GhostHunter Inc.

Okay, I didn't read any of the other reviews, so I apologize if this is all just rehash.

My favorite part of the short was the flashlight sequence in the building, up until the dead body is shown. The darkness with just a little light revealing selected elements was very effective. The score as well worked very well here. You were able to build a lot of tension. Good work there.

I did hear you mention the audio issue, that you didn't use your boomed audio, so I won't comment further on that.

A lot of the scenes just needed more shots. Close ups, etc. Just think creatively, and think about what shots will best tell your story.

In the opening scene you set up a nice shot/reverse shot, but then only used each shot once. Why was that?

The transitions between scenes were strange, coming at odd times, and not really done effectively. A lot of that problem can be solved if you think about how you're going to transition before shooting, then you can create an effective way to transition by shooting appropriate shots.

Not sure why the ghost stays on screen during the whole credits, that was really weird. The effect would have probably worked if he had disappeared when the credits came up, as it is it pointed out how cheesy it was and that it was just an effect.

Anyway, I remember you going through quite a few trials and tribulations making the film, so kudos on finishing it, and best of luck on your next entry. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
 
jasonthewho said:
Okay, I didn't read any of the other reviews, so I apologize if this is all just rehash.

My favorite part of the short was the flashlight sequence in the building, up until the dead body is shown. The darkness with just a little light revealing selected elements was very effective. The score as well worked very well here. You were able to build a lot of tension. Good work there.

I did hear you mention the audio issue, that you didn't use your boomed audio, so I won't comment further on that.

A lot of the scenes just needed more shots. Close ups, etc. Just think creatively, and think about what shots will best tell your story.

In the opening scene you set up a nice shot/reverse shot, but then only used each shot once. Why was that?

The transitions between scenes were strange, coming at odd times, and not really done effectively. A lot of that problem can be solved if you think about how you're going to transition before shooting, then you can create an effective way to transition by shooting appropriate shots.

Not sure why the ghost stays on screen during the whole credits, that was really weird. The effect would have probably worked if he had disappeared when the credits came up, as it is it pointed out how cheesy it was and that it was just an effect.

Anyway, I remember you going through quite a few trials and tribulations making the film, so kudos on finishing it, and best of luck on your next entry. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
Click to expand...

Very good points Jason, I'll address each, I did shoot Wide,medium,closeups and reversals of all the dialog scenes in the office(over 60 takes in there I just counted) There might have been some better shots I could have used. Point taken.(all the wide angle shots were worthless due to a spotlight miss-aimed that I didn't notice when we were shooting. I had a jib available I could have used I chose not to. I wanted to do some pushes for emotional responses I had brought a wheelchair to do that with but the floor was so uneven we couldn't really make that work(fixable by sticking with the original location).

With all those takes, I shot in the office you would have thought I would have gotten more coverage of the ladies when they arrived around 4:30pm. Carol's scene I did shoot reversals and kind of a medium 2 shot as they stood up. When we shot Ariel's scene the sun was getting low, I actually wanted to shoot it somewhere else but the light was fast leaving us. I thought I had a good complete take from each side of the van.(Wrong!) I played both sides back on the GH1's LCD and it looked good but I didn't notice that the boom was in the shot from the passenger side. The footage shot from the drivers side had a fatal flaw as well, auto continuous focus again. it looked great in the LCD but when she leaned in from outside the van the focus kept shifting ruining what would have been a powerful shot. I had intended to keep the camera on her all the way while she left the van got in her car and drove away. Bonk! I really regret that I only got one usable take of her from each side of the van. I let her go too soon.

The ghost at the end went through several incarnations, I created a morph version ala Andrew Kramer, with a devilish demon morph and a ghoul morph they were even cheesier than what I wound up with. I honestly almost threw the whole ghost thing out and considered having Paul just cap Blake at the end but I started out actually kind of going for a cheesy/horror kind of story so I just let the cheese happen at the end. I did learn a lot and I think I can eliminate a lot of the mistakes next time(I hope). I don't think I'll be rushing my next entry. As soon as this fest is over I'll get busy on it and maybe we can do a little better at least. Thanks for your comments and feedback much appreciated.
 
Yeah inevitably things you think you did right on set end up having problems. I wonder if some of your things are fixable, like the boom in the shot. One time I had the entire boom operator in the shot and didn't notice (remarkably), but I was able to use a matte to cover him up. Sometimes you can use just the upper corner of a similar shot where the boom wasn't there. Also sometimes zooming the image slightly in post can fix a problem like that.
 
My critique for GhostHunter Inc.
The story:
Story was very creative. The betrayal was clear and I liked the touch at the end with the ghost.

The acting:
No complaints. Everyone was in character.

The camerawork:
Some of the angles could've been improved, but some others were really good! And I thought the color was pretty cool. The teal tint really brought out the atmosphere of the story.

The editing:
Editing was solid. Good job here

The sound and music:
Dialogue was understand but I wish it was a little cleaned. The music was brilliant!

Overall impression:
This was a very good movie. Thank you for showing it to us!

My favorite shot:
screenshot20100311at641.png
 
MrSeth said:
My critique for GhostHunter Inc.
The story:
Story was very creative. The betrayal was clear and I liked the touch at the end with the ghost.

The acting:
No complaints. Everyone was in character.

The camerawork:
Some of the angles could've been improved, but some others were really good! And I thought the color was pretty cool. The teal tint really brought out the atmosphere of the story.

The editing:
Editing was solid. Good job here

The sound and music:
Dialogue was understand but I wish it was a little cleaned. The music was brilliant!

Overall impression:
This was a very good movie. Thank you for showing it to us!
Click to expand...

I'm glad you saw through some of the short comings, and I am especially pleased you liked the overall story. That is my favorite shot as well, after the deadline I made a B&W version that smoothed out a lot of the flaws but I'm still glad I turned in the color version. I spent a lot of my editing time working on building tension in the final warehouse scene and working on the pace of that as well. Thanks for the wonderful comments and I very much appreciate the feedback.
 
Hey, you have a car scene similar to mine. I like the way you shot this scene. It looks like you were using a tripod. I shot mine with a shoulder mount rig and got really tired after this scene. I wanted to shoot my entire movie with this shoulder rig at first but after this scene I just aborted the idea :) I like your movie. The acting and lighting can be improved but overall this movie is a good one.
 
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