Death Letters - Screen grabs and link to short film

[Justin_Kirch]

good stuff. Some of the shots felt a little out of place, and some of the lighting in the first half was a little too harsh and bright for my taste. Story was really cool; a really good idea. The acting was ok. Nothing to rave about, but the lead seemed to be able to handle himself. Music was pretty well done and fit the story.

very nice job.

thanks lawsuit boy. i don't understand what you mean about some shots being out of place but i guess i'll take that comment for what it's worth. once again guys, all i did was DP this. i didn't direct, write, produce, etc. just DP'ed. all the camera work and lighting was mine. it's nice to get comments on the whole production but i didn't do a lot of the stuff in the movie, hehe.

the lighting in the living room was lit too bright for my taste too, but i was being bitched at by my director and producer saying it was dark. they don't understand that less is more for the dvx. eh, it's fine, we aren' t in the living room that much.

 

[Brandon Rice]

Less is more? Sometimes that is the case... not always I liked it in general... Judging the DP'ing. Good job!

 

[Justin_Kirch]

if you overlight any video footage it will look like crap, guaranteed.


thanks for the comments.

 

[Joe_Kras]

Oh, yea.

I especially liked the treatment of the elevator shot in the wharehouse in the first movie. Especially since you were a one man crew. That was a lot of different setups.

 

[c.g._eads]

Well, I thought this movie was kinda wayward, but i thought the DPing was pretty good. I mean outside of the office scenes (with the paper white walls and the straight on shot that showed no depth) and some of the wide shots in the house where the sun was blowing out the windows (I assume you didn't have time to gel them) and anything outdoors where that 'blowout look' screamed video, it was well done. The close-ups looked good. The camera movement looked good. Good stuff.

I've noticed that video footage really suffers when there's a ton of light. Even when you're controlling it. For instance, when a room is really bright and you have overly bright close-ups, the faces look too video-y (I'm thinking of that early close-up with him on the phone in the house). Obviously, the room was bright so you had no choice. But close-ups always look better with some sort of falloff. Is there a way around this?

Oh, and one other note (which I'm sure you're aware of). There is an early scene where he walks from the living room to the kitchen to say something to his wife. That room is underlit (and I assume shot at night).

 

[Justin_Kirch]

Well, I thought this movie was kinda wayward, but i thought the DPing was pretty good. I mean outside of the office scenes (with the paper white walls and the straight on shot that showed no depth) and some of the wide shots in the house where the sun was blowing out the windows (I assume you didn't have time to gel them) and anything outdoors where that 'blowout look' screamed video, it was well done. The close-ups looked good. The camera movement looked good. Good stuff.

I've noticed that video footage really suffers when there's a ton of light. Even when you're controlling it. For instance, when a room is really bright and you have overly bright close-ups, the faces look too video-y (I'm thinking of that early close-up with him on the phone in the house). Obviously, the room was bright so you had no choice. But close-ups always look better with some sort of falloff. Is there a way around this?

Oh, and one other note (which I'm sure you're aware of). There is an early scene where he walks from the living room to the kitchen to say something to his wife. That room is underlit (and I assume shot at night).

c.g., thanks for the comments. i sort of a ree with you about the 'over-lit' living room shots, but only to a point. i got in a huge argument with my producer and director saying that with all this light it's not going to look that great. they thought it was under lit, so i just settled with what we had. also, when he goes into the kitchen to kiss his wife, there was less light because they were actually two different locations...not only did i like the underlit stuff better, but it helped our artistic decision to keep the wife in the cold about what is going on. it wasn't shot at night at all, it was during the day with the same amount of sunlight.

i don't think any of the footage looked to video-y personally. although, the office shots weren't that great, but i didn't have anything to work with, unfortunately. that is the only scene i didn't like to shoot because the lighting was horrible, i wish we added some color to it. other than that, i work really hard on any of my projects to bring the production value up and make it as filmic as possible. thanks for your great comments though. they were very informative.