"Basement Story" - wcs

[wcs]

Added 2/19:

Since the fest is almost over, here are a bunch of random details if anyone's interested:

There were three of us working on the short: Me (William), Alex, and Libby. I found Libby via a Craiglist ad three weeks before the deadline. She'd done a fairly large amount of theater work before this. Alex was a friend from work who had no previous film experience, but was an excellent couchpusher, sushi-getter, and camera monitor when I had to be on camera as Cedrick. If Libby hadn't been so easy to work with, and Alex hadn't been so willing to help, the short just wouldn't have been made.

The shoot took place a week before the deadline, and took 10 hours.

Screenplay:
Was going for something really simple. My last short was described as unfocused with poor camera work and editing. In it the audience had trouble really connecting with any of the characters, which was a death knell. I decided to try to make a more polished-looking short without too much cinematic noise where the story was straightforward for the time limitation. It took me a month and a half to put together the script.

I knew going in that the daydream might be seen as a cheat, which is why I tried to spend as little time in the real world as possible at the beginning. My thoughts were that the less the audience feels like they have to rewrite the narrative canon, the less they'll hate you for using the technique. The last moments, when the real world interrupts her daydream, were there to draw out the reveal and try to make it more tragic and pallatable. I wanted to link the real her and the daydream her as strongly as possible, so the audience didn't feel like this was a different character.

The tv show Ed used this technique during it's dream episode Captain Lucidity.

Workflow:
Shot HDV on an HV-20 with homemade-ish 35mm adapter - EE-A focusing screen
Had issues with the vibration blurring the image for some shots
Captured with HDV Split
Inverse Telecine with HDVPulldown
Flipped/Converted to 720x480 Huffyuv lossless avi's with HDVPulldown
Edited in Adobe Premiere Pro
After approximate picture lock, audio was rendered from APP, cleaned up in Adobe Audition (noise sampling/reduction), and then re-imported as a new audio track in Premiere Pro.
Rendered back to Huffyuv
Converted to mp4/aac in SUPER

Lighting:
Primarily used two rented Lowel Omnilights with Router Speed Controls as dimmers.
Most coloring was done on set (blue/orange gels).
Used shower curtain for minor softening at times.
One scene used a Reveal 100watt in a scoop wrapped in cinefoil as an accent.
The couch rimlight is a 2x44 studio Coollight
Tried to use the window as the primary motivated light source
Had to use the hall light during the final sequence.

Audio:
Oktava mc012 on tripod boomed overhead.
Used an Art TubeMP USB as the phantom/preamp, run into the hv20 with a 1/4" to 1/8" cable (right channel only).
Electrical noise floor wasn't really an isssue, though room noise was an issue as you can probably hear.
Almost all the off-camera Cedrick lines were ADR'ed a week later in my closet.

Score:
Scoring was done in Cakewalk using an M-Audio keystation with a sampled grand piano.

Random bits:
Didn't notice the video camera/shadow in the bathroom scene until sunday evening. I'm guessing that the reviewer might have counted that as the camera, since the official one was an old pentax SLR silhouetted on the table in the living room, and I was sure I'd get quizzed on it. The latest render removes the camera and all bathroom shadows.

The thanks at the end are for Robert, the owner of the location, and J.K. aka P!Body, who I should have given an editor's credit since his notes caused me to rework on the whole edit.

If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask.

[Mark Harris]

wow, this fest has to hold some kind of record for last minute entries! Welcome!

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Interesting title.

[P!body]

Welcome to the fest. Ole WCS and I were unofficially competing early on, then we both sort of managed to procrastinate a bit. But we got them done in time.

It's a shame we may never find out who's short is better (according to scoring). I hear they handle rankings and stuff differently now. We sort of had a personal bet on the matter. I wonder if there is a way that we'd be able to find out. Maybe.

Best of luck, Will.

[Danielleus]

Good luck with the entry.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

It's a shame we may never find out who's short is better (according to scoring). I hear they handle rankings and stuff differently now. We sort of had a personal bet on the matter. I wonder if there is a way that we'd be able to find out. Maybe.

Best of luck, Will.

Sure. Put up a general poll in the LoveFest forum and we can all vote after listening to them. Give it a time limit as well.

Mike

[wcs]

Sounds like a good idea. I think we might just find a panel of children to watch both our films and decide which is more likely to make them want to buy Sugar-Coated Crispy Bits.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Sounds like a good idea. I think we might just find a panel of children to watch both our films and decide which is more likely to make them want to buy Sugar-Coated Crispy Bits.

LOL!

[Ted Arabian]

Well, Hell... Welcome to the party!

[kurtmo]

This was unique. I liked the way you told this story – primarily one person perspective. I think it would be tough to have just one set and one person talking to a wall and keep things interesting, but you did a nice job of keeping the shots moving to keep the viewer engaged.
The audio needed some work. It was hard to hear at times. I felt that the tie together at the end could have been stronger.