Apple Insomnia Film Festival Entry

Zack Birlew

Zack Birlew

Veteran
Hey guys, I entered the Apple Insomnia Film Festival this past weekend. We used a DVX100B and other stuff from our college, UNLV (University of Nevada Las Vegas). It's called "The Big Red Hit". It isn't anything too special, my brother and I had to make it ourselves since all of our film and acting friends were busy that weekend, but we think we did pretty darn good for a 24 hour contest regardless. Let me know what you guys think and votes would definitely be appreciated! :) (FYI, you need an Apple ID to vote)

http://edcommunity.apple.com/contest/item.php?itemID=199

Voting ends Dec. 2.
 
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Hey that was pretty good. I also had an entry, Gagged, but it was shot on an XL2 and we were lucky to have a pretty big crew. Its cool seeing how other people interpreted the elements though. Keep up the good work.
 
Wow, I didn't expect many DVXUsers would know about this contest, but hey, at least there's one. Man is your video popular! :) What was it? Like 900 points or something?

I saw your film "Gagged", it was a pretty cute idea. I liked the guy constantly kicking just the one kidnapper in the face, that was a great run-on gag :).

One question though, I thought that the teams were limited to five members (ie. director, producer, crew and all) and then you can have as many actors as you want. But just by glancing at your credits it looks like you had practically the whole film school helping you out! LOL! Aren't you worried that your film's chances of winning the judges' vote might be compromised? I'm not sure I understood the rules correctly, it is Apple's first time doing this after all right?

In any case, good job, I was impressed. :thumbsup:
 
I thought this was well shot, but your voice over is terriable. You can hear an echo and there are not enough mids going. What did you do to record your audio?
 
The voiceover was done by me with a Sennheiser MKH416 microphone. Not my ideal mic, but that's what I got from the film department. I did the recording in my editing room, though I should have done it in my car for various indie reasons, but I had 24 hours and I was about an hour away from the deadline so I had to work quick so I didn't get many run throughs, as you can tell the pitch and tone change throughout, I sliced and diced bits and peices together and changed the pace so I could cram everything in to that 3 minut limit, but I think it sort of gives that cut up documentary sort of dialogue style I hear sometimes (ie. long interview, cut things out, match it up together, ect.).

I personally don't hear any echo, maybe that's something on your side? Many things could be a factor. But yeah, if there was anything I'd do over again it would definitely be the voice over. BTW, did you vote?:)
 
C'mon now, 147 views so far and only one vote? It's a competition guys, an Apple ID's free and I know most of you have one, so help good ol' Jack Felis out here! :)
 
Yeah I am starting to wonder if we are going to get in trouble for having too many people. I was a grip and boom op so I really didnt think about it. They just asked me to help out and I did. I hope we dont get DQed.
 
Careful. I know there have been issues in the past on this site about soliciting votes for contests and such. Best just to put it out there and let the work stand on it's own.
 
I guess you're right, but heck, even 1 star is something if people thought it was bad.

In any case, unless there's some miracle, I'm not sure we'd get enough votes to win the audience favorite anyway, I looked just now and one of the shorts is in the 3,000+ point range!:shocked:

So yeah, all I can hope for is the judges look favorably upon it by now.

In any case, I hope people enjoy it.

I know the voice over is a little "blah", but any other comments or advice besides that?:)
 
I liked it. I really liked the outdoor shots, they looked beautiful, and the clouds reflecting on the sunglasses was nice. I didn't think the indoor scenes looked as good as the outdoors one, but I thought it was good overall.

Good luck with the contest. :)
 
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