A Brief Case by TheMacB and abraham

JimtheJib said:
and why was he holding the brief case at the end? did he manage to catch the alien after it had ravaged the office?
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Yeah Jim, that's at least what I had in mind. We cut out all the action, and we come up on him finally clasping it shut. The first clasp is in the black and the second comes with the picture.


As far as planning goes, this is really the first time we've all gotten together and really planned out a movie. We originally had a sci fi flick planned for Kinko's Copies, but that location fell through. Then, a week before shooting was supposed to happen, we got an office. So Dan Samiljan (Owen Sheldrake) and I wrote the movie over dinner at his birthday party. I wrote up a tentative script with no dialogue. We all sat in a conference room in the first hours on site, and we wrote the shooting schedule for the next three days.

Envision (and others) you guys are right about the sound mix. That was the biggest problem we had. We only recorded with the DVX mic, because we just dont have any other way of doing things. Adam (themacb) really had this movie on his shoulders for the weeks up until upload, and he was taking criticism from all directions -- by phone, e-mail -- and every one was about sound. I think he nailed it as best as the material let him. And what about that music? That's all him.



If anyone has ever mixed perfect fake blood, PLEASE tell me how. Bruce Campbell's method I heard is nice, but very staining, and it reaaaallly hardens.

--evan
 
The music was good.

I made some blood (not sure about Bruce Campbell's recipe) for our DEATH MARCH short. Just Karo syrup, red dye and blue dye mixed in until you're happy with the look. For a dark, thick blood, it's tough to beat. Looks GREAT, but it does stain like crazy and hardens ... I made the mistake of letting mine sit on the concrete for HOURS ... cleaned it the next day, and that also took a few hours to clean.
 
Yes! Man...that is the recipe we used. We just couldn't get it to be dark enough without looking purple, or red enough without looking pink...It was killin' me.

bruce campbell's book says to add non-dairy creamer, i think? I'm pretty sure the point is to take away the transparency, but it stains like crazy.
 
I think the trick is to add LOTS of red and quite a bit of blue as well ... in one container of Karo syrup, I used up nearly ALL of the red & blue dye. If you were to lien one direction or the other, I'd say to go with more of a purple, as it's at least darker and from a distance people won't be able to tell as well ... vs. pink/red just looks too light.
 
That is almost certainly it. We wanted a large batch, so simply must not have used enough color...IDIOTS. ;)
 
Probably kind of an Einstein thing ... guy could do quantum physics in his sleep, but rumor has it he couldn't count change.

Comparison to your team is the genius camera movements, but can't make fake blood to save your lives. :) j/k
 
If I don't see this in some filmfest after the SciFest is over, I'll be very disappointed and you'll have missed a golden opportunity.
 
I loved the comedy in composition for instance when he opens his briefcase for the first time and looks to his right to see if anyone heard or saw anything. lol And the timing for your actors was great. At the same time he looked left the other guy looks over the wall. In any shot inside the cubicle areas you had movement all over. It was choreographed very well. One of my favs. :beer:
 
awe. I was so excited that I found an instructional guide to all the smilies that everyone uses only to find that beer doesn't work. I even copied and pasted. lol :cry:
 
I have watched this one a couple of times, and I have to agree with all the praise that has been given to it thus far. But there is something that is nagging me.

When the protagonist first sits down at the desk, he pulls off a post it note and tosses it. Was that note supposed to say something, or is it just something I am making too much of?
 
Hey Cap'n -- yeah, nothing too significant written on that post-it. But I'm pretty sure the lead, Dan, did that with the idea of foreshadowing in mind.
Thanks for the comment!

--evan
 
Quick Disclaimer: I am avoiding reading other comments before rating each of the films, so I may repeat comments others have said to death.

I really enjoyed this piece. The framing and camera movement was wonderful, the acting was great, the story was compelling, the music was memorable. Good job!

My biggest complaint with this piece is the audio, particularly the dialog in the opening (receptionist shot). I had the volume slider in Windows Media Player all the way up and the computers volume all the way and I could barely make out the voices. Then it went to the next scene and almost blew the headphones right off my ears :)

Anyway, good job overall. I really liked this one.

Larry
 
Well shot, well done.

Watched it all the way through and that really says something, trust me.
 
Larry R said:
My biggest complaint with this piece is the audio, particularly the dialog in the opening (receptionist shot). I had the volume slider in Windows Media Player all the way up and the computers volume all the way and I could barely make out the voices. Then it went to the next scene and almost blew the headphones right off my ears :)
Larry
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Yeah Larry. Friggin sound, huh? I think you're right, that is our weak point. I wish one of the prizes was a shotgun mic -- I think a lot of us would be gunning for it.
As far as the leaps from cut to cut, I know, it's tough.
And unfortunately, though it doesn't show, we spent -- I would say -- the majority of time on sound in post. Adam will tell you, it was a ***** -- particularly getting that conversation between Owen and the boss to sound remotely smooth took a lot of finagling (anyone wanna spell that?)

But hey, when we get a few grand the big choice will be: do we spend it on a shotgun mic, or Macregor's adaptor? ; )

--evan
 
I've watched this film 3 or 4 times. I just love it! I think you found a clever concept and the way it was shot including camera movements and setups were great! Dolly shot towards at the beginning was great, I'm curious how many 10 ft lengths you used to get that shot. Also the final shot in the office with everything torn up was great!

my only crit is your audio. Some spots were way soft. I liked your music though and I thought whoever composed it did an excellent job with music cues.

Your actors were fun to watch. The coffee-sipping ponytail man was hilarious. He was so goofy.

Great job man, you took the sci-fi genre and twisted it into something clever and different. A+
 
thanks dj. the dolly shot at the beginning was 70ft. 14 pieces of pipe and 14 takes. the music was all recorded in my bedroom using the mic on the DVX except the upright bass and the piano which came from my yamaha S80.

the sound was sooooooo difficult. like evan said, most of our post time was spent on the conversation with the boss. i could never get it quite where i wanted it. in the end i'm happy its as good as it is. sound equipment is the next step. or macgregor's G35.
 
TheMacB said:
thanks dj. the dolly shot at the beginning was 70ft. 14 pieces of pipe and 14 takes. the music was all recorded in my bedroom using the mic on the DVX except the upright bass and the piano which came from my yamaha S80.

the sound was sooooooo difficult. like evan said, most of our post time was spent on the conversation with the boss. i could never get it quite where i wanted it. in the end i'm happy its as good as it is. sound equipment is the next step. or macgregor's G35.
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Holy cow! 70 ft?! That's impressive haha I hope you didn't have to do that take too many times!
 
I really liked this one, it was quite funny. The people that let you use their office must have been really nice to let you wreck it like you did. Awesome.
 
i gotta get back and do a full review but saw the thread and had to say this film rocks!

cool indie vibe, great art direction, and oh so mysterioso!

Lottsa funt to watch!
 
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