Short Film - When it Rains

Jim Montgomery

Jim Montgomery

Well-known member
Just finished. Started this mid December with a note to the writer trying to obtain permission to produce his script. Spent the next 2 weeks planning; every shot, color process, everthing I could think of..... you see, my starlett was only home from school so long. Shot over a span of 4 days, 2 hours each day, needed the light at dusk for the "look".

Cameras
Sony EX1 with Letus Extreme
Zeiss F1.4 50 mm
Zeiss F1.4 80 mm

Sony XDCam HD

Ariel SoftBox Light Kit

Software
Sony Vegas - main edit and rendering for various delivery methods
After Effects - Effects, color grading, and mastering
Magic Bullet Looks - color grading

Monitor Didn't not have one but after using the lcd screen on the EX it looks like a Panasonic for the XDCam. My eyes are just to far gone.

Hope you all enjoy.

Jim

www.sfgmedia.com/wir/index.html
 
Great the first short film I've seen with the ex1.


As a suggestion I would make the last shot, where you show the note, a bit longer, as I couldn't read through it. For the rest, I found the color a bit flat in some shots outside ( I thinks when she is near the car). But I suppose that that is the look you were going for.
 
Will look at it later but I would suggest you at least put some playback buttons on there in case someone would like to pause or rewind, etc.
 
Hey,

I thought the lighting and the cinematography were well done, but I think you can probably compress the video better. I thought the VFX were hit and missed, which is a shame since it took me out of the story. The lightning in particular looks fake to me, the color seems to be wrong and the way it's spread doesn't seem right. Some shots of the rain were great, really realistic, and but every time the camera starts moving and on all the wider shots it looked wrong. Same thing with the car window breaking; real glass has more weight than that. Some of the outside shot were obviously lowered in brightness to give it a rainy day look; it's one of those thing where if it doesn't blend in seamlessly, it's a distraction. And I'm not sure if this is just me since I couldn't rewind, but that part at the end where she walks up the steps to the house, the sound of her footsteps seems to be out of sync with the video.
 
"real glass has more weight..." thats strange, it was a car window that we bought in a junk yard. ;) Cost me twenty bucks and I broke my hammer trying to break the glass!

Jim
 
Jim Montgomery said:
"real glass has more weight..." thats strange, it was a car window that we bought in a junk yard. ;) Cost me twenty bucks and I broke my hammer trying to break the glass!

Jim
Click to expand...

Haha, my mistake:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG). But that shot looks off to me somehow. I guess it's the expectation that it's a "faked" shot that make it seemed weird.
 
Jim,

Generally, I thought most aspects of this were pretty good. It may be my computer, or the compression, or whatever, but unlike the post above, on my viewing, the rain seemed like the least authentic element. It seemed more like snow - big and thick.

The depth of field effect was great in some shots. Did you do anything special to get that, or was that those 1/2" chips at work?

in the last scene, you could have had a duplicate piece of paper she was writing on. It looked to me she was writing on the top of a note that was already written on.

Also, there were very few wide establishing shots, especially early on.

These are all rather picky. But overall, I was impressed.

Dave
 
I am going to be very picky, as it is usually good for beginners: the rain is way too slow to be believable, the whole thing would benefit from a faster rythm... definitely the cut needs more work, way too many middle shots, the camera is very much still most of the time, which is strange for an "action" feature... also there are a few strange changes with the sound, what about close ups???... you might also want to check an editing rule called the 30 degree rule, it might help your next feature... please don't hate me!, just an opinion, keep on learning!!!...
 
seemed pretty cool.

I agree about the effects, hit and miss. I think the reason the car door window breaking seemed fake was because the sound doesnt match that of a breaking car window, its not pure glass so it doesnt sound like a broken cup when it breaks.

I am not sure i understand the end, with the note. What is the significance?
 
I liked your short buddy.. i think it was pretty brave of you to show it to a bunch of hd technical intellectuals.. filmmaking is about storytelling!!! keep em coming Montgommery dont let anyone discourage you.
 
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