FEATURE: DEUCE OF SPADES - How I made a period full feature film all by myself on ZERO budget

Hi Faith

Congratulations. I think your work is exceptional on many levels.

As a DP (of many years) I have enjoyed looking at how you have art directed, lit and composed your scenes. I would say you have "a rare eye" that will take you places.

Love your "half dark, half light". You have pulled this off fantastically.

Look forward to your next work and thanx for sharing.

What is the near future of 'Deuce of Spades'? A DVD, cinema or tv release.... maybe.
 
Shooter said:
Hi Faith

Congratulations. I think your work is exceptional on many levels.

As a DP (of many years) I have enjoyed looking at how you have art directed, lit and composed your scenes. I would say you have "a rare eye" that will take you places.

Love your "half dark, half light". You have pulled this off fantastically.

Look forward to your next work and thanx for sharing.

What is the near future of 'Deuce of Spades'? A DVD, cinema or tv release.... maybe.
Click to expand...

Thank you Shooter :) I appreciate the encouragements!!

Well my first goal is to complete the film, I still have a little way to go. Let's see how good it comes out and then see how far it is able to go... Theater release is pretty much out of question I assume, so realistically we are looking at DVD release, which is cool. Distribution will be seeked but I am not afraid to put it out myself if I have to, (which is the most liekly scenario, but who knows?)...
 
Tonight I share a few more screengrabs from the film.

This scene, shot in a vintage kitchen (belonging to a hotrod friend of mine) was very challenging because of the blocking. Actors kept changing spots as they talked, to keep the scene interesting and also to show off the kitchen vintage gas stove, fridge, dinette etc...

As a result, I had to light each mark and we lost daylight. I then had to recreate the daylight to match the ending shots to the starting shots.

here are two shots: One was shot at 10AM (with brigth sun outside) and the other at 10PM (pitch black outside) - can you tell which is which?


SCREENGRAB%207%202.jpg


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Kristen makes her first onscreen apperance with this shot. Softer light was used for this scene, which has a soft, innocent feel to it both in content, lighting and music:

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Using the door to frame within the frame


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Vintage 50's fridge:

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reveal on her close up as she closes the fridge door:

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I had one crew person that day and it toook us 3 hours to clean the kitchen up of all modern stuff to make it truly 50's period correct. we then filmed all day without stopping and did not have lunch :(... We then packed up the gear and spent another 3 hours putting all my friends belongings back into his kitchen... We ate at 11PM that night.

I drove home and got home at midnight, after being up since 5Am that day and being on my feet for over 18 hours straight. I then had to unload all my gear by myself when I finally got home and suffice to say I SLEPT GOOD THAT NIGHT !!
 
Where am I at currently you ask?

Two years have already been spent working on DEUCE OF SPADES. I am 65% completed (this includes editing and soundrack). All the flashback period footage have been successfully filmed. A little over 60 minutes worth of bringing the fifties hotrod era back to life.

A temporary teaser, which does not reveal the plot line, is now spreading the gospel on the internet, along with a few other clips.










 
Last shot for today, showing me on top of a rather precarious forklift set-up, in a cage held by straps. Fun times! It was very windy in the desert that night and I froze my fannies up there!

Oh... And should I even mention the scorpions running across our night shoot set?

BTS%2026%2074.jpg
 
Hey Faith! Nice to see ya here! I'll look forward to following this thread just like I did the other. It'll be handy to have it right alongside the other project threads I follow (Corrado, Drawing With Chalk, No Greater Love, etc., etc, etc...).

For anyone who might have missed it in the 35mm section, Faith's got an amazing story to tell. I'd highly recommend visiting there to catch up on it.

I know it's an old cliche by now, but...

You go, girl! : )
 
Good work Faith.

This is VERY inspiring and shows if you have the will to do it, you can do anything!

This really makes me want to jump in the deep end and make a film! I hate the inbetween stuff.


Keep it up, Faith. You're setting an amazing example.
 
I dont want to b**tchin here and complaining but i would like to express what i felt wasnt right after i saw the teasers.
Im sure somebody pointed out black darkened borders before (probably vignetting but im not sure if its from it ), i would get rid of this immediately on the set and zoom in more into letus adapter cause in reality we dont care how much you must zoom in to get rid of vignetting ,i know it takes some area and you have to cut out some part of view but its really much better to zoom in and put camera back than catch maximum area being close and get vignetting or black borders.This is very visible in some takes.
I dont quite felt that its the film , again it could be shutter problem ,and shutter changing variations during card driving didnt worked for me , i would instead do more tests with camera and try to get the filmic look by changing shutter speeds and compare side to side with actual film.But if youre not aiming for film look then its just vignetting.
Its nice that you filming it for 0 budget (of course not counting couple of thousands $ on camera and letus) but i didnt get the same impression like with some other trailers ive seen here.I guess we are here to help each other , why not ask guys responsible for NGL for camera settings.I would do that.
I know peoples can be pissed of by comments like these or take it personal but thats just how i felt it looked to me.
I guess we all bought our cameras because we wanted to get the film look and i suspect that you wanted to get it in your film too so i posting this here , i created some things myself not only in film making and i know how critic words can lead to bad feelings but thats not what i want to do ,there is no other way to tell this without well... just writing the true feelings .So this is it.
 
my kind of filmmaker :)

just discovered this thread for the first time

it's good to see another desperado beside myself doing it all yourself

I did BUTTERFLIES IN THE WIND all by myself too. I shot with the Arri 2c and recorded the sound with a Canon Optura. All the sound is MOS. Then I did a work print and transfered the sound to 35mm mag.

I edited the whole movie on a Cinemonta flatbed. A couple of years ago I discovered Final Cut Pro and decided to deal with synching the sound using FCP. Now I'm trying to market the movie on DVD as there is going to be no major studio buyout. LOL

Paramount saw the movie but the sync sound got in the way, so they passed. But the movie was invited to the Ava Gardner Film Festival in North Carolina and so I got a festival under my belt too :)

I really like Deuce of Spades -- the trailer. It makes me nostalgic. I want to do it again -- the whole trip.

I like to congratulate you, encourage you and wish you great success. Also if you want to join me in an exclusive club of filmmakers doing it all alone, I'm here for you.

Here's my website: http://www.releasing.net
 
Hi Faith.

As a rockabilly cat myself, I can honestly say I'm very excited about your film and what it has to offer. I also admire your "rebel without a crew" aesthetic. That said though, I'd like to offer up my services for film scoring if you're looking for anyone to contribute some music. I have some very laid back lonesome rockabilly guitar stuff in mind based on your teaser. Just shoot me a PM if you're interested. Best of luck, and I hope you'll check out my films as well!
 
filmman said:
my kind of filmmaker :)

just discovered this thread for the first time

it's good to see another desperado beside myself doing it all yourself

I did BUTTERFLIES IN THE WIND all by myself too. I shot with the Arri 2c and recorded the sound with a Canon Optura. All the sound is MOS. Then I did a work print and transfered the sound to 35mm mag.

I edited the whole movie on a Cinemonta flatbed. A couple of years ago I discovered Final Cut Pro and decided to deal with synching the sound using FCP. Now I'm trying to market the movie on DVD as there is going to be no major studio buyout. LOL

Paramount saw the movie but the sync sound got in the way, so they passed. But the movie was invited to the Ava Gardner Film Festival in North Carolina and so I got a festival under my belt too :)

I really like Deuce of Spades -- the trailer. It makes me nostalgic. I want to do it again -- the whole trip.

I like to congratulate you, encourage you and wish you great success. Also if you want to join me in an exclusive club of filmmakers doing it all alone, I'm here for you.

Here's my website: http://www.releasing.net
Click to expand...


FIlmman, that is so awesome! I see you are in Burbank! Let's grab a Sangria at MAMBO cafe and share horror stories :thumbup:. Would love to meet you. PM me!

I am going to check out your site later tonight when get out of the office. (yes, I have a day job to pay for my filmmaking habit hehe)
 
bwwd said:
I dont want to b**tchin here and complaining but i would like to express what i felt wasnt right after i saw the teasers.
Im sure somebody pointed out black darkened borders before (probably vignetting but im not sure if its from it ), i would get rid of this immediately on the set and zoom in more into letus adapter cause in reality we dont care how much you must zoom in to get rid of vignetting ,i know it takes some area and you have to cut out some part of view but its really much better to zoom in and put camera back than catch maximum area being close and get vignetting or black borders.This is very visible in some takes.
I dont quite felt that its the film , again it could be shutter problem ,and shutter changing variations during card driving didnt worked for me , i would instead do more tests with camera and try to get the filmic look by changing shutter speeds and compare side to side with actual film.But if youre not aiming for film look then its just vignetting.
Its nice that you filming it for 0 budget (of course not counting couple of thousands $ on camera and letus) but i didnt get the same impression like with some other trailers ive seen here.I guess we are here to help each other , why not ask guys responsible for NGL for camera settings.I would do that.
I know peoples can be pissed of by comments like these or take it personal but thats just how i felt it looked to me.
I guess we all bought our cameras because we wanted to get the film look and i suspect that you wanted to get it in your film too so i posting this here , i created some things myself not only in film making and i know how critic words can lead to bad feelings but thats not what i want to do ,there is no other way to tell this without well... just writing the true feelings .So this is it.
Click to expand...

hi bwwd,

Thank you for your input. You are right, I have noticed the vignetting myself in some of the shots shot with specific lenses. I will be fixing the problem in post. The teasers currently are just raw footage, nothing has been done yet (no color correction, no filters, no sound sweetening, nothing). I am still in production, that's why :).

Working with the Letus Extreme (vibrating adapter) means that you do not have a lot of range to play with, shutter speed and apperture wise. There are major limitations you have to work within. Otherwise you will start seeing major artifacts. When I filmed the jalopy race, we had no choice but to shoot at very slow shutter speed because we shot at Magic hour and lost light, so that was the only way the camera could see anything at all and teh scene could be completed. Having said all this, I am sure I will learn how to get the more out of my rig the more I use it, it's all part of learning. :) If anyone with same rig has useful pointers, please PM me by all means !
 
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