Leap Of Faith - Larry R

[Brandon Rice]

Yeah, I agree about the pencil sketch, that was awesome!

[Larry Rutledge]

Cool, glad you liked it!

I wanted to do a much better fade type effect in the bathroom, but I had some problems with my background plate (and my skill and the quickly diminishing time to work on the project) and I was lucky to get what I did I understand what you mean about abrupt...it needs to be fixed.

I thought the beginning, after the "opening" was the part that dragged...but I guess that's the cool part about artistic endeavors, everyone sees something different.

The pencil sketch is one of my "hidden" effects. The sketch was not actually on the pad while we were filming. I just filmed the blank sketchpad, then I took photos of the "sketch" I wanted and applied a photoshop action I created to turn the photo into a pencil sketch. Then I did a chroma-key on the sketchpad selecting one of the middle colors (there are shadows across the page and I wanted them to show as well). Then I adjusted the settings in the chroma key filter (in Vegas Video) until the sketch appeared to be on the page and the shadows still fell naturally across the whole thing.

The funny thing about the sketch is when we were filming, my 1st AD was concerned about the shadows falling across the notepad. He kept asking if I wanted to reset the shot so the page would be in full sunlight and I said no it would be fine. He kept saying, "How are you going to get the sketch on there and keep those shadows?" I would say, "It's no problem, I can mask everything out and get the sketch there." He finally shrugged his shoulders and said, "OK". Well, the funny part of all that is I had NO IDEA how I was going to do it, but didn't want to look unprepared in front of my crew, so I kept saying, "Yep, it's no problem...that sketch will be a breeze to incorporate". Fortunately, it was...I was sweating it when I got to the computer to start editing, but it fell in nicely. So then I took a screengrab of the comp'd sketch and sent it to the 1st AD. He replied that it looked like I had everything under control.... I just laughed!

Glad you thought the effects worked in as a part of the story, and not as something thrown on top just to have effects. I tried to really focus on telling a story and using whatever devices told that story. I didn't want to incorporate things just to incorporate them.

Peace,
Larry

[Mark Dog]

great film larry loved , did he make the flight and take off??? great film i enjoyed i heard vegas did u use vegas for your editing and CC ??????

peace n luv

Mark Dog

[Larry Rutledge]

Glad you liked it!!

did he make the flight and take off???

That's the question, isn't it I really liked the idea of leaving the question of whether he really was able to fly or not. With the story building from some guy who is just a regular guy, then gaining this power, but how much power did he really get?

Yes, I used Vegas Video 5 100% for everything except for the two sketches which I converted from photos to sketches in Photoshop.

[Beat Takeshi]

Hey Larry,
Cool movie. I think the dolly shot should have started a little later. It looks like it was still when it started. I wanted to see that guy as a kung fu monk for some reason, he was beggin to have 9 white dots on his forehead. How did you get to run around outside in a park with guns?

[Larry Rutledge]

Aram - good catch on the dolly shot, I noticed that after I submitted my files the last time. I think I changed a cut time somewhere along the way and now it starts before he is walking. Lesson learned.

Kung-fu Martial Arts were on the original order of the day (but not for the guy in the black suit). But my original fight choreographer didn't work out (he was a martial arts instructor). So we went with the fight we have....and I think it works well. Though I am a huge fan of the Saturday Afternoon Kung-Fu Theatre that used to come on TV back when we only had like 10 channels

Regarding the park and guns. We didn't ask permission....we just went out there and hoped nothing bad happened. Fortunately the cop in the film is a real police officer (and he is my cousin). He works in the area where we were and is good friends with the chief of police, so if there had been a problem he could have averted it. Fortunately, there wasn't any problems.

One thing that I think helped is that we were out there all day shooting and I kept the guns under lock and key until the scenes where they were needed. Then we brought them out and by then the people in the area had seen us filming all day and many of them came by to ask what we were doing.

However, earlier in the week, we went out to the park to rehearse the fighting. We went to a large soccer field behind the location you see in the film and went through the routine on the grass, so no one got hurt. Not long into it a police helicopter flew over, but that's not unusual in that area...except that it circled around again, then again, then again...it circled about 10 times and I knew why. Then I looked across the park and saw a police cruiser parked nearby and two officers talking to people in the park. So I walked over and told them what was going on...apparently someone saw us out there fighting and saw some other teenagers in the vicinity and called the police and told them we were getting ready to riot in the park

The thing is we were doing the moves SO S - L - O - W, in order to get the sequence right...then we would go through it over and over, the same moves. And it was obvious no one was getting hurt. Plus they would say their lines ("drop the weapon", "look it's superman...", etc, etc). The cops just had a good laugh and went on their merry way. (Wish I'd gotten it on camera for the BTS).

Anyway, glad you liked the movie! I'm looking forward to really watching everyone's this evening. I gave a cursory look during the day while I was working. I'll be sure to give each one a detailed review.

Peace,
Larry

[Beat Takeshi]

LOL, thats a great story. Lucky they didnt charge you for the gas for making them bust out the heli. I love kung fu movies too, I wanted to put in a homage to mad monkey kung fu but didnt have the time to work out the sequence. I was shooting a test on my steps and had a gun that was hidden and I was still scared we were going to get pinched.

[Brandon Rice]

Screenplay: Great old style superhero movie! Also I loved the underlying theme of faith and making a change.

Acting: Decent acting overall, none great, but none horrible.

Cinematography: This is the weakest aspect of your film, some of the CC was mismatched and the sky was a bit blown out on some shots. Some of your editing choices were a bit strange as well. But overall your framing choices were good.

Score: AWESOME! Best score I’ve heard so far. Loved the true superhero feel to it. Good stuff!

Overall: Enjoyed the good ol’ superhero movie here, cape and all! Good job for your second film and I am sure you will keep improving. The writing was the strongest part of this film.

[Larry Rutledge]

Hey B-Dawg...I forgot to tell everyone, I'm only accepting positive and good comments. So you'll have to delete the "constructive criticism" comments from your post!



j/k Thanks for the honest and thorough feedback. It is good to hear what worked and what didn't work. Now I know what areas I need to concentrate more on next time.

Thansk,
Larry

[Brandon Rice]

Just trying to be helpful dude Can't wait to see your next film, I am sure it'll be great!