May/June DVXFEST Discussion

Mine was done with no crew at all. I did everything except the acting (well, the stoner walkby is me). I basically shot a couple scenes a week and edited it together as I went along. I know that's a big no-no, but since this was my first try I wanted to see what everything looked like. That way I would know what to do different when I shot the next scene.

J.D.
 
Mi Arma--was your binocular shot done with the slowest servo zoom setting on the DVX? Just wondering. It thought that shot looked pretty cool.

J.D.
 
i fully manual zoom. i take like 10 time to get it right.:)
my is 2 ppl but it realy i do everything beside contact with actor and telling actor waht going on :).i finish shoot in 2 day and edit whole thing in 1 day (mean no eat or sleep :evil: )
 
Lyons...hehe...err...what I ment by forced...your obviously a good filmmaker, shot choice, comps, storytelling...I think that is where I found it a little forced...the double act...started trying a little too hard on the break-in scene...it started to wobble for me then...but your beginning and end were top notch...I like a guy in a wig...and the re-animator esq touches were sublime...I think sooo much was being cramped in that focus on the break-in shifted a little....but it only my opinion.
ahem...Porno comment...
Your main guy reminded me of a porno actor for some reason...not a bad porno actor...just he had that...im funny...but ill f@+k the living brains out of anything in a flash...type of thing going on....God I wish id never said that now....it was late...and I don't watch any porno nowadays...i mean EVER!!....I....i....
Jp
 
crew

crew

ti3ucuong,

my crew usually looked something like this:
tease04.jpg

myself on camera, someone to bounce light (we used no "extra" lights), and someone on the mic.

the actors also rotated into the crew when a role there was needed and they weren't in the current shot. although the sound guy (kirk) made himself available each day we filmed, he was super dedicated!

when i was in a scene i would usually setup the camera then run in front of it or in the case of the basement scene my wife ran camera. a few insert/exterior/pickup shots were done by myself with no crew.

a week of script work and pre-prod, we filmed 5 days total anywhere from 2 to 6 hours (some days we had 3 different locations which meant a lot of traveling around). i edited while filming, i prefer doing it that way, especially in this case where time was a huge factor, i needed to know that i got what i needed. left the last two weeks of the deadline open to edit.
 
nsfilms said:
Ha, I knew you did ADR...The dialogue was just too clean there. It was done pretty well though. ADR, even at the studio level is VERY difficult. It's hard for an actor to get their lines exactly the same way. That only get's better with practice. Your mic didn't seem to have a problem. What mic are you using because I didn't really hear a lot of inherent noise. Aside from the vocal track being too clean in parts it was really recorded well. To fix it, all you need to do is bring it down a bit, add some room tone and ambient sounds...Really more of a mix problem. Again, not an easy part of filmmaking.

What parts I didn't like? Hmm, that actually may be a little more harsh then I intended but the opening segment seemed...I don't know. It just didn't work for me.

The parts I did like where the way you took the story and made a world of twins...the final backfire filling the room with twins was pretty funny. I have to admit. I would probably figure out another way to show the - blast - or whatever you want to call it. The B&W Chrome just looks cheap.

Probably should have chose a not-so-bright of a day to shoot. Outside is very harsh lighting unless you have some scrims or silks to contol it. Not easy even at the pro level but they've got the experience (and budget) to correct it.

As with some of the rest, I'll bet that it will all get better with experience and education. Never stop learning the craft.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I was pleasantly surprised by how some of the sound came out. I'm going to try to stay away from ADR from now on. I only looped "Sam's" two lines in the INT. HOUSE scene. "Taylor" had a wireless lavalier mic for that scene. For the rest of the scenes I used two music-performance-type mics that I borrowed from one of my musician friends (the guy walking by during the break-in). One was a Shure with a cardiod pick-up pattern; it sounded pretty good. I had one mic on each actor, with each mic going into an XLR input. Lacking a proper boom mic, I figured it'd work better that way, though I'm not sure that turned out to be the case. I had planned to mix everything and smooth out all the audio, but I ran out of time.

The opening segment, I can see why you didn't like that. I'm not satisfied with the pacing and the shots, myself. The blast. Yeah. Video Effects > Solarize. It was indeed very cheap. Unfortunately, I know very little about visual effects.

Now I see why people like shooting exterior shots on overcast days. Unfortunately, again, I got my camera on Thursday the 23rd for my birthday, so we ended up shooting the exterior scenes last Saturday in balmy 90 degree weather.

-Eric
 
ti3ucuong,

For the crew, I was on camera and we had another person (depending on work schedules) to help, mostly with the audio.
We shot most everything last Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. Some of the cast/crew had some pretty mean hangovers to contend with, so we couldn't start until they showed up and sobered up. Besides that, we had to shoot the first scene real quick Monday evening and we shot a few pickups on Thursday.
We worked as much as we could on the editing and other post-prodution over the last four days.
It was fun, but it was a terrible way to make a movie.

-Eric
 
wow good group this month. .good luck. I am gonna pick one film at random as well and give em a battery and some shirts as prizes.
 
eric_chen said:
Thanks. I was pleasantly surprised by how some of the sound came out. I'm going to try to stay away from ADR from now on. I only looped "Sam's" two lines in the INT. HOUSE scene. "Taylor" had a wireless lavalier mic for that scene. For the rest of the scenes I used two music-performance-type mics that I borrowed from one of my musician friends (the guy walking by during the break-in). One was a Shure with a cardiod pick-up pattern; it sounded pretty good. I had one mic on each actor, with each mic going into an XLR input. Lacking a proper boom mic, I figured it'd work better that way, though I'm not sure that turned out to be the case. I had planned to mix everything and smooth out all the audio, but I ran out of time.

The opening segment, I can see why you didn't like that. I'm not satisfied with the pacing and the shots, myself. The blast. Yeah. Video Effects > Solarize. It was indeed very cheap. Unfortunately, I know very little about visual effects.

Now I see why people like shooting exterior shots on overcast days. Unfortunately, again, I got my camera on Thursday the 23rd for my birthday, so we ended up shooting the exterior scenes last Saturday in balmy 90 degree weather.

-Eric
Click to expand...

First, congrats on getting the camera in the first place.
Second, avoiding ADR is nearly impossible.

The "blast" was a good idea, just poorly executed. I don't have a fix for it off the top of my head but there are some really good editors around here that I'm sure would be willing to toss you some suggestions to get the same point across.

As for overcast days, sometimes that's not entirely good either. Lighting control really is the keep to shooting out doors. This will help you get really good exposure and latitude.

I'd recommend reading the DVX Book. I know it's available on this site somewhere. Also learn how to control light with Scrims, Silks, reflectors and Flags. You can make a lot of these items at home with some low cost equipment. EG: A silk 70"x70" Shower Curtain $15 will make a great replacement for the real silk (also 70" x 70" most of the time) which I've seen cost no less than $100. The only difference is the real silk has metal eyelets and the shower curtain has them only across the top. (Get some at a fabric store for $5) A frame can be made from PVC or conduit.

Hope this helps.
 
eric_chen said:
ti3ucuong,

For the crew, I was on camera and we had another person (depending on work schedules) to help, mostly with the audio.
We shot most everything last Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. Some of the cast/crew had some pretty mean hangovers to contend with, so we couldn't start until they showed up and sobered up. Besides that, we had to shoot the first scene real quick Monday evening and we shot a few pickups on Thursday.
We worked as much as we could on the editing and other post-prodution over the last four days.
It was fun, but it was a terrible way to make a movie.

-Eric
Click to expand...
The moral of this story is that you learned that rushing a film will NOT yield the results you desire. That's one reason pre-production lasts sooooo long...Or at least should.
 
the-lyons-den
i wish i ahve some 1 to take my foto when i shoot the stuff haha.m eand my parner work pretty good sinc ei crap at paper work and she good at it but she crap at technical so like she work more in pre production and i work more in onstage and post :).cant wait to show you guy the full version of mi serect weapon with more extra shoot in dream sequence with the twin :beer:
 
Mi Arma Secreta is broken. Once I see it, I will cast my vote and comment on all of them. So far I've been pleased.
 
nsfilms said:
First, congrats on getting the camera in the first place.
Second, avoiding ADR is nearly impossible.

The "blast" was a good idea, just poorly executed. I don't have a fix for it off the top of my head but there are some really good editors around here that I'm sure would be willing to toss you some suggestions to get the same point across.

As for overcast days, sometimes that's not entirely good either. Lighting control really is the keep to shooting out doors. This will help you get really good exposure and latitude.

I'd recommend reading the DVX Book. I know it's available on this site somewhere. Also learn how to control light with Scrims, Silks, reflectors and Flags. You can make a lot of these items at home with some low cost equipment. EG: A silk 70"x70" Shower Curtain $15 will make a great replacement for the real silk (also 70" x 70" most of the time) which I've seen cost no less than $100. The only difference is the real silk has metal eyelets and the shower curtain has them only across the top. (Get some at a fabric store for $5) A frame can be made from PVC or conduit.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

It does. Thanks for the suggestions!

-Eric
 
my vote has been cast. good luck all y'all. sweet prizes this month! figures.

i busted my ass and got 5 tapes. :grin:
 
congrats on all the finished projects, fun to see how everyone interpreted the script. i'm not sure what i'm gonna vote. i think i'll watch them again. but my fav shot is in scriptless where there's a closeup of the girl with water behind her in the dream sequence (that looked really slick)

but as i said i'm not sure what i'm gonna vote yet. ;D
 
Great job all!

I must say though, I thought the script that everyone had to work with was far too long and specific for this kind of contest. Too many scenes left little room for reinterpretation. Sure you could add your own twist or style, but too much was spelled out, IMHO.

Anyway, I am amazed at some of the talent out there and how much effort went into creating these films.

It was very hard to pick a winner (but of course I did). Best of luck to everyone,

Chris
 
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