CASI CASI - DVX feature film TRAILER ONLINE!

Jaime Valles

Jaime Valles

Veteran
Last edited:
That looks like a pretty cool film, I wish I could be there to see it on the big screen.

I have a couple of things that I don't like, and it is just me, but the colors didn't seem "colorful" enough or punchy I guess. They just seemed to lack 'oomph'. I don't like they should be highly saturated, but still...I wish they had more punch to them.

I also didn't like the narration, I think it sounds cheesy, it makes the film sound amateurish. That sounds horrible and harsh, but I can't explain it any other way. I know it is a comedy, but still, I would seriously consider re-doing that and putting some of the kid's dialouge in to tell the story instead of the narrator just explaining everything.

The shots were framed nice, the kids look like they did a pretty decent job acting. I think this could be a fun film to watch, I hope you put it out on DVD, I would like to see it.

Good luck with it!
 
PaPa - No adapter, just the stock DVX100 (not A) lens.

baquajim - Thanks for the observations. The colors certainly look better on the full-res version on a calibrated NTSC monitor. I'm a newbie when it comes to web compression, so that probably has something to do with it.

Also, the point of the narration is to avoid having to use subtitles in the trailer. The whole movie is in Spanish, so we either had to do a "silent" trailer, or use subtitles, or use narration. Of the three, narration is the option with the fewest question marks. I refuse to make a trailer with subtitles so small that nobody can read them. The narration is definitely tounge-in-cheek, which I feel is appropriate for this movie. We are working on an expanded Spanish-language trailer which uses dialogue, but that won't be ready for a while, since we're busy prepping for the upcoming festivals.

If we're in the Tennessee area at some point in the film festival circuit, I'll post here. Thanks for the feedback!
 
Hey that looks really good. Couple of questions...

There was noticeable grain and I liked it. How did you achieve this?
And most importantly WHAT did you use to export the trailer? If it was quicktime/FCP what were the settings. I can't figure out how to make my stuff that large and keep the files small and still look good. Throw me some tips. Did you use something other than FCP/Quicktime?

Thats all from me.
 
Well, I'm pretty sure that a some of the grain you're seeing is in the web compression. But to be honest, I shot the footage well over 2 years ago, so I can't really remember all the exact settings! We did do a lot of color-grading in FCP, which introduces some mild noise/grain/artifacting, but we didn't use any "film grain plugins" or anything like that.

As for exporting the trailer, I used Compressor (Version 1, I believe). The one that came with the FCP4 Production Suite. This was my first time trying to post anything on the web, so it took a lot of experimenting to get acceptable results.

These are the settings I ended up using for the small trailer:
Audio Encoder
Format: MPEG4
Sample Rate: 44.100kHz
Channels: 2
Bits Per Sample: 16
AAC encoder quality: medium
Video Encoder
Format: MPEG4
Width: 320
Height: 180
Pixel aspect ratio: default
Crop: (L: 0, T: 67, R: 3, B: 68)
Frame rate: 24
ISMA Profile: 1
Variable bit rate, high quality

And these were for the large trailer:
Audio Encoder
Format: MPEG4
Sample Rate: 44.100kHz
Channels: 2
Bits Per Sample: 16
AAC encoder quality: medium
Video Encoder
Format: MPEG4
Width: 640
Height: 360
Pixel aspect ratio: default
Crop: (L: 0, T: 67, R: 3, B: 68)
Frame rate: 24
ISMA Profile: 1
Variable bit rate, high quality

It took a while to figure out the aspect ratios and square-pixels vs. NTSC, etc. But it ended up looking pretty good. I feel ok about the large trailer, but the small one looks awesome! Keep in mind that these settings worked for the footage I had, with the color correction I made. They might not work at all for other footage. But at least it's a start. The small file is around 18MB, and the large is around 45MB.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: Spelling
 
Last edited:
Update!

Update!

We just got back from the San Diego Latino FIlm Festival, and our film won the Audience Award! The three screenings were packed, and one could hear the laughter out in the hallway! We couldn't have asked for a more positive reaction from the audience, and from everyone at the festival.

Next up is the Philadelphia Film Festival, April 8 and 9. If any of you in Philly want to see DVX footage on the (really) big screen, check out www.casicasi.com for info on tickets and screening times and dates. We'd love to see you there!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top