Liberty's Foe- 5 Min Short Film

C

ctbullet

Active member
Synopsis: Due to a lack of training and planning a young pilot is shot down in Bosnia 1995 during the Nato bombing campaign. British Forces gain intel on his location and are sent to go and rescue him.

Directed By: Callum Thomson

Heres some juicy pictures for you to enjoy

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Film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlsdPf5lphg

Please feel free to rate and comment and check out the rest of my short films and videos

http://www.youtube.com/ctbullet
 
Hey There

Alright, First of all, main thing
I couldn't hear his last last, after it goes to black when he is about to get shot

The following screen that says about soldiers being able to anticipate death made me figure he said something along the lines of:

Alright man, see you in heaven, or something more snappy and wittier than that.

The story definitely seemed plotless, you'll realize that war movies aren't just about showing the action parts with the killing and the bombing, there are usually smaller plots involving people and their own interactions.

If you wanted us to feel bad for our main soldiers, give us a little backstory, or just give us a little hint of their personality, something they might do to make them more human, otherwise they are just another soldier like all of the ones that they killed.

The general coming out of nowhere? It didn't feel right, I would have been better to just have another soldier kill him, bringing out the big guy makes it feel like an austin powers movie for just 1 second.

The Aftereffects? gunfire...

Your movie actually had me pulled in for a while, but every second that those damn horrible looking decals of gunfire showed up, it reminded me of crappy youtube movies. Every single time I was forgetting it was a student film, it took me out, rethink using that in your next pieces.

The cinematography was okay, I just went back to watching the credits to see if you did the cinematography and you did. But before that. It looks very silly if not embarassing to put your name so much in the credits. No need to say you did the FX, or that you did Camera. I doubt you had 7 cameras going at one time and all of the actors held the camera at one time, no need to list them.

You Directed it, you edited, and you did the cinematography
That's all you need, if that. You directed it, that's all I need to hear.
It's awesome that you had on a lot of hats during pre-to-post, but you'll see that almost
all short films you'll see one person was behind, there is no need to point out that

Charlie wrote it
charlie directed it
charlie was the D.P
Charlie was the camera
Charlie loaded the tapes
Charlie Edited it
Charlie did the sound FX
Charlie did the DVD
Charlie made the cover artwork
Charlie distributed

Don't I sound like a douch*?

Concerning the cinematography, it was descent most of the time, try not to get directly in front of the subjects so much, and you create better compositions, if you want that filmy look raise the contrast by just a bit, and crush your blacks a little more, perhaps add a widescreen since we're used to seeing that so much in theatres, and more now in our T.V.'s

There were some shots like it looked as jump cuts, don't know if these were intentional, but if they were I don't think they had the effects you were hoping for. The action, the fighting, all of that was alright.

In your page you were in the background with a throphy, tell us about it :)
Also, don't ever put your video on youtube
For one, it screams amateur, everyone with a videocamera making retarded videos post them on youtube,
Find a better website, such as vimeo, who gives you better quality, which means a lot when your shooting DV

I know all of these comments sounds harsh if not outright ***holish, but they will help you get a lot better, which is what matters
Saying your film sucks, or saying it's freaking awesome doesn't help at all.

But if you feel mad, and want to bash on me, feel free to comment my little short film haha
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=146938

Hope this helps!!! I'd like to see you shoot another one with these things in mind
 
Hey, CT, that was a lot of work. The gun flares should be replaced. There is a great plugin for gun flares. The movie had a lot of production value. Keep up the good work.
 
What is the obsession with plotless violence in student films? I mean, Tarantino, Scorsese, Rodriguez, etc. are brilliant directors, but every student filmmaker I've ever talked to wanted to make a mob/war movie with no plot, character, or interesting conflict. If you name any classic war movie, the reason it's classic isn't because someone got shot with a .44 magnum (though that was a great line in Taxi Driver), or because some obscure prop hand was playing around with a prop rifle they got of eBay. It's because the film had good acting, character, PLOT, conflict, PLOT, etc. and not because the plot was undeveloped and already done many times.
On a good note, your location scouting was very good. Your cinematography was OK, but a lot of dirt was on the lens at the end (which is OK in a war movie). In your next film, remember not to use automatic settings on your camera, as they like to mess with your footage while you're shooting (noticeable when they go into the cave). Your costumes were OK. The gun flares, as everyone has said, were awful. The prop guns were slightly realistic, but the acting wasn't very good. At times, I noticed some really amateur jump cutting, which can get awkward.
 
Thanks very much for your very dishearting input, ha, I've accepted the fact that people will dislike the of lack of plot, I've noticed and disliked everything you've said here and I will learn for the future. The reason there is a lack of plot is simply because this was made for a 5min short film festival. I therefore had to cut it from 10 min to 5 mins which was absolutely soul crushing as I'm sure some of you are aware. I therefore unknowly hacked away at tyhe story which made complete sense to me but not to the audience. An amateur mistake I know.

As you can see from my other films I'm not just a silly little student with a toy gun from ebay, I do put a lot of though and production value into my short films and like all students I'm still learning and progessing. I appreciate everyone watching and giving some critism

thanks
 
Did you read anyone's comments? They weren't that long. I never said you were a silly little student with a toy gun from eBay. In fact, I acknowledge that a lot of your production values are fine. Location scouting, wardrobe, cinematography, and so on were great. If you've ever taken a class on film, which I believe most of the members here, myself included, have, you'd realize that disheartening input, or constructive criticism, is not required, but is helpful to learning and progressing as a student. As many I know have noted, we are all students, and we are always learning. If you were a veteran independent filmmaker, and posted that film here (which was not all that bad, aside from the plot), I would've said the same thing. I've made worse films than this, we all have. The only reason I called it a student film in the first place, and I take that back, was because the actors looked that age (though they weren't bad actors), the topic was a common assignment (a historic war), the title was catchy, but unrelated to the plot as we see it, and, most importantly, it was on YouTube, which is NOT the indie film capital of the world. Since you submitted the five minute version to a festival, why not put the ten minute version online, especially if it's less soul crushing. We've all had the experience of cutting things down, and yes, it's hard. Good editing is something that takes years of practice, and by editing I mean the kind you use to keep the story together, not the kind you use to trim raw footage. By the way, I hate to stress this as you might find it fake, but I did think your locations and wardrobe were very good, and the cinematography, though failing at points, was also good.
 
Hi

I did read all the comments wrote and I do appreciate the time you guys have taken to watch and critique my film and I have accepted the fact whatever you make not everyone can like it and it gets shredded. Don't wine, take it onboard and move on to make better work. I know all of this sor dont worry

thanks, we are proud of the location we scouted so thats nice
 
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