Hero For a Day - Superhero Short

DammitJanet

DammitJanet

Well-known member
Watch the film here!

My first student film, Hero For a Day was shot in March of 2008 through the Watkins Film School in Nashville, Tennessee.

I wrote, produced, shot, edited and scored the film myself. The film took nine hours to shoot over two days with a crew of four, including myself. We shot on the DVX with no lens adapter. Though we had access to many lights, I went with natural light on all shots except for a tweenie on one shot.

This was my first short film and I'm pretty pleased with it. I set out to make a superhero film unlike anything I'd ever seen and I think I accomplished that. Any other questions or comments, just ask.

Thanks for watching.

You can see more examples of my work at http://www.youtube.com/user/Utradar
 
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Not bad for your first film. I liked it :)

But I thought it was quite slow. The beginning was too long. And overall it should have a faster pacing, to keep people interested. Your intro was sooo long and then you started with a so often used shot in student films. An alarm clock...

Just my 2 cents
 
I agree with the alarm clock thing, but there was really no way to get around it by the time we were shooting. We were only given about a month to pre-produce, and with all my other classes and working part time, it was hard to get every little thing I wanted in time.

As for the pacing I felt it was necessary to help the audience understand the character's life and routine. The pace of his day doesn't change until the box interrupts it.

Thanks for the input.
 
That was the way I interpreted it, yes it did start slow, but you need to show that in order to get us to understand how boring and uneventful this guys days are. Also with the alarm clock, since it is so cliche, everyone usually tries to stay away from it if possible, but if that is what you are going for and that is what you want in your film, then more power to you. Nice video.
 
If the beginning is boring it is just plain boring, no matter how it will serve the story later on. And as a result people will stop watching.

Of course you want to show how boring his life is, but the tricky part is to do it in an interesting way.

One good example is "Stranger than fiction". Did you see this film? It doesnt fit exactly, but it is very creative to show a boring life in an interesting way.

Of course thats just my opinion and I don't want to discourage you. I still liked your short :)
 
While I loved Stranger Than Fiction, two things my film had that STF didn't were a 5 to 7 minute time constraint, and a restriction on dialog, including narration, which STF had plenty of in order to tell the story.

The point of our constraints was to force us to tell a story strictly with visuals. That way the audience sees the story instead of being told the story. To that end, I feel like I told the story without any unnecessary shots or scenes.

If movies that start with a gentle pace bore you, I recommend never watching a brilliant little film called Primer. I do appreciate your input. Thanks for weighing in.
 
Sorry if i'm the only one with the pet peeve. But maybe you should start the film without the natural progression of morning routines. It could start with him at the door picking up the package.

The punchline of the story was pretty cool and i like the Pay it Forward device that the costume allows. Maybe kill the green eyes.

The music is a bit drowning too....
 
I wanted to use the green eyes because I wanted to show that the suit was a little more than just a costume.

In the original script, the suit was actually a living being that was searching for the right person to wield its power, hence being passed around so much. Alas, that was a little too much story for 5-7 minutes and no dialog. :happy:
 
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