short film for amd 64seconds contest, feedback please

J

JZalutsky

Well-known member
Two of my friends and myself collarberated to make this short film for the 64seconds.com amd contest. The first stage of the contest allows the public to vote on the videos and narrow the selection down to the top 25. We worked way hard on this and only had a short time to film it (only 2hrs in that restarant) and the editing process was the most insane thing i have ever done, we had about 15audio tracks for the diffrent sounds! so if you guys could lend us a hand and give us a nice ratting that would be awsome!

to view our short: go to www.64seconds.com
click on "the show"
then go to "search entries" and type in "waiter" and it'll come right up.

Thanks alot guys, I hope you enjoy the video and gave us a nice ratting

critiscem and feedback would really help...we had to make a lot of compromises in making this one cause of the time so I'm sure there will be things to comment on.

thanks again

-Jake Zalutsky

and of course this was shot on a lovely dvx100a, I have had the camera for about a month now and love it!
 
I think we are still trying to figure out what this means, "gave us a nice ratting"

We dont like being told to go vote for you especially when your first two posts are in two different sections saying the same thing. My guess is that you are going to all the filmmaker and dv forums and posting this to get votes in the contest. Give us a link to watch your work and we will tell you what we think. Dont make us search through some contest website. :)
 
well obviously you know what it means....you should said what it means...please vote for me yea so what Im asking people to vote for me I didnt tell anyone too....I dont think thats so bad. anyways no you are wrong....me joing this form was not related to this contests really....I have had a dvx for about 1month now someone just sent me a link to this forum and it looked really cool and informative so I joined.


I cant give you a direct link because the only place the video is hosted is on a flash contest site....and video is an embeded flash file. (dont know if thats the right terminalogy but there is no way i know of to directly link you to it)...its not exactly hard to find on their. I want feedback I said that first but if you like it, it would be cool if you voted for it.


so instead of going through all of this could you please just give me feedback, thank you.


-jake
 
Liked the shot compositions and action. I wish the scene was a little more spread out. I laughed out loud w/ the less ice comment. Good stuff!
 
i thought it was pretty cool
i guess the theme of the contest is make a film about "weightlessness"?
interesting take on it.
best of luck
 
actually it had to be on "waitlessness" yea i know its not even a word, ha i guess there tag line for the chip is "wait less create more" so it kinda makes sense...i guess they kinda just wanted people to interpret it their own way which is cool, but so many people made it on like weight less ness and like gravity or w/e which i think is lame which is why im happy with our concept cause it was deffinetly diffrent then most of the entries.
 
waitlessness

waitlessness

that was pretty cool. good creative take on the requirement. well cut. well shot. funny. I think it'll do pretty well in this contest.
 
At the risk of appearing like a newbie (I was a long time member ...why'd I have to re-register?) I'd like to say that JZalutsky's entry is clearly one of the best of the entire class.

As a competitor, I can say that their entry is one of maybe three to beat out of something like 200 entries.

Check out my entry (and vote if you like it) as well:

http://www.64seconds.com/?movie_id=115

I'm also seeking feedback.

Back to J Zalutsky's entry:

The sound mix was really terrific - not just because for most of the others sound appears to have been an afterthought. The camera work was fine, but what no one mentioned but what really jumped out to me was that this trio of filmmakers accomplished two important yet extremely mature tasks:

In only 64 seconds, and minimal dialogue, they have three different characters with VASTLY different and distinct voices. Amateurs do not write like that, and its a noteworthy accomplishment.

Also noteworthy, is the acting of the three customers. It really becomes obvious when the waiter has his breakdown at the end (my apologize to the actor who portrayed the waiter here) because the three customers are really good.

Where was the sound recorded, and was it mastered?

If anyone has looked at the rest of the field, most entries put an emphasis on the opening, and totally neglected the ending. One thing both my entry and J Zalutsky's has (IMHO) is a strong and clear ending.

I used to live in B.G., and am Chicago based as well. Are you guys in the area?

B War

Brianwar@juno.com
 
For some reason, it seems my thread on this subject got lost, so I'm gonna tag along here as well:

Check out my entry in the contest too: www.64seconds.com/?movie_id=182 Title is "Beauty and the Geeks"

B War - I'm curious what you think of my entry. I tried to create a coherent story with a solid ending as well. Unfortunately, the sponsor's compression killed the quality of my film, so some of the facial expressions are hard to see. (I think I should have sent my film in .mov format rather than .wmv). Anyway, hope you like it...

I really liked B War & JZ's entries - obviously not amateur productions. JZ's sound design was impressive, as well as his lighting & camera work. Only comment was that a closeup of the waiter at the end (on his line) might have been a nice touch. B War's entry made my wife & I both laugh - a unique twist on the contest "motto", & some very creative work!

-AJ
 
AJ,

Thank you for the kind remarks.

I thought many of the entries had dealt better with compression than mine, but what I did was to render it in quicktime format using the mpeg-4 codec. This seemed to hold up best while dramatically reducing the size. As a standard quicktime file, the same file was 400 megs.

Still, it was discouraging to discover the contest would reduce it further. One e-mail said the Flash file was 1 meg, another said it was 2 megs. I really don't know. If you view the files with Macromedia Flash 7, instead of 8, the compression really becomes noticeable.

What I liked most about your entry is that its a great take on the phrase "He who hesitates is lost". I also liked your crane shot, and the very strong twist ending.

Good luck!

B War
 
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