BONE HAND by Jack Daniel Stanley

Actually just watched it for the first time since it was about Half way done.

I am pleased. Its solid. And while has a few small quirks, i just think, of it as a super hero comic book and forgive. ( i mean cmon, not everypanel of a comic book is always a masterpiece of composition....)

Great editing work Jack. You have changed the way i think about editing after watching you in action.

Best of Luck!


Kholi said:
Wow wtf Jack.



Also, you guys used your adapters well. The DOF didn't feel ... how to put it ... added? Y'know? Like it's there because that's how a film/movie really is. Not "we used an adapter, can you tell?".
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WE used the adapters on everytake to make sure the feeling and charachter of the adapter matched thorugh the whole move.

If i remeber correctly only the opening shot and the Closing shots were without Adapters.
 
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haha :cheesy:

It's all good.

Thanks for letting me have a hallmark moment, guys.

John I appreciate your comments and thanks for the clarifications.

It's all subjective I guess, and not like I can measure my personal level of success in averages, inches, or points like an athelete can.

I hope other people feel free to make negative critcisms -- just to be super clear I appreciate those comments as much if not more than pats on the back.

I was just bummed because I didn't feel like I hit the mark that I wanted to hit.

I do know that I made huge strides during the production process balancing tech while focusing on work with the actors, and generally knowing what I was doing on set a little better with shot lists and stuff.

My secret plan was to get PK to say he liked it in the thread rather than just in a PM :evil:

MattinSTL ... NOW it feels like DVXuser fest. You were a HUGE part of Zombie fest for me and SCI fest didn't feel the same without you.

Like me, you're too hard on your own work - the chills were well crafted in your Zombiefest offering and if the next one is horror then you gotta suit up!
 
TIMUR, BUDDY :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

Great to see you here.

Guys TIMUR was the hero of my hero fest.

Motherfocker was there every single day and take and he and I shot everything except the roof and inside Bone Hand's Apartment where aram also shot.

I'd say 70% of the footage was Timur behind the camera.

And the rain shoot. Timur and I were sick for a week after that.

The actors could get in the car and warm up between takes. But we were out in it the whole time and looked literally like we had jumped in a swimming pooll with our clothes on.

With the Wind Chill due to being soaked it was 35 degrees out for us.

As soon as we wrapped that shoot we both just started shivering because the adrenaline of getting through it dropped down.

I've never worked with anyone as eager and willing to contribute of their time and talent to do whatever needed to be done to make the best movie possible and while soaking up (no pun intended) everything he could but also offering very significant creative and aesthetic contributions.

Wouldn't be half the movie it was without him (if it even got finished)

And also he's the reason the camera feels much heavier in this flick than my other work where the camera is very light and flies around alot.

So he did a good job of "acting" like a big expensive movie camera.

:beer:
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
And also he's the reason the camera feels much heavier in this flick than my other work where the camera is very light and flies around alot.

So he did a good job of "acting" like a big expensive movie camera.

:beer:
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That called " im tired".......





Haha joking.

Thanks for the kind words man!

( and i only melted 1 crucial tape in the dryer...!)
:D
 
Jack - ha! I actually tried posting something yesterday (after the PM :) ) but as I hit "Post" nothing happened. I then found out my Internet was cut-off. I then found out I hadn't paid in almost two months. I then paid and found out it would be 24 hours before the Internet graced my life again. I then found out I'm addicted to the Internet. :(
 
Kholi said:
...

Also, you guys used your adapters well. The DOF didn't feel ... how to put it ... added? Y'know? Like it's there because that's how a film/movie really is. Not "we used an adapter, can you tell?". ...
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TimurCivan said:
...

WE used the adapters on everytake to make sure the feeling and charachter of the adapter matched thorugh the whole move.

If i remeber correctly only the opening shot and the Closing shots were without Adapters.
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The rain shoot was all stock lens.

Wanted to make that shoot as quick and easy as possible and use auto focus when we had to.

Also the almost infinite stock lens was probably the best choice anyway.

the rooftop was two 35mm adaptors for the closeups and an anamorphic for the two shot so we could get maximum detail in teh city background.

The background behind her closeup is composited from a random shot Aram got with the anamorphic of the sky line and then a blur was added to that composited background in post.

Also the shot of their hands is conposited on a background shot on the anamorphic.
The sky was just black behind them so I used a luma key. The compositing in the girls cloesup was done with a diamond shaped matte.

picking up the glove scene = stock lens

Mom in the hallway scene = one DVX with 35mm

Inside Bone Hand's apartment = two DVX with 35mm

Hallway fight scene
  • shot through the keyhole (which was composited of course) was shot with teh 35mm
  • all other shots in the fight scene were the stock lens, except for
  • the wide shot of the three of them, me and John dead and Joel stepping over me was a century wide angle (we just couldn't get back far enough to get the shot otherwise.
death scene apartemnt = two DVXes with 35mm

Roof dream sequence / power transferrence = stock lens

Cymetary = 35 mm for everything except the wide shot where she walks towards camera. We used the anamorphic for that to maximize detail in the cymetary AND because that shot was shot at 60i for 24p slow mo so we were hoping the anamorphic would retain some of teh clarity there when deinterlaced.
 
I think you were trying somethign new.

Some people complained about the editing feeling rushed, but the scale of this project was 10% too big, for the 5 minute mark. so it was trimmed to the smallest sleekest, most stream lined movie possible. While this is usually a good thing, this film also had a distincitve Noir flavour ( thanks to Aram and mother nature) which needs a slower pace, to develop.

The post edits, like pans and crops and zooms, i feel, were for the most part pretty good. I was not even aware that you could do these things. I literally was Flabberghasted when isaw the rough cut, and shots that I SHOT MYSELF, were suddenly panning..... and looked amazingly lively. i kinda couldnt figure out how it was done till jack showed me.

The footage is "good" but the post production work, made it sing. However i agree with aram in that alot of the small details were lost in the indoor scene. But thats how the cookie crumbles in editing. oh well :)

This film was made Almost purely on Donated time. And i thnk we maximized what we had avaialbe. Whether it was the guy who screamed "That will never be in the tribeca film festival" as we were shooting the Dead rat scene or the look on jacks face as he returned from Evolution ( a store that sells nature stuff) with a freeze dried rat..... FOR FREE. ( nice work there jack) i had alot of fun, and learned alot.

Thanks for the oppertunity to show what i can do JAck.

-Timur
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Don't get me wrong guys its not about the constructive criticicism.

I don't think my movie is perfect and don't resent others pointing out its imperfections, whether or not Cinemark thinks that bonehand should have whiteface or not (disagree) or as others have commented, that the pace of the editing is pushed to far in some places (agree).

It's more about my personal mark and thinking I had taken a big step forward to learn that I was treading water.

I just thought that I had beaten myself (no Bone Hand jokes please) and not just by a little bit. And after two contests of second place I've now come in second place against myself too (with ODD Squad being 1st place).

While these films cost almost nothing in terms of $ (less than 500), they are just too expensive and taxing in many other areas to not move foreward and the possibiilty that I have not done so is pretty discouraging.

It helps to put it in John's perspective that great filmmakers out there making real films seldom make great ones (although part of me says then why bother), but it helps a little.
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Jack, I don't think you know the skillz you possess. I know you're not gonna let a few criticism get you down man... come on, you're talking like you made a bad movie, you made a great movie... but no film is ever perfect(some might disagree),

From reading the critics including mine, everybody loved the movie one way or another, to me that's a winner! You're never gonna make everybody happy, remember that!
 
shoot i forgot all that was stock lens.

OK i guess im a douchebag and a liar to boot! ( inside joke)
 
capitalP said:
.... You're never gonna make everybody happy, remember that!
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I know of this of course, but I don't KNOW this. Na wha I mean mang? I still try every time and hope for it though its completely irrational. :cheesy:
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
I know of this of course, but I don't KNOW this. Na wha I mean mang? I still try every time and hope for it though its completely irrational. :cheesy:
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By the way, just wanted to add, if you could like really **** up every now and then, I'd feel better about myself.

:)

M
 
Jack,

You DO realize the pressure you're putting yourself under, don't you? 3 for 3. The pressure's mounting already for HorrorFest :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
TimurCivan said:
...The post edits, like pans and crops and zooms, i feel, were for the most part pretty good. I was not even aware that you could do these things. I literally was Flabberghasted when isaw the rough cut, and shots that I SHOT MYSELF, were suddenly panning..... and looked amazingly lively. i kinda couldnt figure out how it was done till jack showed me.

The footage is "good" but the post production work, made it sing...
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there are three changes I made to the openning rain sequence that pushed it to far.
1 - dropped in a close up of the delivery boy over "where's the money chink" when it was just the low angle wide shot of the thugs legs and stick with the deilvery boy on the ground, which is the next shot it cuts to now. so that was a longer shot of that one angle -- when I look at it now in light of comments - this is the first place I feel like "whoa what's going on"
2/3 - during the two cuts of the thugs line "you and your chink boss gotta pay insurance just like every other gook on the block" and the delivery boy's close up in between, i added some shakey snap zooms that are booty. I was trying to emphasize "chink" and "gook" for the sake of the punchline "chink and gook very different dumbass"

there's a couple of other things that are perhaps too tight but the rest I stand by as getting the effect I want

But I guess those couple of elements when taken with the rest do add up to too much.

A good example of the post camer work is the camera movement in the opening shot of the delievery boy riding the bike. That shot was still originally and reframed and blown up in post with motion added.
 
ok, I have read a lot of critique on here, and I want to just say I love all you've done here Jack... the editing for me fit the film... the only qualm I really have is SOME of the little girls acting, and I realize how hard it is to get great actors... I love this film and its in my top 3 for sure!
 
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A question: Is there a professional decision why you decided to use racial slang at the start of the film, and then move into the shot of a young child? Maybe this is just my opinion, but this didn't seem to flow (the move from sheer ignorance to innocence?).
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Are you serious ? It was an opening action scene where Bonehand is introduced and saves the dude from being bullied. Is it that complicated to understand ?
 
John_Hudson said:
Are you serious ? It was an opening action scene where Bonehand is introduced and saves the dude from being bullied. Is it that complicated to understand ?
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I think the question regarding the racism in the opening is apt -- when selecting the defining incident that will show Bone Hand to us, why racism? Why street violence? How does it relate to his power, to his purpose, to the sacrifice he's about to make in the story?

Sure, it can simply mean, "He's badass and sticks up for the weak." It could simply demonstrate what we already know about super heroes. But it could also mean more, it could integrate meaningfully into the story as a whole. The opening scene could resonate in the last scene. And perhaps it does. But how?

While we lavish praise, we must also increase our expectations.
 
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