First time producing and directing - The making of TOLL.

Hobbes00

Hobbes00

Well-known member








Hi guys, would like to share my production with you guys - and hopefully with your advices, compliments and support make this short-film a stepping stone for me to try bigger things. (like making a better film or securing a place in filmschool)

I've help co-produce, and co-direct several shortfilms with my bunch of friends (BLT and MalcolmOng); this is the first time I'm acutally making my very own shortfilm.


All our past production like COUNTDOWN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ30fsxlg54
We had friends and mates from our highschool to act . little to no lighting kits and just simple equipments.

So for TOLL, I really wanted to push my limits and challenge myself and see how far I can go with my limited knowledge and resouces -

So I've tried my best to get some sponsors, good casts who are able to act with just food and transport expenses covered. Hired a soundman, and got a local cameraman to help DP.
TOLL website is currently at http://toll.zapto.org (Still looking for a webdesigner)

Please let me know what you think.. honest comments and advice are welcomed!


Regards,
David Liu / hobbes00@gmail.com


Tech. Spec: HDV / Canon XLH1, stock and wide angle lens / 1080 25f /20mins shortfilm / kinos / frensels / arri hmi / redhead / ibrec jibarm / librec tracked dolly /

I've scheduled for 6 days of shoot..

DAY ONE AND TWO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09AOC4lT2Qo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7yWEOCBZS0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWVfdy8pUEg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdrp-xfJt30



DAY THREE (JUST UPDATED)

Here are some raw screengrabs!

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post-37-1186240957.jpg

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Looks good.

Your shots from day two were a league apart from Day 1.

The 'swat guys' looked great! I hope you are getting enough medium shots. I see you cutting to the close ups but in both the conference room and the long office, it seems like you might have wanted something in between the wide and tight.

Day one stuff was framed in a way that was sort of distracting. The high and wide shots seemed very out of place. The two shot of the kid and dad was nicely done as well as the last shot.

What is your setup? Camera, Dolly, crane, etc.

Good luck!
 
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As far as video goes, it looks awesome. Very film like and i notice that you used some speed ramps (from andrew kramer possibly?) that looked great.
I will say that the acting is very poor from the dad, he sounds like he is almost struggling with his English. But then again these are only clips, I'm sure as a whole it will work out.

Good luck to you!

-Ben
 
Hobbes - good luck. some nice camera moves.

The fathers lighting when he's on stage was my biggest issue - looking at that scenes light set up I understand why. Lighting overall seems a bit on the dark flatish side.

I wish you the best of luck.
 
Thanks for your comments guys, next shoot will be on this coming saturday.

ncje:
I felt that the wide/med shot were pretty ok.. but when I did the CU, it was DARK.. I've should have noticed it on the montior - I hope theres something I could do during post.

Benjerama:
I like speed ramps alot.. it does dramatically improve a scene sometimes...
I realised when I speed up the particular cut (Using premiere pro) - it will look very interlaced if you look at it close enough on the final clip(after rendering, HDV)
Anyone has any inputs on whats the best way to do this?

Oh and the father's german! I think his english is fine, just strong accent

Oynk:
You're right, kinda tend to go right into the face of things
But so far its pretty alright, as the pacing of the show is gonna be quite fast and "to your face" kinda thing

Added some more photos above.
 
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When you use speed ramping, make sure to use "Magic Pixels" or whatever it is. Re-watch the andrew krammer thing again. That can cause bad interlacing.
 
PRODUCTION DAY 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1KAZiDKnzo

I've shot 3 scenes today, 2 of which can be on the link(the 2 cars scene and the triad meeting scene)

This is a draft cut of my movie's prologue..
Its suppose to have a narration throughout the whole prologue - showing scenes of the police trying to capture Mr.Chin's son. And then another scene Mr.Chin trying to make a deal with the Chief of Police. And the last scene, after being rejected - The Triad boss plans something evil.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1KAZiDKnzo
 
I've just finished 13hours of shoot for an interrogation room which will makes up of 50% of the show..

Here are some grabs for now..
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Hey hi! Kiki.

I promise I'll update with more details soon!

I've been so busy with army (Serving the army back here)

Brandon rice: Im a fan of ur work! =)

Bash: thanks.. please do check back here next week!

Heres two photos..
- with me and marcus(interrogated)
- pretty much the rest of the crew at work..

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Hey guys, let me rant alittle first..

The reason there seem to be no update was because the production was slowed down due to several factors that were really out of my control.

- Scheduling a shoot
Every single one of my cast are professionals in their own realm (Some were CEOs!) thus getting them to come down admist their really busy schedule was hard - its like playing bingo.. when u think u had it, someone has somethin urgent to attend to.

- Army
I'm in the army, so I have duties, trainings and I only get weekends off.


It was really discourging when I have people questioning me about how serious am I to complete this film. Some of them even wanted to quit and leave me hanging.

Its really isnt easy to produce. handle manpower, logistics, security, location, food, marketing by myself - which leaves me nearly no room to focus on directing..

I also had a really bad experience with dedication. I did assign one of my core guys to handle the website, it soon became not updated and now it doesnt even exist.

Alright, I shall stop ranting now.
 
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We'r at going to hit 70% completion this coming saturday (27th Oct) where we will shoot our last major scene.

Besides having some production problems, everything else were great, the production day we tiring but fun. I had really one of the best crew in Singapore (Im bias) and really nice and understanding casts.


You can check out 2 footage I've cut together just hours ago on

http://fps.carbonmade.com/projects/90570


Please let me know what you think!


Regards
David
Singapore
http://fps.carbonmade.com
 
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