Let me introduce myself with a short film - 'Give it up'

jamesh

jamesh

Well-known member
Greetings dvxuser.com,

I want to introduce myself. I have been a lurker for some months now but have found the articles here fascinating. I got my dvx100B in april, since then i've made 2 shorts with it. One for my Uni dissertation (i've just graduated doing Media Technology BSc in Oxford,UK), and another with a couple of people as a side project.

I'd like to share with you the 2nd movie.

'Give it Up'

6 minutes

streaming .mov format
direct download (right click, save as) 17mb

I worked as d.o.p, cameraman & editor on this thing, it was a 4 day shoot & edited in 3 days in time for a competition deadline. It was a very small production, 1 car, producer, director, me, actress driving to & from london-oxford (i actually ended up doing most of the sound too which is why it's a little shabby in places).


Just so you know i'm not experienced with lighting, camerawork etc. I realise that some shots will look off to you guys. It was a great learning curve for me & i'm sure i'll do better next time. Any feedback welcome.

We are looking to make more shorts & they seem to trust me with the camera so i'd apprieciate any advice/critique about what i've done well/bad so i can improve for the next one. I'm actually not that happy with the movie, the more i watch the more i see it's flaws, i'm worried it's too dark & grainy due to either me not knowing how to use the camera properly and/or light the shot properly.

I didn't write the script & i realise the topic may seem a little dry to 1 or 2 of you but please could you check it out anyway.

Synopsis:

Anna Petashnik is an ordinary girl with an extraordinary talent - whether or not she taps into her genius is sometimes even out of her own control as she tries to juggle piano practise with her social life and supermarket job. Her dreams to gain a place at the Royal Academy of Music result in a struggle between her wishes to lead a normal life, and her desire to achieve her lifelong ambition: to play along-side the greatest orchestras in the world...


anna1.jpg



anna2.jpg



anna3.jpg


anna4.jpg



anna5.jpg



Am i being paranoid or does my footage not look anywhere near as good as most other user's posted work? Just seems alot duller, darker, softer, more grainy & generally less film-like. Tell me if i'm being ignorant, i can take it if you tell me i don't know what i'm doing, all i ask is for you honest opinion & some advice on improving.


Thankyou, it's great to finally be here & i look forward to learning from you all. You'll be hearing more from me.

Cheers
James.
 
I liked it. Something different from the usual horror-suspense shorts I see all the time.

***3 Star! Good job.
 
Nice short. It kept my attention thru. Very well pieced together.
I thought the flow was very good. and u put alot of effort into finding different locations to keep your colour pallette full. Although a little CC in post could have tweaked this more. Your range of coulours were vast except they all seemed a little dull.. (straight from camera?)

I realy liked your editing in the beggining scence but thought it was a little less strong in her flash back moments.

There were definitely some strong camera compositions but again others were weaker.. the condradiction of strong and weak can become obvious. and appear very 'indie'. Pride yourself of structuring all your shots before hand and sometimes when unsure of one play it back on your cam to check if u liked it.

I liked how your composition and editing indroduced her as the 'clerk' at the end. very nice!
I enjoyed this. th audio was good too with regards to editing and scence changes.

I would like to see this short again with some finer CC'

good job.
i'll agree to the 3 star rating above.
 
ace... good ****. Where did you do the theatre stuff? Was it hard to get permission?

Try magic bullet or some basic 3 way colour correction.
Good luck
 
Thanks for the thumbs up guys

We just had the call that the film has won it's catagory in a contest & we're off to Ireland for a screening & a week's long film course & we're meeting Guy Ritchie (he's a sponser of the competition)

Great news huh!!!

To make my day even sweeter, literally 2 mins before that i had an email to say that the film i made for my dissertation a couple month's before this one has been shortlisted from 600 to 50 & is getting screened at a small festival in London!! w00t!

I'll stick the trailer up for that later

I'm also working on colour correcting Give it Up right now, but i doubt they're let me resubmit it.

Anyway, i'll post some screens of the CC version later & maybe a new movie version too to run the CC past you guys as i'm not that confident in my CC skills.

Can this day get any better!!!!????
 
I really enjoyed it, great job. I agree with the others that some CC would really make this thing pop...looking forward to seeing those grabs/footage.

Peace,
Larry
 
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