SHORT: 38:50

capel

capel

Active member
Hey guys. I'll be shooting my first short film in August, so I thought I'd start this thread now and share a little bit of my preproduction experiences as well as production when we get there.

So far it's been all about gathering the equipment. I've got an hpx170 with a Redrock adapter. Nikon 20mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 105mm and soon I'll have a 60mm macro. Shoulder mount and a Marshall field monitor, as well as a 6 foot slider.

Here's the first test I did.

http://vimeo.com/11993190

It's up in Big Bear where we'll be shooting 3 of the 4 days. I was really disappointed with this test and have been working since I shot it to improve it and work out all the kinks. The white balance is way off and I wasn't using the direction of the sunlight to my advantage. Also not too crazy about the cinematography/camera work.

Here's my latest test.

http://vimeo.com/13129526

In this you'll see a lot of shots with the slider. Just trying it out and practicing a bit. The outside stuff is at 2 of the locations we'll use for the actual shoot. I bought some reflectors and diffusers and really tried to control the light in the first outdoor stuff you'll see. I'm pretty happy with the result and am relieved that I now know how to make that part of shooting outside work.

I also decided to go 2.35:1 for this film, which I'm pretty excited about. The footage in this test wasn't shot with that ratio in mind, but i cropped some of the shots I thought it worked for. Needless to say I've taped off my monitor and will be able to frame for 2.35:1 when we shoot for real.

I'm going up to Big Bear this weekend to scout the rest of the locations and to test out the shoulder mount and shooting 2.35:1. I'll have another test up when I get back.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more info and updates.
 
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UPDATE!

Here are some screen grabs from day 1 of our shoot last week.

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http://vimeo.com/13303499

Did this quick test for a scene in the film that will take place in my house. I wanted to see how my boards would work and if it would flow well.

Also wanted to test the lighting. It's a little too dark right now, but the good news is I was only using 1 of my 3 lights, so I definitely have the means to brighten things up a bit.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this test.
 
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Wanted to post my third and final test before shooting starts next weekend. Tried some interior lighting in one of our locations as well as a 60mm macro Nikon I just picked up. Also did a little more outside shooting at another location we'll be using.

Any comments/critiques are more than welcome. Thanks!

http://vimeo.com/13649818
 
Quick update. So last weekend was our first day of shooting.

Right off the bat let me just say that wow, this whole thing went a lot differently than i thought. First off, I had a horrible cold so I could barely talk the whole day. Awesome. So an hour and a half into our first location shoot a cop came and shut us down. Again, awesome.

So we broke for lunch and then shot our last two locations for the day, which went pretty well. Man, shooting took a lot longer than i thought it would. Just moving the camera and setting up the next shot is a ton of work. Definitely something I'm gonna have to tailor our future days to. Anyway, so we shot until about 1am and called it a day.

I did a rough edit of the footage we shot and am pretty happy with it. We'll definitely reshoot a few things this weekend, but nothing major. I'll post up some stills tonight.

So yeah, day 1 of probably 5 or so is officially done. I can already tell this whole process is going to be a major learning experience for pretty much the whole crew. But the good thing is that everyone left with a positive feeling, ready to do more.

Side note: Holy crap, permits are so effing expensive. How the hell is a guy supposed to get his first short film under his belt without pulling out a 2nd mortgage? Freaking ridiculous how much it costs to shoot in some of these places.
 
Yes permits are a pain in the ass. This is why I try to write around my resources. If you know anyone that owns a store or business that can be added to a script it's much easier than scouting blindly. And much cheaper to use.
 
capel said:
Side note: Holy crap, permits are so effing expensive. How the hell is a guy supposed to get his first short film under his belt without pulling out a 2nd mortgage? Freaking ridiculous how much it costs to shoot in some of these places.
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They don't call it 'guerrilla filmmaking' because it's easy... its a war, and you should take no prisoners...

But probably you should think for your next project along the lines of 'indoors', or 'on 'private' property'... and find in your circle of friends, acquaintances, second cousin's friend's third wife's step children, etc. people who have these sorts of resources...
 
Yeah I'll be going the private property/friend's places route for my next project for sure. I'd have done that for this, but the majority of it takes place in the woods.
 
Sound is great so far. Hired a guy that's worked on a bunch of stuff. Definitely not something I wanted to mess with on set. Everything else is enough to practically make my head explode.
 
capel said:
Sound is great so far. Hired a guy that's worked on a bunch of stuff. Definitely not something I wanted to mess with on set. Everything else is enough to practically make my head explode.
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I'm happy to hear that.

It's a lot more fun to do sound design when the recorded sound is good... Rather then having more being busy with cleaning up **** etc..
 
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