"Spin The Bottle" Short

I can't help but notice the people walking in front of the camrea, especially when courtney is on screen. It seems there's no room for someone to actually walk in front of her, did you green screen those shots and slap 'em on there?

Lovin' this short - great work!
 
Ike615 - How many takes did you have to do to get all the actors to hit their marks and for you to get the right camera movements? Also what did you use to light the set. I see that you live in Newport. What film school are you going to?

It didn't take too long, Maybe I shot it about 7 times. The camera on the table shot was broken up into 3 chunks. So the first one was the hardest... the second 2 only took about 3 or 4 times to nail. To light the living room of my apartment, I turned on all the lights (not many) and then used 2 Q60-SG Lights (Total 1200 watts) (Smith-Victor K63-C Broad Lighting Tungsten Light Kit) and placed them in the corners and shot them almost strait up toward the ceiling. This helped not to create gnarly shadows on anyone and still give plenty of light so I was able to shoot comfortably at 120 shutter speed in 24p and 250 shutter at 60i.
I'm graduating from Long Beach State this December and was a film major there. I was not a production major though, just film studies. So in fact, it took me till my super senior 5th year to actually get an assigned video project. I did all my older sister's video projects when she attended Chapman for broadcast journalism. Film school really wasn't apart of learning any of this. I've learned the most by far from working in the field for 6 years, spending time on forums like this, and simply playing with cameras and editing software.

oSKARSmhiP - can't help but notice the people walking in front of the camrea, especially when courtney is on screen. It seems there's no room for someone to actually walk in front of her, did you green screen those shots and slap 'em on there?

So you've found some of my obvious edits :) Yeah, I edited so much out of this short for the time reasons. I really needed to cut down some of the characters opening monologues, and that's the only thing that came to mind. Not much room for somebody to walk, but use your imagination :) I have a projector in the living room and also a big blank white wall... I shine my lights onto the wall to really blast it out and then use it as a "white" green screen. Not the best solution, but it works. Thanks.

Nobody care to try and guess how many actual cuts there are?
 
Let me start off by saying, I really enjoyed this short, and am impressed on how well the DVX100 footage looks.

As for the cuts, I may be way off here, but I counted 6.

The two obvious 'walker' cuts, a cut that removed the 'blue bottle' effect, a cut after the hard spin into the shot of Tony, the cut into the 'almost gay' kiss, and finally, the cut into the final kiss between Rebecca and Will.

So ya, that's all I could come up with, but I might have left one out, because I can't decide if it's a cut or a really fast pan.

Yay? Nay?
 
Yep... way off.
You're low

and the "cut after the hard spin into the shot of Tony" actually is not a cut.

Remember... I had to cut off over 2 whole minutes and hide every cut. Look closer.

Thanks for the compliments :)
 
The total was 26 cuts! But a few of them are almost impossible to see.

It went over great in class on thursdays premiere
Thanks again...
 
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