Our first 7D skit. The Shake Down

E

Elasticminds

New member
This is the first movie that we have shot with our Canon 7D (im sure there have been plenty on here). Considering we did everything improvised in 1-2 takes, edited the next day. I think if we sit down and do something carefully scripted we could do something good. We would like to know if there is anything we should do the next time we start our serious projects, any techniques we should to try, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcyt_cjmcvU

Thanks for viewing.
 
is it because of youtube ? But the very first millisecond I hear a very short sound (about 0,0000001 second long).

I think it's better to have 2 seconds black first always for youtube stuff

The background sound (the factory in action)....was it there at the moment or added after ?

Don't be afraid to ask your talents to speak louder.... you can give a feeling in speaking of "whispering" but with still giving "full voice power".

I have a typical american feeling :p But that's normal I guess (haha) (Americans are cool....but funny....)

Have a soundguy next time..... I can't understand what the guy is saying when the camera moves away

I have a feeling the sound of the factory was there all the time ? Avoid !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Choose for quite places...or as quite as possible but not next to a factory

The background sound makes me "fall a sleep".....

And in fact...it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to long

2-3 minutes was more the enough for this one
 
For this i was more concerned about the cinematography and visual editing end of things. For the serious projects will be going the extra mile and doing second sound, because DSLR sound is definitely not the greatest way to go no matter what mic you got hooked up to it. I have a decent sound studio more so than my video rig by far. I agree it is hard to hear the conversation in parts, i would boost the volume but the background noise is too much.

Now regarding second sound, Ive heard of software that makes the syncing job much easier, Ill have to look into that, but Im thinking for serious second sound maybe getting a marantz field recorder with a decent shotgun boom mic. Problem is having a person on the sound end when staffing is short.

Sometimes compromise is hard to avoid, esp on a lo/no budget production. But for our next projects, it will be much more carefully done than what we did here.
 
Elasticminds said:
For this i was more concerned about the cinematography and visual editing end of things. For the serious projects will be going the extra mile and doing second sound, because DSLR sound is definitely not the greatest way to go no matter what mic you got hooked up to it. I have a decent sound studio more so than my video rig by far. I agree it is hard to hear the conversation in parts, i would boost the volume but the background noise is too much.

Now regarding second sound, Ive heard of software that makes the syncing job much easier, Ill have to look into that, but Im thinking for serious second sound maybe getting a marantz field recorder with a decent shotgun boom mic. Problem is having a person on the sound end when staffing is short.

Sometimes compromise is hard to avoid, esp on a lo/no budget production. But for our next projects, it will be much more carefully done than what we did here.
Click to expand...


Lo and no budget...yes....but....

You always need a minimum of crew....

You can not tell to a bricklayer "build a house, but I only have money for water and sand........"

There are people who are willing to help you for free (if it doesn't take to much of there time)
 
Well as an improv first film, it's not too bad.

You'll have some hurdles to jump to get to something better, but that comes with time, practice and talent.

The first main problem is the script/dialogue. I know, I know, this is improvised, but I've seen some amazing improvised films. This was pretty bad because it was repetition, repetition, repetition. How many times did the guy ask for money? How many times did he give a warning? And how many times did his sis at the end complain about him being late and about fighting him next time? At least twice if not more. What was the point? Film dialogue isn't supposed to be real. It's supposed to be short, sweet, and to the point. Even if it was filmed that way, you should have cut out 90% of the dialogue. As Dre said, the whole film could have been A LOT shorter. It just drags. At the end it stayed so long on the final argument, I started thinking "what's the point of this!?"

The fighting was a bit lumbering as well. Mind you the guy is big, and that can be an advantage in a fight, but everything just felt so scripted and kinda... lackluster. I mean you kept slowing things down, throwing in flashes to try and spice it up, but there's nothing there to begin with. I mean when you're overcranking a distraction "hat throw" then you know it's missing content.

As for editing and cinematography... I mean it's nothing special. Like I said, keep practicing, and don't let any of us get you down.
 
I know this work pails in comparison to everything else out there. Im fairly new to all this so im not a seasoned pro by any means, and neither is the rest of my crew. In fact im the one who's the "seasoned" person on this crew. This was a first time deal for just about everyone involved. I agree the dialogue leaves alot to be desired, and personally we should have cut the second part off, we did it mostly for getting the crew ready for a much much much bigger project coming up.

the next works we will be doing will have a real script, which would help alot with the dialogue. Probably should have waited to post one of our real videos before posting this test. But we got to start somewhere as they say.

our number 1 issue is getting everyone available for doing the shooting, by far and large. Our big movie that im planning, there will be very little outdoor dialogue, mostly naration, which would solve our issue with on location sound and continuality problems we have working with just one camera.
 
I liked the style, the framing of most of your shots, and the exposure of your shots looks nice.

As for the story, editing, i pretty much agree spot on with what jon star said, to long, to much repitition, needs a lot of editing.

Technical stuff seems sound, id say trim a good minute or 2 out and it should run much smoother.

Alll in all, nice for an improve kinda thing.
 
techincal was what we going for in this one. The acting was just kinda there to give me something to shoot. It was a confidence building exercise for the crew, and for me it was testing out the abilities of the camera itself. Glad to know the technical end is sound.

Thanks for viewing.
 
Just another sort of note, your style reminded me somewhat of the french film La Haine, check it out if youve never seen it.

220px-Haine.jpg
 
Hi

Watched it - enjoyed it.

You did it. Others comments seemed fair.

But your glass is definately half full not half empty.

You are out there doing it - that's great.

The fact that I enjoyed your first project is a great start (that people enjoy your work).

I think it did really well to fit the bill of get startred and get something going.

and did I mention I enjoyed it...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top