Rich Spencer - "The Seeing" [Archive] - DVXuser.com -- The online community for filmmaking

rich_s

09-28-2006, 01:56 AM

From the creator of Hero Fest's CACHE (http://www.snodart.com/cache/) comes "The Seeing."

Download here (http://216.70.78.8/TheSeeing-RichSpencer-rich_s.mov). Right click "save as..."

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/mayaeffects/5d337b76.jpg

A few weeks ago Matt woke up after having a pretty twisted nightmare. He wrote down as much as he could remember and
the result is The Seeing. After seeing his work on CACHE I immediatly called Justin (snodart) and asked if he would DP the project.

We are lucky enough to have Dwayne Hancock on board doing sound and music. Dwayne is an accomplished sound engineer, having
worked at Disney as well as with the Emmy winning sound designer Scott Weber (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0916753/) of Lost.

We finished shooting last Sunday and locked the picture yesterday. Below are a few production stills.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/mayaeffects/DSC_0107.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/mayaeffects/DSC_0032.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/mayaeffects/DSC_0004.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/mayaeffects/DSC_0069.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/mayaeffects/DSC_0063.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/mayaeffects/DSC_0098.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/mayaeffects/DSC_0019.jpg

We had a blast making this short and hope everyone get's creeped the eff out. :)

Rich

Jack Daniel Stanley

09-28-2006, 01:59 AM

Awesome ... welcome dude.

Hey this looks like a good companion piece to msconce's flik -- diners and vintage cars, you should check his thread out.

you got some nice gear there and some great lighting setups, looking forward to it.

Matt Sconce

09-28-2006, 02:00 AM

DUDE! The bar has just been raised......

Ralph Oshiro

09-28-2006, 05:27 AM

WOW! GREAT title! GREAT poster! GREAT poster photo! GREAT tagline! Super-creepy eye of girl in photo in poster! Cool-looking girl! GREAT BTS stills! Ultra-cool dolly track-jib, set-up! WOW! Looking forward to this one!

Brandon Rice

09-28-2006, 07:32 AM

Dude, this looks great. Sounds like you got a super talented team behind this one. Can't wait!

snodart

09-28-2006, 09:36 AM

I'm sure Rich and Matt will chime in as well, but I wanted to say that these guys were awesome to work with.

Tim and I were going to put something together for HororFest, but he is in Peru this month and was doing doctor stuff the rest of the time... and I have been slaving over the Snod35 DVD. It was killing me to see all the great posts about the entries, so when Rich asked me to join his project, I couldn't pass it up. Wow, what a good choice that was.

It was amazing to work with people who have the same drive to get things done. Rich deserves major props for making this happen in the 11th hour and doing a superb job of rolling with the punches to keep everything moving. Everybody did a stand up job. I could go on and on...

Mark Harris

09-28-2006, 09:43 AM

Looking forward to this. I really liked snodart's work on Cache.

M. Dixon

09-28-2006, 02:05 PM

luster

09-28-2006, 02:07 PM

that's a serious looking production. can't wait to see the film.

Blaine

09-28-2006, 04:54 PM

I was wondering which movie Justin was DP'ing on. I'm looking forward to seeing it, guys. btw, GREAT Poster! :beer: :beer: :beer:

n8ture

09-28-2006, 04:59 PM

Sweet!
The poster reminds me of A Clockwork Orange. Looks like I'm going to be pretty busy watching all these films!
Good Luck!

Edgen

09-28-2006, 05:23 PM

sweet BTS stuff. Talking about the bar being raised... Yup.

:)

Glad to see you back in action Justin as the DP.

/j

snodart

09-29-2006, 01:13 AM

...I really liked snodart's work on Cache.
Thank you desperatecomfort.

I was wondering which movie Justin was DP'ing on. I'm looking forward to seeing it, guys. btw, GREAT Poster!

ha ha. Yea, Rich and the boys almost beat me down when they heard I was doing a little FX for Thou Shalt Not. Only kidding. :huh:

... and I agree. Rich rocked on the poster.

Glad to see you back in action Justin as the DP.

Thanks man. I'm big time happy that I was able to take part in this project.

Had a fantastic time shooting this with all involved. Night shoots took us to dawn and no one flinched or griped.

M Dixon (story by, co-producer, and co-writer) was the man on set. Talk about never flinching or gripping. I think there must have been 3 or 4 Matt's there doing everything from setting up the dolly track to working with Rich to keep the flow of the story in check.

I know Rich is probably pounding away and finishing everything up... I can't wait to see the finished product... and with Dwayne's sound/score.

snodart

10-01-2006, 03:06 PM

Quick update:

Rich, Matt, and Dwayne are busy looking/listening over the final sound mix before uploading. Dwayne's extensive experience will be a huge plus I'm sure.

Blaine

10-01-2006, 03:24 PM

You guys really had a compressed schedule. I can imagine the frantic pace everyone is working at. But you can do some pretty amazing things when you're motivated...:thumbsup:

Brandon Rice

10-01-2006, 03:41 PM

Yep, sometimes inspiration comes when we're squeezed.

snodart

10-01-2006, 05:04 PM

Agreed. These fests are great learning experiences (big thanks to Jarred).

Slimothy

10-01-2006, 05:11 PM

That poster is awesome. BTS pics look great too. What kind of crane is that?

Tim

snodart

10-01-2006, 05:40 PM

That poster is awesome. BTS pics look great too. What kind of crane is that?

Tim

Thanks Tim. Rich put the poster together. I'm pretty sure he had a couple of others in the works as well... but I think editing and crunch time took over.

The crane/jib is a DIY job of mine. There are some more pics at my website:

http://snodart.com/hbe_jib.php

I ended up building some new dolly track for The Seeing, but it didn't work as well as I had planned, it looks pretty though. :) I'm going back to using toprail (for chain link fencing). I just need to build actual track with it (with cross sections and such). I'm planning on putting height-adjustment screws along the bottom to rid the set of 2X4's and shims when leveling the track. All I need now is some time.:huh:

Blaine

10-01-2006, 05:45 PM

That bar looks like a great location...

Beat Takeshi

10-01-2006, 05:48 PM

Looks like you guys brought out the big toys on this one. Good Luck yall!

snodart

10-01-2006, 06:00 PM

That bar looks like a great location...

Blaine, it's actually a coffee shop... in fact, it is the same coffe shop that we used briefly in CACHE. Robbie and Amy, the owners, are great and pretty much gave us free rain of the joint... and some free coffee and tea too. Probably a good thing that it wasn't a bar. :huh:

Looks like you guys brought out the big toys on this one. Good Luck yall!

Thanks Aram. It was sooooooo nice to actually have people help load and unload everything.

snodart

10-02-2006, 02:46 PM

Update:

Just got word from Rich that The Seeing is uploaded. Now we are just waiting to see it pop up on the list of confirmed uploads :eek:

Should be a few more BTS pics to come....

Blaine

10-02-2006, 03:00 PM

Update:

Just got word from Rich that The Seeing is uploaded. Now we are just waiting to see it pop up on the list of confirmed uploads :eek:
And since we're not going to find that out until Jarred gets back from his shoot today, I guess it's time for us to relax...:beer:

concannon

10-02-2006, 09:31 PM

TheatreGuy

10-03-2006, 01:38 PM

Wow! Great looking stuff! I love the poster. And the BTS shots are great.

Looks like a great set-up.

Congrats on getting it done.

I WANNA START WATCHING NOW!!!!!!!!!!

gwmesler

10-03-2006, 01:59 PM

Hey, The Seeing. Check out the "not seeing"

rich_s

10-04-2006, 10:37 AM

Sweet! Just got confirmed. Got a new poster and some more BTS stills which will be up shortly.

musicman

10-04-2006, 10:52 AM

Had a fantastic time shooting this with all involved. Night shoots took us to dawn and no one flinched or griped.

Still... after several sleepless nights, I think we intend to look at our other scripts and change every INT./EXT. NIGHT ... to... INT./EXT. DAY :)

A great time and a great experience.

Three words describe this project: 1) commitment, 2) collaboration, and 3) respect. Every minute, of many, spent on this project was valuable regardless of the placement The Seeing receives in this contest. I've worked with some amazing professionals over the years. It has been my privelege to once again work with people of that same calbre:dankk2: .

Rock Punk!

10-04-2006, 09:17 PM

Again, the poster rocks

luster

10-04-2006, 11:38 PM

great poster. looking forward to this one.

snodart

10-05-2006, 10:50 AM

Time to start watching!

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=73718

Good luck to all.

Matt Sconce

10-05-2006, 03:52 PM

I absolutely loved this movie. Without giving anything away, let me say it surprised me and worked very well. Excellent development of the story. Great action, lighting, and camera movement. It all just worked!

Now for the weird thing. Watch your movie, and then watch my movie "Stricken" and look at the similarities......It is like we had the same concept and just took it two different ways....even down to the girl's name......"Sarah". Creepy stuff.

rich_s

10-05-2006, 04:09 PM

Mark Harris

10-05-2006, 04:21 PM

Wow, after seeing this, the compliment you gave us means a LOT man.

I will write more on second pass, but the one thing that really stood out was the slow track in on the guy near the end - won't give it away - but it's a spot where you just let the actor tell the story, no crazy cuts, no funky moves, just let the actor handle that transition. I love that.

Though you might be giving your friend's coffee shop a bad name...:)

It's hard for me to critique this, because I think you guys are way above me as filmmakers. You just got all of the elements right, the shooting, sound, technical aspects are all very pro. And you took time to focus on the acting, which to me is one of the most important things, because if the performances aren't there, none of the rest of it matters in my eyes.

And you got such creepy effects out of the girl with...well, with no effects. Just the way she stood there. That shows a level of confidence as filmmakers that I'm not sure I've reached. I was desperately worried that none of our stuff would be actually scary, and felt like I did a lot of stuff to make it so, whereas you guys basically just did your work, and trusted that it was good work.

Anyway, top notch stuff.

rich_s

10-05-2006, 06:00 PM

...

Though you might be giving your friend's coffee shop a bad name...:)

That's right, man. Come for the coffee, stay for the blood bath. :Drogar-Evil(DBG):

Looking forward to watching Bloody Mary. Been reading some great things about it.

gwmesler

10-05-2006, 10:05 PM

The closer made the movie for me. Very creative. Great work.

Geoff_R

10-06-2006, 02:07 AM

The closer made the movie for me. Very creative. Great work.

Same here! I definitely enjoyed watching this but the ending sequence of shots was the best. I love the fact that it's not one of those 'oh my god, what have I done' for the first time kind of thing. This 'trait' or (condition) is ingrained in the characters nature. And even though he can see his faults at very sparse, windowed moments in time; in the end, he's at peace with himself. Awesome characterization and story. Those two elements were so successful that I almost overlooked the cinematography and sound (which were both top notch BTW). If you can get me to forget about those elements of the film and get me paying attention to pure story, you've won me over.

musicman

10-06-2006, 07:53 AM

Same here! I definitely enjoyed watching this but the ending sequence of shots was the best. I love the fact that it's not one of those 'oh my god, what have I done' for the first time kind of thing. This 'trait' or (condition) is ingrained in the characters nature. And even though he can see his faults at very sparse, windowed moments in time; in the end, he's at peace with himself. Awesome characterization and story. Those two elements were so successful that I almost overlooked the cinematography and sound (which were both top notch BTW). If you can get me to forget about those elements of the film and get me paying attention to pure story, you've won me over.

You made my day with your comment about how the music does its job unobtrusively. Marylin Monroe said that if people noticed her perfume it was too much. Same with movie music, I think. We're planning a 7.1 home theater remix after the festival.

Jack Daniel Stanley

10-06-2006, 08:45 AM

great job guys
well told and I think the best cinematography in the fest so far -- let me clarify that, not the flashiest, not the purdiest, but the best use of framing and particularly movement in service of the story. And it shouldn't have been flashy or glossy to tell this story. There's a subtlety and resatraint here that I appreciate. I really felt the beat to beat camera work went part and parcel with what was going on subtextually with the actors or where the audience needed to be steered at that moment, all the while never feeling put on or obtrusive. major kudos!

Mark Harris

10-06-2006, 09:51 AM

updated my post

Matt Sconce

10-07-2006, 01:39 AM

Matt Sconce's Review of The Seeing
SPOLIERS POSSIBLE!

Script
Absolutely positively flawless in my book
Acting
I believed the actors and was concerned for the girl...then the guy....then the future of woman kind!
Cinematography
I agree that this is one of the best Visuals of the fest. The colors, lighting, framing, everything was great!
Editing
Worked perfectly with the shots! Well done!
Score
Very minialistic. it definitely worked with this short. I liked it!Overall Impressions
This is in my top 3 for this festival hands down. I loved it!

Brandon Rice

10-07-2006, 10:21 AM

The Seeing

Script
Very good, but the ending confused me. Why did he start writing in another book? Were all these people just in his mind?

Acting
Great actors, I believed them both!

Cinematography
WOW this is where this film stands out. It has top notch lighting and camera movement here. Justin has a style to his lighting and it is really great for the dramatic genre. Nice work

Editing
Some of the cuts between her holding the blade and him holding the blade didn’t work for me, they felt kind of jarring and unnatural. Maybe that’s what you were going for, not sure.

Score
Subtle, fit the piece well.

Overall Impressions
This film is top 10 for me, I really enjoyed it. The main qualm I have is the script. So many of these films try to be really deep and clever, but wind up to be too confusing to the viewer. Maybe it’s the 6 min. time limit, I don’t know, but nevertheless, great entry!

VersuS

10-07-2006, 10:25 AM

Last movie I saw, so I dont know if that's a good thing or a bad thing for The Seeing...

I liked the story even though it went were most of dvxusers went, the guy/girl who is imagining things...The Shining.....what a school it has been .....

As Matt said and cant add anything else...cinematography and editing worked perfectly well in The Seeing. You had a great location and you planned your shots well and that showed in the movie.

The acting was not the best, nor the worst...I enjoyed the girl more than the guy who in the transition in the end at the back of the car (from crying to smiling) was a bit unnatural...still that's hard for an actor to do anyhow...

Sound was great for me! And I liked that a lot!!

The blood was awesome, probably amongst the 10 films that had Realistic Blood in this fest and that's sad for a horrorfest...

In the end he caresses the girl in his lap and we see he's alone on the monitor...I know again its hard to do 2 takes on this and make it the same but his head for example on the monitor was leaning towards his right side and that didnt happen in what we were watching...

All in all, I ll be watching it again :)

rich_s

10-07-2006, 11:17 AM

Script
Very good, but the ending confused me. Why did he start writing in another book? Were all these people just in his mind?

Yeah, the idea was that he had done this before and after having finished with Sarah will move on to the next girl. Didn't really want to emphasize that point since at that moment we hadn’t even revealed Sarah yet. That element was meant to be a little icing. If people got it, cool. If not, well, that's cool, too.

In the end he caresses the girl in his lap and we see he's alone on the monitor...I know again its hard to do 2 takes on this and make it the same but his head for example on the monitor was leaning towards his right side and that didn’t happen in what we were watching...

Dude, this is one of those little things that just stands out to me and I wish I had more time to get perfect. Unfortunately, we had to shoot when the shop was closed and we simply ran out of time. It was 5:30am and the coffee shop was opening so we only had one take of that monitor. It's just one of those little pitfalls of independent filmmaking. Shoot what you can in the time you're given and hope it works.

Thanks for the feedback guys! :beer:

snodart

10-07-2006, 11:44 AM

Thanks for all the cinematography comments guys. It is always good to get feedback to grow from. I can't take all the credit though since Rich had many of the shots planned out before I came aboard.... though we did resolve a few of them on scene out of necessity.

I have to give Rich some major props for adapting and overcoming various problems. If a shot wasn't working out... instead of hanging on it for hours, he did that right thing (in the case of these fast paced fests anyway), and found another solution. And many of those solutions were for the better I think. It is not easy to let go of something if you have played it out in your head many times prior to shooting. Anyway, kudos Rich.

I have truly begun to fully understand the importance of lighting and how every tiny bit makes a big difference. A good portion of the on set time was spent moving and adjusting lights... which is no easy task with a small crew. Everybody was great to jump in and help get it done though. So a big thanks to everybody that was on set moving lights!

One of the key things that I took from this project.. The next time I shoot, I will have a dedicated focus puller (when using a 35mm adapter). I should have learned my lesson with CACHE, but shooting this drove the point home to me. Even if I have to hire and train a high school kid to do it... I will have somebody to pull focus next time I shoot a project. Rich even offered to get somebody before we started, but... "Na, I can do it" I said. Don't get me wrong, it is possible to jib up, pan, and pull focus all at once... but it is just too risky to chance missing a good performance because the image losses focus or the framing is off. Anyway... just another reason why these fest are so great.

Thanks again for the comments!

Blaine

10-07-2006, 01:32 PM

This movie works on so many levels. I've just watched it again and love the combination of serial killer with MPD or a the very least a compartmentalized brain. I'm sure there are things you might do differently but I'm hard pressed to give you any constructrive criticism. I think you made great choices and hit a homerun with this one. There was nothing in this that made me feel cheated.

I loved the story as well as the execution. You succeeded in establishing a creepy atmosphere without "gadgets".

Your actors did a great job. I'm assuming by the quality of their performance they are professionals?

musicman

10-07-2006, 03:17 PM

The Seeing

Score
Subtle, fit the piece well.

Overall Impressions
This film is top 10 for me, I really enjoyed it.

Brandon, thanks for the kudo on the score because your comment is what I have hoped to hear - subtle - fit. Although I put in more than 60 hours on it alone, Rich and Matt gave me invaluable direction and final mix decisions. How fun it has been to be given creative license that includes the collaborative methods we used as a team on the sound. We had good tools to work with, albeit, not always exactly what was specified. Cost or last minute un-availability of a supercard added to our outdoor recording challenges. There is no ADR, although I think we're going to do a little post festival + a 7.1 mix. We used Sennheiser and Octava shotguns and Countryman wireless theater lavs and a Kork DX32 record studio deck. The mix was done on Sonar 5.2 using KRK Rokit5 near field monitors. Sound source was a combination or original recording and some library stuff for Foley. Because the mix has a lot of sub-aural stuff in it the low stuff disappeared in our first mix when played over headphones or low cost speakers. At the last minute I added heavy shelfing below 80 Hz and compression to the low end stuff and overall mastering compression to the whole mix to get all the sound into the reproduction range of narrow bandwidth speakers/headphones. We had a better more smoothly compressed mix but couldn't get it uploaded by the deadline. Thanks again for you honest evaluation. How nice. No syrup.
:dankk2:

Kholi

10-08-2006, 12:25 AM

Review | POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT! I watch the movies first time around strictly for enjoyment, second and third for review.

Hey guys. Unexpectedly great. I like this one and it's easily a top five in my book. I don't think it's flawless, but it's one of the most solid productions here.

Script - I like the concept. I'm not going to judge it for the saturation in this fest at all. As tired as it is, again, it's all about presentation and it's presented nicely here. I think it's length is just about spot on. Can't complain about it at all. I get what's going on. Predictable, but decent.

Direction - Very clean framing. Great angles on just about everything. I didn't see anything that stood out as bad. Which makes it pretty good.

Acting - Your gal was pretty weird. A little over-the-top at times but I liked her when she became the "killer" for a bit. Your male actor showed a lot of faces. His comforting one toward the chic was weak, his psychotic one at the end was pretty on.

Cine/Lighting - NICE! Things were filled out really well in every scene, from the Ghostbustermobile to the inside of the shop. I think you guys did a really good job lighting this SOB, it's stands out as the best asset of it all.

Editing - Clean! How's that for one word fits all?

Sound - Subtle and clean score. Heard what I had to hear as far as the voice goes. I think compression muffled things just a tad bit, but nothing major. It's simply because I have on headphones and can hear it.

Special Effects/Art Direction/Wardrobe - Pajamas, blood, business suits. Best part to me was the Ghostbustermobile with the constantly bleeding Wheat Scythe/Sickle a close second. Nice. Monitor trick was a neat little addition. Made him seem all the more insane.

Scariest Moments - The body moving in the back of the vehicle. That's always weird and creepy to me.

Overall consensus - The concept's a little tired, the delivery is great. I easily put this up in the top five for being so complete and rich. Great going, everyone.

Paul Coleman

10-08-2006, 02:11 AM

This is great, great work. It seems to me the director was thinking everything through; especially the inner states of the characters. For me, that's where the fear comes from.:beer:

SPOILER!!

When the actor is crying near the trunk of the car, I love how he goes from heartbroken to kind of 're-organizing' his face and thoughts to get back to his 'work'.:Drogar-Evil(DBG):

>> Ok, since you have a pro sound tech-- is there any rule for how loud the loudest sound is compared to the dialog? It seems to me that many of the films in the fest will have an amazingly loud sound that is 5 times louder than the dialog.

Basically I turn down the volume so my ears don't bleed. Then I miss the next two lines of dialog. Then this repeats as the next loud sound explodes. And then I miss the dialog and...:huh:

Matt Sconce

10-08-2006, 02:31 AM

Matt Sconce

10-08-2006, 02:31 AM

Oh, and to get back to the flick. I think you guys know how much I love it! It is a favorite in my book.

VersuS

10-08-2006, 02:32 AM

Darkline

10-08-2006, 07:07 AM

I really liked this. It was just like the start of an x-files episode or something.... it was that polished!

I really liked the silence of this film, it had the confidence not to assault the audience but just create an atmosphere of unease for the first minute or so.

All I could say was that the ending became obvious quite early on, but aside from that I cannot fault anything else. Very well made and very well paced/edited.

jpbankesmercer

10-08-2006, 10:28 AM

Acting: Loved your leading man. Girl good too.
Script: Very interesting.
Direction: Fantastic. Some lovely work with the actors here and nice shot choice. Also the overall build-up of the story.
Music: Loved the heartbeats, music kept everything flowing.
Editing: Tight.
Lighting: Superb! (What adapter you using??) Even the dark areas were popped enough to see what was going on.
Loved: Opening shot - great reveal/ character introduction, locations, the look of the film, the note books, the scythe, CTV of him stroking no-one (Very nice, my fav bit:thumbup: ), pacing and the leading man, (he’s very good).
Hated: Not much here. Errrm… Maybe more explanation on why he was doing it.
Overall: A very well executed film in all depts. Look forward to more of your work.

J.P.

How did you get the blood dripping from the scythe, did you use a tube? Great short one of my favs. Just because of its simplicity no bravado approach.:thumbup:

TheatreGuy

10-08-2006, 10:57 AM

Hey Rich, great job on your film. I loved the story and the twists.

My favorite moment was when the guy turn to her (at the car) and had the sickle in his hand. NICELY DONE!

The monitor of the table was a very cool effect. Me being picky would have liked the action of the man tighter to the action in the screen. (his arm position was very different in the two views.) But I loved this effect. Nice, nice, nice!

Great cinematography and camera work. I saw some very polished and pro look stuff in this department.

I was not a fan of the male actor. I am sorry, I hate to be critical here but his body and arms felt so tight. Just not natural. I am an actor so I tend to be overly picky here. The guy did a good job, I would like to have seen him be stronger.

I felt that the direction of this film was very good. At first, I didn't understand why he would approach that car the way he did, but in hindsight now I do.

Very good job with this. I liked the story a lot.

Congrats on your film!!!

Ted

musicman

10-08-2006, 11:05 AM

Review | POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT! I watch the movies first time around strictly for enjoyment, second and third for review.

Hey guys. Unexpectedly great. I like this one and it's easily a top five in my book. I don't think it's flawless, but it's one of the most solid productions here.
...
Sound - Subtle and clean score. Heard what I had to hear as far as the voice goes. I think compression muffled things just a tad bit, but nothing major. It's simply because I have on headphones and can hear it.
...
I easily put this up in the top five for being so complete and rich. Great going, everyone.

FINALLY! A review of the audio that found something wrong with it and identified it right on. Our original mix was done on a Sonar 5.2 system with pro near field monitors. It sound great. However, when we listened to it on PC type speakers, and even decent headphones, all of the low frequency stuff and quiet foley disappeared. There was no time left to remix so, in deperation, I compressed the low stuff 9:1, pulled down the loud bumps, and the compressed the whole mix 6:1. This made everything audible on low end speakers but it pumps a little at the threshold. Post festival we will have a release that has a stereo remix, with about 3:1 compression and shelving below 80 Hz, that sounds right on TV and PC speakers as well as high end stuff. We are also doing a home theater quality 7.1 mix for audiofiles with systems that can produce all the frequencies. Here's hoping the 30 min quick super compressed fix we were allowed to upload will hold up. By most comments it has so far. Thanks, again, for your golden ears.

snodart

10-08-2006, 11:13 AM

Lighting: Superb! (What adapter you using??) Even the dark areas were popped enough to see what was going on.

Thanks. We spent some time with the lighting, so it is nice to know that it was noticed. The adapter is the Snod35. It is a vibrating GG DIY job. I'm putting out a Snod35 do-it-yourself DVD in the next few months. It will come with several of the required parts and cover in detail how to build it. Website is in the works but will be at snod35.com once complete.

Great cinematography and camera work. I saw some very polished and pro look stuff in this department.

Thanks :beer: Haven't made it to ID yet.... I still have a ton to watch.

Thanks again guys.

Mark Harris

10-08-2006, 11:18 AM

Thanks. We spent some time with the lighting, so it is nice to know that it was noticed. The adapter is the Snod35. It is a vibrating GG DIY job. I'm putting out a Snod35 do-it-yourself DVD in the next few months. It will come with several of the required parts and cover in detail how to build it. Website is in the works but will be at snod35.com once complete.

Now I just think you're an ass. Not only was the camera work very nice, but it was all on your OWN 35mm adaptor????? Stop rocking so hard, man.

How much cc went into this? It looks like not much, but it might just be subtle...

musicman

10-08-2006, 11:20 AM

This is great, great work. It seems to me the director was thinking everything through; especially the inner states of the characters. For me, that's where the fear comes from.:beer:

SPOILER!!
...
>> Ok, since you have a pro sound tech-- is there any rule for how loud the loudest sound is compared to the dialog? It seems to me that many of the films in the fest will have an amazingly loud sound that is 5 times louder than the dialog.

Basically I turn down the volume so my ears don't bleed. Then I miss the next two lines of dialog. Then this repeats as the next loud sound explodes. And then I miss the dialog and...:huh:

Paul, I knew a guy once who's ears actually bled when acosted by loud sound pressure levels. So I empathise. To answer you question, there is only one rule, what your ears hear. All the technology takes second place. We do try to balance the overall sound to believable levels. By that, what you see and what you hear need to agree. Therefore, if a close up or nearby surprise is required that may include a momentary loud sound in comparison to the average level. In our uploaded release we use heavy compression which is what you may have experiences with The Seeing. Please read my previous reply to Kohli that covers the technical audio issues we dealt with at the last minute and what we intend to do about it post festival.

snodart

10-08-2006, 11:24 AM

Now I just think you're an ass. Not only was the camera work very nice, but it was all on your OWN 35mm adaptor????? Stop rocking so hard, man.

How much cc went into this? It looks like not much, but it might just be subtle...

LOL. Thanks!

Rich will have to answer the CC part, but I'm pretty sure that he didn't do much to it. We talked about it briefly, but were pretty happy with the images as they were.

Rich, where are youuuuuuu? :huh:

musicman

10-08-2006, 11:37 AM

People need to normalize their sound. they need to make sure that when the loudest sound hits, it does not peak out, and that they do not need to readjust their volume, before submission. That way the loud noises will be just right.

You are correct. In addition, it is important that the overall mix is well balanced and as hot as possible prior to normalization. Whatever compression will be used should come before also. The final step is normalization which, if the mix is right, will make very little difference. Normalizing, and compression, raises the noise floor and so it should be applied minimally. You will find on an accurate meter there is no overmodulation at the high SLP points in The Seeing . But low cost speakers might distort in places. In our remix we will completely adjust the levels on all tracks, shelve the extreme lows and highs of the loud SFX and low level MFX and add only about 2 or 3:1 mastering compression. Then we'll make sure that plays well through cheap speakers. As a final step the master mix output will be normalized, which, if we did our work right, will make very little change in the mean level. You'll get your chance to confirm whether we succeeded after the festival. The 7.1 mix will be designed to play well on that kind of speaker setup.
:dankk2: :dankk2: and again :dankk2:

Paul Coleman

10-08-2006, 12:48 PM

Thanks musicman and msconce. I just want to say that I really respect sound techs and what they do. In many ways sound is more important than image. (gasp!) :beer:

Ok, just to help the film, I've come up with a few quotes:

This is the film. This is the film that re-ignited my love for murder.

"The Seeing" changed my life! To a life of total and complete evil. :)

If you like classic cars, pretty young women, and even prettier corpses, then... you should be arrested.

:love4:

rich_s

10-08-2006, 03:09 PM

How much cc went into this? It looks like not much, but it might just be subtle...

Actually, there is absolutely no color correction. What you see is the raw image which is a testament to Justin's lighting.

How did you get the blood dripping from the scythe, did you use a tube?

Nope, no tube. The dripping blood was from me dousing the blade in between takes. We went through a crap load of blood on that shot but it turned out pretty cool.

I loved the story as well as the execution. You succeeded in establishing a creepy atmosphere without "gadgets".

Your actors did a great job. I'm assuming by the quality of their performance they are professionals?

Cool man. We made a conscious effort to tell the story as "basic" as we could. Our goal from the beginning was to try and slow everything down. It was difficult, especially in editing, to not throw some flash frames and stingers in there to spice it up.

Mark Donohue was the only professional actor. He's done a lot of theatre and performed with The Groundlings (http://www.groundlings.com) back in the day.

Inexistence

10-08-2006, 03:38 PM

Again, I echo some of the sentiments already here but, I still
enjoyed this one.

I think where 'The Seeing' falls flat is the story. It carries
that familiar Japanese horror style which is popular as of late.
Not that it's a bad thing but, I would like to see something new.

Definitely pro quality shots here although some of the framing
seemed a tad off from what one would expect at this level.

The main actor seemed unnatural as per TheatreGuy's comments. I
realize the possible state of mind he is in but, the expression
in his movements and face left just a little to be desired.

Great job here though, and the Snod35 kicks ass too!

cinealma

10-09-2006, 01:22 AM

Firstly, and most importantly, the cinematography of this film gets an 11! An absolutely gorgeous film to look at. Fantastic!

The lead actor seemed a little overmatched by the story. At least it felt that way to me. But, it is what it is. I really liked the whole realization/revelation theme of the story.

Oh, and did I mention the cinematography? Awesome!

John G.

Ralph Oshiro

10-09-2006, 01:52 AM

DOH! Did I forget to comment on this film? I REALLY liked it. Excellent execution of a really cool idea. Really liked the prurient nature of the film--made it very icky-cool. Loved your female actress--she was GREAT! What a GREAT line!!! "Wanna see???" Great stuff, man! Great stuff!

kimko

10-11-2006, 02:11 PM

this was good guys. the acting the story...and the cinematography was awesome! man that ending was great! great shot and that actor stroking her. man that is always hard to do and make it real.

Slimothy

10-11-2006, 11:07 PM

Great job guys! At the end I felt content in going the full circle of the story which is hard to say for most of the films. Lighting was awesome. In my top 5 for sure!

Tim.

insanityfw

10-11-2006, 11:12 PM

Loved the cinematography ... and the acting was good.

Not really convinced on the story or the pacing, but it still ranks pretty high.

Congratulations.

DrJ

10-12-2006, 10:11 PM

Fuckin' fantastic work on "The Seeing," gents. I'm a working writer with a studio deal and I generally want to stab myself in the face every time I'm forced to watch someone's short film. And not the nice kind of face stabbing either. This is one of the rare cases where I was impressed. Wonderful work with the camera (smart shots, good pacing, good movement), great lighting (your dp did an outstanding job) -- it looks like you had a hell of a lot more money than you probably did. The acting was a bit choppy in a few places, ("Too big," as directors like to say), but the story pulled me through. I didn't see it coming; and that is a rare, rare thing for me. I signed up here just to write you guys. Best of luck. Keep doing what you're doing.