SHORT: Short Film- In The Hills of Deleij - Darfur

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pdsage10

Well-known member
NOTE: The rough cut is no longer available for viewing. It has been taken down and the film is now off to the festival circuit.
Here is a short teaser/trailer. (HD) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NxWBlns9Tg

Hey guys,
Shot on an XL-H1 and 16mm, cut it in FCP and color graded on a Davinci Resolve. VFX and painting was done in AE with mattes from PS.
We shot in a location just beyond Magic Mountain in Valencia Ca., so there were some shots where a roller coaster or two were visible in the background, so ofcourse those shots had to be matte painted. Fun :)
VFX shots consisted of bullet hits and dust/debris being added to shots that were done clean.
The shoot took 2 full days and 1 day for pickups/ re-shoots.

Synopsis: a photojournalist witnesses genocide in Darfur firsthand.

The casting process was really interesting in that we could only cast African or African American actors/actresses. So we posted our notice on LACasting, NowCasting and Craigslist. Normally we have tons of responses to our casting calls, but with this limitation on who we could cast, our numbers were lower, which of course worried us and made us wonder if we were going to find the right people for the roles. But on casting day we were pleasantly surprised with the talent pool and were able to cast some great working actors/actresses in our film.

We had a pretty strict time limit, so its shorter than I would have liked, but I'll let you be the judge of wether or not it works.


Thanks

Here are some frame grabs from the project:
 

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Brilliant. Powerful.

The "look" kind of bothered me, I wish you had of crushed the background more. With an adapter really..

Other than that, the audio and acting was superb! Nice shots, and great direction.

This should do well in the fests.

Robbie
 
Thanks Robbie for taking a look and for the feedback.
I was contemplating using a 35mm adapter, but then I had the issue of wether or not it would lend to a documentary/realist esthetic. So in the end I decided to not use one. But your right, visually a lot of the shots could have been a lot more interesting with some shallow DOF.
 
Very beautiful.

I think it works so well on many levels. I love stories where it's never black and white, but shades of grey.
 
Great! Thanks Jon. Grey is exactly right, internal conflict over right and wrong is key.

Another interesting tid bit about the process of shooting this:
I had a stunt coordinator on set at all times and he had recruited two of his guys to play two of the soldiers. So the guy who jumps out of the bed of the truck while it is pulling in to camp is one and the other is the driver of the truck. Both parts needed to be stunt guys in order for this shoot to be done safely (moving vehicles + people = risk). They were also needed for the "take down" sequence to be done properly.
Which is where the funny tid bit occurred. Both stunt guys were wearing body armor under their costumes and the stunt coordinator and rehearsed with my actors on how/ where they were supposed to strike the stunt guys. So on the second take of the "stick across the leg" shot, my actress went all out and actually snapped the branch across the stunt mans leg. It was a hardened piece of wood, so she must have been putting everything she had into it. But in the end he was ok (because of armor) and the shot came out great.
 
So, I got some good news recently. My short film "In The Hills of Deleij" has been accepted into the DC Shorts Film Festival this year in Washignton DC. Totally excited to show it to a large audience and see how it is reviewed.
http://www.dcshorts.com/
 
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