Noct - Hero of Mana

[Kholi]

I just noticed that the main character looked like a certain cunning yet handsome thief from Final Fantasy 3 (US). Hehe.

[david jerome]

I loved it Aaron. It's amazing that you did that by yourself. The setting was beautiful and drew me in. How do you make such pretty pictures under 40mb?

[Aaron Marshall]

I've watched your film twice. And I read your long description of how you filmed this. I get that really creepy feeling that we're all going to be hearing a lot more from you in the future. Why? Because it really sounds like you singularly busted a gut to make this and you really care about the story, the film and everything about it. Holy crap, you even scored it yourself.


Just to be absolutely clear, are you telling us that you filmed this totally on your own and then edited in the pans and zooms? Absolutely freaking fabulous.

Thank you very much for watching my film. I'm very gracious for your observations, and kind words.

I did all the pans in post. I did the zooms using the remote control. If you look really closely in that scene coming into the window you can see it in my hand. I tried to hide it as best I could. If I'd not said anything you might think it was just a shadow or something from my hand.

There was one scene in which I had my sister use a homemade steady cam type device where I walked over that log. We did like 10 takes and one of them turned out halfway decent. In some of the scenes with the villains I did really quick cuts using my neice as a stand-in for the mask and cloak.

The dark ones were meant to be figurative. They meant to represent a much larger group of their species. I set up the showdown sequence as kind of like a chess game, or turn based RPG. I think anyone that's played those type of games could relate to the scene.

You're right about the showdown scene. I wish I could have done the showdown scene differently. It would have been if I had any semblance of a crew, or heck even one or two people. It just makes me look forward to next time when hopefully I'll have more resources. When I came back and saw my footage I just had to work with it. Things were starting to green out and it's not like I could do any reshoots.

And did I mention that I'm a total sucker for any film involving a dog? The little guy was awesome.

I think any dog or animals enthusiasts will view this movie differently and probably more deeply. Her name is Esther. She a 5 year old Jack Russell terrier. She's so awesome and so smart. I love her. Man's best friend for sure. She's never been trained for anything like this and she nailed everything in 1 or 2 takes tops. I couldn't believe it. It's like she wanted to do it and knew what she was doing. It kind of scared me.

There was one scene where I had an idea to actually put the camera on her stomach, start rolling, walk away and come and check on her. I thought, "Nah that'll never work, she'll move and knock the camera over. I tried it and said "Esther, sit still now, don't move". She stayed in position, I put the camera a little on the ground and a little on her stomach. If she would have moved even the slightest the camera would have lost its framing. She didn't move one single muscle except for her face and head area. I hit record, walked away, came back and boom we had it in the first take. I gave her a doggie treat for that and she kept performing flawlessly the rest of the day for me.

She's a very special creature. I'm glad I somewhat immortalized her in a story. During the reshoots where everything greened out Esther ran off after a chipmunk or something and got lost. She normally does this type of thing, but the thing different about this time was, I was really moving and trying to focus on getting the film finished. So I didn't pay attention to her following me. I just assumed she was there. I put all my stuff down and started looking for her. That's when I wrote all the musical themes for when she was sick. In a way she helped me out there too. Later that evening I found her. Or she found me is more like it.

Really, really well done.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

And go pat your dog. Then make another film.

Thanks again. I deeply appreciate your feedback. I think you carefully examined my film for what it was, and your criticism is truly thought out, honest, and constructive.

[Mark Dog]

great film man what program did u use for CC??? it had very mythical feel


peace n luv

Mark Dog

[Aaron Marshall]

Thank you. I'm glad you liked it.

Just Vegas 5.0. I kind of treated it like a video photoshop. I used After Effects for some shots. Especially in the intro. Well, the flowers mainly. 90% of it is CC'd with Vegas.

I used a lot of muted tones. I was thinking along the lines of a pseudo color noir.

[Edgen]

aaron!! Man oh Man did I really love your score! Fantastic music to go with this little 'tale'

I really dug the effects in the opening scene with the dragons and the little sprites amongst the flowers. Very cool stuff. Location.. Damn! That place was kinda creepy, but then again your amazing music really drove that into us.

I didn't know you filmed it all yourself too! That's crazy.

The only thing that I really had problems.. which, hopefully this is constructive was the transition wipes. I think with the context of the film a dissolve may have worked just as nice.

Great animal use too! she was a real sport.
Congrats on your film!
/j

[Mike McNeese]

Very creative. Hearkens me back to the days of playing Dragon Warrior on NES. Nice camerawork.

On the critical side, I'm not sure that some of the transitions are fitting. The music at the beginning wasn't bleak enough for what the VO was talking about. Is this guy a superhero or sorcerer?

[Aaron Marshall]

aaron!! Man oh Man did I really love your score! Fantastic music to go with this little 'tale'

I really dug the effects in the opening scene with the dragons and the little sprites amongst the flowers. Very cool stuff. Location.. Damn! That place was kinda creepy, but then again your amazing music really drove that into us.

I didn't know you filmed it all yourself too! That's crazy.

The only thing that I really had problems.. which, hopefully this is constructive was the transition wipes. I think with the context of the film a dissolve may have worked just as nice.

Great animal use too! she was a real sport.
Congrats on your film!
/j

Thanks Edgen! You know I respect your opinion a great deal. Oh the transitional wipes. I felt like using some creative wipe transitions ala George Lucas or old, old Flash Gorden reels. I wanted it to have that quirkiness, along with a certain grace. As for the wipes near the campire scene, I wanted to move the picture horizontally and experiment with how the screen moving on that axis. So movement had a lot to do with that. I want to convey movement in time and actual physical movement in the early morning light. That turned into a "high noon" type of spaghetti western gunslinger inspired pose walking across the log.

Very creative. Hearkens me back to the days of playing Dragon Warrior on NES. Nice camerawork.

Right on! Thank you.

On the critical side, I'm not sure that some of the transitions are fitting. The music at the beginning wasn't bleak enough for what the VO was talking about. Is this guy a superhero or sorcerer?

The music is something I had the most mature control over both emotionally and technically in the process. It was meant to counterpoint the truly dark things happening to the world. It wasn't so "melodramatic". It stayed coy in a way like it knew the hero was going to save the land. Its changes were very subtle.

Superhero, Sorcerer? What's the difference? They're cultural references to a fictional person with exaggerated abilities from different time periods.

[wesley]

very good feel and imagery in this short. like other said it could have been tightened a bit. good job

[Aaron Marshall]

Thanks wesley. Beyond principle photography, I wouldn't change a frame of what I have. If I could have shot things differently I would have for some scenes. My favorite scene of all is the campire, and the smoke. It's the first scene I ever shot with my DVX, so it's sentimental. It's when it really dawned on me how much I might be able to do with the DVX as a tool. I was very stressed that I just dropped that much money on a big chunk of plastic and electronics. Not after that.

I have a feeling a lot of people aren't watching my film all the way through. It must be excruciatingly boring . It's kind of something you have to chill into. It's not a high energy drink, it's more like hot chocolate late at night. It's a bedtime story.

While it has plenty of shortcomings, I don't think any other film in the fest could be described as "elegant" as much as my film was; I think elegance is not something a noob director can pull off very well, if at all. BTW I don't mean that other films didn't have elegance, but mine was thick with it. I'm pretty much divorced from my film at this point. I'm looking at it as a viewer now.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the elemental aspects, water, wind, fire etc. That's kinda where the hero drew his powers. Maybe it was too subtle? It's weird. Almost every one of my friends and family members I showed instantly picked up on that.

My next film will be better. That's really what you have to focus on. Compete against yourself. I hope it's horrorfest, because that's how I was leaning in new script concepts.