My AMAZON TRIBECA Short Film Submission (A Romance film!)

Young-H._Lee

Young-H._Lee

Well-known member
Yea, the initial contest is over, I am not one of the finalists boohoo. Pretty bummed, but even so, I knew I was competing against more than 1,000 other films, and this film wasn't my best, so I rationalize that if I really had a great idea and enough time, I could do it :)

Anyways, its a first attempt at something dramatic and romantic. Shot in Taiwan.

enjoy
http://www.younghlee.com/films/firsttimewemet.mov
http://www.younghlee.com/films/firsttimewemet.wmv

also, a few other experimental video tests
http://www.younghlee.com/films/alisa_test2.mov
http://www.younghlee.com/films/alisa_test1.wmv
http://www.younghlee.com/films/alisa_test2.wmv

firsttimewemet9_small.jpg
 
I like a lot of it, some good stuff in there. A couple things jumped out at me. The sound shift from the romantic flashbacks to the train crossing was abrupt. You might want to try keeping the train horn throughout and just fading it down during the flashback sequence and backup during reality. I would also keep experimenting with musical choices. Perhaps a musical piece that is a little darker. I just thought the musical piece was a little bare and too happy. With the right music, or even different musical choices I think this piece can be stronger and take on different resonances. Good stuff man.

EDIT: Good visuals too. :thumbsup:
 
thansk a lot issac

I do agree with a lot of your audio assessment, the musical selection was mainly due to the fact that it was for a competition, and I wish I could have used copyrighted music...the other jarring train thing was intended to jolt the audience, so i guess that didnt work for you, anyways thanks man
 
I liked the train sound, but I thought of it as music. It was definitely jarring, but it would be interesting to have the train bell really low in the mix during the flashback. It would serve as a subconscious reminder of reality to the guy having the flashback. It would also fill in and buffer the romantic music. That last tunnel shot was awesome. A really cool effect.
 
i liked how you had control over certain shots. the zoom and transistions didn't feel hurried nor abrupt. what's more is that it felt very pro- those zooms. I guess we can thank the dvx partly- got amazing zooms. yeah, it was nice to watch overall.
 
I like the images. You got a good eye man. What a pimp, give the girl the flower and walked away like it anit nothin. I hope that girl wasn't like your cousin or anything.. Good stuff man!

Let me score your next movie. I didn't feel the music on this one. :)
 
Young, really nice piece. I agree that the music could be less wimpy. The tranisition to the moon was awesome.

The only other thing I'd say is that I really am not partial to that extreme Magic Bullet look, it's actually quite distracting to my eye.

I really liked the way I got sucked into his thoughts when the train was passing and then jumping back to reality. I wasn't listening to the sound critically with headphones so I can't comment on that.

Nice job...
 
I also really enjoyed this. I agree with everyone on the music - I didn't think it was bad, but I think it could have been a lot better. The acting was really good, I felt like I was watching something really happening, and not a couple actors pretending something was happening.

I like the jarring effect of the train whistle coming out of nowhere, jerking me back to reality from the flashback. But I have to agree, having the crossing bell dinging quietly in the background during the flashback would have been a nice effect.

Overall I thought this was a great short, I enjoyed it and look forward to more work from you in the future.

Larry
 
thansk a lot everyone!

Issac, I think you are right, I'm going to recut an "ideal" version of hte movie, with all the first choice music (copyrighted stuff) and try to prolong the dinging a bit more.

dvpixl - yea i liked the creep zooms of the camera. my remote control ran out of batteries however, so I had to hold the handle zoom down, which shook the image a bit as I got really zoomed in

bspidy - thanks bro for the first comments, but im not even going to dignify your second comment with a response

disjecta - thanks for the nice words from the dvxuser cinematographer himself! yea, i used MB for almost every shot in this movie. I'm not good enough to do my own color correction

larry - thanks, any thoughts on what music would have worked better? actualy I should pose that question to whoever comments next. I have a few pieces in mind, some kind of pop song, like Aqua's Time after Time
 
The best shot is probably after she says V.O. "at that place tonight" and see the warm-colored arc thing, with the mega-glow lighting under it and what not, yes, that shot. Even the little focus-adjust, was that done on purpose?

I just love seeing, if it was intentional, how DPs and directors decide where to place things like that, as well as with steadycam shots when they want intentional shaking and where and how, etc.

Overall, I enjoy the storybook-esque quality to the images. And the slow limited movements of characters works, this way it's closer to film as oppose to an un-lit chase sequence, where it'll look like an action soap-opera, and also makes sense with the storybook quality.

But the V.O. throughout the short is definitely too loud. At one point you hear a "p" pop, so you know it definitely has to be too loud. However, speaking of the V.O. work, in the very beginning, when the male says "ok," that was done well.
 
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