"Black Ice" by Evin Carr

[ecarr]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Link to Film:
http://www.dvxuser.com/dramafest/loader.php?id=ecarr-EvinCarr-BlackIce.mov
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For this project I'm writer, director, cameraman, editor, the whole nine yards. My cast did help out in random jobs as needed (boom op, holding reflectors, etc.) They're all my friends who were nice enough to help out, and I thank them for volunteering their time.

Shooting Dates: Jan 20-21 (plus 22nd)

Cast
Jeremy Webster
Jared Dike
Mike Hodge
Grant Stanton
Matt Harrison
Casey Pollard

http://www.evincarr.com/dramagrabericprofile.jpg

Grabs
(Raw out of camera)

http://www.evincarr.com/dramagrabcasey.jpghttp://www.evincarr.com/dramagrabjaredcu.jpg
http://www.evincarr.com/dramagrab3shot.jpghttp://www.evincarr.com/dramagrabgrantmed.jpg
http://www.evincarr.com/dramagrabtruck.jpghttp://www.evincarr.com/dramagrabjeremycu.jpg

Shooting with the DVX100b, stock, except for a polarizer
Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0

[235 Studios]

Let me be the first to say congrats Ecarr- Looks like fun! Welcome to the fest! :beer:

[Larry Rutledge]

Cool deal...welcome to the club! :thumbsup: Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[ecarr]

Thanks guys.

Well, 2 shooting days has quickly turned into 3, as we will be going back tomorrow to finish up.

It's rather remarkable how much can not get done when 5 teenage guys get together and try to focus on something... lol

[Jared Meyer]

Congrats on getting in on another fest! Your grabs are looking sharp. Good luck getting everything together.

[235 Studios]

Thanks guys.

Well, 2 shooting days has quickly turned into 3, as we will be going back tomorrow to finish up.

It's rather remarkable how much can not get done when 5 teenage guys get together and try to focus on something... lol

LOL! Good luck tomorrow- hope the weather cooperates with you!

[ecarr]

Finished shooting today. We were really lucky with the weather, right before we started shooting the clouds rolled in for a nice overcast, which matched the last 2 days.

Due to time and location availability I had to do some last minute script wrangling to make everything work, but I think it'll come together well.

I'm uploading now and will post some more grabs.

[Brandon Rice]

Congrats man! GOod work going out and getting something done! Grabs look good! Looking forward to the film!

[Ted Arabian]

It's rather remarkable how much can not get done when 5 teenage guys get together and try to focus on something... lol
HAHAHA! That's great!

Welcome, Congrats and Good luck to you guys!

-Ted

[ecarr]

Thanks guys. It's nice to have everything shot, now I gotta get the edit done, hopefully pretty soon.

[ecarr]

Well, I was lucky enough to have finals at school this week. Then I worked today, so now it's kind of a mad dash for some last minute sound cutting and squeeze in some songs as a makeshift score.

So I'll definitely be doing a director's cut on this one. :)

[Michael_Petro]

Good luck Evin UPLOAD UPLOAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

[ecarr]

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I'm exporting my final movie right now, then to upload.

There were a few things missing, like ADR and most of the color correction for continuity, but I think it's pretty good.

[Michael_Petro]

excellent...


I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn't have one, so I got a cake.

[ecarr]

LOL, right on. I love mitch hedberg.

[Edgen]

Looking forward to checking out your film Evin. Good luck!

/j

[ecarr]

Thanks Justin.

I just finished uploading, so I'm pretty excited! And relieved. And tired...

[Edgen]

ya... this is the suck ass part of the competition. Getting the film exported and uploaded at the very very last minute. :)

get some sleep and get the popcorn ready for Friday's screening!

/j

[RomanJaquez]

Friday! do you mean tomorrow, Friday? Weewoo! boy am I waiting to sink my chair. I have the speaker all ready to roll sound.

At what time on Friday we will start viewing people's work? I am taking the day off. :)

By the way I like the title of the movie "Black Ice" I wonder what it means and in what content was it used.

The grab of the truck is pretty sweet looking.

[ecarr]

Yeah it seems like it's always the last minute exporting that gives people the most trouble. I had to do like 10 tests to get my settings, and still didn't get it as good as I'd like it.

Thanks Roman, I really like that shot, too. As for the context of the title, you'll have to watch it! :)

[Jason Ramsey]

Just wanted to pass along well wishes for you and your flick. Looking forward to it.

Jason

[deepentertainments]

good luck dude
looks like one man show, hence will be more exciting to watch

regards

[ecarr]

Thaks for all the well wishes everyone.

This was very much a one man show, which was good in a way, because I was in control of everything, but also kind of bad in a way, because, well, I was in control of everything...

[Zak Forsman]

My impressions of BLACK ICE:

the interesting thing is that your shots were either locked down and awkwardly staged, or they were dynamic and fluid in a really great way. editing kept this story watchable. I think some real talent is shining through here. I’m not even sure what this was about. ha ha! question: was watching a guy tow an suv for so long mismanaged story pacing or a stroke of genius? I’m leaning toward the latter. the characters were great. yes, the amateur performances were evident, but so was their believability as real people. I think given more time to work with these non-actors and to get them to take it a little more seriously, it could have lent the work an improved sense of authenticity and naturalism. keep developing your craft, eric. i'm excited to see your future works.

[TimurCivan]

YOOOO that kids Dreads are off the chain!!!!! lol.

[ecarr]

Thanks for the review Zak.

I wanted the editing for this to be interesting, and I shot a lot of coverage so this could also be an excercise in editing for me, so I'm glad you liked it!

Regarding the camerawork, I shot this whole thing handheld, using the tripod collapsed with the pedistal extended a little as a handle, the rig being a sort of ghetto stedicam, or, "ghetto-cam" as we call it.

And yea, his dreads are pretty beast, lol.

[Kholi]

I want to borrow that kids hair.

Looked like you guys had fun!

[235 Studios]

Nice use of the GhettoCam- some of those shots came out pretty smooth.

[RomanJaquez]

Cool flick!

I like your characters, they have a lot of personalities... I think your actors can make an American Classic for the young audience. Keep making movies this is something you do well! I am sure that with a few filmmaking techniques down and a bit more of experience you can make some really good stuff.

The dialogue was not the best one I have seen in this competition... which makes me think you guys where just up for a fun experience making this movie and not being all crazy about movie details such as set design... I like your props though... those cars were just the right tools to have to make your guys look serious.

Make more movies I want to see your future work.

Best regards,

[Glideshot]

It looks like you guys probably had a blast making this film.

You seem to have a kind of MTV shooting style going (mainly the outdoor scenes), which could develp into something really awsome.

The only thing that didn't work for me was the sound. Did you use the in-camera mic? If so, you may have needed to raise the diologue levels a bit in post, as well as lower the music levels a tad.

You definately have talent, and hopefully you continue to create!

[gabrielflorit]

"yo randy!" fun times.

i like the confederate flag sticker on the big dude's sticker. completes the picture.

my opinion of this short: ???

not much to say here. keep at it guys!

[ecarr]

Thanks guys for watching, and commenting.

This really was fun to make. Like Roman said, we weren't really obsessed with the details, and I really just wanted to get out and make something, more for experience than anything.

Regarding sound, I used one channel of on board mic and then had a Rode shotgun (courtesy of Jerry, fixitinpost) to get in for the dialogue. But with the hurried schedule and everything it was kind of, "hey, can you stick the boom in there for this scene?" So it was usually too far away.

Plus I balanced the sound using my headphones (I know, a big no-no) but it was like 11:30 Wednesday night and everyone had gone to bed so I couldn't really make any noise...

The funny thing about Randy's character, it's not really a character, that's just him, confederate sticker, big truck, flannel and all, haha. All I said was, "just be you."

As far as shooting style, I was going for kind of a Tony Scott feel, but it's a little difficult without the 9 cameras he shoots with, lol.

[iSTy]

lol, nice one, the acting wasn't exactly the best, but the story was good, didn't think much of the sound but at least i heard what was being said. and the music wasn't my taste. but all in all, i liked the storyline.
Thank you.

[RebeccaD]

Way to enter Evin! The dreads killed me on that dude! Wow! The actors looked like they were playing a game of pretend rather than taking it seriously for you, but otherwise I think there are some good qualities about this film and I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with next....

[D_and_G]

This film looks like it was a lot of fun to make.

Thanks DUDE. What martial arts were they using at the resolution?



:beer:

[ecarr]

Much to the dismay of the guy getting beat down, most of the fight was worked out on set, from a bunch of guys who don't know any martial arts, so it took a few takes to get it right. And then a few more takes to get coverage. Then a few more takes just for fun... :)

It was kinda hard to take anything seriously, but I was happy just to get enough takes where someone didn't bust out laughing halfway through. I've got a good supply of bloopers, though.

And I fed them, which kept them happy. lol, it was great, after we finished the first day we all went to Carl's Jr, and I walk up and go, "Can I get 14 spicey chickens and 8 big burgers?" The lady just hung her head and slowly punched it in. It filled 3 trays.

[Geoff_R]

I'm a '24' junkie, so when they tied up the guy and pulled out the fireplace poker I was anticipating some Jack Bauer'esq torturing to rain down... Sadly your characters had a little more empathy for human value :) But I did enjoy your flick and you did a good job managing everything.

Were most of these guys your friends or were they actors? I don't mean that in a negative way, it's just appears to be that way from some of your earlier comments and I'm curious because I can't get my non-film friends to do anything film related.

[ecarr]

Yeah they're all my friends who were nice enough to help out. I'm pretty lucky cuz everyone was cool and started to get into it. The lure of free food helped too, lol.

We all hang out anyway, so this way we could do something constructive :)

[ripupthehwy]

The acting was so bad, particulary the fight scenes that..I liked it!!..kept me laughing.

[Blaine]

Black Ice...great title.

[Cynic821]

7th review:

(all my friends do my film stuff, when forced atleast :P )

anyways, i think i really enjoy the work, this when watched , the first thing i noticed was effort! that doesnt always get you anywhere, but as a person in general i can appreciate the effort, i felt was missing from basically every single entry, seriously.

A few notes i notice: I noticed that not one time did we see the kids and the car in motion at the same time, which was awkward , i think none of them have licenses? a few smiles cracked i thought i saw, and goes without saying that i thought the acting was very weak.

when they first got a hold of the guy to interogate, i thought they were just friends pranking eachother with how easy of a time they gave him and how no fight was put up by anyone in the movie.

The trucker looked maybe 16, 18 max because he has more facial hair than me, and im 23. late bloomer with facial hair though. I thought you could have added maybe 3 more years to his age if you took his glasses off atleast.

When the end finally arrived, i atleast didnt feel like i did with basically every other short, that it was trying to reach the 6 minute mark instead of just going at its own pace. Then i thought it was outlandish a bit that jumping him and him getting busted would end up on the news, but atleast your head is in the right plcae, thats cool.

A for effort, but gotta give a D for execution, but then i think the script couldnt produce better results. Good results with the DVX 100 though.

thats it.

maybe i should give a disclaimer before i get warned? ( i had to stop reviewing horrorfest because i wasnt being that positive, this is how i feel and i guess ill just post until im stopped again)