Citizen Kane 2 (16mm)

It's one of the weirdest things I have ever seen, but I loved it. I don't know why. It has all the makings of a cult film: 16mm, looped audio, a weird ifight scene, etc. Teh first line I just wrote was familiar, and I finally remembered where I heard it: I'm in this noise band, and we're the only one in my town, whichi s full of metal and screamo bands. And aftereards this guy appraoched us and said "That was the lamest thing I have ever seen...but I loved it."
 
Thanks for the comments. I completely agree about the "cult film" aesthetic, actually, even though it wasn't really intentional. Each student only got 200 feet of film, a few lights, and basically no crew, and I wanted to do something unusual despite the restrictions, so I decided to focus on weird effects and an over-the-top unconventional story. Some of it is intentionally a little weird, though. The rough cut was much stranger.

Some of the film came out at the wrong frame rate, too, so I had to slow the dubbed audio down to get anywhere near to sync, so a lot of the acting is even worse than it normally would be. My favorite line, personally, is "meet me at my father's grave," but just because of the performance.
 
Nice film, I think with a Stereo Editor you can get the sound into sync with the mouth movements. It'll take you a day, but it's worth-it.

Also consider adding the "buzz" track, just take a mic and record a room or an outdoor space for like 2 minutes, this way we know that it's indoors/outdoors.

I loved the story, it does not get boring. Amazing work.
 
Wow. Dude, that's easiestly one of the best things I've seen on these boards. I actually watched the whole thing. I don't know about fixing the audio, it's kinda great the way it is now. And maybe next time have the other actor try not to laugh at his own lines. Ha.

I gotta get me a 16mm camera. It's crazy how much better that looks than vid.

Good luck.
 
I like the idea, but the execution... meh. This isn't as tight and as seriously weird as for example David Lynch's short movies he did in the 70's. This thing is more chancy and sloppy, but that has pretty limited charm when it's clear you can't control your effects.
 
Wow, thanks again for all the positive feedback; it really makes me feel great since I just kind of did whatever I wanted with this movie but still worked extremely hard at it and it's fantastic to see that people like it.

Ulysses, film is definitely worth trying, just for the experience. But it is expensive and editing it is slow and unintuitive. (I recommend editing on a flatbed rather than digitally if you can find someone with access to one.) I think a big part of it is that you have to think your choices through a bit more when you only have a few minutes of footage, and ISO 200 (160 indoors) requires more careful lighting. After shooting film, my video looks better, too--but it takes much longer to shoot. I will also admit that the timed telecine helped cover my exposure errors a bit. But it's true that even the most mundane and flat scene can look beautiful in monochrome 16mm.

OldCorpse, Lynch is one of my favorite directors and I love his student films, at least those of which I've seen. In no way would I ever think that something as silly as this project would even approach the elegance of Lynch's carefully conceived and painstakingly constructed student work. As for not being able to control effects entirely, though, I think this is what I enjoyed most about working with film. Digital is so immediate and precise that there's really no room for experimentation and discovery. Getting to interact with film as a physical and organic object made me want to approach it differently, hence a sloppier aesthetic.
 
Back
Top