Short film; Grip of the Mug

C

crazycatz

Well-known member
Hey, I just finished a short film entitled Grip of the Mug.
this is my first project with a real crew and cast, and lighting equipment. i figure it turned out okay for my first shoot, so, have a watch, and please, give me some feedback on how to improve next time!
thanks!!!

heres the link,
http://crazycatz.dvxhost.com
 
for a first project its not bad

here are some notes on technical stuff.

when lighting watch shadows....think, "does this look realistic, and fit the mood of the location and scene"....use practical light sources to figure out motivation for lighting. for example if you have a lamp frame right you will probably put your key light on the right as natrualy thats your strong light source. also use 3 pt lighting....fill key backlight....no, you dont always need to follow these set guidlines but when starting you should for sure.

As far as camera goes, I noticed alot was overexposed especially outside. Always expose for the highlights if you dont with digital your highlights just blow out and you lose all detail. use the sun as your key light and use bounce boards to fill in faces so they dont go to dark.

sets....just something i noticed and pulled me out of the story. you shot an office scene in a room that completly didnt feel like an office I knew right away it was a bedroom. its relaly not hard to fake an office. keep the walls bland....the desk would never be up against the wall...and probably wouldnt have been that style either....also one the guy comes in....you showd a bedroom door and a black hallway....you want to audience to beleive in your story and feel its true....stuff like that pulls them out even if ther enot conscience of it.

editing: in the end you made some odd cuts you went from a mcu right to a cu then to another cu in a diffrent angle....it was ackward. when making cuts like that you switch angles too not just zoom in....or if u just zoom in cut to something else and then the cu else yea....i know you probably had to make these cuts to get the right lines in there....ultimetly you want good takes of all your shots to give you the most to work with so your not struglling in editing. also when shooting sequences keep 180 degree rule in mind i saw that you crossed it in the scene after the office at the table....you cut from an over the right shoulder to a shoot to the left of the other charector....you want to stay one side else it cuts weirdly....so shoot over both charectors left shoulders....so in one from itll be on the left side and in the other the right....get it? haha kinda hard to explain look up a diagram its pretty simple. shooting dialog sequencees is easy to learn....I suggest shooting it basic at first....a 2 shot 2 over the shoulders and some closeups of stuff thats important is a good way to start then you can start getting creative.


keeping making films...deffinetly not a bad start. good luck


-Jake
 
Hey, thanks for the great feedback! I know it wasn't perfect, but I learned alot during the shoot, and about filmmaking in general, and we had a blast making it! I'm already working on another one and it should be 100 times better than this!
Thanks for taking the time to watch it and give me some feedback, I will definatly take it all into consideration for my next shoot,
thanks!
 
Oh but one thing i must say - get good sound. The sound was pretty bad on the whole.... I can't give any advice on this though, coz i'm not very good with sound, but the most noticeable flaw was the sound. Good job on the whole otherwise

OH and you might want to find a way to reduce the size of the quicktime one to about 60mb
 
Yeah overall the lighting was LESS of an issue for me than the sound. But people have said those things and you know it soooo...... Mate I got some good laughs out of that.
 
ehh, it had its moments. I would agree with the shadows and sound statements... I would have thought it was recorded with the on camera mic if I didnt see the boom shadow three times...

I liked the under the table shot best.
 
Last edited:
the sound didnt pull me out as me....but then again im a cinematographer and I dont know **** about sound. I do remember thinking it was bad....but there were no awful cuts with it i dont think where the sound just changes or w/e....but yea.... get clear sound....sound becomes a whole thing of it own really....generally you want to get a really nice mic and boom so you can get super clear dialog with nothing else in it but the sound of the voice and then you add everything else later....cars going by...pens dropping w/e.
 
What was wrong with the sound? I know it wasn't perfect, but i didn't think it was ad bad as you guys are making it out to be...
 
it just sounded bad, the audio quality was pretty low, clearly not recorded with the use of a good mic and boom.....what mic did you use?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top