mvansomeren
Well-known member
Congratulations, Faith. Well deserved!
FEATURE: DEUCE OF SPADES - How I made a period full feature film all by myself on ZERO budget
- Thread starter Deuceofspades
- Start date
Deuceofspades
Veteran
Another night spent under the car - had to flip the fuel pump, my friend jeff helped me and we both got a nice gasoline shower 
now back to editing - no risk of ctaching on fire here
Filmman, overlapping the sound is a great idea but in my case not really possible because the dialogues are too tight and the hall of fame hot rod celebrity who played my counterpart did not say his lines the same way twice, so i can't lip sink dialogues from another takes to overlap.
So far what I did was create a fake idling of the car which created a continuity sound wise and covered some of the background discrepencies. I will finish the scene tonight - EQ might help too. I even pitch changed some of the car sounds to make them blend better...
Ah the things a woman has to do! LOL
now back to editing - no risk of ctaching on fire here
Filmman, overlapping the sound is a great idea but in my case not really possible because the dialogues are too tight and the hall of fame hot rod celebrity who played my counterpart did not say his lines the same way twice, so i can't lip sink dialogues from another takes to overlap.
So far what I did was create a fake idling of the car which created a continuity sound wise and covered some of the background discrepencies. I will finish the scene tonight - EQ might help too. I even pitch changed some of the car sounds to make them blend better...
Ah the things a woman has to do! LOL
ESTEBEVERDE
Veteran
EXCITING UPDATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just heard the word: DEUCE OF SPADES IS THE COVER of the upcoming issue of WHEELS magazine, Northern Europe largest hot rod magazine!! I am the feature story with a full 3 page spread and many photos...
I had no idea they were considering giving me the cover, so when they send me the proof I just about s**t in my pants!!!
I honestly can say this is the most excited I have ever felt in my life... My face was all red and I think my eyes got watery... Weird...
The deuce is very proud to be on the cover. They picked this shot:
I think this is going to bring even more foreign press my way. So far I got good size reviews in New Zealands (mention of the film name on the cover - feature story and a full 3 page spread in the largest hotrod magazine there), two in France (including France largest hotrod magazine), one in Finland. I have more lined up in Italy, South Africa and now Tchekoslovakia and possibly Germany.
.
You are such a hottie!
And you are good looking too! :beer:
Deuceofspades
Veteran
Yes I will when the magazine is officially released on the market.
Currently I only have one cover with my photo on it, but HOT ROD MAGAZINE NEW ZEALAND had the film mentioned on its cover "DEUCE OF SPADES - exclusive first look" or something like that.... The film was one of the feature stories in that magazine's issue (and they gae me 3 full pages) and this was my first press coverage - so I was very very happy.
HERE ARE SOME LINKS TO SOME OF THE PAST REVIEWS:
Download New Zealand Hotrod Magazine article here
here is V8 magazine review: http://www.bettatalk.com/v8_magazine.htm
here is NITRO review: http://www.bettatalk.com/nitro_magazine.htm
I am going to have to translate and post "Wild" review (FRANCE) on my press page - looks like I forgot to do that LOL.
Deuceofspades
Veteran
Trust me, I am not THAT good looking
. But I guess for my age (yeah, I'm an old fart - over the hills and all LOL), I should really count my blessings!!! I recently saw a cool French flick in which this actress (who played an actress in the film) said to a director: "Look at me! I'm Young! I'm Old !! I am all the ages!!!"
That describes me well.
Actually I think the car looks great on that shot they picked, but this is not my favorite photo of me. I did a classy "pinup" photoshoot last year to promote the film and some the shots came out really good. I will share a few here, but please note that there are tons of pinups way better looking than me out there... The only difference is I OWN THAT CAR hehehehe... Oh, and I am a cinematographer, too !
And by far the sexiest of all the shots: (Good thing there was not a soul on the dry lake that night LOL) - which goes to show - when it comes to sexy it is not what you see, but rather what you cannot see
that makes the shot. 
Ok , that's it for the shameless flaunting of my photos... I still think the sexiest of them all is that one:
craigbowman
Veteran
You should be able to parlè the publicity to get a better deal with distributors. Go Faith Go....
GregPorter
Active member
Hi Faith ^_^
Very sexy pictures! I am so jealous that you own that car.. I want one bad!
VERY hard to import them into the UK though.
Very sexy pictures! I am so jealous that you own that car.. I want one bad!
VERY hard to import them into the UK though.
Deuceofspades
Veteran
Deuceofspades
Veteran
UK has a good number of old jalopies, I've seen videos and photos of some of the nostalgia events... Cool... You might be able to find a local jalopy you can purchase...
GregPorter
Active member
I can only dream Faith, I can only dream.
I want to go to some of the classic mobile shows that go on in the south west.
Deuceofspades
Veteran
Another night spent massaging my challenging scene. I think I salvaged it :thumbup:.
One of the benefits of editing less than perfect takes is that it forces you to push the limits of how much you, as an editor, can "fix in the mix". And you learn a load of little tricks...
Like my star hotrodder, who did not give me a quiet "pause" I really needed to make the scene happen. Where you see him quiet, thinking, a slight bit nostalgic... So I found an outtake of him trying to remember his line (so he was quiet and looked like he was thinking)... I sliced it and added it to the scene. This is not the first time I use outtakes to create takes. When the actors don't know they are still being filmed... And act natural...
It works.
Now moving on to the begining of the scene which is all car racing footage - stock footage shot a year earlier before I had an adapter... I was using many tricks to create some DOF... So many of the shots are useable... But more headaches for me :huh:...
One of the benefits of editing less than perfect takes is that it forces you to push the limits of how much you, as an editor, can "fix in the mix". And you learn a load of little tricks...
Like my star hotrodder, who did not give me a quiet "pause" I really needed to make the scene happen. Where you see him quiet, thinking, a slight bit nostalgic... So I found an outtake of him trying to remember his line (so he was quiet and looked like he was thinking)... I sliced it and added it to the scene. This is not the first time I use outtakes to create takes. When the actors don't know they are still being filmed... And act natural
...It works.
Now moving on to the begining of the scene which is all car racing footage - stock footage shot a year earlier before I had an adapter... I was using many tricks to create some DOF... So many of the shots are useable... But more headaches for me :huh:...
Deuceofspades
Veteran
Sharing scene FLASHBACK #8
Overview:
This was a challenging scene because it covers many days of Johnny courting Bettie every morning. This meant having to bring a lot of different wardrobe for both, changing the look of the car and of the actors. I loaded by travel trailer with clothes, shoes etc and between each shot, we shuttled the actors back to the trailer to change. Bettie's school books also were changed from shot to shot.
We shot the scene on location on private property so we were able to set up properly and not be worried about being asked to leave. It was however very dusty, WINDY and HOT HOT HOT (well over 100F) and we all suffered quite a bit, especially me who was standing in full sun.
To complete all the shots, we had to return twice, so a total of 3 days filming on the side of that dirt road. thank God for the tree which kept the deuce and Johnny, cool and provided better quality images (shade).
I complete these three shoots with a crew of one. The scene includes one of my most elaborate shots, which comprised of no less than 6 focus adjustment in one pan, several rack focus moves and reframing - and very precise blocking. The shot made it into the teaser and I remain, to date, very proud of it. The cool lighting on Johnny's blue eyes was made with a 1K light
Screengrabs:
The famous "pan" which we managed to make look like a dolly shot:
Other grabs: Johnny, dressed to impressed and very sure of himself:
Bettie is not giving in....
Johnny will not give up though
Three weeks later, still at it, Johnny, sporting a bomber jacket, fresh back from racing at the dry lake, looking less than fresh and driving a filthy jalopy, still wanting to give a ride to Bettie...
This opening shot of Bettie leaving her house in the morning, was filmed several weeks later, at another location altogether. It took a while cleaning up the front of the house so it truly looked 1953 period correct. All the clothes in that shot came from my own vintage collection, which I had purchased over the years when I was swing dancing. That includes the cool yellow dress with matching vintage shoes and the vintage wrist watch. The house is located in front of a very BUSY street where traffic never stops. It took many tries to get the one dialogue line without having modern car sound in the background. Very challenging.
That's it for today! More later....
Overview:
This was a challenging scene because it covers many days of Johnny courting Bettie every morning. This meant having to bring a lot of different wardrobe for both, changing the look of the car and of the actors. I loaded by travel trailer with clothes, shoes etc and between each shot, we shuttled the actors back to the trailer to change. Bettie's school books also were changed from shot to shot.
We shot the scene on location on private property so we were able to set up properly and not be worried about being asked to leave
. It was however very dusty, WINDY and HOT HOT HOT (well over 100F) and we all suffered quite a bit, especially me who was standing in full sun.To complete all the shots, we had to return twice, so a total of 3 days filming on the side of that dirt road. thank God for the tree which kept the deuce and Johnny, cool and provided better quality images (shade).
I complete these three shoots with a crew of one. The scene includes one of my most elaborate shots, which comprised of no less than 6 focus adjustment in one pan, several rack focus moves and reframing - and very precise blocking. The shot made it into the teaser and I remain, to date, very proud of it. The cool lighting on Johnny's blue eyes was made with a 1K light
Screengrabs:
The famous "pan" which we managed to make look like a dolly shot:
Other grabs: Johnny, dressed to impressed and very sure of himself:
Bettie is not giving in....
Johnny will not give up though
Three weeks later, still at it, Johnny, sporting a bomber jacket, fresh back from racing at the dry lake, looking less than fresh and driving a filthy jalopy, still wanting to give a ride to Bettie...
This opening shot of Bettie leaving her house in the morning, was filmed several weeks later, at another location altogether. It took a while cleaning up the front of the house so it truly looked 1953 period correct. All the clothes in that shot came from my own vintage collection, which I had purchased over the years when I was swing dancing. That includes the cool yellow dress with matching vintage shoes and the vintage wrist watch. The house is located in front of a very BUSY street where traffic never stops. It took many tries to get the one dialogue line without having modern car sound in the background. Very challenging.
That's it for today! More later....
CiPO
Well-known member
Hi,
sorry for jumping in
I am reading all your previous posts and I just wanted to give my personal impression on that dialogue audio issue. I am not a pro but I had exactly the same feeling watching one of the online footage.Sorry for not remembering all the names etc. but in one of the flashbacks there is a young boy talking to his father in a garage. The boy is worried cos the father will leave the day after. The father is on the floor working on a car while the boy is standing. In the next scene the father (dress as soldier) is leaving.
Now, the dialogue in the garage between the father and the soon. I noticed that when the father turn around his head while talking then the audio is fainting, it feels like the mic is not following properly his mouth. Overall it did struck me and it felt it was not natural.
ANyway, sometimes I am too anal with details. Overall it looks really impressive and well done. I adore these DYI movie with so much production values, I am learning all the time from you guys
THX
CIPO
Deuceofspades
Veteran
Hi,
sorry for jumping in
Sorry for not remembering all the names etc. but in one of the flashbacks there is a young boy talking to his father in a garage. The boy is worried cos the father will leave the day after. The father is on the floor working on a car while the boy is standing. In the next scene the father (dress as soldier) is leaving.
Now, the dialogue in the garage between the father and the soon. I noticed that when the father turn around his head while talking then the audio is fainting, it feels like the mic is not following properly his mouth. Overall it did struck me and it felt it was not natural.
ANyway, sometimes I am too anal with details. Overall it looks really impressive and well done. I adore these DYI movie with so much production values, I am learning all the time from you guys
THX
CIPO
Funny you shoud mention this, I was JUST watching that same scene a moment ago and that spot has always bugged me and I do plan to fix it when i do my final editing. I think I will be able to fix it by taking another pass (where he didn't turn his head) and using audio from that pass to fix this one.
Currently the movie is in "lose edit" stage, which means the scenes are still lacking some sound effects, fixing problems, EQ, etc... I am still in production, so it is a miracle I even have teasers online. And although the teasers are not "perfect', they have served their purpose; To raise interest from many people, including prospective actors for future scenes, car owners, product placement, hotrod websites and most of all PRESS.
:thumbup:
I hope to fix most (if not all LOL) of my bugs when I do my final edit.
For exemple, I edited last night and tightened 7 of my scenes, improving quite a bit on what I had till then. I am to bring those scene today to a very well known racing car club meeting, where I was asked to come and talk about my film and show footage. Motivated me to stay up late despite my bad cold and start to fine tune my edits :dankk2:.
CiPO
Well-known member
Very good !!! you bugged by that very same scene makes me feel better ! I am not the only one then ..... keep up with the great work. truly inspiring. The dried lake is amazing with such cars I guess we don't have anything like that in our "old" Europe
You mentioned an article on a Finnish magazine, do you know more about it ?
I guess we don't have anything like that in our "old" Europe You mentioned an article on a Finnish magazine, do you know more about it ?
Deuceofspades
Veteran
THe Magazine is called WHEELS and is Swedish. It covers about 5 northern Europe countries though...
:thumbup:
You know, I was thinking about our discussion this morning and it dunned on me, while I was brushing my teeth (yeap, I get a lot of epiphanies when I am in the bathroom LOL) that actually, his voice level dropping when he turns out his head IS the only NATURAL way to be. But both you and me got bugged by it. In real life, if someone talks to you and they turn away, you will hear them a lot less (I can vouch for this, I am partially deaf and as soon as peope turn their head away while talking, even if a little bit, I no longer can understand a thing they say(( )...
But in films, you can always hear people like they are talking into a mic, no matter how they are turning or where they stand LOL... Which is not natural...
AT ALL...
Ex: two cowboys sitting on their horses, in the back of a field are talking (they have wireless mics on)- we the audience can hear them as if they were standing in front of us...
BUT THEY ARE NOT...
In real life, "natural" sounding sound would mean we can't hear them at all...
LOL
Which goes to show that what we perceive as "natural" for a film is in fact completely UNnatural...
But it is still what I will be doing to my scene. :beer:
:thumbup:
You know, I was thinking about our discussion this morning and it dunned on me, while I was brushing my teeth (yeap, I get a lot of epiphanies when I am in the bathroom LOL) that actually, his voice level dropping when he turns out his head IS the only NATURAL way to be. But both you and me got bugged by it. In real life, if someone talks to you and they turn away, you will hear them a lot less (I can vouch for this, I am partially deaf and as soon as peope turn their head away while talking, even if a little bit, I no longer can understand a thing they say
(( )...But in films, you can always hear people like they are talking into a mic, no matter how they are turning or where they stand LOL... Which is not natural...
AT ALL...
Ex: two cowboys sitting on their horses, in the back of a field are talking (they have wireless mics on)- we the audience can hear them as if they were standing in front of us...
BUT THEY ARE NOT...
In real life, "natural" sounding sound would mean we can't hear them at all...
LOL
Which goes to show that what we perceive as "natural" for a film is in fact completely UNnatural...
But it is still what I will be doing to my scene
. :beer: