Shards of Darkness (Clip)

Drew599

Drew599

Veteran
So here is a little clip of the short that I just finished. This clip is from the end of the short. I'm sure some...if not most will say that this clip is too dark. It looks fine on my screen and even better on a TV. The room that we shot this in was small as all hell but the location was great. I only had one light in the room and it was wrapped in this old browned paper that we found in the theater. That's why it looks kind of orange-ish. I didn't want to light it very much because it was suppose to be dark up there. Have fun watching it.

http://homepage.mac.com/x599xproductions/ShardsClip.html
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

Dark.  If it is intended to be so - even to the point of being black - couldn't you reveal a little of what is happening in silhouette by illuminating the papered walls?

It looks like fun - just wish I could see it!

e
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

Hey
I liked it. I saw some "Ring" influence in there.

On the black and white section the 2 clips of the man being held down are so quick you cant see them.. I only saw them because I scrolled across the timeline and saw it. The blood on the guys hand seemed chunky or thick while the other blood shots looked normal. I liked it and for some reason I like the end part where he grabs the light string and turns it off.

keep up the good work
Brian
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

Sorry Overland, that you couldn't see it. I've seen stuff here on a PC and I couldn't even see it. Then I went and saw it on my mac and it looked fine. I could have done what you said as far as lighting it goes. It just would have looked, to me, a little fake as far as the lighting goes if I would have lit it too much. I projected some of this on a 2K Christie and it looked fine...to me.

Hectorxd, thanks for the coments. I know those clips of the man being held down are a little quick and I've been debating on wether or not to add some more frames to it. I might give it a try and see how it looks. The blood in both those shots are from the same mix I made. I think the reason why it looks "chunky" is because its just on his hands and not moving like the other shots on the blood.
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

First of all; excellent. Felt real; like a real movie and not some short. You have the skilly working for you. It is indeed dark (not during the high contrast black and white). I understand MACS are geared more towards the NTSC standards than a PC? This is somethign new I have discovered.

That being said; I loved this. Very cool. Very pro looking.
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

Drew599,

This is just my opinion for what it is worth - not remotely trying to bash you! ;)

I'm not afraid of the dark - far from it, but I can't see anything in your video until your subject steps into the source to grab the switch at the end.

Having a few years under my belt as an HOD (Hughes/JVC certified) projectionist I'd just say that as much as I love the Christie X4 and X6 projectors, I would never evaluate my source image values using a projector as a benchmark.

I'm coming from the standpoint of someone who scopes at acquisition and also paints and matches multiple projectors for exhibition. If anything, projectors are curved out and painted to please the eye, not accurately render to standards.

Sure we use bars and scales to rough them in, but after that is done - well, you know what happens... paint 'em by eye 'til they look right using racy flesh-tone laden test videos!

Along those same lines, my Toshiba 16:9 laptop is set to the brightest display settings and I've never had trouble viewing other files with it. Who knows?

;D
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

John, thanks for the kind comments. I might try and post the whole short on here if I can get it compressed down to fit on my site. I might make it a four parter. You know, like a different section of it every two to three days. By the way its 24 minutes long.

Overland, the only reason I brough up the digital projector thing was because I'm trying to setup a screening of the short to show everyone that worked on it or had some kind of involvement in it. So if I can see it on the projector just fine and it looks great on DVD then it has done its job. I'm also a projectionist and have been doing it for nine years. I work at the studios and deal with film and digital daily. So I know what I was doing in going over there to see what it would look like. Also I know that I can tweek the projector over there if it was too dark. Now if I was sending this over to a film festival that has a digital projector then that might be a different story because I have no idea how they might have that setup. I'm sure they wouldn't either. Usually only the engineers are the ones that have any idea. Also if your talking about when the dark figure starts walking towards the camera and then you can see who it is...that's an effect. Maybe your talking about something else. Sorry its too dark for you. I wish you could see it better.
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

By the way Hectorxd, I added a couple more frames of that stuggle in the flashback sequence and it looks better. I'll try and replace the one that's up for the new one.
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

The timing seemed off when he pulled his hand away. It stopped and his hand was still down in whatever was making him see the B&W footage (couldnt see what his had was on/in) it seems like when the B&W clip stops the shot should show his hand already up a bit and coming back towards himself, not still in the box then out. Get what I'm saying?
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

I understand what your saying embers. Him taking his hand out isn't what stops the flashback. He was shown what he was ment to see. The darkness let go of him. So that's why it is the way it is.
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

the editing is no big deal- as long as the final product is what it should be. But it's great stuff you got there.
and your avatar scares the crap out of me.
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

Thanks DvPixl. There were only a few things that I would have done differently in the short most of them all deal with sound. I'll just have to remember that on the next one. I'm gald that my avatar scares you...that's what its there for.
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

Hey man, this looked really neat! Looking forward to the final product. Can you tell us what you did the effects with? Looks like you rotoscoped a mask around the guy to make him a walking shadow. What program did you do that in?
 
Re: Shards of Darkness (Clip)

For the effect your talking about I used After Effects 5.5. It was really easy once I figured out how to use key frames. :) It didn't even take very long to do. The black and white stuff was done with the extract filter in FCP 4.5.
 
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