COUNTDOWN: Epic Action Film (60+ People)

B

BLT

Well-known member
Hey Everyone!

I would've posted earlier but I didn't have internet so here goes. Basically , MalcolmOng and I have been working on this 30 minute film, Countdown, for the past 3 months. Shot with a wide spectrum of random handycams and an XL2, DVX100B and a PD-170, Countdown is essentially a huge 60-70 people production. Organizing everyone was admittedly rather difficult to carry out because we only had one and a half days to shoot everything due to location constraints. I have any old post on this here.

Anyway, I shall quit blabbering and let the production speak for itself. I've been told that actings a bit under par but I think its the best we could do as 16/17 year olds in high school.

Synopsis:
A cop desperately trying to hide a dark secret, an opportunistic mob boss, and a seemingly innocent office worker victimized by circumstance: Each of them driven by their own selfish motivations. Little do they know that when their paths collide in a complex chain of unprecedented events, their actions would ultimately lead to their inevitable demise ten minutes later.

In one of the largest and most epic films ever attempted by the finalists of Project Pilot and the Canon Film Festival with a cast and crew of over seventy people, Countdown is a fast-paced, intricately-spun and twisted action-thriller about the trappings of wanton greed, unavoidable causality, and most of all, ironic twists of fate.

10 Minutes. 3 People. 1 Destiny.

The links are as follows:

Google Video (This might be a little laggy)
Google Video (Bloopers)

Download Site #1
Download Site #2
Download Site #3 (Bloopers)

Here are some posters and unedited screen grabs:


22805977696003a9f0dav2.jpg



dvxday2carsconfrontatioby2.jpg



dvx100day1bitof20001sz5.jpg





dvx100day1bitof20005qj1.jpg





dvxday2carsconfrontatiocw1.jpg



pd0015ss4.jpg



test2oo2.jpg



xl2day2warehouse2reshooio0.jpg


xl2day2warehouse2reshoook4.jpg


Please do enjoy the film and let me know if you have any comments, criticisms, feedback, suggestions, opinions, or hate - Anything goes. I wont take it personally so please do take the time to comment honestly. We would really appreciate it. Being only 16, we're looking forward to improving ourselves with your comments so fire away! Thanks.

Btw, as you probably realized, not all of our music is original so I am currently looking for composers before I send this around the festival circuit. Do feel free to contact me if you're interested. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Trust me. Its worth it (:

Its a half hour film after all haha. Alternatively, you could watch it online at the google video site perhaps?

My apologies for the inconvenience, man =S
 
I streamed the bloopers on google. They were pretty funny. I'll do the same for the flick sometime soon, and let you know

Jason
 
What's wrong with QT .264 codec? You could get it to under 100mb easily. wmv is just rubbish in my books.
 
Sure I would love to make it smaller. Honestly, I have no idea what that codec is so care to enlighten me on how to do that? Thanks.
 
That download was slooooow but I managed to wait it out, and here are my two cents.

First off, kudos for completing this project! It must have been a tough task to organize such a large scale production. It was interesting to see 10-20 people shooting each other, while damaging/destroying everything in their path. :Drogar-Evil(DBG): I can't imagine how long it took you guys to set those scenes up and to clean up afterwards.

The acting was alright, some of it seems scripted, but overall it was believable. I realize you guys are 16 years old [according to your first post], but some of the actors didn't look like they would be a cop. I'm assuming you couldn't find older people to play those parts, so I'm not going to count that against you. Awesome job on getting the props, costumes, and locations for the movie. It certainly made it more believable. I found the dissembling of the computer powersupply to be kind of funny, though.

The visuals were okay. The muzzle flashes were obviously fake. What method did you use to make those? They seemed like they were just placed in the frame. If you use After Affects, you can make it more realistic by changing the blending mode. The cinematography was good enough to convey the story without being distracting. Some of the shots were a bit messy/shaky but overall it was okay. I think some of your edit points are off on certain cuts, not a big deal though.

The audio was good; music matched the scenes quite well. I like the soundtrack from "Kung Fu Hustle" for the bad guys. :cheesy: I found some of the sound effects [mainly gunshots and some of the "radio messages"] to be kind of repetitive, some of them sounded like you looped it several times. I heard jumps in the music from time to time [like the music for the credits] but I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be like that.

All in all, I thought it was a great short. It kept me entertained from beginning to end. And speaking of end, I liked the twist in the ending. :) It went by pretty fast for a 30 minute film which is a good thing. Great job on completing a big project! Round of applause for the whole crew!

-KiN
 
Thanks for the comment! Currently we're in the process of getting composers to swap out all the music for original ones. You were right about the muzzle flashes being overlayed in premiere - we don't actually know how to use after effects, and towards the end the project was getting so big it almost killed brian's computer - even without any fancy blending modes, etc.

We shot this in 20 hours over 2 days: 6 hours on the first day because of school, and 14 hours on the second day, so that was a pretty tiring shoot

Also, I appear in the bloopers for about 3 seconds using non other than my...handphone camera. Pffft(i own the dvx)...
 
A 14 hour shoot? Wow, that's commitment right there. Congratulations again for pulling it through.

-KiN
 
Outstanding. For those who think the file is too big,download it if you own a DVX. Trust me it's worth it.



16 year old's !!!!
 
everyone looks too young to be believeable but for highschool its great. The lighting is pretty flat. But congrats on the 70 people! Wow. Want to produce my films?
 
Last edited:
Wow

Wow

I enjoyed it very much. Congrats on a fine production. It's great to see a group of young people mesh that well on a project that required the amount of work it must have taken.

Great job!
 
Vampiresoup said:
everyone looks too young to be believeable but for highschool its great. The lighting is pretty flat. But congrats on the 70 people! Wow. Want to produce my films?
Click to expand...

Haha, this was produced by BLT. He's a logistical wizard, and you're lucky. He's just moved to LA, if thats where you're at. The rest of us are stuck in Singapore..
Anyway thanks for all the nice comments!
 
Last edited:
Great editing and production values for a student work! Wow! Anyone who can produce this elaborate a project at the student level is someone with a future in the business! Seeing the younger actors reminded me of 'Bugsy Malone', the 1976 Alan Parker gangster film with a cast entirely made up of kids. Lots of fun - kudos to you and your crew.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top