Message Universal teaser posted

STORYTELLER32

STORYTELLER32

Well-known member
Well, I finally squeezed in some time to put together a 2 minute teaser of my 30 minute short, The Message Universal. It is just a teaser mind you and most of the footage used is raw from the camera (except the obvious shots which will be, err... obvious?) ;D

Some details:
Shot 24pa with anamorphic adapter. Edited in FCP4, no color correction (so far) except for special effect shots. Some footage used in teaser still needs to be tweaked and treated in post, but I just used it to hype the drama in the teaser anyway.
Encoded with cleaner for Mac settings but there is some sputtering going on and I don't know how to clear it up. Also the dark shots might look very dark on a PC. But I assure you everything was properly lit and is VERY clear on an NTSC screen.

Did I mention this was my first film ever? Okay, enough excuses... :P

A direct link won't work as my site re-directs you to the front page. Anyway, when you get in the site, go to the short films section and there you go.

http://www.jordanraskin.com
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Not bad... Some nice shots mixed in there. I did notice a little rain drop reflection in one of the shots with the tattoo guy and the woman. The night bridge shot is good. Was that tough to capture?

Looking forward to more.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

some nice stuff in there. i really likes the feel of the bridge shots. also the shots of that intense guy walking down the street was excellent, had a really awesome look. whens the film gonna be finished?

the music you have on your website didnt turn off when i watched the trailer, not sure if that happines to everyone. anyway, may want to look into it.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Thanks for the comments.

Hansk: I'm still not sure if I'm going to use that take with the rain drop on the lens or not. My DP says "it's dope" because the hexagon adds depth and mood. I'm inclined to agree on a certain level, but then there's those people who will just look at it and it would take them out of the film. Lucky for me, I got enough coverage of that scene that I think I can take that bit of dialogue from another take. By the way, it wasn't supposed to rain that day...

Night bridge was hard only because we had to steal it. We were told we couldn't use any "professional equipment" on the tram without a permit and had to hand hold the shot all the way through. Would have been better if it was on a glide cam, but my DP did a decent job of keeping it steady enough. Now if I can only figure out how to use the stabilizer plugin on FCP I might have something better.. :)
Speaking of better, it has a better impact toward the end in the raw cut. For some reason, Cleaner is giving me this sputtering in the rapid fire cuts at the end. If anyone has any experience with this, I'd love some feedback or ideas on how to correct it.

Rich: Film should have and could have been finished a looong time ago. But my other projects keep getting in the way. Hoping to have it done by October or November after I move out west.

There's a note on the short films page that says you need to turn off the music at the bottom of the screen before starting the clip. Did the off button not work for you? Strange if it didn't... Everyone please let me know if others are having this problem because it works fine from my end.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

PC users: How dark is it on your monitor? If it's pretty bad, I'll try and encode one with a better gamma setting.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

gamma looked fine to me.

Bridge stuff looked great. Reminder me of some shots in "King of New York".

A couple of shots could really benefit from some color correction. But a lot of it looked great just out of the camera.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Hey, where are all the board regulars who comment on every clip?? Over 100 views and only 5 comments? Come on guys, FEEDBACK. :D
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Hey. Once I figured out how to shut off the site music I was able to truly watch the teaser.(is the site music from The Thing or is it Blade Runner).

The tram shot is exceptional. It looks right out of a big screen flick. The score rocks, cut well with the images. The dialogue stood out a little on top of the music possibly because of the rain. If you can't get it cleaner you may want to do ADR. The effects shots were pretty cool. I do look forward to seeing the final result, and if it's half as good as your art we're in for a good one.

Are you gonna have it online once it's done? Is it in post or are you still shooting?

- from that teaser in my opinion the title doesn't seem to fit... I see this film darker than what that title says to me(though after getting a chance to view the entire show, or even a different trailer it may seem a perfect fit). Good luck with gettting the time to finish, and congrats on the comic book!
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Looks good! The shot of the man walking in the city tight on his face looked great. The color felt crisp durning that shot. I think the other shots would most definately benefit from CC. What kind of equipment did you get to use on this shoot?
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

fantastic work. i like your dp's stuff. the graphic behind the intro titles was interesting as well.



inquiry: i live in a mid sized midwestern city, mostly urban sprawl.....i wonder if anyone would be willing to shoot me a tape of that wideshot city stuff like that at night...would up the production value of my current project immensly. im willing to pay for tape, mail, etc. just need someone in a locale that has those fantastic cityscapes to film for me. especially the footage by the water. marvelous.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Stabb:
Hmmm... maybe, I should be more clear in the directions for how to turn off the sound on the site. For everyone who's about to go look, once in the short films section, click on the audio icon on the bottom of the screen, then push the stop button.

To answer your question on the music, you were close. It's from Escape from New York. Appropriate for me since I'm moving to California in September. ;D

The dialogue definitely needs sound design work on it. That whole scene was part of a re-shoot I did a few months ago and we lost our location recordist at the last minute and had to scramble for equipment. We didn't have a mixer and just plugged straight into the camera and the result is less than desirable. I'm just trying to figure out all the ins and outs of the final cut pro plugins to tweak it. What you hear there is raw and basically untouched. (question: what does ADR stand for?)

The film is completely shot and I'm just playing in post when I find the time. It will clock in around 30 minutes and had an end budget of $2,900. Principle shooting took 4 days and pickups took 3. Budget's only that high because of the reshooting. This being my first film ever, I had some issues with casting and had to replace an actor (the guy in the park is the replacement). Will absolutely have it online as part of my reel when it's done. Just need to figure out how to compress it properly so my site doesn't get overloaded from bandwidth usage. I mean the two minute trailer is freakin' 18 megs... :( If anyone here is an expert with Cleaner, I'd truly appreciate it if you could post or email me a workflow. I'm just using the stock settings right now.

I agree with you on the title for the teaser. But the title fits the overall story and everything is not revealed in this teaser. Elvis had the better title "in the name of god", but since that's taken... :-/ The whole story is a 9/11 tribute story told as a thriller. Having been in Manhattan on 9/11 and having had a childhood friend on flight 93, this was my outlet. It's my little F-U to terrorists and extremists.

Kyle:
Yeah that's one of the few shots that I color corrected so far. The whole project needs to be tweaked in color correction, just haven't had time to do that yet. Still working on cutting the new scenes into the old ones.

Equipment used: DVX-100(not a) with panasonic anamorphic lens, Smith Victor 3 light kit, homemade dolly, Glidecam 2000. (can you say Looow budget?)

Israel:
Thanks. My DP really knows his lighting. I storyboarded this whole thing shot by shot, then we sat down and I told him what I was looking for in terms of lighting and mood and he created a lot with very few resources.

Regarding your request: wish I could help you there, but sleeping is a luxury for me lately and I'm about to move :-/ If I were you, I'd hop on a plane out here for a weekend and just walk around NY and shoot to your hearts content. It would be worth it in the long run and I think you can find some great flight deals these days.

Thanks to all for the responses. PLEASE KEEP 'EM COMING!
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Loved the night shots. Very well done indeed. Not sure if you had the budget for some lighting on the dialoge scenes, but I see it was raining and rather dark out. Maybe you can fix it up in post. All in all good effort.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Kidster:
We used bounce cards (white and black) where we could to add contrast because it was an overcast day. But I disagree about it looking too dark. Could be on your monitor it looks dark because Cleaner compressed and encoded the gamma for a mac.

Also, that scene was shot in a public park during the day. Artificial lighting wasn't an option.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

I knew the music was John Carpenter!

ADR - "looping", dialogue replacement. Having the actors re do their lines in a controlled setting in post. Your sound guy can tell you how to do it effectively if you need to do it, if not I did a **** load of it for one of my shows, and I can tell you what worked for me.

Though Elvis used that title before you. I don't think you should really be too concerned with the dvxers in regards to reusing the title. Maybe if it feels more comfortable to use the alternative here, do it, but if that title is the perfect one for you, use it. There are probably tons of other filmmakers who've used it before and will use it in the future.

Curious of your budget break down. Without going down to the last penny, what were the main contributors to the budget?

A 30 minute film is gonna be huge no matter what. I'm just using the default Final cut compressors and I wouldn't go near that size. I've been hearing Sorenson Squeeze can do the job. You may want to cut it up into parts so online viewers don't have to wait long times to see it. Maybe cut it up on cliffhangers.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Please share all the info you're willing to regarding post sound dubbing. I know I want to take a "stabb" at it with the audio filters first, but I want to have all my bases covered in case that doesn't work well enough. My main concern will be getting the dialogue in sync properly and I know that will be a huge hassle with getting the actors to hit their lines convincingly while looking at themselves on the screen. I can usually tell when something has been dubbed in and it annoys the sh!t out of me.

Regarding the title: I don't think I'd feel comfortable taking a title knowing in advance someone else is using it. Just wouldn't feel right. I may just come up with another name down the line. If you have a suggestion... ;)

Main contributors to the budget (rounding off to the best of my recollection right now) were as follow:
$600.00 for a lightkit/lighting. Didn't make sense to rent knowing I might need to do re-shooting and I was thinking down the line for other films I have in mind.
$550.00 for video tapes and misc. equipment including expendables (lightbulbs, extension cords, misc. hardware, extra DVX batteries, etc.).
$500 for food for cast and crew.
$500.00 for film rental equipment (field monitor, sound equipment for re-shoots, etc.)
$150.00 for location rental costs
$100.00 props
$300.00 for cast/crew transportation costs
$200.00 external hard drive for post work

Did the buy/return thing for stuff like the anamorphic lens adapter and I borrowed a friends DVX-100. Just can't afford my own at the moment, but I hope that will be changing in the near future. And of course, I'll be up in the air about getting a DVX-100a or the XL2. Although based on the frame grabs I've seen on the XL2 so far, I'm not impressed. I think the color and imagery off the DVX is far more film like. But the interchangable lenses has me on the fence.... But I digress.

Regarding compression: I'm using Cleaner 6 and I believe it uses the sorenson codec as part of it, but that's the extent of my knowledge. If anyone has suggestions please chime in and post. I'm sure we could all use the info.

Thanks again
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

adr =automatic dialogue replacement. which is rather bizarre considering its anything but automatic.

as far as the title goes...titles are not copyrightable except where it becomes a part of a trademark logo. so you can use the elvis title if you want.
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

lol... it ain't the copyright that would concern me. It's the morality of it. I mean it would be one thing if we both individually had the same or similar title, but it's something very different if I take after hearing/seeing it used someplace else. ;D
 
Re: Message Universal teaser posted

Okay first of all; The Escape From New York music makes me want to run out and make a film RIGHT NOW. Man I love that music. Im sitting here as we speak letting it loop. Sigh...

There are some tryley wonderful shots in this teaser. The night shots especially are well done. When the man and woman are talking something seems off in terms of exposure and coloring; no matter as the rest of this looks really solid visually.

My interest is piqued however I honestly have no idea what the trailer is about (murder? gun? asking a favor from man?). The titles and music are very professional. Id like to see more of this and am wondering how the difference in shots visually are so different from man and woman and he rest of the piece. Especially of the dude walking in the city; that is very nicely done in terms of coloring and exposure (crushed blacks).

Keep us posted and Ill chill to the homesite music.
 
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