward to seeing the shorter and longer version.

[pborghee]

Very nice. Awesome location! Good luck.

[dougspice]

Well, I guess I have added incentive to release a director's cut now: I just got an email this morning authorizing me to use the music track we'd been cutting to for one of the scenes in the early edits that I sort of fell in love with. This was a long shot and I'm pretty thrilled... but unfortunately there's just no time to get the license signed and returned to me before the upload deadline... so it won't be in this version.

Austin's score for that section still totally rocks, of course, so this isn't a tragedy by any means... but when you have something that works so well it's hard to make the shift to anything else without feeling like you've lost something.

So now we'll have it back in a later version!

[dougspice]

Oh, and speaking of Austin's score, he's currently nominated for a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for his score to the feature film Grace, so if you have a spare minute the voting is open to the public (http://www.fangoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=164:the-2010-fangoria-chainsaw-awards-ballot&catid=36:demo-articles&Itemid=56), so check it out!

[nils_dvx]

looking forward to seeing your film. good luck!

-Nils


"Recession" by Nils David Peterson -- DVXUSER Betrayalfest 2010 (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=201885)

[dougspice]

Uploaded! Done! Prepare your enjoyment receptors!

[Brandon Rice]

Just saw this Doug... it looks great! Love the screen-shots :)

[dougspice]

Thank you sir. I look forward to everyone's reactions! Should be fun to see these all finally.

[dougspice]

It's time for this, I think. We're about to leave the safe zone.


http://www.unipus.com/o8/spoilersahead.jpg

[Christopher Blake]

Grabs look sweet. Going to be great to finally see it! :)

[Ki-Ki]

SPOILERS

doug I loved this. Everything was perfecto.

The writing and dialogue was realistic & really brought me in. The actors themselves I thought were amazingly talented. Really good casting job. I just loved the layout of the film, really wired me in. I thought the ending was great, I saw it coming - but not in the way that it delivered.

Two thumbs up!

[Christopher Blake]

This was great. Everything fell in line.

Kind of knew what was coming, but the payoff was there in the end.

Great job.

[AJ Brooks]

Nice work.

I dig.

[RodThompson]

Seriously good stuff. I had some slight pixelizing in the opening scene and finale, but the everything else was perfect.

Loved the ending...and your use of "Black Smoke" from Action Essentials 2. :D

[jpixx]

Very well done. I honestly think the weakest element would be the VO at the very beginning of the film. The first shot/VO had me wondering where this was going to go, but from the title slate on, it just kept getting better and better. One of the best films I've seen so far for sure......

Thanks for sharing,

[Richard J. Johnson]

Great effing film!! and damn fine acting. I have zero complaints. The audio is fantastic, so rich. Awesome film man. That ending gave me chills. I DID NOT see that coming AT ALL!

[MSpencer]

LOVE action essentials 2... very solid. very solid. i did chuckle at the ipod scene cause i was like those ipods don't have speakers. haha. but i liked the whole thing..

[seanmcleod]

Beautiful location shooting... those were far and away my favourite scenes (desert, coast). And I loved to idea of going through personal ads to communicate, expensive, but cool!

[LinB]

Wow, just wow.
A damn fine short and the timing, acting and camera work were flawless. You should be very proud of this film. Great work.

[MrFluffy]

This was a very well made film. Good tight camera work, excellent sound, well acted.

The ending was a little predictable but that didn't detract from the effect.

Excellent job.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Story: The story was fairly simplistic but well very well executed. Basic hostage premise with a twist. Yes, you could see the ending coming a mile away but it still added a very good climax to the story.

Acting: Very good all around. I especially liked the older gentleman. He was perfect.

Technical: Sound was great. I'm guessing it was a bit tough with the wind but it was cleaned up quite well. This was shot really nicely except for maybe the odd focus issue.
Editing was superb and the pacing was excellent. As was the music. It fit the genre perfectly.

Nice work.

MAH

[Mark Harris]

Really really solid work. Technically great all around, from acting to camera, to post. Really shows you have a grasp of your filmmaker toolkit. That sounds like a luke-warm complement, but it's really not. It's impressive that you're at a level that my comments can just focus on the choices you make.

I love the simplicity in the shooting. It's shows discipline that you want to build tension through pacing, writing, and performance, rather than through whiz-bang camera. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing a version of this without the score. Nothing wrong with it per-se, but I think removing it might give this film a bit of a unique edge. And I think the music gives too much away emotionally. Esp at the climax.

I also wouldn't mind seeing it without the CC. Which I liked in the stills, but for some reason it adds a layer of...I dunno...trying that works against the film. I think the simple telling of the story is so solid and effortless, that you can afford to strip away all unnecessary stuff.

Acting was amazing all around, simple, honest, direct.

*********SPOILERS*************















I saw the end coming from the beginning. And the only reason that's a problem for me is, as I said, you have a mastery of the tools, so I would have loved to see a little more playing around with the tropes and situations.

I think that's an important thing that Joss Whedon always does in his writing: In one episode of Firefly, Mal is fighting some guy and Zoe says: "This is something the captain has to do on his own" to which, Mal yells out: "No it's not!" Set up a classic trope, then reverse it. And I think playing with our expectations in this classic scenario would have helped make this even better than it was.

Anyway, great great work. And I'm really glad you jumped into this fest.

[Mike@AF]

Great film! Excellent camera work and shots, liked the look, great sound, great vfx at the end. I thought the ending was predictable, but still a great film. Good acting too.

[DC Ninjas]

This film was great! Shot very well. Loved the color desaturation. Acting was subtle and convincing. Paced well. Good job!

[Luis_]

congrats to all who participated in the making of this film.
still have 27 more to watch but my favorite so far....
I would of loved some crane work all over the place on this one but,
awesome work!!!
really awesome work!

[4100xpb]

I have to say I was very much looking forward to this and was excited to load it up. You did not disappoint – this is by far my favorite Fest entry yet.

Locations were excellent, acting was first rate, the style you gave it worked well, and the music fit perfectly. I didn’t see the end coming, but it fit very well. My only quibble, and it is a very minor one, was the shaky-cam shots were a little too shaky for my liking, and I am a fan of that look. Maybe it’s because all the other shots were so solid, those ones just stood out more, but for my taste I would have toned it down a little.

Well done, dougspice, these are the level of shorts that I aspire to. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[namelok]

Great movie, loved the shaky cam and acting was great, especially the old guy :)
Great work!

[Chris_Marrs_Piliero]

great great great job dude... that older dude was excellent... but great acting all around for sure... kudos...

[John LaBonney]

I didn't see the end coming at all. Great film!

[mark menditto]

i enjoyed the story, performances, effects and visuals. A great looking film.

[Blaine]

Doug, it's been a while since I've seen your work and i liked this one. I thought the overall look you chose suited the piece and the acting was pretty solid. This is the first one I watched so I have no idea where it sits against any of the others but I liked what I saw for the most part. I was really with you most of the way through it but got pulled out at the 5:43 mark with what seemed like a totally unnecessary "shaky cam." Of course the ending was a bit predictable, but that may have had more to do with the theme of the fest and the fact that one had their eyes open for the betrayal. Had this not been betrayal fest, I think the ending might have worked much better. Outside this fest, I don't think the ending would be telegraphed nearly as much as it is here with everyone looking for the betrayal. Overall, a strong entry.

[dougspice]

Thanks everyone! I have been away most of the weekend and haven't even started going through the films yet – honestly I didn't expect them to all be up so quickly! – but I will start in now! I've got 6 of them downloading as I write this.

I'm really blown away by the comments – I'm so glad everyone likes it! Obviously the ending loses a bit of its impact since this is after all "BetrayalFest," but I'm so happy that it still seems to punch people in the gut like I wanted, even if they saw it coming. I guess that's suspense vs. surprise for you, and it's totally awesome to see that it works both ways apparently. The script actually features an earlier (and obviously smaller) betrayal that was specifically written to throw you all off the scent, but unfortunately that scene was just playing too long and had to be cut for time. I will post the script up tomorrow and would love to discuss anything about the script-to-screen translation with you!

Meanwhile, my cast and crew have read many of your comments and extend their appreciation as well – we watched it together and for most of them it was their first time seeing it. Hopefully some of them will pop in here and comment pretty soon!

As for the shaky cam – well, it was a stylistic choice overall, but I'd be lying if I said it was entirely how we wanted it. Our very improvised cobbled-together handheld rig was far from ideal for moving camera shots like the one at 5:43, and I'm impressed that Natasha managed to do as well as she did operating after seeing how unbalanced it was! She put some muscle on her forearms that day, that's for sure!

All right. Now I'm off to watch some other movies!

[aurantaurant]

I feel betrayed that I wasn't invited to the screening. So the title of the contest is appropriate. :)

The sound is amazing and so is the old guy. HaHA!!!

AND the whole thing is great. Good job doug!!!

[Homunculus]

very good convincing acting on this one, especially by the old man like others have said. evrything else was good as well but nothing blew me away or stood out particularly exceptionally because it just wasn't that sort of film that warranted anything like that but everything was done to a good standard nonetheless. and the color correction/filters suited the style of the film well as did the pace.

[Richard J. Johnson]

The last few shots of this film stayed with me long after it was over. The edits on the trunk reveal were perfect.

[vnguyen972]

Good visual, good edit and great story. The acting wasn't so bad, it was great actually! I enjoyed it... you didn't blow up that BMW for real, right? LOL but all in all, it's a well done film! Keep it up!

[dougspice]

very good convincing acting on this one, especially by the old man like others have said. evrything else was good as well but nothing blew me away or stood out particularly exceptionally because it just wasn't that sort of film that warranted anything like that but everything was done to a good standard nonetheless.

Whaaaa? I'm not sure I understand how this (or any film) "wasn't the sort of film that warranted anything [exceptional]." If you mean that there were no particularly flashy camera moves or distracting elements, than I'll take that as a high compliment. 99% of the time I hate it when filmmakers put style over substance.

If that's not what you meant, though, I'm totally confused. Shouldn't every film strive for excellence?


Beautiful location shooting... those were far and away my favourite scenes (desert, coast). And I loved to idea of going through personal ads to communicate, expensive, but cool!

A bigger deal is made of this in the longer version. And yes, sort of expensive – rather than go to the trouble of printing everything on newsprint and making up an entire fake page, I actually just placed this actual ad in the local weekly paper. It cost me about $75. So doing that every week to get your wife back – eventually it would be a ransom in itself. :)

I really wanted a lot of this movie to be about the little touches of authentic spycraft that are really used out there in the world, but what I discovered is that it took too much time to explain visually to people who aren't already interested in that sort of thing – and I wasn't willing to start using expositionary dialogue or voiceover to explain it. This is something I'm going to continue to wrestle with.

As for the locations – thanks! I'm glad my collective hundreds of hours of just randomly exploring paid off. My mom was a real estate agent, so maybe I grew up with "LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION" stuck in my craw!

[dougspice]

Really really solid work. Technically great all around, from acting to camera, to post. Really shows you have a grasp of your filmmaker toolkit. That sounds like a luke-warm complement, but it's really not. It's impressive that you're at a level that my comments can just focus on the choices you make.

I love the simplicity in the shooting. It's shows discipline that you want to build tension through pacing, writing, and performance, rather than through whiz-bang camera. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing a version of this without the score. Nothing wrong with it per-se, but I think removing it might give this film a bit of a unique edge. And I think the music gives too much away emotionally. Esp at the climax.

I also wouldn't mind seeing it without the CC. Which I liked in the stills, but for some reason it adds a layer of...I dunno...trying that works against the film. I think the simple telling of the story is so solid and effortless, that you can afford to strip away all unnecessary stuff.

Acting was amazing all around, simple, honest, direct.

*********SPOILERS*************


I saw the end coming from the beginning. And the only reason that's a problem for me is, as I said, you have a mastery of the tools, so I would have loved to see a little more playing around with the tropes and situations.

I think that's an important thing that Joss Whedon always does in his writing: In one episode of Firefly, Mal is fighting some guy and Zoe says: "This is something the captain has to do on his own" to which, Mal yells out: "No it's not!" Set up a classic trope, then reverse it. And I think playing with our expectations in this classic scenario would have helped make this even better than it was.

Anyway, great great work. And I'm really glad you jumped into this fest.


Thanks for taking the time to go in depth a bit, Mark. I appreciate the kind words and also the honesty. I realized as we approached picture lock with the final 6m edit that the main weakness of the film was going to be predictability. I'm actually delighted to see that some people totally didn't see it coming, but I'm more satisfied to hear that those who did were still engaged. Hopefully I left a little doubt in your minds.

I've just finished the treatment for a feature built on this same basic premise, and with more time to play I'm definitely focusing a lot more on misdirection and reversals. While I too wish that I'd been able to incorporate more of that into this story, I know from experience (and watching hundreds of films around this length) that the very best way to end up with a BAD short is to bite off too much story. Complexity can kill, at this speed. But it's also important to push yourself. Maybe I should have pushed harder. Next time.

Interesting comment about the score, except for one scene, we edited the whole thing without any temp music, actually... so I'm quite used to experiencing it that way. I think it's much stronger with the score in there, even at its most subtle. I'll probably take another look at the climax when we go back to edit again, though. There might be a better way. I guess, having made several films with no score (everything I know, I learned from The Wire), I really wanted to NOT go that way this time. I wanted the film to feel immediate and true – but it's not a documentary, and I wanted to use all the tools of sound design to bring the edit across.

As for the color: it stays. Suck it. :)

[dougspice]

I feel betrayed that I wasn't invited to the screening. So the title of the contest is appropriate. :)

The sound is amazing and so is the old guy. HaHA!!!

AND the whole thing is great. Good job doug!!!

Dude, I'm so, so sorry. I was watching the Oscars last night and thinking that if I was ever up there I'd totally be the guy who forgets someone super super important and then all the blogs the next day are talking about what an asshole I am. Apparently DVXuser is also not free of this pressure! My bad.

[teresadecher]

Sweet explosion! I totally did not see the end coming (although maybe I should have, since it is betryal fest afterall). Overall great job! I've been noticing color schemes way more lately (or I guess lack of very colorful things in this case), and I think it nicely complemented and added to the main characters desperation.

[AJ Brooks]

I enjoyed this one. There were some nice moments of dialog, especially from the older actor.

Good work.

[dougspice]

I'd like to give my props to both Bud (the older actor) and Chris (the not-older actor) for being so easy and natural to work with. One of the great truths of directing is that if you just cast great actors you can then take all the credit for directing them to such great performances! :)

Seriously, both of these guys were incredibly easy to work with, very adaptable, very in-the-moment. I've worked with Chris before and we've established a little rapport, but I was very happy with how quickly Bud responded to direction and came up with his own ideas.

Fulfilling a promise, now: here is THE FINAL SCRIPT (http://www.leadballoonpictures.com/extras/dead-drop/DeadDrop_FinalScript.pdf). I think the script-to-screen translation is probably the most interesting and lively part of filmmaking, so I'd love to discuss that with anyone who wants to take the time to read it. Note that this version of the script was rewritten after our final location scout to reflect the actual locations chosen.

[Mark Harris]

Thanks for taking the time to go in depth a bit, Mark. I appreciate the kind words and also the honesty. I realized as we approached picture lock with the final 6m edit that the main weakness of the film was going to be predictability. I'm actually delighted to see that some people totally didn't see it coming, but I'm more satisfied to hear that those who did were still engaged. Hopefully I left a little doubt in your minds.

I've just finished the treatment for a feature built on this same basic premise, and with more time to play I'm definitely focusing a lot more on misdirection and reversals. While I too wish that I'd been able to incorporate more of that into this story, I know from experience (and watching hundreds of films around this length) that the very best way to end up with a BAD short is to bite off too much story. Complexity can kill, at this speed. But it's also important to push yourself. Maybe I should have pushed harder. Next time.

Interesting comment about the score, except for one scene, we edited the whole thing without any temp music, actually... so I'm quite used to experiencing it that way. I think it's much stronger with the score in there, even at its most subtle. I'll probably take another look at the climax when we go back to edit again, though. There might be a better way. I guess, having made several films with no score (everything I know, I learned from The Wire), I really wanted to NOT go that way this time. I wanted the film to feel immediate and true – but it's not a documentary, and I wanted to use all the tools of sound design to bring the edit across.


yeah, like I said, the skill level is so high I focus on choices. All meant to be speculative and constructive.

You had hinted at there being a longer version when you were making this...is that still in the works?



As for the color: it stays. Suck it. :)

BASTID!!!!

[Mark Harris]

Thinking about it some more - again just speculating on the general problem of getting reversals and complexity into short works, one thing occurred to me.

What gave it away for me was the older guy. He was pretty menacing and in my eyes, in no way to be trusted. Maybe an adjustment to his performance so that he got very warm and fatherly in that scene would have thrown me off a lot more. So you think he's on the kid's side and really just wants to fulfill his end. Maybe take him in the direction of super nice in that scene.

thinking about this, as I am starting to plan a web series for the summer, which will be released in 5-7 min episodes, so we will run up against the same issues for sure.

[dvpixl]

hey dougspice. just watched your film. I have to say it blew me away right from the beginning. as soon as it began i already knew I'd like it. good camera work, tasteful dialogue and delivery, great editing. nice production value at this level. this is very solid and it kept me interested through and through. I have to watch it again. really good work on every level. Maybe the only thing i didnt like was the way the lead actor was squinting his eyes in the beginning. I've seen better squinting. :happy:

[dougspice]

hey dougspice. just watched your film. I have to say it blew me away right from the beginning. as soon as it began i already knew I'd like it. good camera work, tasteful dialogue and delivery, great editing. nice production value at this level. this is very solid and it kept me interested through and through. I have to watch it again. really good work on every level. Maybe the only thing i didnt like was the way the lead actor was squinting his eyes in the beginning. I've seen better squinting. :happy:

I'll pass that note along to him. Can I ask you what you consider to be highest-quality squinting? :happy: For the record it was of course insanely bright out when we shot that scene.

Thank you so much, I'm so glad you were reeled into it. Makes all the hard work worthwhile!


What gave it away for me was the older guy. He was pretty menacing and in my eyes, in no way to be trusted. Maybe an adjustment to his performance so that he got very warm and fatherly in that scene would have thrown me off a lot more. So you think he's on the kid's side and really just wants to fulfill his end. Maybe take him in the direction of super nice in that scene.

It's a tough line to walk. It is evident from the very first line of dialogue that this guy is the villain, after all. I certainly didn't want to make him a cookie-cutter Bond villain, I wanted him to seem like a guy you might possibly like under different circumstances. But the characters are charged in opposition to each other.

The direction we went in was "fatherly, but your father is kind of a dick." I think I tried to lean a ways in the direction you are saying – particularly note when he says "You've done everything I've asked, I respect that. Celia's been well cared for." Maybe it didn't work for you but we definitely tried to bring some humanity to this character. These notes are good though... it's one thing to know what you tried to do, and another to know when you succeeded!



A longer version is still in the works (probably will take about a month to finish), although it doesn't expand significantly on the scenes you see here, it just includes other scenes that had to be cut. Nonetheless I think it will play out some of the relationship just a little bit more in subtle ways, maybe enough to make that difference.

[hoz]

great film!!

love the locations - looks like the location used in " spies like us " where they hide that secret underground base. where did you find that place? nice!

story- i guess i've seen too many cars explode in movies or something because i expected that thing to go boom! -that said it still really works well for me! the film was a bit rushed in the end but how could it not be - 6 minutes is a killer for this piece- i see you presented a script here and i look forward to reading it!

explosion does look awesome!

acting- thought the lead did great! the villain was good. he sure did look sinister and his dialogue was strong but there was something about him that didn't exude the confidence needed to be him, to be this guy. nit picky point - he was more than fine. i just think that he was a hair short of being an incredible character.

awesome movie!

[ChrisHurn]

Wow! Some very cool stuff happening here.

Acting was great. Really great. All the films I’ve seen so far have held a pretty high standard for performances and this is no exception. Really good work!

Some very nice shots, I really enjoyed those wide shots, that old cafe wide shot at about 34 seconds in for example, love that kind of stuff. Cutting right to the handheld metal thing with the car, that was really nice.

Sound was good, no real hiccups, nothing distracting from the story of the dialogue. So good job there. Nice subtle score. The slow buildup during the beach scene, to that percussive bit at 4:48 ish, that was really cool. Great way to build to the ending. Awesome work.

Memorable Moment

“You’ve done everything I asked” – the way the actor leans in, the quick shift of focus, loved that. How he’s slightly on a lean, it just worked so well. I really loved that moment.

Overall – a quality film. I’ll definitely be watching this one a few more times, Congratulations.

[dougspice]

great film!!

love the locations - looks like the location used in " spies like us " where they hide that secret underground base. where did you find that place? nice!

I actually found it (not specifically the cafe, but the area right where it is) while scouting for an Iraq movie a year or two back. I don't think I've ever actually seen Spies Like Us though.




Memorable Moment

“You’ve done everything I asked” – the way the actor leans in, the quick shift of focus, loved that. How he’s slightly on a lean, it just worked so well. I really loved that moment.

Thanks – I loved that too. And the big puffy "let me make this clear" sort of sigh that comes right before it... Bud brought some A game to the role! He's got a lot of little tiny moments like that – every time we had to cut one it made me sad.

[ZazaCast]

Excellent film! Really liked the acting in general, but the older guys was great.
The grading really fit well...wouldn't change a thing. Highest ratings all around!

Congratulations!

[stinkpot]

I love the ending. Plain and simple.

Great work.

[jasonthewho]

Really great entry. The old guy was awesome, great actor. The lead was good as well.

Loved the sequence of him having to arrive, pull out the thing, unscrew it, open the car, follow the map, etc. Very treasure-hunty. And then the repetition is nice at the end.

Wonder why the old man kills him and the girl in the end? It would be cool if somehow the lead could have made a different choice that would have led to him getting the girl, but something he does f's it up.

[chriscurl]

Really good stuff, loved the shots and the look, actors were good, I liked the older guy but I found myself wanting his voice to sound different, almost like his look and acting with a more intimidating voice, I'm not sure why that stood out me, no biggie, I enjoyed it. I found myself wondering how long had this been going on, how many times had he changed the rules, would the lead still be so trusting at that point? Very tight overall, I know this is going to be up there high when it's all said and done.

And seriously, if I can get involved with anything you are planning, would love to help.

[Norm Sanders]

Loved the locations, and that final explosion was very well done (even with glass blowing out of the window in the car closest to us). NICE JOB!

For whatever reason I found the ending anti-climactic, as I saw it coming. Not so much that this is betrayal fest, but because the guy said that he'd have them together, vs. saying he's set her free ... so I expected them both to get it.

[Tunnelmen]

Hey man, cool film. The older guy is legit...the best actor hands down that I've seen thus far. I know that I'm just rehashing that though. The only thing that kind of stuck out to me was the movement of being handheld....but its not really something that is too bad. It sort of gives you sense of being in the conversation..sort of law and order feel. Loved the color grading....It looked great. Feature in the works? You would have to cast the older guy for sure. Again, he was fantastic.

[Ben Sliker]

Alright, I'm going to have to get real picky to find a critique for you cause I really enjoyed this film and thought it was well produced (and let's face it, that mirror-car shot is the BOMB. no pun intended.)

So here I go:
One thing I noticed about your lead was his facial expression. Throughout the whole middle conversation he's got this tough-guy lockjaw thing going on and never switches it up. I felt like all of his reaction shots are the same. Just something that I noticed.

But like I said, I had to reach super-hard to find something I could critique on. Great job and thanks for sharing!

[dougspice]

Feature in the works, yes. Of course, it's not something I'm gonna be able to do with my own money, so if anyone in the audience is an influential producer or trust fund kid, please step forward! :)

I'm sure Bud will be thrilled with all the high praise you're heaping on him. I don't know how many of the cast and crew are lurking in this thread, but I know some of them are. I guess they're just shy.

Norm – good catch, of course. It's a hat tip early on, I tried to underplay it.

Chris, I wouldn't change Bud's voice for anything! I love it. Well, maaaaaybe I might trade it for Edward James Olmos', but that's about it.

To answer your other questions, Mark does say right at the outset "I've done everything you've asked for two months!" And, well... actually that's the only question I'm prepared to answer right now. ;)

[chriscurl]

Chris, I wouldn't change Bud's voice for anything! I love it. Well, maaaaaybe I might trade it for Edward James Olmos', but that's about it.

To answer your other questions, Mark does say right at the outset "I've done everything you've asked for two months!" And, well... actually that's the only question I'm prepared to answer right now. ;)



Hell, I'd trade my voice for Edward James Olmos, speaking of BSG, you know what, I think Bud reminded me of the DR on there (I have no idea if you watched that) and that would explain the voice thing.

And I think I was adjusting my volume at the beginning so that explains that, I'll be sure to watch again.

[dougspice]

Alright, I'm going to have to get real picky to find a critique for you cause I really enjoyed this film and thought it was well produced (and let's face it, that mirror-car shot is the BOMB. no pun intended.)

So here I go:
One thing I noticed about your lead was his facial expression. Throughout the whole middle conversation he's got this tough-guy lockjaw thing going on and never switches it up. I felt like all of his reaction shots are the same. Just something that I noticed.

But like I said, I had to reach super-hard to find something I could critique on. Great job and thanks for sharing!

Ha! I really thought you were about to bend me over the barrel and lay down some hate. That was certainly not a flaw I was expecting anyone to point out!

I'm not sure what to say about your "critique" other than I do vaguely recall someone slapping Chris with a tetanus-infected rusty nail the morning of the shoot, just for kicks. And by "someone" I mean me.

The car mount shot is actually one of the things I am saddest about in this fest. No matter how hard I tried I could not get it to hold up to the compression! So it's a blocky soft ugly shadow of how it looks in the native HD. Once the fest is over I'm going to put up a higher-quality Vimeo version that hopefully cleans that up considerably!

[dougspice]

Hell, I'd trade my voice for Edward James Olmos, speaking of BSG, you know what, I think Bud reminded me of the DR on there (I have no idea if you watched that) and that would explain the voice thing.

And I think I was adjusting my volume at the beginning so that explains that, I'll be sure to watch again.

You know what, you're right. I never thought of that but yeah they do have very similar voices. Doc Coddle. Yeah. I miss that show (well, the early seasons, anyway).

Mark's line comes at the beginning of the confrontation scene, not the whole movie.

[Ben Sliker]

The car mount shot is actually one of the things I am saddest about in this fest. No matter how hard I tried I could not get it to hold up to the compression! So it's a blocky soft ugly shadow of how it looks in the native HD. Once the fest is over I'm going to put up a higher-quality Vimeo version that hopefully cleans that up considerably!

i would definitely like to see that cause i did notice the compression there as well. Are you editing in FCP? cause you can set compression markers so that it knows to up the bitrate at that point. (someone taught me this a while ago, so i'm 100% sure i won't be able to give you directions but a google search should work)

I contemplated delivering at 940x400 but in the end decided to drop it to 846x360 for resolution compatibility. It seems some people have older computers and are having trouble with the 720p files and jitter.

[Bigmagic]

I enjoyed this one very much. I wasn't a huge fan of the "look" but that's just personal preference. Overall high marks and I love the ending. Very well done.

[dougspice]

i would definitely like to see that cause i did notice the compression there as well. Are you editing in FCP? cause you can set compression markers so that it knows to up the bitrate at that point. (someone taught me this a while ago, so i'm 100% sure i won't be able to give you directions but a google search should work)

I contemplated delivering at 940x400 but in the end decided to drop it to 846x360 for resolution compatibility. It seems some people have older computers and are having trouble with the 720p files and jitter.

I did some tests with downrezzing and found that the interpolation did more harm than good at smaller sizes. Probably I could do more with the compression markers. I tried to do similar in Compressor but after 4-5 tries it was time to just get on with the show.

Before I send it on to Vimeo I will certainly address these issues.

[aurantaurant]

Bud Watson is dope.

[Chris Messineo]

Very cool film. I like that it had a distinct style - a real director's vision.

As others have said, the locations were awesome. It's amazing how much ambience, mood, and tone a good location can add to a film and this felt very cinematic.

Your actors were very good and I really like the older actor a lot, he had a real warmth in his performance which was cool considering he was playing the villain.

I definitely enjoyed this. Well done.

[dougspice]

Thanks Chris. I am glad you liked it.

[Richard J. Johnson]

2nd Vewing. Finalist. Amazing. The End.

[Jaime V]

This is my favorite one so far. I can't think of anything I didn't like. Kinda saw the ending coming, but since it's BetrayalFest, that's pretty much unavoidable.

I loved the look and colors especially, except for the dark scenes of the main actor in his house where you push in on him. I'm sure you wanted it to be dark, but as a personal preference I would have gone for more contrast.

I thought your actors were very good too, especially the villain.

As a real noob here, I feel I can learn a lot from watching your movie and seeing how you did things.

Thanks.

[dougspice]

2nd Vewing. Finalist. Amazing. The End.

I don't know what to say, Richard! Thank you!



This is my favorite one so far. I can't think of anything I didn't like. Kinda saw the ending coming, but since it's BetrayalFest, that's pretty much unavoidable.

I loved the look and colors especially, except for the dark scenes of the main actor in his house where you push in on him. I'm sure you wanted it to be dark, but as a personal preference I would have gone for more contrast.

I thought your actors were very good too, especially the villain.

As a real noob here, I feel I can learn a lot from watching your movie and seeing how you did things.

Thanks.

Thank you. I'll go ahead and admit that I'm not entirely happy with those shots you mention... it was far and away the worst part of the shoot. At this point it was just me and the DP and the actor. I discovered that the DP was violently allergic to my cats, and I had gotten an infection in my calf the day before which had swelled up like a melon and I couldn't move my leg without severe pain. Basically we were the most miserable little crew. The scene was lit with only practicals and some black wrap, and what we discovered was that the GH1 footage just wasn't very easy to work with in that low light situation. In short, it was a fiasco, and I'll be very happy in the longer cut when that shot is not the first thing you see! I'm honestly surprised you're the first person to really mention those shots.

[Stephen Mick]

Very nice work here, Doug. You and your entire cast and crew have created a strong entry with "Dead Drop."

http://www.filmeveryday.com/2010/03/09/dead-drop-a-dvxuser-betrayal-fest-film/

[dougspice]

Thank you, sir! I am glad you liked it – and even more glad that you didn't think it was "8 minutes of script in a 6 minute sack," even though it actually sorta is. :)

One minor correction: the character's name is Mark Granger, not Mark Watson (I see you've transposed Bud's name onto him). Teague's name is honestly never even revealed, but it's there for convenience.

And for the record: Natasha was there with me doing the color work. She approves. :P

[Stephen Mick]

That's what I get for writing a review after half a bottle of peach schnapps.

[Tim Joy]

Writing as I go-
Like the low bass sound at the top.
I think you should take a little reverb off his voice. It hurts the intelligibility. Just a touch. Or fade them.
I like the writing. Good dialog.
Hey, I don't have one, but do ipods have speakers? :)
The older guys performance goes in and out for me. Young guy is solid, but could be more at the end of his rope, desperate.
I like all the shots. Like the handheld. Like the location.
It flows well.
I would add in a little bit more color maybe.
When the music kicks in it's mostly panned R? Sounds a little distorted too.
NICE explosion.! And handheld, even, or did you add camera shake?
I thought the first car would blow up, so then it had to be the second, but I only realized it when he was about to open the trunk.

I liked it a lot more than the first time I saw it, but that was when I was drunk on 30 hrs of no sleep. :) I've watched it a bunch of times now and think it's very well done in every respect. Awesome, dude! Best of luck.

[abdeziel]

I enjoyed this for the most part - the lead in, the dead drop itself was pretty cool; heck you even made me grin talking about the kind of stuff I do for a living (I'm a penetration tester and use Serpent Twofish AES etc. for things..) Even missing what the bad guy says for a second or two seemed because of the wind and that happens when I watch TV all the time, sometimes it distorts a little.

But the ending? Gah, just too predictable and after some of the other twists and unique betrayals in this fest I kind of felt let down. I did like the effect; and I almost feel like you're left wondering who did it since the material he delivered could have had something happen to it too, but it was sort of outweighed by feeling let down.

[nittanytrojan]

I guess I'll finally stop "lurking" and post something. I just gotta say how thrilled I am by the positive feedback the film has received throughout the past few days. Honestly, I wasn't sure if our 6 minute cut would work, but apparently the festival viewers are diggin' it! The constructive criticism is very much appreciated, as it will help us develop an even stronger 8 minute cut.

A special thanks to stephenmick for the very positive review on his website--I personally appreciate the shout-out!

And congrats to Doug--from what I've seen, I think "Dead Drop" is one of the top films of the festival!

--Keith Schwebel - Editor of "Dead Drop"

[Brandon Rice]

You suck!!! That was sad :( Great ending! I honestly didn't see that coming.

I liked the film, overall good performances and writing. The older gentleman kind of slurred his speech, and I didn't think he had a lot of presence. Just my opinion.

Well done though, this was an excellent short!

[dougspice]

Keith Schwebel in the house! Glad you saw that review, I was gonna pass it along to you. You deserve the praise.

abdezial, I totally get what you're saying but my goal (and how I'd like the film to be viewed, although I realize this is probably impossible) was to make a good film first and a BetrayalFest entry second. I can't really help it if the viewer is sick of all this damn betrayal! I'm more interested in someone coming to the film not knowing what they're expecting, really.

I may get in touch for some consultation on the tech side, though! We had a little more detail in there at one point but it was confusing some viewers and it was cut for time.

Brandon, I was wondering where you've been! Thanks for watching, glad it caught you off guard.

[Brandon Rice]

You bet Doug. Very good work on this!

[MrSeth]

My critique for Dead Drop
The story:
Very engaging story! I was interested all throughout and wanted to see more.

The acting:
Very believable for all the actors.

The camerawork:
Colors were beautiful. Loved the shaky feel - very realistic.

The editing:
Editing is worth mentioning -- very smooth and to the point.

The sound and music:
Sound was clear. Ambiance was great. Music was perfect!

Overall impression:
LOVED the locations you picked out -- truly amazing work.

My favorite shot:
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/8785/screenshot20100310at742.png

[Hermn8r]

Awesome one here. Good story, and engaging all the way through. Good acting across the board. Great locations. Great visuals.

I really don't have anything bad to say here!

The ending was a surprise and a good way to throw another betrayal in there- one that would shock the audience even in a betrayal fest! So nicely done, there. The only thing I would have liked to see would have been a bit more of a "oh sh*t" reaction as soon as the trunk was opened.

But that's minor!! Nice work!

[Dauntless]

This was awesome. I really liked the clarity and color. The acting was great and the set locations as well. The handheld camera touch was nice. Really good short, good job man!

[abdeziel]

Ohkay I should add this I did enjoy the scene on the beach and the older actor was really good - like I said really good story! The Northrup Grumman building was pretty cool too they're ubiquitous in certain cities.

[Matt Harris]

well doug i have some bad news. your movie is too awesome. its sickening. i really feel
like you have some of the best, most believable cinematography, and ACTING, in this whole fest.
i gotta read what others wrote before i make more comments, but right off the bat i love this short.
you did phenomenal work here.

[dougspice]

Wow, thanks man. And everyone, again. It means a lot that you all like it so much – especially since I just got the not-very-tiny bill for the tiny scratch we unfortunately got on that BMW. Makes it a little easier to stomach the pain of not paying rent this month!

I think I'll start using "believable cinematography" as a quote in all promotions. :)

[Matt Harris]

yeah, what i meant by "believable cinematography" was this: your short looks like a movie. period.

[Alex Jeffery]

Doug,

I just got around to watching this, and just wanted to say really great work! I loved the desaturated, raw look. It fit the story really well. My favorite shot is near the end when you start on a wideshot of the black car, and he pulls into the foreground in his car.

If I had any sort of critique, it would be that a few of the lines felt a little awkward (i.e. the "we meet again" line). But overall I felt that your leads were very natural and carried the show.

Congrats on a very strong entry!

[Nemesis TS]

Nice film, like the look and feel of this one. The night shot of the guy didn't work for me, not sure why, was he out of focus? I can't put my finger on it. Just didn't seem to jive with the rest of it. The acting was great.
I thought I saw some latency in some of the moving parts of the image, not sure what its called, and its hard to explain. I was wondering if thats a DSLR thing or a compression thing... Didn't notice it in the other DSLR movies, but this one had the fastest movements it seems.

Great entry I definitely think you will be moving on to the next round. I would like to see the eight minute version, although I'm not sure how much more you could tell with two more minutes. I thought you nailed it in 6.

[dougspice]

There's actually a whole setup to their conversation, two additional short scenes. Those were cut. Those scenes emphasize the theme a bit more and add to the feeling of slow dread. So in that respect I feel like the longer version may not play as well on the internet, certainly. But it is a richer film... or at least it should be. It's sort of rough right now.


I just got around to watching this, and just wanted to say really great work! I loved the desaturated, raw look. It fit the story really well. My favorite shot is near the end when you start on a wideshot of the black car, and he pulls into the foreground in his car.

Thanks, that's one of my favorite shots as well. It does everything I want it to, very efficiently.


If I had any sort of critique, it would be that a few of the lines felt a little awkward (i.e. the "we meet again" line). But overall I felt that your leads were very natural and carried the show.

I know what you mean. I felt the line was necessary to help the viewer connect the dots – the first few people I screened it to didn't make that connection. It's a safety net... and like any safety net it makes the high-wire act a little less impressive. We may cut it from the longer version.

[dougspice]

yeah, what i meant by "believable cinematography" was this: your short looks like a movie. period.

Yeah, I get you... and thanks! Those are good words to hear.

[dougspice]

I'm curious if anyone has read the script at all?

[Tom Shortridge]

I read it.

[dougspice]

Okay, maybe my question should have been clearer: has anyone read the script who wants to discuss it or has anything to say about it?

Maybe there's nothing to say, but I always find it interesting to read a script after I've seen the movie and try to imagine how it must have looked first off in the writer's mind.

[Noel Evans]

Doug, well done mate. I was hoping this would be good and it was plain and simple. Well paced, well cut. You used everything to your advantage. Acting was very good, older guy was right on song.

What could have made it better for me? Not much, BUT :P, I know the theme of this fest, but I still think it went a little too much in the obvious outcome direction. And finally I loved all the lake shots, but the back in the city car shots at points just got too hot.

Really, really well done.

[Tom Shortridge]

Ohhh.... you wanted to discuss it :D

I actually really liked the opening scenes in the script, with the delivery of the thumb drive and everything - maybe it's better to get into the story later, as you did (I assume for time)? I kinda would have liked to see maybe more of that, instead, and chopped down the scene between the two guys - it felt sort of expository. How did you feel about the changes from script to screen?

As others have said, good acting, especially from the older gentleman.

Cinematography was nice.

Maybe it's just because of the time limit, but I felt the ending was kind of uninspired. Maybe it's just the nature of the six minute time limit, but when it took four and a half minutes to get past the conversation, there really weren't a whole lot of other places this story could go. And maybe it plays better outside of the fest, which is definitely likely.

That's not to say the rest of the script was uninspired, though - I loved the fact that they communicated through classifieds, and the pickups at the tube were very, very cool. I just wished you'd found a way to end it - or leave it open - that overcame the limitations of the fest.

Commendable work. I still gave it high marks. I just wanted something different for the ending.

[Brandon Rice]

Where did you shoot this Doug?

[dougspice]

Ohhh.... you wanted to discuss it :D

I actually really liked the opening scenes in the script, with the delivery of the thumb drive and everything - maybe it's better to get into the story later, as you did (I assume for time)? I kinda would have liked to see maybe more of that, instead, and chopped down the scene between the two guys - it felt sort of expository. How did you feel about the changes from script to screen?

Definitely cut for time. Given that we cut about two minutes, there's just no way we could have cut from the conversation scene and still had it actually serve any narrative purpose – cutting into it would actually make it more expository, not less, because you lose the nuances of actual conversation and end up focusing just on plot details... a big no-no in my book.

Overall, though, I'm quite happy with this transition to the screen. There are scenes in there that hardly changed since the original draft, but most of it reflects continual rewrites to reflect casting, locations, etc.

What I did learn about translating this to the screen is that my style of writing – designed to be lean, aggressive, easy-to-read*– actually worked against my interests. The script is just over 6 pages long, and granted the 1-page-per-minute rule doesn't necessarily work out in a short format, but total running time of the entire script as shot runs almost 9 minutes. If I hadn't edited the writing to be so lean, I probably would have had a more direct, realistic idea of the actual running time. So I'll need to work a little more on pacing out my action.


@Brandon – we shot it around Indio and the Salton Sea, El Segundo, MacArthur Park, Agua Dulce, and my apartment.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Dead Drop

Review: Brilliant. Stunning. Awesome cinematography. A story with a bang. Literally. This will do well in this fest and is designed to exist outside of the fest as well, so can't wait to see where it goes. This is the film that a lot of us wanted to make.

Story: It's a solid story, well told with good dialog. I can't even tell where you had to cut anything. But it was a tight edit and you kept things going consistently. By the end of the first minute we were

intrigued. End of minute two... we were hooked.

Technical: Um... yeah... maybe I need to watch it three more times... okay. Loved it. Nothing felt wrong, nothing was out of place. It all felt right and perfectly planned. I envy you.

Acting: Good solid actors. You couldn't have cast it better.

WrapUp: Solid work all around. You have a solid grasp on your stroytelling skills and on the technical side of things and it shows in your work. This was an awesome piece of work and is up there with my favorites. How can it not be? This film fucking rules.

[Chris_Keaton]

Nice explosion! Really, you could've just blown some shit up for 6 minutes and I would've been happy.

I did wonder through the story why this guy didn't realize he was going to be betrayed. I was hoping he would've shot the fat man in the knee when he had the chance. He might've given him his girl back if he was going to loose his junk to sledgehammer.

Great Job!

[dougspice]

Well, it can be hard to find a sledgehammer in the desert! But glad you liked the kaboom, thanks for watching!

Rodney – stop it, I can't fit a 10-foot ego in a 6-foot man! Really appreciate it.

[Nemesis TS]

Just watched again, and read thru the first page of the thread again. Wow, you work fast. Not only was this a great short film, you did it in a couple of weeks.

I've been focusing on color correction the last couple days, trying to learn those color wheels and I love the color correction in this movie. Its clear how well thought out it was by the chosen wardrobe and location all blending seamlessly in this piece.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Rodney – stop it, I can't fit a 10-foot ego in a 6-foot man! Really appreciate it.

Damn there go my plans for having your spontaneusly combust from sheer pleasure and eliminating you from the race... sure you're not feeling a little warm? Even a tiny bit?

[dougspice]

Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Regardless, there's nothing in the rules that say I still have to be alive to be in the competition!

* cue "My Heart Will Go On"

(if I'm dead I won't have to listen to it... fun fact, this song is still very, very popular in Africa for some reason)

[Tim Joy]

Finalist!!
Awesome.
I had no doubt.

[dougspice]

Why thank you sir – you too!

[Rodney V. Smith]

As if there was ever a doubt... congrats dude,

[Richard J. Johnson]

Congrats! This and ROM were my top 2 and you deserve to go farther....or is further? well you deserver both! anyway... CONGRATS again!!!

[Jaime V]

Knew this one would make it. Congratulations :)

[dougspice]

Thanks! I really like your production company logo, BTW. Classy.

[DerSpieler]

Really enjoyed this. Love the washed out colours and overall style. Your two leads were excellent. The story was a little derivative but I like the ambiguity in the dialogue and the minimal exposition.

Congrats!

[Norm Sanders]

I'm not surprised in the least that this gem made the finals. :thumbsup:

[Marlon Ladd]

I'm not surprised in the least that this gem made the finals. :thumbsup:
Me either. Good job!

[Alex Jeffery]

Again, great work, glad to see you in the finals! Congrats!

[namelok]

Congrats!

[Darkline]

very well constructed short. Although the betrayal was no surprise, outside this festival it would probably work better.

Everything else was very well done.

[Scott F]

OK, here I go being the jerk, and obviously the minority here.

I'm not a huge fan. There was a lot of setup for a story that really didn't intrigue me. Driving, keys being picked up, flash drives being dropped off, etc. Seems like the filler made up a huge portion of the film.

-Some of the handheld goes beyond organic into shaky territory.

-Doug, you've covered it in this thread, but the interior shots on the bed seem sub par to me.

-The CC & overall look is too desaturated for me. I enjoyed looking at all your BTS photos. Maybe a happy medium between what I saw there and the final product?

The Good:

-The dialogue is great in the standoff scenes. Solomon is a great character and the actor brings it big time in his delivery.

-The explosion was cool.

-Killer location

-Great dialogue sound, and I liked the sound of the lake in the background. (but some of the soundtrack is over-modulating in my headphones, like the bass drum)

-All the edits are nice

Congratulations on your placement so far.

[dougspice]

Thanks guys!

Deepfocus, I think we may just have to agree to disagree on a lot of your notes – I agree about the interior shots and about the shaky camera (sometimes) – but I'm very happy with the CC. More importantly, what you consider "filler" I consider to be an important, intrinsic part of the storytelling. But that's okay! Different strokes and all that... thanks for the critique in any case, nothing jerk about it.

[Scott F]

^ You can also tell me to "suck it" like you did Mark, I won't be offended.

[Zim]

I really liked this one.

[dougspice]

^ You can also tell me to "suck it" like you did Mark, I won't be offended.

Yeah, but I don't hate you the way I hate Mark.

[Robbie Comeau]

I liked the style of this. The audio wasn't that good, up and down and muffled and a different tone in different scenes.

Nice acting, music, and editing.

Robbie

[dougspice]

Hi Robbie, can you give an example of audio problems?

[Nitsuj]

I liked this one but the grading was too strong for me. Looked like a magic bullet preset I commonly see everywhere now. But the performance was great and locations gave it good screen value. 8 stars from me man. Good job and good luck.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

My secondary review....

The opening shot is actually pretty unimpressive, especially when compared to the rest of the film. Seems a little muddy and almost out of focus. I'm also torn about the VO as well.
While I like it, it sounds like he's questioning the name when he says... "Call Maddame Lazarouth?" Yet he shouldn't be, should he?

The music is good and I like the shots that follow the opening quite a bit. Shots definitely get a bit blurry during the closeups of the meeting. Especially as the young guy moves around.
The conversation is good and the actors seem alright, mostly the older one though. I'm not quite buying the younger guys performance. Especially considering the position he's in.
He's holding zero cards here yet he comes off far too confident for me. I know he's a soldier type as he said, but still.

When I heard the line, "You're together again, end of story." I knew exactly how this was going to play out. Doesn't help that it's betrayal fest, but still.
Couple of the O/S shots on the older guy look soft when compared to some of the earlier shots.

The music beat is great! I really like the way it slowly builds up. The editing is also quite nice, sound is decent. The rest of the shots look great. This film is pretty slick looking all around.
Although the grading/crush seemed a tad harsh.

Another part I don't get. When he pulls up his car to drop off the USB key at the end, she should be making as much noise as possible but we don't hear BOO from her.
Now I know that you want him to drop off the key first before the explosion but it doesn't make any sense to me. She would have heard the car pull up. Her hands are bound in front of her, hands clearly exposed.
It would have been VERY easy for her to tear the tape off her mouth and warn him as to what would happen after opening the trunk. I would have been screaming my bloody head off!

So, my biggest problem with this entry is the story. I think it has far too many weak spots and it plays out exactly as expected. Still a great entry and it would make a good scene in a larger, more in-depth story.

The explosion at the end is great. The only thing I would add is a little movement to the car beside it when it blows. Maybe have the car alarm go off as well.

Nice work though.
As far as action/suspense goes this was pretty good.

MAH

[dre83]

Let's start with to say that it's a realy great film.

But because this is a discussion page, also some "remarks" :-p

- "if you hurt her": sounds little to close in mike, bit to much of base in it, and also other times little to much "base" in the voice
- I hear that Mark has a wireless mike ? which makes noise (clothes) when he moves
- Sometimes few "ticks" in sound (due to cuttings)
- I hear some low rumble (not to confuse with the music ritm...but wind rumble in the mice)

- Nice sound design stuff
- the exploding at the end "one time take" ?
- cool you've offered your car for this movie :-p

[Marlon Ladd]

Let's start with to say that it's a realy great film.

But because this is a discussion page, also some "remarks" :-p

- "if you hurt her": sounds little to close in mike, bit to much of base in it
- I hear that Mark has a wireless mike ? which makes noise (clothes) when he moves
- Sometimes few "ticks" in sound (due to cuttings)
- I hear some low rumble (not to confuse with the music ritm...but wind rumble in the mice)

- Nice sound design stuff
- the exploding at the end "one time take" ?
- cool you've offered your car for this movie :-p
He's the sound guy and he knows his stuff. He got me too and dead on.

[dre83]

He's the sound guy and he knows his stuff. He got me too and dead on.

Well actually the better the image, light, VFX... the more I listen to the sound more detailed. :-HeadPhones(D:-Dum(DBG):

[dougspice]

Let's start with to say that it's a realy great film.

But because this is a discussion page, also some "remarks" :-p

- "if you hurt her": sounds little to close in mike, bit to much of base in it, and also other times little to much "base" in the voice
- I hear that Mark has a wireless mike ? which makes noise (clothes) when he moves
- Sometimes few "ticks" in sound (due to cuttings)
- I hear some low rumble (not to confuse with the music ritm...but wind rumble in the mice)

- Nice sound design stuff
- the exploding at the end "one time take" ?
- cool you've offered your car for this movie :-p

Hmm, you have better headphones than I do! There's definitely a bit of wind noise in there that I wasn't able to deal with, but the ticks and such are news to me. The mic noise on clothes – I was pretty sure we got rid of all of that. His feet do scrape on the gravel, which sounds similar. Anyway, I'll certainly run it through the ringer one more time before submitting it anywhere else, thanks for the keen listen.

[seanmcleod]

Hey Doug, just rewatched for the second time... gotta say it's a very cool, slick and well done short. Very nice flow to the writing, and I like that the film has a beginning, middle, and end. Even though it does feel like it could be a scene from a longer film, but it doesn't feel like it SHOULD be, like some. Not a ton of films this fest felt like complete films in and of themselves. It doesn't need the rest of a feature film to help understand whats happening, and that's a tribute to good writing. We don't know why he has his girl, but we don't really need to, what we need to know is that he does, and the other guy wants her back.

My only negative comment would be that I think it would help to have a good 1st AC on set with you, as you dip in and out of focus a couple times. I think with the advent of DSLR a lot of guys are having to deal with this issue that they didn't have to with a a prosumer cam, or at least to this degree. So at least for me when I see it I dont think it's a stylistic choice, I think it's a mistake in the focus pull.

Other than that, great rewatchability factor and your definitely in my top 2, not sure if you're one yet, gotta rewatch another, but you're fighting for it for sure!

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

The mic noise on clothes – I was pretty sure we got rid of all of that. His feet do scrape on the gravel, which sounds similar.
The mic noise is definitely there but I think it would only be picked up while using headphones. Same with some of the wind rumble. It's there, but I doubt most would catch it as is.

MAH

[Tim Joy]

I caught it right away. I think a little 'gust of wind' noise over it would mask it a little. I do listen on studio monitors though, not to mention being a soundman 1st, filmmaker second. :)

I'm guessing it was by necessity rather than choice, but it seemed like they were mic'd with the lav's even in CU? It comes out a little dull as a result. Not enough to hurt the performances though. Sometimes it is hard to match a wide lav sound with a CU boom mic sound, so I can understand why you might do that.

[kyotonils]

The actors pulled me into this paced their dialog very well. I kind of liked the hi-contrast, but kept noticing it, as it is a short and the audience has only so much time to get accustomed to the texture of the look. Still, it was good. And the framing and pacing just whipped it along right to the finish. Great. Just Great!

[dougspice]

Hey Doug, just rewatched for the second time... gotta say it's a very cool, slick and well done short. Very nice flow to the writing, and I like that the film has a beginning, middle, and end. Even though it does feel like it could be a scene from a longer film, but it doesn't feel like it SHOULD be, like some. Not a ton of films this fest felt like complete films in and of themselves. It doesn't need the rest of a feature film to help understand whats happening, and that's a tribute to good writing. We don't know why he has his girl, but we don't really need to, what we need to know is that he does, and the other guy wants her back.

My only negative comment would be that I think it would help to have a good 1st AC on set with you, as you dip in and out of focus a couple times. I think with the advent of DSLR a lot of guys are having to deal with this issue that they didn't have to with a a prosumer cam, or at least to this degree. So at least for me when I see it I dont think it's a stylistic choice, I think it's a mistake in the focus pull.

Other than that, great rewatchability factor and your definitely in my top 2, not sure if you're one yet, gotta rewatch another, but you're fighting for it for sure!


Thanks for checking it out again, Sean. It was definitely an effort to get the story simple enough to be complete, but suggest additional optional complexity. I'm really glad it seems to have worked for people.

The focus issue is actually somewhere in between necessity and stylistic choice. Sometimes necessity is a stylistic choice! One of my favorite shows is Friday Night Lights, and that show is out of focus all the time. But it doesn't bother me, it's part of their look... so likewise when I knew we were occasionally going to lose focus here it didn't bother me either.

Unfortunately, I guess it does bother some other people, and if it's taking them out of the story for even a moment (or, worse, dropping the movie from #1 to #2! :happy:) then it's something I probably need to be better on top of in the future.

[dougspice]

I caught it right away. I think a little 'gust of wind' noise over it would mask it a little. I do listen on studio monitors though, not to mention being a soundman 1st, filmmaker second. :)

I'm guessing it was by necessity rather than choice, but it seemed like they were mic'd with the lav's even in CU? It comes out a little dull as a result. Not enough to hurt the performances though. Sometimes it is hard to match a wide lav sound with a CU boom mic sound, so I can understand why you might do that.

Another reason would be that we didn't have a boom at all! Even if we had, I think it might have been pretty useless without the world's best zeppelin. It was pretty windy (worse: gusty) all day. I dunno... one of you guys would probably know better than me.

[seanmcleod]

Thanks for checking it out again, Sean. It was definitely an effort to get the story simple enough to be complete, but suggest additional optional complexity. I'm really glad it seems to have worked for people.

The focus issue is actually somewhere in between necessity and stylistic choice. Sometimes necessity is a stylistic choice! One of my favorite shows is Friday Night Lights, and that show is out of focus all the time. But it doesn't bother me, it's part of their look... so likewise when I knew we were occasionally going to lose focus here it didn't bother me either.

Unfortunately, I guess it does bother some other people, and if it's taking them out of the story for even a moment (or, worse, dropping the movie from #1 to #2! :happy:) then it's something I probably need to be better on top of in the future.

It's okay, I would imagine it's only some people. I was tired of that look when the original Friday Night Lights film came out. I think in that it looked way too forced, haven't seen the show. And I think in reference to Dead Drop if it only happens when a focus pull WOULD be necessary then it looks like you just didn't pull off the pull, you know? But like you said, it may work for some people, but I don't like it even in mainstream hollywood films so I'm probably just more tough on that. And I wouldn't say THAT is the reason it would drop from 1 to 2, its just up against another really great film is all!

[dougspice]

Sorry Michael, I missed your re-review.


My secondary review....

The opening shot is actually pretty unimpressive, especially when compared to the rest of the film. Seems a little muddy and almost out of focus. I'm also torn about the VO as well.
While I like it, it sounds like he's questioning the name when he says... "Call Maddame Lazarouth?" Yet he shouldn't be, should he?

No, and he's not. He's waiting to confirm that someone else is getting it down right. I don't feel like this is unusual.

Agreed that the shot is probably the weakest one in the movie. In the new edit we won't be opening on it.


The music is good and I like the shots that follow the opening quite a bit. Shots definitely get a bit blurry during the closeups of the meeting. Especially as the young guy moves around.
The conversation is good and the actors seem alright, mostly the older one though. I'm not quite buying the younger guys performance. Especially considering the position he's in.
He's holding zero cards here yet he comes off far too confident for me. I know he's a soldier type as he said, but still.

This is a character choice that we put a lot of work and study into, and it's 100% sensible to me, at least. Granted, I have a lot more exposure to the material than you or anyone else does. At the most basic level it can be boiled down to this: you've never gotten angry at someone you shouldn't have? You've never had a shouting match with a boss or someone you knew had the upper hand on you? I sure have.

This is two smart, strong, type A guys going head-on. Even if one of them holds all the cards, human emotion is human emotion.


Another part I don't get. When he pulls up his car to drop off the USB key at the end, she should be making as much noise as possible but we don't hear BOO from her.
Now I know that you want him to drop off the key first before the explosion but it doesn't make any sense to me. She would have heard the car pull up. Her hands are bound in front of her, hands clearly exposed.
It would have been VERY easy for her to tear the tape off her mouth and warn him as to what would happen after opening the trunk. I would have been screaming my bloody head off!

This is an interesting comment. I think you'll notice that you don't hear the cries from the trunk until he's basically touching the car... but we certainly could play this up better, fade it in a little more.


The explosion at the end is great. The only thing I would add is a little movement to the car beside it when it blows. Maybe have the car alarm go off as well.

The foreground car does actually move. It does not have a car alarm. :)

Thanks for taking another look at it.

[Knoxworth]

Fun movie. Gripping for a short, you get right to the meat of it.

[dougspice]

It's been a while, but I finally got around to finishing the full cut of this film. It clocks in at 9 minutes, recently premiered at the DVX WestFest LA Screening, and now you can watch it online!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emybHoVQoUM

or

http://vimeo.com/13769668

or

hopefully soon, a film festival near you!