"A Verse Before Dying" - AF-100 Western Short

[_JD_]

I really liked the short. Wish you would have used the chopper more. Maybe for when the priest and villain square off and when the boy walks off with the horse (flying away to close the picture).

Liked the dream sequence flare.
Liked the slow dolly/zoom behind the villain at the start (would have liked to see maybe a close-up of his mouth speaking during the monologue).
Wish there were more people carrying on/scurrying to hide during the showdown.
Thought there was too much light on the boys face in the cabinet scene.
Wasn't clear who shouted right after the Priest was shot.
As said before- I'd like to know the relationship of the girl to the other characters to know why I should care about her dying.
Steadicam shot with the boy running to the fallen priest was excellent.
Micro-critical:
Any boy who had just shot and killed a man would have uncontrollably shaky hands as he reached for the bible.
In 1850 when times are tough and people are living off the land- you won't see many chubby characters. Hate to get personal, but the weight of the villain and the boy were distracting (to me anyway).
Interesting how people are dissecting the characters, editing and acting and not the camera...

Thanks for sharing and I hope to make something this good one day.

 

[TimTheFoolMan]

Interesting how people are dissecting the characters, editing and acting and not the camera...

That's perhaps the most telling point. - Tim

 

[John Caballero]

as someone said he did seem catatonic and lifeless.

And that is exactly why the actor nails the character. He is a priest, apparently with a dark past or maybe not. According to the stranger he did him some evil and that's why he came for revenge. Should the priest be all happy and nappy and colorful and whatever. Certainly not. And having the gun hidden like that in the bible certainly shows the priest's state of mind. Without more background into the characters and their stories is difficult, almost impossible, to make conclusive assessments about them. They all did their part very well. Congrats again.

 

[Luis Caffesse]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for taking the time to give such detailed feedback and criticisms.
It's invaluable.

 

[taylormade]

And that is exactly why the actor nails the character. He is a priest, apparently with a dark past or maybe not. According to the stranger he did him some evil and that's why he came for revenge. Should the priest be all happy and nappy and colorful and whatever. Certainly not. And having the gun hidden like that in the bible certainly shows the priest's state of mind. Without more background into the characters and their stories is difficult, almost impossible, to make conclusive assessments about them. They all did their part very well. Congrats again.

I wasn't asking for happy - or nappy. If you watch the scene where he examines the woman's body it's as if he's looking at a sack of beans. I needed something from him - grim anger, sadness -something. It had to be subtle, but it had to be there. A closeup on him during that sequence would have also helped. As it is, we watch from a distance and it's hard to get into the emotion he's supposed to be feeling. I agree with others that it would have helped to know who the woman was and what her relationship was to the Priest.

I still don't get why the Priest had the gun in the bible. Was he a fake, a guy who pretended to be a good man but actually was prepared to kill with no regret? Was he a sadist who planned for the boy to shoot the Stranger and planted the gun for that purpose? To me this is always the problem with the "surprise" ending. If it's not set up properly, too many questions remain and destroy the credibilty of the story.

 

[ilauzirika]

I still don't get why the Priest had the gun in the bible. Was he a fake, a guy who pretended to be a good man but actually was prepared to kill with no regret? Was he a sadist who planned for the boy to shoot the Stranger and planted the gun for that purpose? To me this is always the problem with the "surprise" ending. If it's not set up properly, too many questions remain and destroy the credibilty of the story.

That is going to be explained in the feature film........BTW, if you need someone I'm ready to help hahaha

 

[Stephen Mick]

For the curious, I've put together some stills with notes of which lens was used on the shot. Here is the first group…

 

[Stephen Mick]

More…

 

[Stephen Mick]

And more…

 

[John Caballero]

I still don't get why the Priest had the gun in the bible. Was he a fake, a guy who pretended to be a good man but actually was prepared to kill with no regret? Was he a sadist who planned for the boy to shoot the Stranger and planted the gun for that purpose? To me this is always the problem with the "surprise" ending. If it's not set up properly, too many questions remain and destroy the credibilty of the story.

Ok. Now you get it. That is exactly the mystery of the priest and the story. And we will never know for sure, (unless there is a pre-quel of course). Just like the Mona Lisa. Brilliant.

 

[Brandon Rice]

Thanks for posting the lens types and grabs, very cool stuff.

 

[timbook2]

Well done! very good sound! good camera! :thumbsup:
and thanks for the lens types! the panny 14-140 looks pretty good compared! I am surprised how it holds up to the ZF series.
I dont want to comment too much on the story, I didnt like it too much because I dont like these cowboy movies in general.
I liked the actor who plays the boy, he was outstanding compared to the others and the bad guy was worst IMO.
The story was told too slow IMO but the good sound quality and some of the totals/landscapes helped a lot.
I dont like if I know before whats happening next in a film....

 

[Slimothy]

Hey Stephen and Gang,
Great job on the short. I watched it yesterday and had a few questions (I'm gonig off memory at this point.) Was there some sort of strobing of the light on the beginning push in on the bad guy? Seemed like the light coming in from the window was pulsing or something? Other thing was when the boy was running it seems like he's in a blue-ish circle. Almost like a weird vignette. I noticed it again when you posted the grabs w/ the lens notes. Lastly, when the bad guy lowers the gun there seems to be a reflection that looks like smoke, is that from a filter or something? That's all I remember.

Thanks again for taking the time and introducing the cam to everyone in something other than a test. Very helpful. Also, Matt Gettemeier is a G!

T

 

[tflak]

I wasn't asking for happy - or nappy. If you watch the scene where he examines the woman's body it's as if he's looking at a sack of beans. I needed something from him - grim anger, sadness -something. It had to be subtle, but it had to be there. A closeup on him during that sequence would have also helped. As it is, we watch from a distance and it's hard to get into the emotion he's supposed to be feeling. I agree with others that it would have helped to know who the woman was and what her relationship was to the Priest.

I actually thought the preacher's reaction was a bit over-the-top. Would have much preferred a more stone-faced performance. But maybe that's just a personal preference.

Great job all the way around. Really enjoyed watching this.

 

[Stephen Mick]

Hey Stephen and Gang,
Great job on the short. I watched it yesterday and had a few questions (I'm gonig off memory at this point.) Was there some sort of strobing of the light on the beginning push in on the bad guy? Seemed like the light coming in from the window was pulsing or something? Other thing was when the boy was running it seems like he's in a blue-ish circle. Almost like a weird vignette. I noticed it again when you posted the grabs w/ the lens notes. Lastly, when the bad guy lowers the gun there seems to be a reflection that looks like smoke, is that from a filter or something? That's all I remember.

Thanks again for taking the time and introducing the cam to everyone in something other than a test. Very helpful. Also, Matt Gettemeier is a G!

T

I'll try to answer as best I can, T…

On the light coming through the window, that was the first day of shooting, and the wind was absolutely howling outside. The wind may have caused a bounce/mirror to move slightly, which caused the "pulsing" you see, I think.

On the aerial shot, we did put a slight vignette on that in color, but the difference in color in the grass was actually already there, the vignette just seemed to enhance it a bit. Our color grade also added some slightly "cooler" tones to the shot.

And good catch on the "smoke" in the gun-lowering shot. That is, I believe, a filter reflection, and while we had a "clean" take of that, I didn't like the performances as much as I did in the take we used.


SM

 

[MattinSTL]

Audio was really good. These days, Hollywood is all foley and ADR. This obviously wasn't, and as such the short feels less like a modern movie. But for audio recorded on location, this was VERY good.

I thought the dialogue audio was amazing. Whoever the sound guy was did a great job.

Thanks for noticing... (insert Sound DVD plug here)... ADR was considered a possibility before this project was done... but I don't think they needed to do any. Getting good sound is about tenaciously focusing on 3 main challenges (that branch off into other issues)... 1) get the sound you want, as clean and clear as possible... 2) avoid the sound you don't want, which is 80% of getting the sound you do want... and finally, 3) maintaining good levels (I try to run levels as hot as I can w/o blowing peaks, for max SN when using the cam also as the sound recorder... which was the plan for this shoot.

I said this before, but it bears repeating... the excellent cam-audio of the AF100 was a pleasure. I matched levels for my return feed to seamlessly switch between the sound devices mix bag and the return... and they sounded surprisingly close, so I was assured the location sound was going well. Instead of WYSIWYG, it was "what you hear is what you got".

This also bears repeating... Thank you Matt Gottschalk for making my job a lot easier on the shoot. Having your bag set up and ready to go eliminated a daily prep (which I appreciated very much!)

 

[Slimothy]

I'll try to answer as best I can, T…

On the light coming through the window, that was the first day of shooting, and the wind was absolutely howling outside. The wind may have caused a bounce/mirror to move slightly, which caused the "pulsing" you see, I think.

On the aerial shot, we did put a slight vignette on that in color, but the difference in color in the grass was actually already there, the vignette just seemed to enhance it a bit. Our color grade also added some slightly "cooler" tones to the shot.

And good catch on the "smoke" in the gun-lowering shot. That is, I believe, a filter reflection, and while we had a "clean" take of that, I didn't like the performances as much as I did in the take we used.


SM

Thanks! I figured the mirror mightve been moving outside the window but sometimes you see that pulsing type look added on purpose. I thought it would be a strange choice here which is why I asked if it was on purpose.

Thanks Again.

 

[Stu Siegal]

Stephen, thanks again for taking the time to put these stills together, it's extremely helpful. Really impressed with the 14-140 helicopter shot. Great shooting all around.

 

[aurantaurant]

Were you guys just using a boom mic?

 

[MattinSTL]

Lectro 205 (wireless) w/ trams (lavs) on actors... in combination with a 416 on boom. I suspect that most audio is from the wireless... except when running would cause almost unavoidable clothing noise on the lavs. The activity in the cabin, and those lines, are also boom because that was shot as a continuous take. Emilio didn't have a good place to hide a lav since his shirt was unbuttoned. He was lav'ed at times... but mostly boom on him.

I had a combination of regular lavs as well as -10db lavs... and I used them in different places depending on the volume and intensity of the lines + wind issues. I stuck the lavs tight between two layers of clothing so that no cloth could move on either side of the mic... which worked well as long as the actor wasn't moving wildly. (I did this by using "toupee tape", but was prepared with needle and thread if I needed to get extreme... the toupee tape, and gaff, required frequent attention... and a fresh application between scenes. A couple times my first "rigging" didn't work to my satisfaction, and after one take I'd ask for a second to make a fast tweak. The easy-going, yet professional attitude of this shoot made that possible... and I think the results reflect that. Some shoots I go on, if at first it doesn't work, they pretend like they won't mind those issues later on, but they always do... so... I appreciated the respect given to location sound on this shoot. A tweak usually only takes 2-10 seconds or so... and can be the difference between clothing noise, or not.)

In the shots where there was no need to hide the mic... I didn't. When you see the back of the actor, his mic is right out in the open... with fur on it (in the wind)... or simply foam, if not in the wind. When I don't have to hide mics I don't. Why risk clothing noise when you don't have to?

I prefer a boom mic... but more and more I'm finding that productions rarely want to deal with the issues that a boom adds. Booming can slow down a shoot at times... and in my experience... 80% of the time... people end up preferring the lav track... only because the boom couldn't get close enough due to framing, lighting, etc. The reason the cabin audio is more crisp... i.e. brighter... is because that's the 416... instead of a tram that's "buried" in the actor's clothing.