One with the DVX

U

underhelp

New member
Hey guys,

I've been reading this forum for so long now and I finally got a short of mine up on the internet. It's the only short I've shot with a DVX and I had only two days with it, so unfortunately I didn't have alot of time to play with it. Well tell me what you think anyway.

It's fairly long, and to understand the boring story you have to see the end. Sorry.

Hope you like it

http://www.coderedfilms.net/extra/kitten.mov

Also check out http://www.coderedfilms.net if you want, I have a music video up there too.
 
Re: One with the DVX

Hi, Underhelp! Cute clip!

I couldn't help but notice that your short does not have the "cine/film look" that the DVX's 24p mode is designed to capture. I'm still saving up for the camera, but wonder now whether it is more difficult than I thought to achieve the look with the 24p feature alone, and not without lots of lighting expertise and/or expensive post-production effects.

May I ask what CineSwitch settings you used for the project?

Thanks! Michael
 
Re: One with the DVX

You are a strange individual, underhelp :D

Interesting film. You kept me guessing till the end but, ultimately, the ending didn't work for me. Too vague, but I applaud you for putting it together.

Keep shooting.
 
Re: One with the DVX

1. Need Lighting
2. Need Real Plot!
3. Less underwear Shots
4. Less underwear shots
5. Magic bullet (film look)
6. Take less time to show an action / switch camera angles people dont want it all to happen in real time. Watch how abreiviated a movie is one second the character is getting out of their car the next they're at the door. Your ten minute or so short could have been 3.

Good luck! Take this as constructive critisism. ;D
 
Re: One with the DVX

Hmm, cut down your clip, other than that I don't do what else to say. Keep doing what your doing , I guess.
 
Re: One with the DVX

Ok guys thanks for the input.

In response to Michaels question: Like I said I didn't have much time to play with the camera, and I had no training with it, I was studying 16mm at the time. So unfortunately I can't tell you what settings I had it on, I might of even just had it on the default 24p settings.

You are all right it could have definitely been shorter, and although it seems nobody really liked it, thats ok. I appreciate the critizism. Thanks.

Spider: I'll keep doing what I'm doing, I guess.
 
Re: One with the DVX

You see, opinions are like butts, everyone has one. There was something very lonely and overwhelmingly sad about your short. I felt sorry for the cat's meaningless life, the protagonist's thirst for dialogue with humanity (expressed with the cat) and most of all for the poor soul whose' only means of "love" was through the incognito eyes of the cat. Yes, it is slow but life is also slow and that was the reason why this short film worked for me. Small details like the hum of the air conditioning, sleeping in the daytime and cubicled existence of the lead all added to the atmosphere of loneliness and lost time. Maybe I am overthinking it and if so that is always a good thing.. thinking.
 
Re: One with the DVX

Like everyone has already said: cut cut cut. Actually, should be thought more as tighter tighter tighter.

EVERYONE lingers too long when they cut their films. :)

Anyway, the only thing I would actually "change" is the other guy. See him just once at the end.

$0.02

Dan
 
Re: One with the DVX

My roommate did this short once about a murder mystery, told from the perspective of a cat. It was cute for a few minutes, you know the low angles, the camera doing things a cat would do like walking underneath things. But it (like this piece) was missing something...like a POV of a cat licking its own butt or grooming itself. It would take it to the next level.

I'm not really sure what the ending was all about. Seriously, I don't know what it means.

At any rate, experimentation is always good, and it can only lead to bigger and better things. The next step I think is to try to tell an actual story. Good luck.
 
Re: One with the DVX

I like the long shots. They don't bore me at all. They give me a chance to center myself in the moment just as if I were watching a Stanley Kubrick movie. One negative thing though is that I felt like cutting myself after watching it -- or maybe that's cuz I liked it.
 
Re: One with the DVX

hahah the ending does work. if it wasn't for that ending this would be a waste of time. the extra guy puts everything into context. A lot of ppl have said it should be shorter and I agree halfway. If you're going to tighten anything, do it in the middle when it starts to get repetitive. The longness of the opening is effective for the specific dramatic purposes of this film. But as it goes along it needs to be cut way down.

Here's an idea - begin this film with a POV of the cat being put into the box by the second guy. Then cut to: our "hero" walks up and sees the box already sitting in front of his door. That way its already a bit of a mysterious cat, and therefore leads to a question to be answered - who put the cat there?

Anyways, it has lots of potential! Again, the ending is clever.
 
Re: One with the DVX

Hey, thanks for the most recent comments guys :)

For those of you who didn't really get the ending, I'm sorry if it was unclear, I mean ... my mom didn't get it the first time either. In short, the guy at the end had planted to the cat to spy on "Jacob" and is watchign a live video feed on his computer of what the cat is seeing. It's obviously pretty far fetched that someone could plant a camera of sorts in a cats eyes and control it .. but thats not really important. its a movie.

Thanks again guys :)
 
Re: One with the DVX

You blew it! I thought the camera was in the cat's collar! (was the cat wearing a collar?)
LUXGAP made some very good observations on this. I did like how the opening song made sense at the end.
 
Re: One with the DVX

..like many before: cut cut cut BUT don't cut (a lot of times) the head of the boy!

only my 2c - Regards
 
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