Student Film - Hostage

drummerboy678

drummerboy678

Well-known member
Hey guys,
I've posted a couple grabs before here, but never an actual short film. I'd love to hear some critiques on it.

First, I'd like to say I'm still in high school... this was just a project between friends to get better, but will not be entered in any festivals or competitions. So, we used a song from the Eternal Sunshine soundtrack, and a song from Nick Drake.
I hope this doesn't stir up copyright issues, as its just a film to learn and practice.

DVX100a, basic settings, shot in letterbox, edited in Premiere Pro 1.5, Magic Bullet and Premiere's basic Color Corrector used.

If we had more time, we were hoping to foley some sounds in during the chase scene. Its pretty bad.
The acting is also horrible (not something we really cared about for this project).

I'm no good at compression, so if this is too big, I posted some stills too for those 56k members! I also dont have a website, so I think this video will only be up for a limited time. (Tell me if anyone knows of another site to upload for free)

http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1245N88X3IARW2S57KGQUT47QA















Critiques are welcome!
Thanks
 
Wanted to check out the film, but 150mb is way too large.

Try get hold of a program called Sorenson Squeeze (assuming you're on PC), works wonders for compression. Might get around to downloading the file sometime.

The grabs look terrific though.
 
I downloaded it. another day at the office ;)

Its good man, I loved your choice of music, I didn't like the white kidnappers voice it hurt my soul but Im english so what can you do.

I wanna know how you did the glow on the white, I want that effect for a film im shooting.

Keep up the good work.
 
I didn't really like it.. I will explain why though.

First.. putting the credits twice is... somewhat egotistical in my mind.. I don't need to see the production company name multiple times.

There wasn't really any story to the piece. It was just a chase scene, unless I missed some important plot point that would explain things a little more.

I love stories where things are ambiguous and you have to think and come up with some things yourself, but there just wasn't any story here.

I did like the camera work, that would worked well. The acting was, bad...

Maybe it just required more substance for me.. cause it didn't gel with me. And 150MB is way too much for 5 min worth of video. I have gotten my short down to 91MB before.. and that is for 25min...

experiment with some compression settings, and perhaps crop the bars off, they are just wasting space being there.

my two cents. Keep up the work.

PS: Not bad at all for a high school project, despite what my personal thoughts are on it.
 
Thanks for the responses.
The "white glow" was using the plug-in magic bullet. I used a preset 'curahee' (I think), and then changed a lot of contrast, as well as the Premiere Color Corrector. I can get you exact settings if you want (PM me).

I should have clarified a couple things before posting this too.

Again, sorry about the compression. I used Premiere Pro and compressed with Sorrenson 3... I never paid for anythign though (assuming its just a trial version), as you cant change any settings really. I put it on 20% quality though, and rendered it small, hoped it woulda been smaller. Any suggestions just within Premiere, without buying a after market plug-in?

This short was more experimental than anything... We wanted to experiment with the chase scene and fast camera work, and less on the story. I shot, color corrected, and edited it... Mainly wanted critiques on those things.
I know the story and acting could have been A LOT better.

Oh, and the credits... We turned it into our teacher, and she said we needed credits at the end with everyones contributions... And the ones at the beginning are too crucial to cut. Hope this doesn't come off as arrogant, it was just a requirement.

I appreciate the feedback... I was hesitant to post high-school work on a professional forum like this, just wanted to hear some of the 'pros' opinions.

Thanks
 
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