A Place to Dream (new short)

M

Mino

Northern Dreamer
Hey guys....I shot and edited this over the last two weeks and as usual would value your input. Video shot on DVX100, edited in premiere. All sound with the exception of music and birds recorded on DVX also. Thanks

A place to dream

Can also be viewed

HERE

if my bandwidth drops out.
 
I can tell this was a very personal project for you. In my opinion, the imagery near the beginning wasn't that impressive, but later on the imagery and the ideas you were saying got a little more interesting. I guess there isn't a whole lot I can say as far as content goes because this is really a personal thing about your thoughts about a relatively small, confined space, but I guess it was sort of interesting to hear your thoughts about man and nature and such, and your personal conclusions about this "special place," although it took a while to get to them..

I got to tell you though, there was one thing that really made it difficult to watch/listen to this otherwise calm, relaxed movie. Maybe it was just my speakers, but whenever a voice track came in during the movie, it was accompanied by a really high pitched static noise in the background that was really irritating, so I had to turn the volume way down to watch this. Other than that, I suppose the audio was pretty good.
 
Nice job, Mino. I can relate to a lot of what you said in this short. Your shots were interesting but I never got a sense of the bridge itself because there were no wide shots. I'm sure this was intentional on your part because you wanted to convey the world that you experience, the one that melts away reality, only feet away...

I have had many experiences like this in my life and still do when I go shooting. This is a difficult subject to pull off without sounding corny and, with a few minor exceptions, I think you did a nice job...it takes courage to do something like this.

Thank you for sharing.
 
Mino - Overall it was a beautiful and moving piece. The music, words, and imagery worked very well together. The only thing that surprised me was the shot of you. It's a great shot! You have a Clint Eastwood, Bridges of Madison County, look to you. Personally I would like to see a shot of you sooner. Maybe one of the first shots. As if the images were seeing are through your eyes. A frame of reference. I understand this would take away from the impact of the one-and-only shot of you, but I think the other images would be more powerful if we knew (sooner) who was talking. Think about it.

It was nice to see some of your work. Especially one that looks into the soul of Mino.

-pk
 
Mino, that was very nice. I think the best shots were the ones beneath the bridge. The wide shot, from across the stream, looking at the grafitti wall is great. Then you add lots of nice angles and transitions. For example, the water pouring from the drain and the trainsition from a front shot, to a side shot, to yourself. Very cool.

With my bias toward the second half, I would shorten the first half.

Oh, the narration is great. Is that your voice? Perfect voice and narration. For a moment, the voice reminded me of Warren Miller.

Thanks!
 
Thanks a lot for the comments they are really appreciated. I hope the sound wasn't bad as Ronald suggested it might be, sounds fine here. The compression wasn't what I wanted, but the really good stuff was close to 100mbs and seemed a little heavy for that length of piece.

Pk....I have a lot of problems putting myself in the film as it is, I'm kind of shy that way, but I did have it in mind at first to include more of myself in the first sequence. I may shoot some more footage and rework the whole thing at a later date as there are parts I'd like to fix.

Disjecta....A positive comment from you means a lot to me as I really admire your work and use it as a place to aim in my work...Thanks.


Hansk...Glad you liked the narration and my style of delivery. Here is where I'm kind of shy again...To me, I sound like anyone else should be reading this part but me, so the fact you liked it goes a long way

Thanks again to all

PS Ronald...I hope the audio problems were a fault of your system and not my technical skills, at the same time I hope you have no problems with your audio system because that sucks:laugh:
 
Mino - Unfortunately, I heard the same audio buzz Ronald heard. I'm familiar with that sound because my videos have it too. It's from the VO mic. I'm assumming you're using the onboard mic or a cheap boom mic (like my Azden). It could be background noise (a computer fan running while recording the VO, etc.). Not sure, but you can minimalize it by using one of the audio effects in Premiere. Try denoiser or dehummer. Fiddle with it. Also, fade up the VO, at each audio cut, so it's not as abrupt. Not sure if this will help, but I sympathize since I'm in the same boat.
 
Thanks PK....weird that I'm not picking it up my end, could be my ears I guess ( I ordered the cheaper ones) VO was done using a sure wired lav on phantom and a sure sm57. I wonder if the punch and sparkle filter added in Adobe audition caused it? It could be my XLR which is 100' too long and getting ratty.I'll check out the raw files again see if I can track it down.
 
Well, I had to crank the audio way up and max the treble but I have now heard what you mean I think. Using those same levels I listened to the origonal file which is a microsoft dv avi and the noise does not exist. It lives only after compression somehow. I will try recompressing using dif audio settings and see if that helps.
 
Interesting. Sounds like you have good equipment, so (as you said) it must be the compression. I think my problem is with my mic (and lack of skills).

I just played a few other files from DVXusers and the audio sounded fine (bastards!). I would ask disjecta if he hears what we're hearing.

Good luck!
 
I also heard it, but assumed it was an artifact of compression so I didn't pay it much attention.

I really enjoyed this, the visuals were wonderful and I really enjoyed the story that was told in your narration. I felt as though you described that quiet, meditative place all artists need to find. It helps us re-center and find our balance after existing for a while in the "real world" that is all to often "out of balance".

Thanks for sharing this,
Larry
 
Mino,

Congratulations on a very well done short. Didn't want to comment until I'd watched it twice, which in itself is something I've only done a handful of times with work posted on this site.

First of all, I like the concept of the piece very much. You aren't the first and won't be the last filmmaker to make a place the subject of a work, but IMO you succeeded in truly portraying, indeed imparting, a unique character and personality to an essentially inanimate thing.

A lot of that success owes to the excellent content and execution of the narration. While a few of the ideas were communicated in phrases I found a little cliche, many, many passages featured brilliantly unique, even poetic phrasing and word choices. Your reading was very good as well. All in all a very solid framework for the film.

The music fit perfectly with the themes of the narration -- pensive, a little melancholy, conveying a feeling of comfortable solitude. Excellent choice there as well.

The images did what I think they were supposed to do -- give a visual sense of the place as you experience it. The scenes, while many of them were pretty, weren't spectacular. But then I don't think you were trying to say this is Niagra Falls or the world's prettiest stream. And for me that reinforced the film's meaning. This place is not reknowned or ostentatious or something that will turn every head. It's importance is that it's turned your head and offered a sanctuary you haven't found anywhere else. And I thought your shots communicated that wonderfully.

From a purely technical standpoint, my favorite shots were the one where the camera is looking upstream almost at water surface level, the shot of the vertical rock in the foreground while the stream rushes by in the background, and the closeups of the water pouring out of the sewer conduit. Very nice camera work there.

I hope I can be foregiven for sounding artistically elitist, but it's so nice to see the DVX actually used in a film that SAYS something. So many of the clips I've viewed here reflect the filmmakers' preoccupation with trying to capture "cool" images or display odd compositions, angles, or camera moves or achieve some requisite DOF or flaunt some ostensibly desirable "color correction". I'm not at all knocking experimentation or thoughtful, purposeful use of newer film techniques. But if those techniques aren't used in service of ideas, they are pretty vapid to me.

Yours is the kind of film I'd like to use as a personal benchmark, the kind that -- when I can extricate myself from event videography long enough -- I'd like to make.

Thanks for sharing, and I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.

Elizabeth
 
Forgot to comment on the logo, Redzone Films. I'd never seen that before. When did you start going by that name? It's a cool logo.

Also, I wanted to tell you that the shot, right before your cameo, is the best shot I've seen in a while. It's a work of art. The bridge, the graffitti, and the river. Very nice stuff. Wish there was a hi-res photo of it so I could have it as my desktop.
 
Thanks Elizabeth, I'm glad the film worked for you and for the most part conveyed what I had intended. I am still searching for my niche as an artist though I feel this work moved me one step closer. It was an experiment in that respect. I certainly apreciate your in depth review. The naration was the last piece of the puzzle and I left it right till the last moment and then only had a small window to get it done. I dashed it out on paper in about twenty minutes so I'm really happy to hear it worked. Thanks again.


PK...I know what you mean about that shot across the water to the other side of the bridge. As I captured it to my hard drive my jaw kind of dropped and I couldn't believe it had worked as well as it did, got real lucky on that one. I think it worked because of the uniqueness of the lighting, direct sun steaming down from either side of the bridge deck reflecting back up to light the interior surfaces. The logo just came to me one day out of the blue and I sort of went "That's cool, I'm using it" whipped up a quick screen logo, incorporated it into my desktop and all was good. Visuflex is the name I use when I produce slideshows and multimedia content on a corporate level. Rdzone will be for any film work I do...Glad you like the logo

Cheers
 
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