IMPRINT short film (extended version)

aravance

aravance

Well-known member
IMPRINT is one of the ten films selected to partake in the Independent Film Channel’s (IFC) Assassin’s Creed Short Film Contest. The Grand Prize winner receives $10,000 while two runner-ups receive $2,500 and all the short films will be featured on a special DVD included with the game and also see television airplay on IFC. All the winners receive an Xbox too. Sounds pretty sweet, right?

imprint1.jpg


I need all the help I can get in funding for my next short film.

imprint2.jpg


If you liked my film and want to see more of my work, please visit the link below, register, and vote for my film by giving it 5 stars.

http://medialab.ifc.com/film_detail.jsp?film_id=5284

Thanks to everyone who believed in the film!

And once again, you can visit the Quicktime version (hi-res) of the film here:
http://www.vantagepointproduction.com/imprint.html


We had a lot of fun making this film and it was a good experience. We shot most of it with stock HVX excluding a few scenes with the m2.

We will be exhibiting the film for a few weeks and afterwards are going to take it down and replace it with a trailer and then perhaps send it to some festivals.

Hope you all enjoy the film and let me know what you think!

~ V
 
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realy nice.loved the robust audio and superb lighting.you mind sharing what was used to get that audio sounding tat good.also lighting set up.thanks
 
nice, and at least the acting is good, please talk a bit about the audio

some guesses.....lots of foley, like newspaper, bottle opening, footsteps in parkade

what mic for production sound, and what program to edit if you please
 
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The audio was superb, especially the voiceover work. Phenomenal quality all-around in that department. The music really pulled me into the piece and snagged my attention for the entire duration of your film. Bravo with that. The only bit I have to critiscize with the music is just after the opening titles when the voiceover starts, I feel it could have used a little something to carry it along. I felt the voiceover was not enough. Just my opinion.

The lighting wasn't bad, better than a lot of stuff I have seen, but my only tip for you would be to watch your shadows. Right in the opening shot when your lead turns to open the door we can see a blatant shadow of the camera op on the back of his neck. Also, the shadows of the girl walking by the table in the restaurant were a problem for me. It makes it very evident that there are probably two large lights pointing from opposite directions onto the set when, realistically, the restaurant is probably lit by a single light above every table. (Or something similar to that)

As for the camera work, I think you used a nice mix of handheld and tripod shots. I feel that the entire piece could have worked very well being entirely handheld, just because the whole film is all about trying to shake off the disease... trying to recover balance and restore order. I feel it would have greatly highlighted the intensity of every scene; Particularly the scenes when he is sitting in his room with the newspaper clippings all over the wall. That brings me to another point: If he is so bothered by the 'Imprint' of his victims, why on earth would he burn one picture but retain all of the other newspaper clippings on his wall? If it bothers him so much, wouldn't he destroy all evidence of it? I also felt you SORT OF overdid it with those dolly pans. Now, I'm a huge Wes Anderson fan so the dolly is my best friend =) however, I lost it when you REPEATED a shot in the restaurant dollying from her table, to his... and then from her table, to his again (regardless of the fact that the action was different in each shot...) -- Perhaps it was an artistic choice, in which case I say STAND BY IT. However, if it was just one of those 'on-the-spot' ideas, I would vote against it. It didn't fit the tone of your film and it seemed out of place and slightly confusing. ("Did I accidentally rewind?")

Color-wise, I think you could have punched up the contrast a little more, especially during the bedroom scenes. They felt flat to me. -- You had a very destaturated tone in your film, which helped it to look film-like so I approve that, just try to crush those blacks a little more. It's always that which people tend to forget most.

The acting was pretty well done. I really sympathised with your lead after he threw the cell phone against the wall/floor and tried to pull himself together when he found out he couldn't get his medicine. As for the phone coming out of the manila envelope, I feel that was stolen from The Matrix, but hey... they always say 'Steal from the best', don't they? Plus, that's just getting a little bit nitpicky - Something I'm decent at ;) Anyways, fantastic acting during that scene. I wasn't sold on the girl's reaction to the gun during the last scene. Something about her nostrils flaring that made it actually a little humorous to me. I would have seen here not about to scream, but still in shock with just a VERY SERIOUS look of shock staring straight into his eyes. She probably came very close to death before with that drink, right? I thought she might still be trying to deal with the disability it probably caused her. If nothing else, she would just be realizing that "This is the same guy that tried to murder me." Perhaps a shot framed with JUST her eyes looking back at your lead, again, JUST showing his eyes. If you REALLY want to go overboard, use some tearstick and get a little waterworks flowing from the both of them. Just some thoughts =)

I really enjoyed the piece.
 
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Thanks all for the feedback so far.

Going into the short film, I knew that I wanted to pay special attention to the audio since it seems to be the snag in most low-budget movies. Luckily I have some friends who built their own studio and are audio guys and so they went to work on all the sound elements. Ian McDavid built all his own patches from scratch, so all the sounds are original. He even made the pager sound. Matt Mellin was our foley guy and for what foley sounds we didn't have in our foley library, he recorded on the spot. I wish I could go into more detail with the audio, but it would probably be better if one of them told you. I'll see if I can get them to respond. I know they'd love to. I can't remember what program Ian used to build his sound but I know we mixed down audio using Cubase and then exported it back out to Final Cut Pro.
 
Kyle Stebbins said:
As for the phone coming out of the manila envelope, I feel that was stolen from The Matrix, but hey... they always say 'Steal from the best', don't they? Plus, that's just getting a little bit nitpicky - Something I'm decent at ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the lengthy feedback, Kyle. As far as "stealing from the best"...nothing was really ever intentionally stolen, but just written how the story demanded. I never even thought of the Matrix until you had mentioned it, or Fight Club for that matter (someone else says a part reminded him of Fight Club). Like you said, it is getting a bit nitpicky, but I guess there will always be parts of movies that'll remind people of parts of other movies and seem derivative. It's just something I've learned to accept as I have no control over it.

I have seen both movies before though, so perhaps they affected my subconscious somehow and I unknowingly wrote them in as such. Who knows.
 
Downloading now, I loved it in Spyfest and know I'm going to love the extended version. This was one of my top picks in the fest.
 
IMPRINT is one of the ten films selected to partake in the Independent Film Channel’s (IFC) Assassin’s Creed Short Film Contest. The Grand Prize winner receives $10,000 while two runner-ups receive $2,500 and all the short films will be featured on a special DVD included with the game and also see television airplay on IFC. All the winners receive an Xbox too. Sounds pretty sweet, right?

I need all the help I can get in funding for my next short film.

If you liked my film and want to see more of my work, please visit the link below, register, and vote for my film by giving it 5 stars.

http://medialab.ifc.com/film_detail.jsp?film_id=5284

Thanks to everyone who believed in the film!

And once again, you can visit the Quicktime version (hi-res) of the film here:
http://www.vantagepointproduction.com/imprint.html
 
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