GRIS (GREY), DVX100 short film with chroma keying

[Rodrigo]

Shot in 2003 in Albacete, Spain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ya-yQqj6o

The actors, look and effects are pretty good though the story may be a bit convoluted. The short film was transferred to 35mm with very good results.

Hope you like it.

BTW, you can check our other short films here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ya-yQqj6o

[matthewkern]

Dang. That was amazing for DVX... where was the noise so typical of DVX footage?! They obvously used a 35mm adapter and a professional lighting/sound crew. It is hard to get DVX footage to look that good.
On a different note.... man their accents are funny... those Castellano thetas really make it hard to understand. Haha, the strongest lisps ever.

[naughtygeorge]

A M A Z I N G

[slinks]

Wow great job! I was really into it from the get go!

[ahram]

I think they didnt use a 35 mm adapter.
I like it very much

[Spartacus]

aaaarggggggggg,
why don´t my keys look that good!!!?????????
still watching...
so far - awesome!

[Lake Films]

Great film! Shot very well, congrat's!

[PaPa]

WOW
that was great great great.

how did you desaturate so much of the picture but still have those REDS come out at crucial moments?

PLease tell us how you pulled those keys, with what, and how did you do your CCing?

the colours looked very cinematic.

oh yeah

And by far the best acting ive seen on a dvx film yet.

[Rodrigo]

The noise disappeared in the compression, but we didn't have much problems in that field because we used quite a lot of light.

We did not use any 35mm adapter, we just tried to keep the iris as open es possible and to use tele in the close ups.

All the characters are played by spanish proffesional actors.

And about the accents: well, that's how the language sounds in the land where it was created.
The color correction was done in premiere (it was 2003) but I don't remember doing much more than lowering the saturation and playing a bit with the levels.

We payed a lot of attention to the keys and ended up using ultimatte. Worked pretty well, but it is worth mentioning that it was a well lit chroma from the start.

[Sprack]

wow... one word, amazing

[david jerome]

That was fantastic.

[matthewkern]

And about the accents: well, that's how the language sounds in the land where it was created.

I wasn't insulting the accents, and I know that Spanish originates from the Castil (sp?) region of Spain. It just sounds funny to me because I'm used to Salvadoran/Mexican Spanish.

[Rodrigo]

Yeah, I know... I love the mexican accent... Man, do I like Cuarón's "Y tu Mamá también"...

[epsilonbass]

that was great, and i just saw pollo! also. Despite knowing what pollo means i had no idea what i was getting into with that one. Couldn't take my eyes off, i was arguing with the short, no, he's not gonna, no he can't... haha good work.

the link to his movie pollo! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW4Sw8iMiBs)

[Chris Stearns]

wow...that was amazing.

[epsilonbass]

OK, sorry last post here, but watching his other stuff....
the most hillarious short i have ever seen.
Si Quieres Puedes (where theres a will theres a way) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwEUNJ6mf7k)

man, your movies are great.

[Spartacus]

ok, I´m frustrated now, please tell me it was all a joke and you filmed on 16mm with a crew of 30 guys...

[Northainan]

That was outstanding. This does not look like it was done by amateurs.

[ryan brown]

Like the others, I loved it. A+ class acting, there.

[taubkin]

I think it was very cool! Man, I loved how you first think his friend is having an affair with her, and only then you understand how it all fits...

What I had trouble with was the whole scene where he kills the woman on the street. The scene feels misplaced from the whole story, and it's so weird than the friend sees the dead woman, and doesn't react accordingly. Instead he reveals it's been over a year.

Other than that, It's beautiful. The effect really fits well into the narrative and serves a purpose, and the directing and acting is top notch. F*king Awesome! Congrats!

[FilmMakerr]

wow, I liked this alot. Good job.

[Sacksnack]

Really well done.

[Everdene]

Do you mind if I ask how you are doing some of those motion tracked 3D animated titles?

[Rodrigo]

The landscape is 3d, done based on some ortophotos and topographical curves of a real place in La Rioja.

When the camera enters through the window it is a simple travelling and we needed not to track the motion since the landscape is so far away it is almost a matte painting. The title that moves (the one with the sript credits) was kinda tracked by hand.

The major problem with the 3d were the trees and, of course, the smoke column which isn't quite right.

The crew was kinda large (around 13-15 ppl) but the important thing is that we had capable technicians in the cinematography and sound departments. We always strive for a "transferable" or "blowupable" image and sound quality just in case the pieces work in the short film festivals. Needless to say that nowadays it has become much easier with the new hd prosumer cams.

Many ppl have issues with the alley sequence and the truth is it doesn't work well. It has been very obvious every time I've seen the short film in a theatre.

[Spartacus]

so have all your movies been shot in the dvx?
are you going HD(V) anytime soon?

[Rodrigo]

Well, our 2005 short film "El Punto Ciego (http://www.google.es/search?hl=es&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-11%2CGGLD%3Aes&q=%22el+punto+ciego%22+montoya+navarro&btnG=B%C3%BAsqueda&meta=)" (The Blind Spot) (http://www.google.es/search?hl=es&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-11%2CGGLD%3Aes&q=%22the+blind+spot%22+montoya+navarro&meta=) was shot with two DVX at the same time creating a final 1:2,38 HD (1286X576 with 1,067 pixel aspect ratio) frame.

You may take a look at "number five" here:
http://rlux.blogspot.com/2006/02/acerca-de-la-tcnica-en-el-punto-ciego.html

Our latest short film was shot with the Sony HDV. We will be transferring it to film pretty soon. I can tell you already that the image quality was amazing but it is more due to the fact that we had an awesome cinematographer, Jon D. Domínguez.

[newtodvx100a]

One word: Awsome!!!

[mystico]

I could sum up my reaction by simply saying, this is one more piece of evidence why I love Spanish movies. I live in Texas, am a U.S. American, and speak Spanish. The Spanish-lang TV here is heavily focused on Mexico, with the movies being mostly about horny old men running after sexy young women OR bravado Clint Eastwood type-movies. Spanish, Argentian and Brasilian movies are always so much more enthralling. In my admittedly limited experience, ONLY Cuaron's movies defy the stereotypical Mexican movies.

Anyway, this was a GREAT romantic tragedy. I loved the colours--though there were some slight mismatches in some places. Great Foley work and placement of music also. Like others said, it was obvious this wasn't created with a two-person amateur crew in 1-2 days. I would love to see this developed into a feature length film. On to the critique:

2:48 Your subtitle says "A hole damn exhibition ..." It should read "a whole damned exhibition." Minor issue maybe but I'm one of those who, even though I understand the dialogue, I can't help but also watch the subtitles and compare for accuracy, spelling, grammar and all that.

4:16 Subtitle says, "F***." I couldn't really hear what the actor said, maybe because his hand was covering his mouth. Did he say "Que disastre!"?

4:53 Very nice stunt and Foley work on woman's head hitting wall.

4:57 The guy sitting on the ground hands the other guy the stick. Needed a little braver stunt work in swinging and grabbing that stick. Then when he starts punching the guy, very nice use of camera shake to simulate first-person view of getting the crap beaten out of him. But I think the last punch should have ended with the camera falling off to the side or something.

Question: When he goes over and kisses the woman, where did the piece of glass come from? In terms of this scene overall, I think it DID work and fit into the film, but needs to be reworked. It furthers the idea of his not having let her go, and even taking his grief to the point of seeing Elena in other women. The ONLY problem I saw was the friend's reaction to seeing the dead woman and beaten up guy and having no reaction other than sympathy and worry for his friend. In fact, this scene is sort of the catalyst for his ending up in a psyc ward.

7:17 A little weird for main character's voice to rattle like that while crying. The silent, mouth open, devastated facial expression alone would have been enough. Just as an observation, the other guy looks like he's laughing.

7:28 Great use of keying with the bookcase then bed shaking in background and coordinated with the guy's screams.

I loved this film! I know my little critiques basically said the same others have said, but I was writing all this down in my anal way as I was watching. Now I'm going to watch your other films because I'm captivated.

[mystico]

"Pollo" was cool, but "Si Quieres Puedes" was a scream! I could so see that being made into a commercial about ... something people have a hard time deciding to do. Your imagination is outrageous! Do you have a website?

[Rodrigo]

Glad you like them.

We don't have a website. Just a blog... in spanish.

http://rlux.blogspot.com/



Everyone feel free to visit us.

Best.

[Charli]

Fantastico!

Charli

[Mateo Salsero]

Loved it!!!! Also I was wondering who was the music by?

Mateo

[Ian Slessor]

Rodgrigo,

Wonderful!

Simply wonderful.

I do agree the alley scene seems off but you've already addressed that.

This short makes me wonder if I could even come close to what you've produced.

Still. It'll be fun to try.

Again. Wonderful!

[rook]

makes me want to keep my dvx.

great work.

-rook

[Unix]

you guys rock

[Ogrus]

Why is it so technically outstanding?
Can someone explain? (we all have to learn...)

[FXMediaLab]

Awesome! This is really inspiring for me. Watching this just made my wait even more painful (a little over 2/3 the way saving for my new camera, most likely a DVX100).

I think the keying was pretty darn good! I get pretty good results with Keylight in AE 7 (even over my my silly home-made $3 / yard neon green felt screen) - ever tried it? If so, how do you think it compares (Keylight in AE vs. Ultimatte)? I had Ultra for about 2 weeks, but I don't think it looks as nice as Keylight.

Again, I am very impressed and I really enjoyed it! Great work, Rodrigo!

[Robert Pottorff]

Ogrus - there is substianal keying (replacing a green/blue background with an image) that is hardly even noticeable.

not to mention he gets the lighting/acting spot on (no pun intended)

and plus, its just a beautiful short

[Ill Eagle]

Great short, very nice use of music and shutter...........

[jimwww]

Incredible and inspiring.. thank you for sharing that with all of us..

[Drew Ott]

That was really great.