"Once A Hero" - Envision / 235 Studios

Recipe ala Robert Rodriguez style, yes, travel & catering, no. :)

It'll be under Special Features with the title "How To Bulk Up Your Super Hero" (aka Norm's Famous Ribs).

Sent PK access to the full script, so we'll see if I can get redeemed back as the "Script Wrangler" ... which, BTW, Jarred chose that himself ... and caught me off guard. But I do think I've got a good eye for writing, and Jeffrey Hawley's an excellent writer.

All that said, I've gone through & listened/watched the mp4 file ... the compression really messed with the music balance, as it's SO much more out of whack than the AVI file. Even so it's still too hot in the project itself, so I'll be cutting the music back further to really make the dialogue stand out.

Again, appreciate all the comments & feedback. Keep 'em coming, thanks.
 
Larry R said:
Forget the recipe, I think for each person that orders he should bring the cooked ribs personally to their house. :grin:
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Now that would be a unique special feature! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Man! This can be a harsh realm we post in. :costumed-smiley-047 :kali:

First Kudos to Envison/ Norm for pulling off a truly amazing looking spectacle. Reminded me slightly of Spiderman (Shot choice, lighting). I think you nailed the look. The Actors had the look too.

Top marks for doing something so ambitious and unfortunately thats where you took your eye off the ball.

Before you protest. I don't need to see more of a script, come off it Envison. When your trying to make it (and you will) we all know how tough it is. How many times do you think, right this is the project thats going to do it for me only to realize you've made another three since then?

Its a long...long...long...long...long road. I never imagined how hard it would be to make it. We will be doing it for the rest of our lives. I've sweated my balls off pulling projects together and not getting the reactions I've intended.

But I'm learning and will continue to improve.

Amongst these ramblings it boils back down to the story. If you cant understand/ follow it with the sound off. It doesn't work. Simple as.

Your story had the right feel it just came across too complex. I didn't connect with the characters. It felt a little staged. It wasn't character driven. Its hard to write in that genre. Your inciting incident should have come in right away. You've got massive potential. IMOP you got bogged down giving us that look we were all anticipating (you delivered yet again) Everything in your house is right to make a fantastic movie. Nobody touches your visuals at the moment. Story...? If you get back to basics now you'll be unstoppable.

It's good to be humble about our work. If we we're all great now, there would be no surprises left.

I hope you take my comments as a fellow traveler on this inhospitable journey.
J.P.
+ Kudos to P.K. Your the main monk.:love4:
 
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jpbankesmercer said:
First Kudos to Envison for pulling of a truly amazing looking spectacle. Reminded me slightly of Spiderman (Shot choice, lighting). I think you nailed the look. The Actors had the look too ... Nobody touches your visuals at the moment.
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I'm glad that you liked the look /actors / lighting / cinematography. Thanks for the complement. Norm and I talked a lot about the feel and the look we wanted for this film, and it appeasrs that we were able to pull at least that much off.

jpbankesmercer said:
Amongst these ramblings it boils back down to the story. If you cant understand/ follow it with the sound off. It doesn't work. ... I didn't connect with the characters. It felt a little staged. It wasn't character driven ... Story...? If you get back to basics now you'll be unstoppable.
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Good point- it should still make sense with the sound off. And right now the short version is a little hard to follow. I know that the full version does not suffer from this, as it makes a lot more sense, and is much more character driven- but as this contest is centered around the 6 min. version, that is neither here nor there.

While it is fun to receive complements about our work, I know both Norm and I have been using these contests as a learning / training ground for our story telling skills. (Don't get me wrong- we want to win, after all it is a competition- and whats the point if not to win :) ). This short is heads and tails above our last short, and I know the next one will be that much better. Learn form our mistakes and move on- Thanks for your input.

I can honestly say that I'm excited to see how the extended cut does in other festivals- I think it has potential to get some additional recognition ...
 
Ummmm. I was REALLY lost. The thread helped, but as a single work, the 6min version is all over the place and is really hard to follow. The music score was way too loud. I couldn't follow the conversation.

It looked pretty.

One funny note: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
 
here goes:

under lit with a greyness to it.
OST was over board to where you couldnt hear whats going on.
Noooooo! classic.
I didnt understand whats going on about roaches and stuff I think mostly because of the soundtrack over the voices.
graphics eh.
 
JP, thanks for the comments, seriously appreciate them!

jpbankesmercer said:
Before you protest. I don't need to see more of a script, come off it Envison.
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I don't think I've ever been protesting, or at least haven't wanted it to seem like that ... I only offered the full script to PK because he was referencing it as a bad script/writing. In that case, I think it's the editing and or sound issues that make it seem like a bad script because so much of the story is missing and or can't be heard.

So I will defend the script, while I may not defend this short version as much.



jpbankesmercer said:
Amongst these ramblings it boils back down to the story. If you cant understand/ follow it with the sound off. It doesn't work. Simple as.
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I somewhat agree with you, but I'm trying to think of any movied I've seen, if I had watched it for the first time with ZERO sound, if I'd truly understand what's going on. Though we should SEE more than we HEAR, there are times that it's CRITICAL to hear certain things ... so I can't agree 100% with that statement.
 
Envison, I love what your doing your hard hitting the industry using any tactics you can, your great at getting things done.

Watch Cache 2 without sound on, its true honestly. We tell stories with pictures, words should come second. Great Actors can say so much without saying anything...Character driven....The scripts not bad...just too loose for 6mins and after all that was what this competition was about....working within those constraints....its hard to tell a good story quickly but it has been done again and again...I felt that your story lost me a little. I liked the Actors and I'm sure they will develop fanstastically.

With Ryan contributing his amazing visuals you make a great team and your work in most areas is solid. I marvel at what it must have taken to get it off the ground. A1

Personally I'm underdevelopment with an exec-producer/ scriptwriter...back to the board let me tell you! It's frightening and still might not lead to anything. But I do appreciate a well told story. Beginning, middle and end in any order you like.

I want to effect people with my work, I've not shot anything for three months going back and learning the art of telling stories again. I know how much time it takes to put anything together that good. I want it to be GREAT! As I'm sure you do...just extending my hand across the either to someone else who is trying their best...
Good work.
J.P.
 
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JP, again thanks for all the feedback. I DO need to still watch Cache 2, and a few others still. I'll try to do that tonight & get the feedback to you ... looking forward to seeing it, first without the sound, of course. :)

Spidey, you're the first to say it was underlit, but if it was it would be from the adapter & the glass in front of it. That thing lost SO much light, so with the normal DVX the shots were extremely overlit, sometimes to the point of being blown out. Throw the Letus Flip on there and some various lenses and it's perfect, if not possibly even needing more light once in a while.

The greyness you're referring to is from me pulling back the color a good 25% or more, as I've not figured what CC I want to go with yet for an overall look ... so desaturation for the majority of it, and flash backs with the bolder colors is where this one went for the DVX cut.

What's OST?
 
I know a few comments have been made on the "NOOOOOOOO!" yelling, but hey, I still think it was better than the one from Darth Vader in Episode III
 
Envision, thanx for taking my thoughts on-board so graciously. 2 Last points.

1 That lead Actor has lots of potential. KEEP HOLD OF HIM.

2 If Ryan doesn't post exactly how this was shot, I shall lead the revolt myself.

J.P.
 
Thanks for the OST explaination, Spidey! :)

J.P, glad you liked the lead ... it was a long search to find the right guy. Thought we had one until we cast the female for Widow, and then the guy ended up being too short in comparison, so the search continued. The lead guy's name is also Ryan, and I can't believe how photogenic he is ... makes me sick!

Since Ryan's off line for a bit, I'll try to fill in ... he can correct me on anything or add where I missed something:

HOW THIS WAS SHOT

EQUIPMENT
  • 2 Panasonic DVX100a's
  • 2 Letus35 Flip Enhanced
  • The most common lenses used were a Vivitar 28mm 2.0 (wide angle - Nikon AI mount), and a Canon 50mm 1.4 FD mount.
  • For the CU shots we used a Canon 135mm 2.5 FD mount ... it was an older lens, but we liked the look (loaned to us by Knight Camera shop in Vancouver, WA in exchange for copy/credit).
  • Glidecam V8 (steadicam-like system) for B-camera work (supplied by Lyon Films out of Salem, OR)
  • Neil Rowe's 24 wheel dolly w/T push/pull bar (supplied by Lyon Films out of Salem, OR) for A-Camera
  • Cobra Crane I (supplied by 235 Studios - Ryan) for A-Camera)
  • A warning for anyone considering this crane: DO NOT USE IT if you're planning on using it with any additional weight beyond the DVX and maybe a matt box ... it just had way to difficult a time handling the weight of the camera, adapter, rails, lens, etc. and as a result were constantly battling shaky camera movements and/or having the picture lien to one direction as the crane was reefing on the tripod head.
Lighting
  • Main lights were a kit from Amvona.com - a three 1K light kit complete with TALL stands, soft boxes, diffuser screens, grids, etc. Oh, and extra bulbs which we needed since we blew out two of them during production (exploded from the rain!)
  • Additional lighting were a couple of more professional lights that Ryan had, I think up to 600W (but sure packed a punch when needed - specifically we hung one directly over Sparrow for the end scene in the chair, and it did a better job than the 1K light I had)
  • Oh, and of course the standard Home Depot work lamps, adjustable from 250W to 500W, and were nearly indestructable (DRENCHED them in the rain with no problems).
  • Our primary lighting expert was Tung Bui, with Tung n' Groove Studios. I found him when Rachelle Morrison had contacted me via the Craig's List advertisement.
VERY glad I came across both of them, and look forward to working with them again in the future. For most of the talent in this film, BTW, this was their first film ever (Sparrow, Meltdown/David, and a whole cast of other people you won't see until the full cut).


CAMERA SETTINGS
  • We maxed out the DVX's. Cranked the details settings, core detail, etc. all the way up to 7 to compensate for the softness the 35 adapter would add. We also went with THIN detail setting, NORMAL matrix, and Cine-like gamma. Skin detail was turned off, as that's to further soften an image to help with wrinkles, etc.
  • Shutter speed was at default 48 for all the shots everyone has seen in the short, with the exception of when she hits the plaque. During the full cut of that, as well as the opening alley scene in the full version of the short, we used a LOT of 120 & 250 shutter speeds, which even though it REALLY dropped down the light (so we had to bring the lamps in even closer & hotter), it made for some great effects & added the extra edge we wanted.
  • I believe we had the Master Pedestal turned down to -5, but that's about it. We didn't want to lose TOO much detail in the shadows, or felt it would be even that much more difficult for our VFX folks in post.
  • Color settings were set to default.
Hope that helps?

For the rain, if that's in question, we had Jerry Buxbaum on set 3 out of 4 of our days with all of his rain tower gear. Twice we were able to hook up to a near by fire hydrant & just DRENCH the area with the rain towers. Jerry's got enough gear that he can soak an entire city block, and thankfully he was available for us in between jobs.
 
jpbankesmercer said:
If Ryan doesn't post exactly how this was shot, I shall lead the revolt myself.
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Revolt away brother!

Just kidding- Thanks Norm for posting that- I have been crazy busy with other projects, bearly have time to post ...
 
Envision said:
Since Ryan's off line for a bit, I'll try to fill in ... he can correct me on anything or add where I missed something:
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That is a good summary of things. I can post the exact cam settings later tonight- if people are interested.- I've got to run to a meeting.

Until then.
 
Hi Norm ...geez you always do good work!!!!!

Can't wait to see the 23 minute version ..I did have a little trouble understanding the ending . I watched this again back at my place on a good LCD monitor and a set of headphones ..I picked up on who Simone (spelling ) was and all was clear . I think the music in some spots over powered the conversation . Maybe this is just me ..

Another Great film Norm !!
Ian
 
Thanks Ian! Nope, it's not just you my friend. Everyone's been having issues with the audio, and I can't blame them. Once I listened to this mp4, I can clearly hear what everyone's talking about.
 
Hi - nice job.

What I liked -
Your cinematography was great. Good depth, lighting, composition, etc.

Not so much -
Sound was tough to hear, as you know. And thus, story was harder to follow, even upon subsequent viewings.
Sound aside, I think the story was somewhat incoherent and messy. As I glance through your thread I'm seeing a lot of talk of a 23 minute version, and I think you mentioned that maybe you should have made a trailer rather than trying to cut a coherent story in 6 min.
My inclination is that this fest is about creating a story in 6 min, not creating a portion of a larger idea in 6 min (or a trailer for a longer flick). Just my opinion. So the more or less incoherent story didn't do it for me. Sorry!

To end on a more positive note - again, cinematography was great :).
 
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