"PAIRED"- A Fifth Click Film

Hey man, I enjoyed this.

Nice shots.

The audio seemed off at times, was it ADR'ed?

Also, how on earth did you do the shot where his clothes rip off? I noticed some "painting" in the background that looked off, but it was extremely well done.

I'm sure you explained this in this thread so I'll take a look!

Thanks for sharing,

Robbie
 
Hey thanks you guys, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Robbie- Yes, it was all ADRed, theres not a single blip of nat sound in the entire film. The location had a radio blaring, several different machines running, a loud AC unit, and several costumers having their own conversations all while we were shooting. So about 5 minutes into the first shoot, we decided it was going to be ADR'd. I believe I know the portions where you speak about it being slightly off... they're mostly due to the fact that those shots were usually picked up quickly on the last day and we didn't capture nat sound what so ever on the last day. So lining up the audio became incredibly difficult.

As for the clothes ripping off... there isn't any "painting" as far as I know (I did the effect.) What you may be seeing is some weird compression because of the motion, some heavily out-of-focus cars moving outside the window, or perhaps the blurring over the laundry machines because of the fishing pole/line's movement when the clothes hit it on the way into the dryer. If its okay, I'm going to leave this to discussion for a little bit longer, we were hoping people would wonder about it.

Thanks for watching you guys!
 
Nice casting. Your lead actress is a cute one, (and my wife says he's cute too) both very likable.
The story is one that we all can identify with, and the whole fishing bit is fun and comical.

I really want to see your blooper reel, because it seems like they were struggling not to laugh a couple times, but it played well as their shyness towards each other.

The cinematography is very nice throughout. I especially liked the shots from inside the dryer. The sound design in those moments worked well too. The colors were great all around. I also liked the time-lapse jump-cut sequence. Fun and interesting.

The Ball moment was sweet, with their feet together. "Paired" takes on more meaning at that point, (even though you kinda know it's going to happen, it's still satisfying when it does) and I said out loud, "awe, how cute"

It's too bad about the ADR. Lesson learned. In the future, do whatever you have to to control the environment. Bring some donuts for people who agree to be quiet, or offer to pay for their laundry, or rent some wireless lavs and build a big background track- anything to preserve the on-set performances. I would like to see (hear) a cut with the production track. Maybe it could work?

I thought the script was very good, and maybe 1 or 2 revisions away from a great one. Just a feeling, as I don't have specifics.

Very nice entry for one of the love story twilightfest entries. Looking forward to seeing more from you.
 
I can see a few parts where the ADR either does not match EXACTLY, mostly in scene 1. There is also another part where "Alva's" level drops lower than normal. Other than that was our ADR really as bad as everyone says?

I am sure if our actors were not from out-of-town working on a tight schedule we could have squeezed a better performance out in post. Thanks for all the praise and criticism everyone!
 
David j. Dodd said:
I can see a few parts where the ADR either does not match EXACTLY, mostly in scene 1. There is also another part where "Alva's" level drops lower than normal. Other than that was our ADR really as bad as everyone says?

I am sure if our actors were not from out-of-town working on a tight schedule we could have squeezed a better performance out in post. Thanks for all the praise and criticism everyone!
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I have never done extensive ADR, but I think it is VERY tough to do well. I would really love to see a version with the production track, even with all the noises.

It sounds like it was recorded in a room much smaller than the space of the laundry mat. A little bit of a room ambiance (med/short reverb/ambiance) would be needed to clear that up.
Unless you have access to high-end reverbs $$$ it's very difficult to get it to sound right, however, Logic pro has a plugin called Space designer that does this very well. Other than that, what I would suggest to people who must record ADR is to record it dry (use a very dead room or hang tons of blankets around) and place your boom mic 2-4 feet away from the actor (so you don't get that presence or "boominess" [no pun intended] sound) then once you figure out which takes have the best performance and edit them together as one track, take that recording and a nice speaker (just one) to a quiet room the same size and dimension/ quality as your location and play it through the speaker (at speaking volume) as you re-record it with your boom. This will give you a great room sound, and it won't sound like ADR. Another thing to have your actors do is move their heads as they did in the original, so you get those subtle differences when they should be getting a little off-axis from the mic.

The main thing about ADR is the ability to match the performance. Many times there's pure magic that happens on the set that can't be replicated weeks later in a studio. This is what I miss the most. Although, if done really well, ADR can improve a performance, but I think that's pretty rare.

After the competition is over, it would be great to see the noisy version as a comparison. The movie is still great, and many people would never know it's all ADR, but being a big audio guy, it bothers me more than most. It's a minor gripe for an otherwise fine piece of work.
 
Yeah, I see what you are saying. About the production track, the original audio makes the cuts about three times as noticiable; the room had terrible acoustics and as each cut occurs there is a different song in the background.

Another factor in the ADR was our inexperienced female role. She was having trouble memorizing the lines the first day, so Kasey (director) had to feed her them off camera. After that first day however she suddenly got more comfortable and (I would say) improved her acting drastically.
 
ahhh, i thought it was my PS3 playing back a bit out of sync! I did notice but didnt comment because I thought it was some conversion issue. I didnt think it was THAT bad, only noticed at the start really.

if i have ever need to ADR , a piece of software called ' vocalign' can help to really match with the reference take. its not that user friendly but it time stretches the new vocal slightly to fit the original timing of the reference track and to me does not sound 'funky'.

I used it once where I just roughly VO'd the words without even watching the take back, and it still timed them very well. Just make sure your clips are not too long, feed it a sentence at a time.
 
Hey everyone! Sorry, I had been checking this thread like once an hour yesterday but I guess I stopped right before this. Anyway, I'll reply--

Anti De Presence- I've never heard that technique before for ADR recording, definately will check it out-- I would love to have used nat sound, but let me just flat out tell you- It would have been IMPOSSIBLE. The budget for the film (not including food) wound up being $300... half of which I couldn't even afford. That was only for the actors. The location was only acquired by us being OVERLY amiable to the attendant working that day. That means everyday we were dealing with a fresh, grouchy laundromat attendant who knew virtually nothing about our film or that we had previous approval by the owner. You can imagine the look on their faces when we started moving in the lights and camera. Then imagine us trying to ask them to turn off their radio, the arcade machines, the T.V. they're watching, and then trying to get the other disgruntled costumers to turn off their cell phones and stop talking for a couple hours. As you can imagine... it didn't work. The nat sound has changes in radio songs between different shots, several noisy machines right by our actors, and a surprisingly loud t.v. and arcade machine.


So we chose ADR. What is bizarre is that I showed the film to several testers (family, friends and crew) and there was only 1 line that they could tell was actually off. So I fixed that line as best as possible (one where we had disconnected our boom mic at the very end of the shoot because we were being rushed out by the attendant).

Anyway, I really do appreciate the constructive criticism-- it'll help me further refine this film to its best possible state. And coming from a guy with strong audio background, I know its information I can rely on. Besides that, thanks for all the praise! (btw, there was a HUGE amount of laughter on the last scene's takes. primarily because we were in public, with a man in his whitey tighties yanking on a laundry machine! But in the other parts of the film, suprisingly little haha. )

Darkline- I'll definitely check out vocalign, sounds like it could've saved me hours of strenuous work.

Anyway, I'm going to make sure to run through the film a couple more times and see if I can line up the couple off lines are better aligned. I'll also look into refining the effect on the ADR to see if I can make it sound "in place" a bit better. Thanks!
 
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Your film is full of creativ ideas and touched my emotional side. Your male lead's acting is very good and so charming! I love the detail when he entered with the fishing rod in the laundry and the first thing what the audience could see is a close up from his feeds with only one sock and then in the second framing the audience could see the fishing rod. It seems that now he is going to be a hero with a fishing army coming in the laundry. The whole idea to fish in a dryer is fantastic and when the dryer sucked his shirt and his pair of trousers, I felt with him and liked to jump in your film and I wanted say: "No, it's not the end - go, go fight with the dryer, please don't let the dryer feel like Audrey from the Little Shop of Horrors - you will win". Oh no, this dryer beast is so hungry! But then the little surprise at the end - the dryer isn't bad - the dryer wanted only bring this both together. This is a film full of imagination - I adore it! BTW a detail - I like the camera view from the inside of the dryer, it gives the film little mystical part! I enjoyed it very much - Compliments! :2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08:

Susanne
 
My comrade with the A1/Letus combo, you've done a fine job here. Really entertaining.

You took someone everyone can relate to and ran with it.

I won't go over the ADR stuff, 'cause I'm right there with ya. It makes your job a heck of a lot harder, and I commend your effort.

The actors in Paired were really strong. I connected with them, and they made me laugh. Two great things. Their performances were natural and you deserve a lot of credit for getting that on screen.

I loved some of the angles you chose, like the inside the dryer shot. Excellent! Nice camera work here. You made the Canon sing. That shot at the end with the clothes flying off was priceless. I was rolling in laughter.

Overall, a great little film. I've watched it a few times and still chuckle. A high rating on my scale. Bravo!
 
Dug the whole concept and overall loved the film. Aside from some ADR issues already discussed. Doing sound design sucks just watch mine. I did it all myself and have never even tried it before so kudos on at least making it sound good. My only other question is why so few clothes being washed, why waste time going to the laundry mat with like one out fit, was it so they could see each other more often or what. I would have used at least two different laundry baskets seems only one was there.
Pauly
 
Susanne G. said:
Your film is full of creativ ideas and touched my emotional side. Your male lead's acting is very good and so charming! I love the detail when he entered with the fishing rod in the laundry and the first thing what the audience could see is a close up from his feeds with only one sock and then in the second framing the audience could see the fishing rod. It seems that now he is going to be a hero with a fishing army coming in the laundry. The whole idea to fish in a dryer is fantastic and when the dryer sucked his shirt and his pair of trousers, I felt with him and liked to jump in your film and I wanted say: "No, it's not the end - go, go fight with the dryer, please don't let the dryer feel like Audrey from the Little Shop of Horrors - you will win". Oh no, this dryer beast is so hungry! But then the little surprise at the end - the dryer isn't bad - the dryer wanted only bring this both together. This is a film full of imagination - I adore it! BTW a detail - I like the camera view from the inside of the dryer, it gives the film little mystical part! I enjoyed it very much - Compliments! :2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08:

Susanne
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Wow! Thanks Susanne! I'm incredibly flattered. Especially that you compared my film to Little Shop of Horrors- I am a huge fan of that film (still wanna make a dark/comedy/musical some day). Its funny that you mention that intro shot to the fourth scene... it was one of those bits that was going to get cut for time issues but everyone kept letting me know how awesome it was-- So I made sure to leave it alone.


My comrade with the A1/Letus combo, you've done a fine job here. Really entertaining.

You took someone everyone can relate to and ran with it.

I won't go over the ADR stuff, 'cause I'm right there with ya. It makes your job a heck of a lot harder, and I commend your effort.

The actors in Paired were really strong. I connected with them, and they made me laugh. Two great things. Their performances were natural and you deserve a lot of credit for getting that on screen.

I loved some of the angles you chose, like the inside the dryer shot. Excellent! Nice camera work here. You made the Canon sing. That shot at the end with the clothes flying off was priceless. I was rolling in laughter.

Overall, a great little film. I've watched it a few times and still chuckle. A high rating on my scale. Bravo!
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Fine job yourself on "Teachers Pet"! One of my crew's favorites of the fest! I've already forwarded your kind words to my actors! Its interesting that people are mentioning that dryer shot a lot, it was really hard to get. I may post up some BTS of what we had to do to get it later on. Theres only a couple pictures of what was actually going on there and they're from a cell phone...so we'll see. Thanks again!!! :)


My only other question is why so few clothes being washed, why waste time going to the laundry mat with like one out fit, was it so they could see each other more often or what. I would have used at least two different laundry baskets seems only one was there.
Pauly
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There were different clothes in the laundry baskets but we tried to stay in our color themes... so much of the clothing was very similar looking. I always figured that he came back so much because he was investigating the dryer after it started taking his socks. But thats just my interpretation-- they were also interested in each other, so its highly probably they were hoping to bump into each other again.
 
I don't comment on a lot of films, but I had to stop by and say how much I liked this one. Great story. One of my favorites in the fest. Very well done.
 
A very imaginative concept! My favorite part was when he enters with a fishing pole; I got a big laugh out of that one. The acting was good all-around.

I noticed the ADR, but I thought it was very well done and distracting only in a few small places.

I am also curious about the clothes ripping off. I thought that was great! I'm guessing what you did is slit the clothing in the back and tape/pin some fishing line/invisible thread/whatever to the clothing, then yanked it off him. Can't figure out how from where you pulled it though (obviously from inside the dryer). How about some BTS pictures/footage of this? I'd love to see it.

Nice work!
 
Hey everyone, unfortunately we have very little BTS pictures of the shoot, but plan on posting before and after stills of that shot to reveal how we did it. That will be coming later, we still want people to try and figure it out :]

Thanks everyone for commenting!
 
David j. Dodd said:
Hey everyone, unfortunately we have very little BTS pictures of the shoot, but plan on posting before and after stills of that shot to reveal how we did it. That will be coming later, we still want people to try and figure it out :]

Thanks everyone for commenting!
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Unfortunately we are notoriously bad at taking BTS

I could not have been happier with the way this movie turned out. It's incredible to read some of the kind words that have been written about our movie, especially seeing all the other stunning work that is out there. I can't wait to come back and compete in the next festival and see what kind of work we can all put together. It's a scary world out there for filmmakers and it's good to know there is a place like this where we can come together.
 
Qzar said:
Unfortunately we are notoriously bad at taking BTS

I could not have been happier with the way this movie turned out. It's incredible to read some of the kind words that have been written about our movie, especially seeing all the other stunning work that is out there. I can't wait to come back and compete in the next festival and see what kind of work we can all put together. It's a scary world out there for filmmakers and it's good to know there is a place like this where we can come together.
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^^The director of photography for PAIRED (a.k.a- the reason it looks so damn good). :beer:
 
really liked the images you got for this film, you made the laundromat pop with color.


great imagination with the fishing pole and the dryer too, loved the shots from inside the dryer and that of guy walking in without a sock. some funny lines with the panties too. good acting and nice ending. the music was a bit weird. won't comment on the ADR, i tried to ADR a scene in my flick and removed it because it was soo bad, so you did a whole lot better than me!

cool flick, keep filming!!
 
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