TRANCE DE MUERTE - Geoff Reisner & Damien Jackson

Geoff_R

Geoff_R

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trance_minisplash.jpg


Hey everyone, here is a project we recently completed. It was shot last summer in Chicago and then post didn't really start on it till the beginning of this year.

It's an action/drama about a washed up gunman who is given one last day to take care of a target he's supposed to eliminate.

It's directed by Damien Jackson. The script, producing and editing was done by both of us. The sound design, mix, and original score was all done by Matt Parra (Humanwire on these boards).

Official Website - Quicktime H.264 / 720p / Large / Medium
http://www.rawimagefilms.com/films/trancedemuerte.htm

Part 1 - Trance De Muerte
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmH5PkVmic&feature=related

Part 2 - Trance De Muerte
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmybeNp2B-A&feature=related

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We shot HVX/M2/Nikon. Shooting took place across three days in the Chicagoland area. Essentially a zero budget production, no big crew, no tripod and lit with work lights. We spent our time just thinking about angles, shots, story. If I had a bunch of lights, it would have taken forever to get all these setups as quickly as we did. It was a fun project to make and I hope you enjoy it.
 
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I cut and mixed the sound for Trance in Pro Tools with my MBox. I used the Zoom H2 to record any extra FX I didn't have in my library.

The score was composed with Reason 3 rewired into Pro Tools, with all of the sequencing, effects, and mixing done in PT with the sounds coming from Reason 3. Geoff played the guitar you hear on the score, and I then edited Geoff's recordings into the music you hear in the film.

The score can be downloaded here.
I hope you all enjoy the film. Damien and Geoff are the best guys to work with. :beer:

If you like what you hear, shoot me a PM. I'm up for hire. ;-)
 
I'm gonna watch this tonight dude.. Heard a lot about this from you Geoff and I'm excited to see it. I watched the beginning and it looks really nice. That Chicago skyline is great.
 
Just watched it.

Great work guys. Really dug the chicago skyline dipping in and out at the beginning.
Georgeous.

I'll download the score later tonight for my iTunes library.
 
Pretty good.

Just curious though. When the super hot girl spares the hitmans life and gives him one more day... he seems to sleep in very late, then he tries calling the woman and daughter at night, then he goes to his car in the day, then he is on an iphone or something in his car at night, and then he is driving during the day...

isn't that like 2 days right there? Before he even gets to the warehouse. Very confused about that.
 
Well, he gets knocked out when she spares his life, so he wakes up a little bit later and then gets the ice for his head. When he's calling the woman and daughter, it's during the day; the light hitting the little girl is sunlight. He walks to the car during the day and while in the car, it is still day, he's just parked under a freeway.

Thanks for checking it out.
 
Geoff, you are the master DP! I love your style. Really excellent work here, great coverage.
The sound mix is wicked and the music is powerful.

Nice work, guys.

Cheers,

Mike
 
Thanks Mike. Appreciate it. Yea, Matt Parra really did an excellent job on the sound and music. We're lucky to have him.
 
This looks and sounds great. I'm sure you put a lot of work into it. All of your shots are well thought out. I bet you took your time to think through most of them cuz nothing looks rushed. The only thing that bugged me was that the lead was bald. Don't get me wrong, I'm balding and being bald is cool for the most part but that's a lot of skin to look at all at once.

You made this for around $500 according to your site? Very impressive. I watched both parts and thought that this would make a cool web-series that I would definitely watch (and I don't normally like web-series).

Very inspirational man!

:beer:
 
Hey thanks for checking it out! Yep, our budget was around $500 I believe which covered the food and gas. We shot two full days if I recall and then another day or two for pickup scenes such as the boat and the final car stuff in the city.
 
You don't get enough credit man, this was one real good short :)
I'll be in Chicago while your there, lossfest?
 
Thanks for checking the film out :)

Yep, I'm going to try and put together something to shoot. I'll hit you up if anything develops.
 
great job , i love the work you all did with little money that you have , even the actors did a descent job .... looking forward to make something like it
i do have the same setup as you , of your experience what should i do to get the best result out of my hvx/m2/nikon ? ( if you dont mind)
 
djgvinny said:
... of your experience what should i do to get the best result out of my hvx/m2/nikon ? ( if you dont mind)
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Try to get good control of your DOF. Shoot shallow when you need to for that specific purpose, otherwise go for a 5.6 or at least three stops down from whatever the widest aperture is. I tried to balance TDM with both some shallow work and also deeper focus setups.

If you're going to be doing a lot of handheld work, make sure to have some wider lenses. I rarely touched my 24mm and 35mm Nikon primes prior to this shoot but they became the workhorses for TDM. They allow me a loose handheld style that didn't feel too shakey when viewing later. I don't like the ultra tight, hand held stuff the 'bourne' movies used. I don't like when I can't tell what's happening in the frame.

This was also shot mostly with available light and an occasional work lamp for some BG fill.. the m2 doesn't look good at all when forced to shoot with no direct light of any kind. So look for locations (int) that have good window access. Get some different curtains (light and thick) that you can string up over any window source. They'll act as soft boxes on a sunny day. And sometimes wait it out and let the sun peek through the window you need and then shoot your scene. Time consuming, but cheap :)
 
maannnn i love you .... :) this tips you couldnt get them even in school...
yes you absolutly right about the M2 AND NO DIRECT LIGHT ....i been avoiding the m2 just for this reason , thats why i asked you ..so what i learned from you that i need light light light

tell me did you adjust the color on the camera setting or post pro color corection ?

by the way i watched it three times i love it just the fact how you did it and how much , you know that we all watched some movies that cost millions not even half as good as yours ....well keep up the good work and thanks again for the tips , keep them coming
 
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