Death Of Seasons

Not bad, I really like the color correction and some of the shots look really good. But the whole part where he just laughs and the music stops, that didn't work for me.
 
Wow, I have to say, I am very, very impressed. Your lighting and camera movements were topnotch, and the actors were very believable. Did you use a wide angle adapter? And I also must say that shot of the two kissing in the car was perfect. The natural movement and lighting was perfect. That was the part that I kept scrubbing back and fourth through. Fricken awsome!

One small part that I thought could use a bit of tweaking was the end of the trailer. The entire trialer had me watching, but at the end when the masked guy brings the knife down, the music just ends abruptly. It might work if there was a loud sound f/x with the knife or someting, but I just felt as if the trailer got cut short.

But anyways that really isnt a critique on your movie so whatever. Definitly post up some more trailers or clips later.

-Justin
 
This does look interesting; hard to tell from the trailer but it appears you put some work into it. Love the song (Great band). Keep us posted!
 
very cool very creative! When I clicked on the link to your site, I was like whoa this guy has taste. I like the name and the idea of the plot seems cool from what I can see. You main character has a lot of, well, character;) but because I see you've done such a good job I'm going to give you my two cents chronologically. err however you spell that.

I think the opening scene if fine the distorted film look works! I don't like going from cigarette to cigarette it's always the case in independent films, your main character in the beginning works but let break the mold shall we?
I like "the fallen" girl. Look at "the embittered" practically 35mm regarding color, but lets light it for the mood. Black out the window in the table area, and make him and the chair the focal point with lighting. it will also help with the illusion of more DOF. Re-shoot "the righteous" against a building in the city somewhere dramatic. I liked "the cure" good everything almost. As for the text lose the black outline, it cheapens it up to much. like, like, like. Ok what appears to be where he is standing in the night under, uh rain, errr drizzle not sure. Unless he is in front of car headlights, use a blue gel on a light and put it way up in the sky. Haven’t tried rain yet, but I’m sure its a B!tch. I really like the outside shot of the house looking in the green really sets the mood, but I'm afraid if this shot was to long, which it isn't in the trailer it could amount to cheese. I loved the title entance, pure movie, the cape walking to fill the frame and the fade, brilliant!!!

I hope this helps you! I wouldn’t have taken the time if I didn’t think this had great potential! Way to go! What do you think?
 
Wow thank you for your positive comments and constructive criticism. This was the first public forum I posted on regarding my film because I love the community here.

The site is mainly up now for our cast and crew and so we are ready to go when we officially 'release' it, if that makes sense, so I greatly value all of your feedback and suggestions.

Justin, yes, I shot with the Anamorphic Adapter. I ordered the guide and it was invaluable. Before I got the guide I couldn't figure out why I was losing resolution and couldn't ever get anything in focus. It's still a little tricky but once you understand why this is you can make it work with minimal adjustment. Getting shallow DOF shots (which I love) is a little more difficult as well and I may consider shooting without the Anamorphic for those shots on my next film.

Thank you for your comments on the car scene, I actually just shot that 2 nights ago and it was just one of those 'destined' nights where I actually wanted it to rain and it did, and the actors were just in the zone. I used battery powered flourescent lights from Home Depot to light the interior. I'm very proud of those shots.

All of the camera moves are handheld. I was going to use a Glidecam but I got the 2000 and it just hasn't cut it, more of a hassle then anything. I may try the 4000 in the future, but I'm hoping I can just get a Steadicam somehow somewhere, heh.

I will play around with a sound effect at the end and see how that works.

Avatuar, I agree with alot of what you are saying here. I'm really not happy with the titles at the moment. Without the drop shadow it's very hard to read the titles. I'm looking for other ways to approach it.

As far as the lighting on The Embittered, I decided to use mostly the natural light streaming in through the windows, but it proved to be harder to control. I'm going to do additional tweaking in post so hopefully I can do more to seperate the subject from the background.

As far as the rain shot, it was a spur of the moment thing to mix up the locations a bit, it's a very unconventional film, you'll see... But yes shooting that was tough the camera got pretty wet. I've found that you can get the DVX a bit wet and not have problems, lol... Still wouldn't advise it though. I tend to be pretty run and gun sometimes though and just say 'screw it let's do it'... I had to wipe the lens down after every take on that one. For lighting we had 2 work lights with 100 watt Reveals for the main light source, unfortunately we didn't really have anything else at the time, I agree that a blue source as a kicker or back light would have been nice. I don't know if that shot will make it into the final cut but if it proves to be imperative perhaps I will reshoot it.

The stylistic approach is at the same time anti-style guerilla raw stuff, handheld, and then on the same coin very stylized, based on the perspective of Gabriel (the main character, the guy with the mask).

One of my main focuses on this was to improve my directing technique just involving performances and collaborating with actors. I read several books, Judith Weston's proved to be very very helpful. I'm very proud of the performances and feel so much more confident now. I can tell you that if you believe in your actors and work with them with an approach based on who they are and really give them ownership of their characters, it seems to work really well for me so far...

We've shot this in about 6 weeks so far and are in our last week of production.

I can't tell you guys how satisfying it is to almost be finished. This is my first feature film, and to everyone out there who wants to do it, all I can say is, go for it! You CAN do it. It takes perserverance and hard work but just getting it done is an amazing feeling. I don't know how far it will go but I know that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. This is something me and my buddies talked about for the past 5 years, and we finally have done it. There have been many bumps in the road but you can get through them.

I'm posting a sort of production journal on www.chancewhite.com if anyone is interested. I only have 2 entries so far but hope to update it more as we finish production and go into post...

As far as all the smoking and that being an indie Godard worshipping filmmaker cliche, yes I know, but I can assure you nothing else about his character or the film is cliche... I can't wait to get reactions...

Again thank you for your feedback!
 
Judith Weston, I'll have to check her book out. Years ago I was suppose to take acting for directors from her, but the class was full or something like that. So I ended up in a regular acting class for six months. To this day it still helps with working with talent.

Onto the trailer. I agree with all of the comments.

Other than that. It looks pretty good.
 
that was really well done! very interesting

But I agree toilet bob that the laugh didn't really do it for me. Was a little weird. But then again, it's only a teaser and I don't know the context and the character, so I can't judge

Great job!
 
Great look; since the "film look" seems to mean scratches and jumps in the projector gate, go all the way and have the sound hiccup at the appropriate time-delay when the image is jumpng...!
Love that burnished look, esp in the B and W segments.
 
Thanks again for all of your input.

Hiro, we lit that scene in the studio. Our setup has a very industrial look with stone walls so we used that as the backdrop. Had our actor (Delfo Baroni) about 20 feet in front of the back wall. At first we did a three point lighting setup which looked very textbook, I decided to go with just a single JTL softbox though. We had him run through it like 30 times in various different ways. This will make more sense and you'll know what I'm talking about when you see the opening sequence. Basically all the lighting consisted of was one 500w JTL soft box about 45 degrees up and to the left of the camera. Existensive retouching in post was done to achieve the look you see there. The wall is normally tan, not blue.

PDX_DVX, yes AFI has a song entitled Death of Seasons from the Sing the Sorrow album. This album has been an enormous influence on me especially in regards to this film. It really fits many of the themes perfectly. In fact yes, this is where I got the title. I don't foresee this being a problem but we have not contacted the label or band yet... Does anyone think this would be an issue?

HP, I like your suggestion regarding having the sound drop out and 'screw up' to match the visuals in the opening. I'm going to play around with this.

I'm working on a revision which includes new titles, I've also toyed with taking the laugh in the middle out, but I'm not decided on excluding it yet.

Thanks again for your feedback.
 
This looks awesome, and you've got me wanting to see this project now. I like the tight shots and moody lighting. The quality of the lighting alone breaks the mold of what we usually see in DV films. Can't wait to see the finished film.

Rob
 
The second I read the title of the film, I thought to myself "He's got to be an AFI fan.

I liked it a lot, it looks pretty interesting. My biggest complaint would be the ending, cut out at the wrong moment.
 
TC, thanks for checking it out and giving feedback.

Yes, I am an AFI fan. I actually discovered them while we were working on the concept for the film, and the album Sing the Sorrow fit thematically with what we were doing in alot of ways.

I'm going to tweak the teaser and cut a trailer, should be online in July...

Thanks again for all the feedback.
 
Chance White, excellent trailer. You have some great lighting moments there!

I only had two problems, one the song ending abruptly at the end. Awkward. How about just a fade out? The other, audio-related too, the music cutting out to the guy laughing. Just stood out like a sore thumb in an otherwise well made trailer.

Yeah not sure what it's about, but the acting and lighting work tells me it's a solid effort. Nice! Dialogue and delivery at the beginning felt very Kevin Smith to me, don't mean that in a bad way (depending on how you feel about Smith). Keep us posted!
 
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