"DAY:11" Short Film

[starway2001@mac.com]

Hello. I just completed a short film about a soldier fighting during Operation Iraqi Freedom called DAY:11. This is the first time I used the Canon XL2 camera. I was very impressed with the camera system and the picture quality.

The true progressive 16x9 aspect ratio and 24P frame rate really provided the kind of cinematic quality this project needed. While I would've preferred a little control over the depth of field, I think the overall image quality is quite exceptional.

Here is a link to a mini-site for the film project where you can watch the entire 14-minute film and a behind-the-scenes vignette in either Quicktime 6 (Sorensen 3) or Quicktime 7 (H.264 - preferred).

"DAY:11" Movie Downloads (http://www.starwaypictures.com/day11)

[See tukka]

Wow...that was really nice...Looked cool. That must have been a huge project. Xl2 looked amazing once again.
Very well shot and edited film...Very professional

[starway2001@mac.com]

Thank you. Actually, it was a very small production. It was shot with a crew of about seven people, a budget of a $1000, and a stock XL2 with the stock lens. We didn't even have a 3x lens. We shot it in two days. About 25 setups a day.

[bluestar]

bravo....i liked the coverage, cutting, and acting. But one part of acting didn't do so well as he was emotional.....I didn't feel anything coming from someone who doesn't look like they just went through a fight. Maybe makeup and effects is to blame for that. So that's one thing, the second thing would be the bump digity techno beat - it doesn't fit the scene. Thirdly, that last wide shot - too much of it, maybe it would of been better if the shot was slowly craned up or something ah dunno.

Other than that I f-n loved it!

[RomanJaquez]

Nice job...
I agree wit bluestar... but about the last wide shot. I thought it fit perfectly if not the best in relation to the story. Personally it kept in deep suspence on what was going to happen (he took the helmet off when he has privously advised the other one not to). To be honest I pulled my chair back, I wasn't shure if he was goign to get shot or how it was going to end.

Well-done

[STORYTELLER32]

Very nicely done,
Fantastic production values for $1000.00. I hate to bring up drawbacks because it's so nit picky for such a well put together production. But the one thing that stood out to me as a problem was the "base camp" guy. For an intel hub during a heavy combat day, it looked awfully empty. Would have worked better if there were some frenzied extras running back and forth dealing with other soldiers out there or working to get this soldier his backup. But after watching behind the scenes and seeing how fast it was put together, this was obviously a production issue.

Overall the acting was strong. There were places where it was so-so, but I realized it largely came from working without a script. Sometimes, too many off the cuff moments can lead to an actor getting repetitive in what he's trying to say or lingering in a moment too long structurally for a film. But I think overall what was acheived here in a two day shoot overshadows the minimal drawbacks.

I'd REALLY like to know what you used for compressing the h.264 quicktime's. I have a 22 minute film of my own I'm trying to compress for the web and the smallest I could get was 134MB but at a much smaller size than the medium sized version of your film. Please share your settings and programs used to achieve them!

Kudos to you guys and it's nice to see an effort which supports our brave troops.

[FilmMagic]

Other than the look of a couple of muzzle flashes here and there, I loved it. Had some pretty decent color and the acting was mostly good. Great job.

[330ceo]

Very good short, nice work.

[Slimothy]

That was pretty cool. Alot better than most of the low-budget war stuff I see. Most of the cg looked pretty fake though. I know, it's hard to get good cg on a low budget, but good job.

[Rick Meyer]

Man you guys ARE nitpicky.

I thought the production value of this was phenomenal. From start to finish it was F'in excellent. You can make comments about crane shots or wide shots, etc...but to me, those are choices left up to the director who made the movie. I didn't see anything glaring about your choices. And the middle-eastern singing mixed with the sound design...excellent choice.

There is very little negative critism to take from this. Seriously, it was so well done.

Rick

[bluestar]

rlm7189

This is why we all have our own views, it's up to the creator on whether they'll agree with our reviews or not.

[escozooz]

I really enjoyed the whole thing, a lot of the smoke/flash effects were pretty seamless.

I thought that the blood effects were a little fake. The colors seemed off and a little too bright. When the helicopter shoots the final Iraqi? the blood is a bit excessive and looks like a particle party in AE.

This is one of the best shorts I've seen XL2 style. Awesome. :laugh:

[Rick Meyer]

rlm7189

This is why we all have our own views, it's up to the creator on whether they'll agree with our reviews or not.

Listen, I think its great we ALL have our own opinions...but, it doesn't serve the auteur/director/cinematographer much if you leave it with "that actor didn't do a good job". I mean, the scene is already in the can. I think better critique would be about splicing, cutting, pacing, etc. But, shot decisions...they are probably also in the can too...

I mean, we all have our own tastes. We all should feel compelled to make our own comments...especially since we can put that to use in our very next film, but, I just think that this movie was excellent and looked very professional. Therefore, I think that critiques about the "already dones"....ie....filming, cinematography...is counter productive. But, each to his own...

Rick

[J.R. Hudson]

Why you feel compelled to keep going at it I am not sure? I asked twice to please refrain from any political statements but fro some reason you do not follow direction well. The third time (especially considering you're basically saying 'Go EFF' yourself) is the charm.

Come back in a few days johnnyspacecommand.

10-26-2005 ~ 09:00 PM

[starway2001@mac.com]

Very nicely done,
Fantastic production values for $1000.00. I hate to bring up drawbacks because it's so nit picky for such a well put together production. But the one thing that stood out to me as a problem was the "base camp" guy. For an intel hub during a heavy combat day, it looked awfully empty. Would have worked better if there were some frenzied extras running back and forth dealing with other soldiers out there or working to get this soldier his backup. But after watching behind the scenes and seeing how fast it was put together, this was obviously a production issue.

Overall the acting was strong. There were places where it was so-so, but I realized it largely came from working without a script. Sometimes, too many off the cuff moments can lead to an actor getting repetitive in what he's trying to say or lingering in a moment too long structurally for a film. But I think overall what was acheived here in a two day shoot overshadows the minimal drawbacks.

I'd REALLY like to know what you used for compressing the h.264 quicktime's. I have a 22 minute film of my own I'm trying to compress for the web and the smallest I could get was 134MB but at a much smaller size than the medium sized version of your film. Please share your settings and programs used to achieve them!

Kudos to you guys and it's nice to see an effort which supports our brave troops.

Thank you for the kind words. Much appreciated. Yeah, it was definitely a run-and-gun shoot. I've never shot anything as fast as this before.

As far the Quicktime compression. You really need to make sure you've got two-pass encoding selected and make sure to play with different data-rate settings. You'll have to encode your movie several times until you find that right combination of data rate, file size, and picture quality.

[starway2001@mac.com]

That was pretty cool. Alot better than most of the low-budget war stuff I see. Most of the cg looked pretty fake though. I know, it's hard to get good cg on a low budget, but good job.

Yeah, I cringe at some of the CG stuff too. I'm definitely not an ILM employee. But I think that an individual such as myself can actually get some of those shots that far is a testiment to the democratization of digital technology in the indie-filmmaking world.

[starway2001@mac.com]

Man you guys ARE nitpicky.

I thought the production value of this was phenomenal. From start to finish it was F'in excellent. You can make comments about crane shots or wide shots, etc...but to me, those are choices left up to the director who made the movie. I didn't see anything glaring about your choices. And the middle-eastern singing mixed with the sound design...excellent choice.

There is very little negative critism to take from this. Seriously, it was so well done.

Rick

Wow. Thank you so much. My job as a story teller is to entertain people. I'm very pleased you enjoyed the film that much.

I kinda knew the music was going to be somewhat controversial (in the small sense). I really didn't want to go for the traditional "war" soundtrack. I wanted to go for something a lot more contemporary. It still needed to sound threatrical, but I also wanted it to have a base layer that represented the kind of music today's young soldiers listen to.

[starway2001@mac.com]

rlm7189

This is why we all have our own views, it's up to the creator on whether they'll agree with our reviews or not.

I think any/all criticism and critiques are valid from everyone. It's the only way filmmakers and storytellers can hone their craft.

Filmmakers also need to have a thick enough skin and take the good with the bad. Movies are never perfect. They are mixture of good, bad and mediocre. One just hopes the good outweighs the bad.

[starway2001@mac.com]

Why you feel compelled to keep going at it I am not sure? I asked twice to please refrain from any political statements but fro some reason you do not follow direction well. The third time (especially considering you're basically saying 'Go EFF' yourself) is the charm.

Come back in a few days johnnyspacecommand.

10-26-2005 ~ 09:00 PM

I completely and fully understand that any film made about a war or during a war is chock full of political inference.

James Martinez, the actor who plays the soldier in the film, is a childhood friend of mine. And he fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It was our goal (my goal) to make a film about a soldier and not a film about a war. We tried as hard as possible to not make a political statement with the film. We make no judgments about the Iraqi's. We make no negative or positive statements about why we're fighting. It just is -- a man trying to survive.

However, I do think a liberal could look at the first half of the movie and identify with the horrors and havoc war can wreak. But a conservative could look at the end of the film and see a certain level of heroic righteousness.

The fact that the film prompts discussion is ultimately my goal. I only recently came back to checked the forum to see if anyone was responding to the film. For a while it looked like no one was taking notice. I recognize it is sometimes difficult to discuss these issues without it getting heated as we are all passionate about our point of view.

Again, I want to thank everyone for the kind words about the production value.
Rob Sanders