"Six Chambered" Drama short: shot in a day. Dual DVX-100s

F

framecut

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Hey Folks,

I shot a short back in February using two DVX-100's.

I wrote the script on tuesday and by the weekend I shot
the film basically in a day.

This was an exercise to see if I could crank out
something watchable under the constaints of
time and naturally budget.

Also to try some new things like composing the soundtrack,
3-D effects, motion tracking and I even made the DVD/casing.

It's 11 minutes in length. I also made an "FX Breakdown"
video to accompany how I did some of the shots.

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zj6auN4a1E

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WLHlRVMh0k

FX Breakdown video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzA9LELLaww
 
Some of the composition is a bit lacking, white balance is off in some of the restaurant scenes, i thought I noticed buzzing on one of the guy's lines. The intro looked great, but some slight jarring movements detracted from it. Did you use a crane for that?
Really liked the door closing transition. The sound of it closing would have added to it. Sound design and ambient soundscape sounded good. There were some problems with audio continuity (the wind on the bridge scene comes to mind).

But for having shot in a day, that's amazing efficiency. Good work.

EDIT: Just watched the VFX thing. None of those were noticeable while I was watching, which is a sign you did it well.
 
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Good work for having shot in one day. Though some of the shots could of done better.... I liked the "focus in" part in the beginning. Though some of the color corrections of look was kinda off. All in all good work dude, keep it up.
 
HBlack said:
Some of the composition is a bit lacking, white balance is off in some of the restaurant scenes, i thought I noticed buzzing on one of the guy's lines. The intro looked great, but some slight jarring movements detracted from it. Did you use a crane for that?
Really liked the door closing transition. The sound of it closing would have added to it. Sound design and ambient soundscape sounded good. There were some problems with audio continuity (the wind on the bridge scene comes to mind).

But for having shot in a day, that's amazing efficiency. Good work.

EDIT: Just watched the VFX thing. None of those were noticeable while I was watching, which is a sign you did it well.
Click to expand...

All your criticisms are valid. Thanks!

To further add: We shot it all very rushed (I really wanted to press myself).

The actress literally came in, sat down and began reading her lines
off of the script on the table. I spent some time with the actor
(Tim) giving him his 'motivation', but I didn't have any time to work
with her (Vicki). (Note: Vicki was in my 20 minute student film
back in 1997. It was a real delight working with her then and we
always spoke about working together on something).

The cafe we shot in was still open for business, so oftentimes we'd have to pause
and wait for the espresso makers or loud clients (It was an Italian cafe!) to
be quiet for a few second.

Since the other tables were full of clients it was difficult to get the
shots we got, sound for Vicki wasn't ADR'd (It should of been).

We didn't light the cafe scene, in hindsight: A bounceboard on the table
could of helped.

The opening shot was actually shot out of a driving car window during a snowstorm.
In actuality, it's several layers of a much longer shot all composited together, which
naturally increased the snowflakes and branches. Since there was nothing
to gauge to (which would give it away):

It was very easy to add several layers and get away with it.

Basically, this short was to figure out what my weaknesses were, so I could
concentrate on those in my future projects. My biggest lesson: More
time with the actors: performance is really important. Script also could
of been polished more (But I really wanted to shoot something that weekend).

And yes: This was my 'swan song' for the DVX-100. As much as I loved this
venerable camera, the Canon HV20 now owns me!
 
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Way to much head room in some shots in the diner scene.

Cool editing, and there wer some really nice shots. Interesting way of shooting the diner scene. Sound was great.
 
TheComo said:
Way to much head room in some shots in the diner scene.

Cool editing, and there wer some really nice shots. Interesting way of shooting the diner scene. Sound was great.
Click to expand...

At the time I was really enamoured by the mural of Tuscany in the backdrop,
but you're right: The foreground is more important than the background!

It was tricky shooting though, since if the camera went lower you'd see the
script pages flip and more attention would be drawn to the actors reading their lines.

Not an excuse, just an explanation!

Hey, you're using the Rode shotgun mike? How does it handle in isolating
sound in a noisy environment?

I only had a single Sennheiser wireless lavalier (which again, in retrospect
a shotgun mike could of seriously helped!)
 
I'm using an NTG2 as well. It definitely puts emphasis on the sound coming from where you point it, but it definitely won't cancel out a noisy environment (I don't think anything will). From what I've read, you'd want a hyper cardoid which has better directional properties, but I don't have any experience with those.
 
I'm using an NTG-2.

It's great! Get a boom pole with it. It's definitely something you won't regret buying.
 
TheComo said:
I'm using an NTG-2.

It's great! Get a boom pole with it. It's definitely something you won't regret buying.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the audio advice! I'm still on the fence and have always been
a fan of Sennheiser, but the price of the NTG-2 is what's persuading me...
 
I watched the first part, more looking at it as an entertainment experience than picking at it.

Right off the bat though and throughout the whole first part is that the female lead was totally natural and believable. That's an actress. That was nice.

Nothing in the video or audio end threw me so that's good. Everything seemed as it should without being overly critical.

I'll watch the rest now but honestly from what I've seen from the first part this is an actress's name to keep in your rolodex.

I'd comment more on the video end but I don't know crap about it so I'll leave that to the experts. Liking the film though.

//Just finished. No tongue, no tongue, haha.
Thanks for sharing the vid. Nice , easy to watch and enjoyable.
 
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