C300: C300 Short Film shot at Salton Sea

Beautifully shot!

Great location, great costumes, acting was just exaggerated enough on the part of the masters and very natural on the part of the slaves. Almost a clockwork orange vibe. The fight scenes were very realistic!! Also, the editing was really well paced, not to mention the grading!

Now I know you're not asking for feedback, so forgive me if my commenting is unwarranted--much less, not needed. But from a very subjective stand point, I felt that the music overlay kind of drown some of the potential richness that was present in your story and your cinematography. It's not that the song was a bad song or that it didn't match, or whatever, it's just that the sonic landscape of your film could have been really powerful if it could have not relied on just keeping up with the beat. I'm imagining some wind sounds and sand sounds, allowing the textures of the materials of this post apocalyptic scenario to have a voice, more subtleties to the range of frequencies present in the audio track, etc. I actually liked that you couldn't hear the voices and even the sounds of the bodies. It renders them mute, which is interesting. I just think maybe the audio track was a bit to quick of a decision. Was this was a music video, of course...was it?

You might disagree, and that's totally fair. I can't take away anything from the beauty of your piece. Sound or no sound it's still great. Just thought I'd give you my subjective opinion.
-All the best, Rafael
 
Excellent, very well done! I really like the grading. Nice to know you can pull the detail out in harsh light without going to a Black Pro Mist or a Low Con.
 
Thanks guys! Ended up being a very long day, but overall a really fun shoot! All the actors are pros so it was a pleasure to work with everyone.

Feedback is always welcome! It's primarily an un-official music video as the band is working on their album still. We went back and forth on creating a larger sound scape and might in the future, but knowing we didn't have the schedule to do proper audio on set we shot overcrank in 30p slowed to 24p in camera for everything and made all the performances a bit more exaggerated. The fight was a mix of 24p and 60p. I'd rather do something else then do something poorly, this would have been an impossible day with audio. I also find I have to give myself a budget and stopping point with projects otherwise you can keep picking away at something until the moment's passed.

It was pretty easy exposing out there the white sands acted as a bounce so the shadows weren't too bad at all. We stayed around a 2.8/850ISO all day, we upped shutter speed to 120 and 144 degrees while in 30p, then the fight was around 90 degrees in 24p. We also planned our day around the sun and took about a two hour break around solar noon. We got lucky with the Top Hat character's parade sequence we had just enough cloud coverage to kill the highlights on the white buildings behind him, we still had great exposure on the inside of the garage behind him.

One tip I would like to pass on is, when you're shooting a sequence like the fight scene in natural light. Shoot your wide master first then shoot your coverage, save some time at the end to jump back and get another wide master for lighting continuity.

Here's a rehearsal of the fight that was choreographed together a few days prior to the shoot.
https://vimeo.com/93681379
 
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Point taken. My feedback on the audio didn't take into account budget and time :)
In any case, my compliments still stand. Good stuff
 
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