New Short Film, Nanoflash and Voigtlander 25

B

bhdfield

Well-known member
Here's a link to the short film I recently completed, which I directed, shot, and edited. Most of the footage used the Voigtlander 25. Fantastic lens. This link has been updated with a version which now includes a tracking shot as well as a few other changes.

All footage was captured via the Nanoflash at 180 mb/s. The bluray and DVD encodes look amazing. Really no discernible banding, incredible detail which looks nice combined with the inherent cinematic softness of the Voigtlander. NOTE - The mp4 encode process in Sorenson or Vimeo may have crushed the blacks a bit.
You will need a password to view the video: amblin

(I need to limit its online access to DVX user at this point. It premieres in a fest in St. Louis in a month)

Showdown 1.jpg

 
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Very nice work dude! Great frames, I liked the grade and appreciated the subtle editing. Nice
 
very nicely done. interesting story and wanted it to continue. the only thing that bothered me was the comp shot. keep up the great work.
 
masnart said:
very nicely done. interesting story and wanted it to continue. the only thing that bothered me was the comp shot. keep up the great work.
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Thanks Masnart. One thing I'd always prefer is that someone say they want more, over wanting less. I only had about 3 hours to shoot the GI soldier's dialogue, and other pickups from the German, in order to get minimally what I needed. So I had to keep it sparse for more than just stylistic reasons. You mention the comp shot bothered you. You think it's a bit too much? Lens flare over the top? Curious your thoughts. The original shot there was pretty ugly, a bunch of giant over grown trees on all sides and background, and no depth. So I preferred it over that anyway.
 
It was a tad too "manufactured" for me. I like the creative approach to the comp though. Hey, i've worked in efx for 20 years so maybe i'm bit tough to please, but IMHO the best effects shots are when you don't notice them or their seamless and believable. Unless of course your creating an environment that is suppose to be outside the scope of reality. (ie., the movie Inception)

I thought you did a good job with the lens flares and they enhanced those scenes. I think the "gate" scene had a combination of challenges. The pillars and bushes and all the foreground elements are too evenly lit (and technically from the wrong side based upon the sun placement). Perhaps if you darkened down some of those elements creating a bit more depth and mood to those elements, it would be a more natural fit.

hope that's helpful. Keep up the great work.
 
masnart said:
It was a tad too "manufactured" for me. I like the creative approach to the comp though. Hey, i've worked in efx for 20 years so maybe i'm bit tough to please, but IMHO the best effects shots are when you don't notice them or their seamless and believable. Unless of course your creating an environment that is suppose to be outside the scope of reality. (ie., the movie Inception)

I thought you did a good job with the lens flares and they enhanced those scenes. I think the "gate" scene had a combination of challenges. The pillars and bushes and all the foreground elements are too evenly lit (and technically from the wrong side based upon the sun placement). Perhaps if you darkened down some of those elements creating a bit more depth and mood to those elements, it would be a more natural fit.

hope that's helpful. Keep up the great work.
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I think you're right on the mark. Foreground is too evenly lit, and sun in the composite doesn't match the source from the original. When I shot it, I'd not even considered the idea of compositing that scene but I just couldn't stand the look of the original, too mundane. So fortunately I was indeed going for an environment outside the scope of reality, which might help me get away with a little bit. If I could give that scene to someone who really knows what they're doing with CGI, I'd love to see it. But I had to make a deadline for entry in this local fest. Really appreciate your thoughts and observations! You know what you're talking about.
 
I would have liked an old Movitone style voice over for the b&w film portion- maybe something that foreshadowed what he was in store for?- otherwise I didn't think it really added to the short. Loved the grade after that and before gate transformation scene. Well acted and an interesting story. I would have liked to know why he was separated from his fellow soldiers though.
 
_JD_ said:
I would have liked an old Movitone style voice over for the b&w film portion- maybe something that foreshadowed what he was in store for?- otherwise I didn't think it really added to the short. Loved the grade after that and before gate transformation scene. Well acted and an interesting story. I would have liked to know why he was separated from his fellow soldiers though.
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Thanks JD for your thoughts. Without giving away too much in the thread before someone may watch, there's something really significant that happens at the end of the newsreel footage, that explains why he's separated, and why things get a little weird after that. Its a major, major event, suffice to say. The film is rather dependent on its sound design and music cues, and I've felt watching on my laptop, which basically allows only the sound of voices, something is lost. But I appreciate your feedback.
 
I missed it too, as would most people. Brilliant though. Some good suggestions in here too. Look forward to more from you.
 
STYLZ said:
I missed it too, as would most people. Brilliant though. Some good suggestions in here too. Look forward to more from you.
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Thanks, that's interesting to me. This, for me is one of the big challenges of filmmaking, especially solo, when you know what you know in your own mind. I've screened it on large screens with good sound for about 15 people and I don't think anyone has, by the end of the film, not understood what happened to the GI. Usually by the gate scene and color change to sepia, they get that. But after the understood German and the line "where's the war?", others said they got it. I do feel the online medium takes something away from the immersion. So I'm not yet too compelled to change it, because I didn't want to give that away that soon. I like the process of figuring it out, but I do want people to understand by the time the credits roll! Thanks for your observation!
 
No..you are exactly right, it is because it is on a small small screen. Plus I had the TV going in the background, was eating, and didn't have the sound turned up all that high. On the second pass I still thought the gunfire was a little too subtle/quiet, but on a big screen/system it would be obvious.
 
STYLZ said:
No..you are exactly right, it is because it is on a small small screen. Plus I had the TV going in the background, was eating, and didn't have the sound turned up all that high. On the second pass I still thought the gunfire was a little too subtle/quiet, but on a big screen/system it would be obvious.
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Yep, one of the reasons I don't ever use online screeners for film festival submissions. DVD or Bluray only. And it's another source of frustration in working with paying clients in the video review process. If a client is reviewing a video not intended for the web, but on the web, there can be a lot that gets missed because they may be listening with speakers no larger than a quarter in a noisy room, while watching the image on a screen smaller than a postcard.
 
I loved it, it sucked me in quick, and like said before, I didn't want it to end, it was that good. The only thing I think would heve been better, is when he takes the seat and hears someone walking, I think if you you would have shown another soldier, maybe japanese, then cut to ending. Thats just myt opinion. anyways, I loved this, very twilight zoney.
 
maranfilms said:
I loved it, it sucked me in quick, and like said before, I didn't want it to end, it was that good. The only thing I think would heve been better, is when he takes the seat and hears someone walking, I think if you you would have shown another soldier, maybe japanese, then cut to ending. Thats just myt opinion. anyways, I loved this, very twilight zoney.
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It's funny you say that because I actually did shoot that, and expected it was going to be great when edited in. I went back to the field where I shot the GI in the color segment, and pulled a flower just like the kind the American soldier brushes past in that early shot. After putting on the German uniform myself (because I had no help that day), I positioned the flower in the greenhouse and rolled on it while I walked by, brushing by it in a closeup. But when I edited it in, it just didn't work. It didn't seem to work breaking the GI's action with another shot without him. I also ultimately preferred the audience's imagination to my depiction of whomever could be walking in there. Maybe it wasn't a soldier, but someone or something else. So if someone in the audience rolls with that notion, I don't want to take that away. Their imagination might be better than something I could show, or afford to! Maybe if I'd had a rather grand master shot, wide on reverse, it might have worked, but I still wanted to end on the GI's face at the end.

I really appreciate your thoughts, glad it pulled you in early because the first nearly 4 minutes has no dialogue.
 
Or...what if, instead of a Japanese soldier in the final shot, I have a modern American soldier, in desert camouflage, walking up to the table with the WWII GI? Damn, I might just have to shoot that. Might be pretty cool.
 
For those who've wondered how AF100 footage looks on a big screen, I can tell you the answer is fantastic, at least paired with the Voigtlander and a Nanoflash recording at 180mb/s. Showdown premiered on a big screen with a very good projector today in St. Louis. I kept the footage as clean as I could in post, doing color in Avid and After Effects, exporting as reference and rendering in 10 bit codec. The resulting Bluray output encoded by Matrox Mini at 30mb/s looked at least as good, and some thought, better than another film shot on RED. Please, I'm not saying AF100 is a better camera, but a lot of how the footage looks has to do with how you shot it, how you record it, and how you handle it in post.
 
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