No Presents For Paul - Short Film

Darkline

Darkline

Veteran
Hi Everyone,

Over the years I've made the odd thing or two on my DVX but havent really shown it to anyone. I thought this site may be a good way to see what people thought.

The first one I'll put up is a 4 and half minute short I made about 2 years ago called "No Presents For Paul"

Hope you enjoy.

Karl

http://darklineonline.co.uk/npfp.html
 
There's cool weird.....and then there's just weird weird. Ok...so it kept my interest and I kinda liked the visuals in that I thought they were well done except for the sheets in the mirror. It just didn't really seem to have a story. There was no getting to know the character or where he was or what was really on the other side of the mirror. I think you have a good idea here and you certainly know how to execute it, but there just seems to me that there's something wrong with the story line. I think we all get used to the Hollywood way or maybe I should say "formula" that it throws a viewer back when it doesn't follow the "rules". So maybe this is your intent which is fine but when you state that it's based on true events the viewer expects some explanation. The point is that this does have a lot of potential, it just seems unfinished and more like a trailer. You did some very fine work here and I do admire your work for what it is visually. I would love to see more of your work.

Marlene
 
Probably one of the wierdest short's i've ever seen. I just kept waiting for some crazy jump cut to a close-up on the girl from The Ring or something. Definitely creepy and wierd.
 
I'm with the rest of the crowd...

It seems like you took a macy's commercial, A Darth Vader voice over, and some really bland drem and fused them all together.

What's this about again? And if I'm asking that question... then something's wrong, like the gal above me stated.
 
To be honest, I usually hate this kind of stuff. No explainable story line etc...

But, for some reason I really, really liked this! Maybe its because it is late and I haven't been sleeping enough but I actually watched the whole thing and was somehow entertained by it!

Weird. But I agree with other posters that the visuals were great. Well edited, good audio mix etc.

Weird but I like it! :laugh:

Keep it up and show us some of your other shorts, good or bad! :-)
 
Awesome.
I really enjoy the feeling of a short that doesn't necesarrily give all the give all the information. I think it really helps achieve that feel that you are confused and you are more in his position. Things like that, I think, work on a whole different level. Who needs it to be explained? I think things can just be enjoyed just for the work. Awesome. I'd be really interested to see anything else you have done.
 
The one thing that bothered me about the character, was that when he lost his mouthpiece, why didn't he quickly go and try to grab it again???

I'd understand it, if there was like a shot of the air hose slithering away back into a hole, so that it can't be retreived.... but since this was either not shown (or maybe I missed it?), it just lingers there bugging me, and makes me think his death was really pathetic. (versus a sympathetic or heroic death) But maybe that was the intent?

jg
 
hahah i thought this was very good, very well thought up and executed.
nice flick for the hollidays :d
 
production photos

production photos

Thank you for all your comments. I expected a mixed bag of reactions, but even if one or two really like it – it’s worth doing.

I think Reverend really hit the nail on the head as far as what it was meant to be. If you felt the need to ask “what was this about?” then I cant provide an answer you’d be happy with as we’re approaching it from very different viewpoints. I wanted to create something which was about a mood/ambience than expository narrative structure. To explain the character or reasons behind it would actually take away everything I tried to create. I appreciate it isn’t for everybody though.

Ok, so onto the techniques. Well it was set up pretty much by me and my friend (who also acted in it). It was filmed in my shed at the back of the garden with white sheets pinned up. I left a gap of about 30cm between the wall and sheets, so I could fit a light behind them. We needed something really diffused and cool running so I borrowed a friend’s fluorescent lights from his fish tank to backlight the sheets with. This gave them an illuminated quality and finally a redhead (800W tungsten) was used to backlight the side sheet and illuminate the room with the spill.

Here are a few stills of the on-set production which show a bit better what we had to work with.

productionstillsnpfp.jpg




Our shed is small, so I couldn’t get the camera back for the full body/sitting down shots. So those pieces were filmed in our hallway, again with a white sheet behind Mark. I took all the shots into Discreet Combustion and masked/painted out all the elements that were not white in the frame (including the hallway). Many shots had the creases and varying shades of white visible, so it was a bit of work tracking/removing the creases. (Someone spotted the sheets reflected in the glass – there is only so much you can do in a small space :grin: )

There was only one room but we needed to create the illusion of two in a single shot. The wide shots of him looking into the room are composited separate elements of the tree, presents, filmed decorations, and the main actor all put together once again in Combustion. I built a very basic window frame in 3DSmax to put around Mark. All the shots where he is looking into the room with the Christmas tree (cam over shoulder) are filmed with him stood outside the shed in the back garden, looking back into the shed (set redressed). We had to be careful here not to move the camera too much as you’d see the outside of our shed wall or part of the shed we hadn’t dressed inside.


comp1.jpg


comp2.jpg


The edit probably took 3 days with all the painting/composite shots. Once again, thanks for all the comments. I may put up some of my other work if people are interested; its not all short films, some are sketches or just …. erm things.
 
Wow! Thanks for all the photos and great explanation of how you made this film. I'm thinking I should be learning something from all this but ....sooooo much to learn and soooooo little time. Very cool of you to take the time.

Marlene
 
Wow, I really liked this. Except for the intro shot, where you can plainly see the background inbetween his feet. Other than that, excellent short!
 
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