Are We There Yet?

EditPhish said:
There really wasn't all that much camera work as a lot of it was animation. . .
Click to expand...

Yeah. Kinda stuck in front of and behind the camera. Hard to dolly that way. :D

But if you saw how we did do the moving shots, you'd cringe. But the room is carpeted...so even if it did go flying off, the DVX probably wouldn't have broken...too much.

Dan
 
Funny stuff. There would be a prize for best non-human acting :)
And funny dialogue too, is it autobiographic? :)
Pablo
 
:p

My wife did NOT like the divorce line. She didn't want to say it...had to keep reminding her "it's only a movie, it's only a movie."
 
I for one loved the alien language. That really made it for me.
You really found an original concept, and drove it home.

I've had to show this one to my son
somewhere around five times now.
But I don't mind at all, because
You definitely know funny.

Cheers
beer.gif
my man
You are a GenJerDan and a ScholJerDan.
 
:D

Thankee. And thank my younger audience for me, too.

Wasn't expecting all these nice things people have been saying. Makes it all worthwhile.
 
So far for me this has been my overall favorite. The humor is grand and the technical execution impresses me far beyond expectation (of the sci-fi fest as a whole). I think you should be mighty proud of the CG/greenscreen/costume/set combo, super solid in my opinion. The story is definately the king here...super funny and quite refreshingly tight and light, loved the entire idea and didn't have to force myself to watch it.

The humor in this strikes me as the fullfillment of the promise made some time ago by your avatar (the reverse camera one), that of a guy who knows how to bullseye the funnybone....aside from many great posts, this is that promise made truly tangible.
 
Now I have to go out and buy new hats - the old ones won't fit anymore.

Maybe I found my niche: drive-by films. Just in-and-out with the setup and punchline. Almost makes me afraid to try anything longer...almost.

I do think the spaceship interiors went pretty well (some things about it still bug me...what's in my head never quite matches what winds up on tape). Certainly less troublesome than the rest. Only did 2 takes, and used the first one, and just a shot from the second when we had to add some lines. Nothing like changing the script...in post. Maybe that's why they call it Additional Dialog Recording. :D

Ha! Just remembered: Vali made the "costumes", looked great. And I painstakingly painted the fingernails - fluorescent green.

And then realized that I was doing greenscreen. D'oh! It's always something, right?
 
That looks great, Dan. Easily one of my favourites.

The interior spaceship shots (with the hands) were cool -- really added to the production value.
 
This was fun - thanks for making it.

Things that worked for me:

1. The POV at the control panel of the ship. Liked the fact that we heard the "voices" but didn't actually "see" the occupants full on - except fo rtheir hands. Left something to the imagination. In my mind, I was thinking some of the aliens from the bar scene in the very first Star Wars.

2. The cat. 'Nuff said about that.

3. The subtitles. Who couldn't identify with those two?

4. The "splat" as the guy at the computer whacked away the irritating "bug".

What didn't work for me:

1. The CG was a little cartoonish, and I would have liked you to go a little more cartoonish so as to confirm that that was the effect you were going for.

2. The lead-up in the cockpit seemed a little long to me - but not overly long. Just a little.

That's all I have - except to say again that I really enjoyed this and hope you'll do more.

Thanks for making this and letting us comment on it.

Cheers.
 
Yeah and yeah.

I've already trimmed 5 seconds off the thing since the "release". Gonna do some more. Just tightening, I think. Pregnant pauses only work well if you can actually see the characters. :)

And I HATE Blender. No wonder the company went out of business.

I'll probably spring for Maya one of these days. When I really really need to do some animation...and I can slip an extra $7k into the budget.


Oooooo. Some fancy ADR there for the swat and splat, eh? The swat is me flicking my finger into my palm, and the splat (on the wall) is me flicking the wall itself with my finger. High tech, all the way. ;) (Actually, all of the second half is ADR. I've got a 12" fan keeping my computers cool in that room...noisy as hell.)
 
very effective cg! i liked the way you had a very mondane script (a couple who is lost) but you applied it a sci-fi story. How did you get the actor to interact with the joy stick of the space ship? how did you time that out?

thanks.. nice job!!
 
??? Actors? If I had actors, you'd all be in Big Trouble.

Until then, you're just stuck with me (and Vali, in this instance).

Anyway, we had the script scotchtaped to sheets of cardboard on either side of the set, with DV Rack on my side, and a DVD player on her side running off the DVX' composite output...just to keep an eye on framing (our costumes ended at the shoulder.)

And I committed a screenwriting sin: I "directed from the page". Had to. She's never acted, and I quit years ago, and there was nobody else there to "direct" once the cam was rolling.

Luckily, Reni Santoni wasn't around, so I didn't have to worry about anyone actually reading the directions out loud.
 
LOL.

That's about all I can say. Good stuff. Great sense of humor. I enjoyed it from the first frame until the end. Really nice. Solid work throughout.

Only negative is the space scenes were a bit on the dark side, but it didn't take away anything from the experience for me.

Thanks for some really solid laughs!

Great work!!!

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

This was an amusing entry, I enjoyed it.

My biggest critique is that the CG is a little too cartoony and seems to be trying to take itself more serious than that. In my opinion you should have either improved the CG rendering, or gone with the cartoony (fits the story well) and amp up the cartoonish look.

I was impressed with the interaction of the "ship" composited into the room footage. Even though it wasn't a Rich Lee rendered ship, it seemed to fit in well with the footage.

Anyway, I think this was a decent entry - one I will enjoy watching again from time to time.

Larry
 
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Definitely one of my favorites. It was fun and light-hearted. Like watching a muppet sketch from my childhood. It didn't take itself too serious. I found myself smiling the entire time. I enjoyed it a lot.

Good luck!
 
I love it when these can make me laugh .
Well this wasn't dark on mine at all .
Sure wish it was longer , so I could laugh a little more .

Congrats on the animation . this is one area I would like to learn But do not have time for .

Thanks for sharing with us GenJerDan vbmenu_register("postmenu_440839", true);
Ian
 
Longer? And here I've been sitting, making it shorter. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

I like short short short pieces. (Heck..if you yank out the titles/credits, it's not even 3 minutes long...) 6 minutes is just...awkward, for me. I could probably do a 15, 20, or 60 minute piece (assuming actors being obtainable), or a 30 second thingie. But 5 or 6 tempts me to try to fit too much into too small a space, and I don't have the chops to pull it off.

Yeah...animation is hard and time-consuming. Looking back, I think I'd go with PovRay rather than Blender, if I could. A lot more work for the animation, but better results (better being subjective, of course) with the model. Then again, it might just be a matter of trying to do too much all at once. This was the first thing I did with it. "Learn as you go", which was not necessarily the smartest thing I could do. Especially considering the offers made here for FX help. :grin:

Anyway, thank you for the kind words. (And everyone else, too.) I panicked a bit when I showed this to my boss. "Interesting" is what he said. Not the reaction I was going for, to say the least. Kinda like getting "Well, they have have a great personality" when someone sets you up on a blind date... :grin:

Dan
 
I liked this movie a lot, sorry I didn't get around to commenting on it till' now. I thought it was hillarious, and loved the dvxuser.com bump at the end! HAHA! Well done.
 
? You mean what's on the computer screen? Surprised it's recognizable. Yet another place I screwed up. :grin: Should have gone off to the side a bit to show I was in the SciFest forum at the time...

Hee hee hee.

Actually, when Barry OKed the posting of frames, I was tempted to throw a few up, but the only ones of any interest would be the ones showing how badly things went and how I had to fix them (mismatched lighting and horrific glare on the framed prints were the worst booboos. Vegas to the rescue!).

Eh. Maybe I should, anyway. Just to emphasize how important it is to pay freaking attention when you're shooting. Even better: have actual people doing specific things, rather than trying to do it all yourself. Too easy to get caught up in aspect A and totally blow aspect B.
 
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