My Short Film

Hey Righty Right,

Good to see the final version, it looks and moves great.

Not really up for the technical aspects, the short itself was actually pretty damned nice. I like the character turn-around going on with the leading male. He feels like a jerk at first, then he moves through this transition and becomes the good-guy.

A real Johnny Cash, Cowboy type.

Great job, dude. And the pay-off is sweet (William Sadler's final words.) GREAT!
 
I have to say it was well edited. The timing of the moments were spot on.

On the flip side, even though it was in a bar, it is too dark. I get the feeling some of the facial expressions were lost because of the lack of light.

Good luck on the festival circuit.
 
Thanks man, as it turns out, I just found out that we got accepted to The Big Apple Film Festival here in NYC...we are so totally psyched!

I agree that it gets a little too dark at times...the compression doesn't help matters either...
 
Great fun piece with really good acting - I enjoyed it as well.

I think your dp said in another forum that he technically rated the camera and adapter to an iso (or asa) and then lit to that level. That is where the lighting issue likely crept in - being that digital cameras dont respond linearly, the iso can be misleading especially in darker shots.

My opinion is to always use a production monitor (or waveform if you prefer squiggly lines) to light to how you want it to look as opposed to a mathamatical formula.

That all said - bravo to you, wonderfully done and I am sure this will have a festival life.
 
Good job.

You actually had a story worth telling.

I was wondering how you were going to end it.

My guess was the bartender would give the wine free to the guy, but I did not see the Pabst Blue Ribbon one coming.

It is not an ad for the beer is it?

How can you show a real beer product in your movie?
 
its a miconception that you cannot show brands in your films - any and all brands can be shown if used as intended. So you can show a beer label if it is being used as a drink - if the bottle will be cracked over someone head you should hide the label.

On tv and in hollywood they hide brands to protect their advertising rates.

there is a good filmmaking book on copyrights - i dont have it with me now but it outlines this
 
Ha! No, it's not an ad for the beer...we were just trying to find the most offensive drink to mention to the bartender...Pabst won out...

Yeah, we looked into the copyright thing and found that it's okay as long as there's nothing offensive or liabolous being said or done with the logo...

Smelni: Yeah, our DP did rate the camera at a certain ASA (I can't remember what it was)...this short was a learning experience for us (it was the DP's first time with the camera) and we'll totally make better choices with lighting and audio next time.

And thanks again to everyone for the kind words...we're really excited about the short. As soon as we have another one done, I'll post it up...
 
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Very NICE indeed.

This is on the the upper level of indie shorts for sure! Good luck on the festival circuit.

You did a great job here!!!!
 
smelni said:
its a miconception that you cannot show brands in your films - any and all brands can be shown if used as intended.
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Smelni, that nugget is gold. :beer:
 
So tell me, how did you get the famous actor? Was it expensive?

thanks, great short man.

g.
 
Actually, Seth (the lead actor and co-writer/producer) did a Broadway show with him last summer and they became friends. Bill did it as a favor to him...great guy.

Also, we just got into The Miami Short Film festival...psyched!
 
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rightfrog said:
Actually, Seth (the lead actor and co-writer/producer) did a Broadway show with him last summer and they became friends. Bill did it as a favor to him...great guy.

Also, we just got into The Miami Short Film festival...psyched!
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Congratulations man! That's awesome! Hope you win something! I've heard good things about that actor. He is a very nice guy.

good luck
g.
 
Great short film

Great short film

Its nice to see work that has a good little story and is a little bit of human drama.
Really great. Its refreshing and motivating at the same time.

Do you have any behind the scenes photos you could post of the actual shoot?

It would be much appreciated!
 
I liked your short from a story perspective a lot. I felt you created good character development throughout the course of a very short period of time, and I like the subtle arcs that your main characters had. I sorta wanted to slap Bill a little bit during his infrequent cut-aways with his wry little smiles, but that is totally subjective and retarded and has NOTHING to do with the merit of your work. I applaud you and hope that you continue to focus on the good writing -- because ultimately, that's all that matters, man. The camera is fantastic, technology is amazing, but if the story sucks, then it's worthless.

Great job.
 
rightfrog said:
Also, we just got into The Miami Short Film festival...psyched!
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do u have a link to the website? what other short film festivals are you checking for that are pretty popular? i'd like to know what the general requirements are.
 
gk16blman: Go to the website, there are a bunch of production and BTS photos:

http://www.thewinebarmovie.com

FilmBoy77: There are so many festivals and so many requirements...I'd recommend checking out Without A Box...we're using them to do 99% of our festival submissions and it's a great site:

http://www.withoutabox.com

They have a really comprehensive list of festivals, what kind of films they're looking for, when the submission cut-off dates are, links to the festivals sites, etc. And if you join the site you get discounts on submission fees which has already paid for itself with us. It's a really great resource...

Justin: Thanks for the kind words, we worked really hard on the story structure and characters before we even started thinking about the actual production. I totally agree that story is king, the camera, lights, computers and all those things are just tools to serve the story. No story = bad film...
 
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