Schachmeister - First Short Film

redcap

redcap

Well-known member
This was a movie I shot back in high school when I knew absolutely nothing! But seriously, its not as bad as you think - it brought back a few awards, two at the state level. A copyrighted soundtrack kept it from any sort of distribution. Made in 2000-01.

Ok - for a while we used this kind of crappy sony camera, it was decent. But then we went ahead and rented an XL-1 and a bunch of other equipment (light kit, dolly, tripod) for a weekend. The english version has most of this footage. Remember this was 2000-01 .. things were different back then- I did edit on FCP however on a G3.

Other trivia: The office scene was shot in the Enron Building in Houston, TX ... before the scandal.

http://www.redcapmedia.com/movies/Schach_Sub_30k.mov

its ~28 megs and 15 min. long.
 
53 views and zero comments? Come on people... I guess I could tell you about the plot line:

Young man discusted with 'modern' society has an internal break-down which magically transports him to a different time and place where he battles with his inner-demons which take the form of stuffed animals - suprise ending as well.

Also - I'll have some h.264 encoded stuff online fairly soon, and maybe I'll make a trailer.

For those of you with QT 7 I made a 100k version that is only 12.63 megs. Quality is pretty decent - encoded with h.264

http://www.redcapmedia.com/movies/Schach_qt7_100k.mov


http://www.redcapmedia.com/movies/Schach_qt7_40k.mov

- For modems a 5 meg file.
 
redcap said:
This was a movie I shot back in high school when I knew absolutely nothing! But seriously, its not as bad as you think
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lol its perty bad, but if this really was a first effort, from high school, then thats kinda impressive.

I'd like to see some of ur recent stuff since writting a full critique and advice colum on this might waste both of our time. were you interested in help or just sharing something u dug out of the closet recently?
 
You really thought it was that bad?

But yeah.. just sharing. I thought it was kinda funny.
 
if it was supposed to be a comedy then i missed it completely, but that could just be subjective.

again, now put up some new so we can see how u've grown since high school
 
Right, I had time to watch the whole piece now, it is quite long.

I hope you have continued to make other films since, because this was obviously made a while ago. It is good to see you got started whilst still at high school.

I think that it would benefit from a major re-edit. I wouldn't be scared about trimming out the fat to make a much leaner, more enjoyable film.

Also I found much of the editing disjointed: From the scenes at the start, jumping forward 20 years; the changing music; the cross-dissolves and fades to black. Always try and plan your editing before the shoot (although it always changes), however, I think it would be a good exercise to try and reduce the run time by up to 75%! Yes, cut out 3/4 and see what happens! I recently had to re-edit someone else's work for a limited cinema release. We cut the run time nearly in half because the distributer only gave us 11 minutes to play with. It actually improved the film, despite us thinking it would be impossible. Just a suggestion...

It is also interesting to see that you are just starting to experiment with the camera. Next time you shoot, think how every shot will convey the scene to the audience. Especially with an abstract film like this, it would be good to see the camera used to enhance the tone and story and not just record the action.

I also have to admit that the story did go a little over my head. I am more a fan of standard narrative though, so I am not the best to judge this aspect of the film.

There are of course lots of other little points that could be improved, like any film at this level: the actors don't quite sell it, it was shot on older camera, it could do with some colour correction. Now the technology is better, try to fix these problems. Hopefully you can also draw some better performances.

Overall my main points would be to work on flow and pace. Be more definite in telling the story and plan how everything will link together in the final piece. Problems like having an old camera are not really a problem!

Can we see anything more recent? It would be good to see how you have improved since 2000.
 
well if i WAS goin to critique, i would just qoute mmm, those are the main offenders, although just personally would add comps to the list sinde im kinda shallow and like my movies pretty.

to solve comps, editing, pacing, a lot of stuff. you should story board ur work (like mmm said, plan ur editing)

but again, im reluctant to advise since this maybe misrepresentative of ur work 5 years later
 
Yeah, I would advice people to storyboard, but I never do, so I feel hypocritical.

Some people swear by it, I personally find my scenes are better if I don't. That must just be how my brain works... but let's not go there!
 
Its decent... the sound was pretty off.. and the editing could have been a bit better.. but for high school, not bad... I started in high school aswell... we had HUGE S-VHS cameras... so i know how hard it is to do with limited resources... but atleast you rented equipment, I didnt think to that until i got into college for Film, but i ended up buying stuff for myself..

That being said, my comments are: the audio needs to be evened out.. its loud at some parts and to low at others. just watch out for that... take the movie to 2 or 3 different rooms and speaker set ups.. make sure it sounds good not just in your editing suite/computer.

if you are useing subtitles... you have to slow down the dialogue or atleast leave the titles up longer (for stupid people like me) :P im a slow reader, and i try to look at the frame first, see whats happening, then read.. some of them were a bit fast..

other then that, what the other people said, seems like good advice... I dont personally like the idea of storyboards either, i dont think any of us do, we are in a creative job after all.... but i do like to have my ideas all on paper, or have a pretty broad storyboard.. it can be changed, or thrown out.. but makes the shoot faster, and helps things come together in the editing suite..

good luck, would love to see more of your recent work..
 
hmmm thats interesting, i wonder then if im the only person who really does think storyboarding is almost mandatory.

if u can see the movie in ur head, why not put it down so u can plan around it. To me, the idea of going to a set without a specific shot list seems incredibly wasteful and will more often than not come back to huant you in post.
 
If you know what you want to shoot and you can describe it in words and actions you dont need storyboards, but if you can draw decent (I am a stick figure guy myself) then more power to ya.

As far as the video goes I didnt like it, flat out bored me, but the reason I didnt comment is because you said thats old, and I dont want to try and critique a body of work that may not even be close to the definition of what you are now.
 
I find that with storyboards, they are often made redundant because things change on set so much. Even a tiny change, changes everything and I find trying to modify what I had planned is quicker if it is all in my head.

I use storyboards if I need to demonstrate a very particular shot to my DoP of effects guys. I never really use them with actors, because I prefer it if they don't even think about the camera. They should just play the scene in the space they have and sometimes you will have to tweak the performance for the camera.

I have seen a lot of young filmmakers become dependant on storyboards and are unable to adapt. Adapting is essential on any set, especially low budget. However, use what works for you! There is no one way to direct, this is just what I do.
 
I think it's way too long. You need to be more economical with your shots. Even if this is an experimental piece, you still have to respect your audience. Some scenes were good, I like how the music changed and matched well in the scene where he discovers the knife in the river. But keep it up, not bad.
 
dont get me wrong, I do love storyboards... and as Urine says.... if you cant draw, all the storyboards in the world. cant help you describe your work... which is another reason to do them, if you are not the only person working on the film. If you have DOP's, Producers, editors and other creative people, It can be easier for them to get your idea when its drawn out. But things do change a great deal on set. So I try and make vague storyboards and a list of the shots i need. make sure i get the basics, then go nuts with creativity...

so dont think I wont use them, just some people who cant draw and people who are doing most of the work themselves may not need them as much..

I think storyboarding and shot lists are very important in the professional world...
 
I though it was extremely nice for a High School flick, but I do have a lot of reserves. I think it' a tad too long, but not much. I feel the scene with the shrink should go. It's a bad scene poorly acted. The first scene was also bad, but it's important to estabilish his passion for chess. I would have started in the office, made a flashback to his house and teenage years, and come back. I think the scenes are not very nicely blocked, and sometimes really don't make me sympathise with the main character. I think you could have gained from more classical blocking in the chess in the park scene (knife and all), and the office scene. I didn't understand the ending at all. Endings are very important to short films. But I was dying curious to see what would happen after he got in the park, so I kinda liked that. I don't see how it's funny, the tone is certainly surreal, but not funny, despite for a few misplaced gags in the beggining.

It's an interesting film, much better than anything I did in highschool, with a nice story, but honestly I can see why you say you did not know anything then...
 
The movie often goes over many peoples heads - but the central issue with the main character is the lack of relationship he had with his father.

In all actuality the movie is meant to be ironic. The main character isn't really supposed to be sympathised for - he's a spoiled kid who can't accept his own way of life the way he was brought up, and he attempts to escape - but in the end he realises he is his own enemy.

The movie tested very well infront of german audiences, however, and many people said it had a "distinct german" feel to it. So thats where I was going with that, german cinema is drastically different than your meat-and-potatoes american movie.
 
redcap said:
The movie often goes over many peoples heads - but the central issue with the main character is the lack of relationship he had with his father.

In all actuality the movie is meant to be ironic. The main character isn't really supposed to be sympathised for - he's a spoiled kid who can't accept his own way of life the way he was brought up, and he attempts to escape - but in the end he realises he is his own enemy.
Click to expand...

I don't think that your ideas come across that clearly in the film.

Many people say "audiences aren't stupid" but remember that they aren't mind readers either.
 
That being said the smart people got it, and the stupid people were left scratching their heads.

Trust me, I've shown it to people who listed out all of the symbols the way they were meant to be interpreted, and others who just watched it and thought it was kind of funny because of the stuffed animals and the way german "sounds."
 
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