SHORT: Buckle Down, Pants Off

C

cyclonebill

Active member
I posted the trailer for this film last week in the thread for my last film, but figured now that the film is done I should give it its own thread.

You can watch a 1-minute trailer of the film here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u1636EX8UQ&hd=1

And you can watch the full 10 minute film here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ0I5ivUEX8&hd=1

I wrote up a little blurb for the website on the making of the film and its intentions, a little excerpt is below.

The film above is “Buckle Down, Pants Off”, beyond that I’m not sure what it is.

The last film we shot (“And Here We Are Now…”) was by far the most professionally produced film we had put together- with the highest budget, largest crew, real actors, a carefully constructed script and so on and so forth. It was a fun (and also grueling) experience and I’m incredibly pleased with the final product. By and large we went about that film the ‘old fashioned’ way. Setting up the camera, the lights, shooting everything from one angle – breaking it all down, setting it all up again and shooting it from another angle. It was the first thing I’d ever shot this way because it was the first time it was feasible given the film’s content and the time and money we had available to us – the finished film appears nearly word for word as it does in the script. We’ve kept in tune with that traditional methodology throughout that film’s post-production process, meaning that we’ve elected to take it on the festival circuit, which means we haven’t posted the film online publicly and aside from a handful of people, nobody has seen the film we all worked so hard on over 6 months ago. That should soon change, but that’s just the way the process works and that’s the choice we made (and the film did manage to land a distribution agent).

That said, we were twiddling our thumbs in a bit of a period of inactivity between finishing off AHWAN and awaiting news regarding its future, which is expected to come in the Fall/Winter. I decided to shoot another short, this time with no money, essentially no crew, unprofessional actors, a very fluid process and when it was done, to just throw it online and get it out there. After finishing a film that was very specific and controlled, we wanted to embrace spontaneity and authenticity in presentation, in a way that many of our favourite micro budget films had done previously.

Read the rest here:
http://www.marsonmars.com/index/?page_id=2
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Okay Pavan I wrote up quite a bit about your film and my opinion might sting a little bit.

After I watched your film I was thinking that I wanted see more of the other people at the party and not just Anthony and his lady friends. Watching a character sulk like Anthony isn't very interesting unless there is some significant character development or some kind of rising action.

The lack of character development could be part acting issue. Since Anthony wanted to be alone, I would suggest having him act as if he was bitter at the world. If I were at a party and I was alone I would have negative feelings. Sure there was sarcasm in Anthony's dialogue to help promote some of his negative thoughts but your actor seemed too up-beat for a guy that wants to be alone at the party. Perhaps after he has the conversations with the girls you could have his bitterness fade away into an up-beat attitude, thus providing a dimension of character development for your film.

Now what about rising action? You had Anthony talking to his ex-girlfriend trying to convince her to stay but Anthony didn't seem emotionally distressed enough to want to convince her to stay in town. The conversation was like your moving away, bad economy, enjoy a beer, now lets talk about dolphins. I was lost about the dolphins, but I did like how your actress presented the subject. She was very enthuased about it.

Anyways, I'm not saying that Anthony and the girls weren't interesting, but at the same time those scenes dragged. I needed a break from Anthony and I thought that since your film takes place at a party there should be more scenes of other characters. It would have been pleasant to have a scene about the guy wearing an inflatable duck, or an extended scene with the two girls and a guy talking about queers. Having additional scenes of other characters would have been nice to help make your audience feel more involved with watching your film.

With the way you described the process of making this film, it sounds like to me that you should make a documentary. The way your visuals looked felt very reminiscent of a documentary. One of the things I liked about your visuals was the opening shots of the party. Seeing and listening to people talk while overlapping audio of other people talking made the film feel like a slice of real life.

Also, It seemed like there was a ton of people there. I think it's rather interesting that you could round up that many people to make your film. Unless you were having a party and making a film at the same time. If that's the case, it sounds like you had a blast.

I hope my opinion wasn't brutal. I saw how tattered your last thread was and I think it isn't fair for you not to get a decent opinion about your films. Good job for having the motivation to make a film and keep up the hard work.
 
hey man, doesn't sting at all, I appreciate you taking the time to watch it and put a lot of thought into your response.

A lot of the issues you bring up are issues I have with it myself so I'm not shocked or anything. We actually shot a lot more scenes of other characters interacting with each other on the front lawn, and some scenes giving Anthony some more depth across the street before he comes into the party. The first cut of the film was about 16 minutes long and I think probably would've addressed a lot of the issues you have, but when I watched that cut I just wasn't happy with the acting in those scenes and felt like it didn't jive with the looser feel of the stuff indoors so I decided to take a hacksaw to it and cut it all.

We lost pretty much all the exposition when I made those cuts, which is probably a bad thing, but the stuff that I cut was basically the first 5 minutes of the film, and I didn't feel right starting the film off with 5 minutes of what I considered our weakest material (especially online, when people will just click away if they're bored).

You had Anthony talking to his ex-girlfriend trying to convince her to stay but Anthony didn't seem emotionally distressed enough to want to convince her to stay in town.
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Yeah I can see that. I don't think we got this across very well, but he doesn't really want her to stay because he wants to get back together with her or anything, he's just one of those people that needs everything sorted out (buckle down) and doesn't understand people who live on a whim (pants off). So he's largely just concerned about what she's really doing with her life and where she's going, since he knows she's lying about moving back home with her parents.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to watch the film, I think your criticisms are all pretty valid, some good stuff there I can take away and keep in mind for the next one.
 
Hey Pavan,

I watched the trailer, and wasn't so sure about watching the full thing, but I went for it. I saw it in its entirety, and it had its good and bad parts. I don't mean to offend you in any way by writing this, because I may be at a similar skill level to you when it comes to making movies. I'm a going into my junior year at college in August.

Anyway, I liked your actors, and I liked that a lot of the film was done handheld. I thought that it really fit the party atmosphere. I liked that your main character (I'm terrible with names in movies) went through a transition in the story and was different by the end. I can obviously see you had good intentions.

However, the things that I didn't like far outweighed those I did. Beginning with the camera, I thought that the long takes in the bedroom were out of place. I didn't really get to see the girl's face, and actors love to be on camera and show their emotions. I saw a film today where a conversation was filmed exactly like yours, but head on. It worked really well, even on a tripod. Either that or an angle reverse angle would have worked for me. In addition to that, the jump cuts in those scenes took me out of the flow of the scene a little bit. I realize that they may have been intentional, perhaps to show the instability of the main character, but if it was my film I wouldn't have used the jump cuts. They were long scenes though, and for the majority, your actors were great.

I'm not sure what type of camera you're using, but if you're doing more handheld stuff, and don't have one already, I'd use some kind of stabilizer. One thing I learned this summer from studying in Prague is that if a handheld camera can have 3 support points, it will be far more stable. You can do it with 2 hands by using 2 fingers on one hand, or you can use your chest, shoulder, etc. If I can help by explaining this more, let me know.

One thing that really bugged me, and I'm just writing these in the order I think of them, was the sound. I wish there was some music - it would've added to the party atmosphere. I wish that the conversation was even quieter when they were in the bedroom with the door closed - that's a really private place, and I thought your main character went there to get away from the noise of the party. Evidently he wasn't able to escape! Lastly, some of the conversation dropped to really inaudible levels. My laptop speakers don't go too high, and I lost some of the conversation between the main character and his ex-girlfriend, especially in the end.

I thought that your main character's transition from shy and self contained to outgoing in the party was too quick. I was very glad it happened, but nothing seemed to be building to it. And what does he want, anyway? Does he want to get back together with his ex? If the answer is that he wants to stay in the room, it seemed awfully easy to get him out of there. And in addition, I think that's too passive of an objective for a main character for me to really be interested in him. If a guy wants to sit in a room, why do I care? Why do I want to watch him? I think you need, in the least, a main character that wants something and can pursue it until either he gets what he wants, or gets what he needs in the end.

I'm a lighting stickler, because I've spent a lot of my college so far gaffing, and I thought the light source in the bedroom looked a little unnatural. But it's not a big concern. A lamp would've made me feel better.

Lastly, I was a little upset with some of the dialogue. It felt a little bit unnatural. The way I do it is that I have my characters plotted out really well, and then I can know them well enough to know what they'd say in a given situation. Not necessarily the way it has to be done, but it works for me, and I'm sure you'll get better at writing dialogue. It helps a LOT to hear it at a script reading, while you as the writer, are listening objectively.

I hope this helps you out with what you can improve on in your next film!!! Thanks for this one, I enjoyed it.

-Andrew
 
hey Andrew,

No offense taken at all. Hearing people's opinions - good and bad - is the reason I posted it here in the first place, so I appreciate you guys taking the time to watch it, but also to thoughtfully offer your opinions as well.

This film was kind of experimental for me. I got my hands on a new camera and had some downtime between finishing my last short and hearing back from festivals for it, but I didn't have any money left over to finance another short. The last short we did was basically the antithesis to this one- everything was done very formally, with a decent sized crew, a proper script, fully storyboarded and so on. Basically decided that I wanted to shoot something where I completely just went with the flow, had a fluid story and script and didn't sweat the technical issues. So you're right, there are a lot of problems technically or strange decisions that were made- things I probably wouldn't do again, but for me figuring that stuff out and trying some things out of my comfort zone is what I was trying to push myself to do. That's basically why this film is online in its entirety and I have no plans to do anything else with it. I was actually expecting that it may come out as a bit of a mess, but honestly I'm pretty satisfied with the result. I picked up some things that worked that were unconventional that I hope to bring together with some of the more formal stuff I'm already aware of and bridge the two in the next project.

However, the things that I didn't like far outweighed those I did. Beginning with the camera, I thought that the long takes in the bedroom were out of place. I didn't really get to see the girl's face, and actors love to be on camera and show their emotions. I saw a film today where a conversation was filmed exactly like yours, but head on. It worked really well, even on a tripod. Either that or an angle reverse angle would have worked for me. In addition to that, the jump cuts in those scenes took me out of the flow of the scene a little bit. I realize that they may have been intentional, perhaps to show the instability of the main character, but if it was my film I wouldn't have used the jump cuts. They were long scenes though, and for the majority, your actors were great.
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I actually framed it head-on the first take we did and it just didn't look good to me for some reason so I decided to switch it up. I don't think those bedroom scenes look great either though. The jump cuts were basically done out of necessity due to a large amount of improv-ing and a lack of time we had while shooting. I basically had two reaaally long takes and there were some things I wanted to excise, which is why I put the jump cuts in. Normally, shooting one character and then the other, and then stitching the two angles together would've eliminated the need for jump cuts, but because there was so much improvisation going on, it just wasn't viable (the only other option would've been to shoot with multiple cameras, which I didn't have).

I'm not sure what type of camera you're using, but if you're doing more handheld stuff, and don't have one already, I'd use some kind of stabilizer. One thing I learned this summer from studying in Prague is that if a handheld camera can have 3 support points, it will be far more stable. You can do it with 2 hands by using 2 fingers on one hand, or you can use your chest, shoulder, etc. If I can help by explaining this more, let me know.
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I used a T2i, which has a very light body, so stability is definitely a problem. The shakiness bugged me too, and it became physically grueling to shoot those bedroom scenes later on in the day. I would've liked to have some kind of mount or stabilizer for the camera, but I just didn't have the money. Saving up for one now.

One thing that really bugged me, and I'm just writing these in the order I think of them, was the sound. I wish there was some music - it would've added to the party atmosphere. I wish that the conversation was even quieter when they were in the bedroom with the door closed - that's a really private place, and I thought your main character went there to get away from the noise of the party. Evidently he wasn't able to escape! Lastly, some of the conversation dropped to really inaudible levels. My laptop speakers don't go too high, and I lost some of the conversation between the main character and his ex-girlfriend, especially in the end.
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I think we just disagree here. I thought about putting music in for the candid party stuff (playing music during the actual filming wasn't an option due to copyright etc.). I figured the only way to logically do it would be to add music in editing, but chop it up to match the cuts since it was meant to be music playing at the party, otherwise it would imply that all the shots at the party were continuous which to a keen eye, they're clearly not. Adding music otherwise, as background music and not natural in-the-scene music- I have a bit of that at the beginning and end but I didn't want to overdo it.

In terms of the chatter you can hear in the bedroom scenes, I actually added that in during editing for the reason you stated at the end. He's trying to get away but he can't. I'll have to look into the volume level dropping in the dialogue, I haven't noticed that.

I thought that your main character's transition from shy and self contained to outgoing in the party was too quick. I was very glad it happened, but nothing seemed to be building to it. And what does he want, anyway? Does he want to get back together with his ex? If the answer is that he wants to stay in the room, it seemed awfully easy to get him out of there. And in addition, I think that's too passive of an objective for a main character for me to really be interested in him. If a guy wants to sit in a room, why do I care? Why do I want to watch him? I think you need, in the least, a main character that wants something and can pursue it until either he gets what he wants, or gets what he needs in the end.
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Yeah, I agree with a lot of this, especially the transition being too quick. We had a fully formed script and when we started improvving a lot more heavily, a lot of the content there was lost. I also cut the first 6 minutes of the film because I wasn't satisfied with the performances and the way I shot it, so a lot of the exposition was lost. I think my rationale in making the cut anyway was basically that the film worked better if it was confined to the party, and that the audience will still be capable of connecting the dots.

I'm a lighting stickler, because I've spent a lot of my college so far gaffing, and I thought the light source in the bedroom looked a little unnatural. But it's not a big concern. A lamp would've made me feel better.
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Yeah the lighting looks weird. We just turned a desk lamp on in the corner of the room, but most of the light was coming in from a window and the sky was weird that evening. It's all entirely practical/natural lighting though, it's possible the crappy lens I had to use in those scenes contributed to the less than stellar picture there.

Lastly, I was a little upset with some of the dialogue. It felt a little bit unnatural. The way I do it is that I have my characters plotted out really well, and then I can know them well enough to know what they'd say in a given situation. Not necessarily the way it has to be done, but it works for me, and I'm sure you'll get better at writing dialogue. It helps a LOT to hear it at a script reading, while you as the writer, are listening objectively.
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Oh dear, I hope this doesn't act as a reflection on my writing. All the dialogue in the film was basically about 10% written and 90% improvised, it was kind of a strange hybrid. I've seen a couple films lately that have used fully written scripts and then had their actors improvise instead and I wanted to try it out. Not forcing my actors to memorize the lines was also a way to entice them to participate as none of them have any desire to act professionally and were only it as a favour to me. If I use the same process on a more professional project, and I've seen it work, I'd probably make sure the actors have the script down as written, shoot it as a worst case scenario and then improv on top of that, closer to 50-50 than 10-90 probably. I appreciate the advice though, in the past I've definitely found table reads to be very helpful.

I hope I didn't come off defensive above, I was just trying to shed some light on my thought process when making some of the decisions I made.
 
Makes much more sense that it was a lot of improv from the actors. Looking forward to your next piece.
 
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