Test footage for upcoming poker short

xl70e3

xl70e3

Skywalker
I'm shooting a ~10min short about poker in the coming weeks, with friends. One of them wrote screenplay and the rest jumped in being fans of Texas hold'em. Me? I play ocassionally, but I'm really mainly doing this to... do something at all. Haven't used my DVX for a while :( Just waiting for some equipment I ordered recently, planning and preparing meanwhile (...and hoping to finish it asap to finally get started on the sci-fest).

So, yesterday we shot some random footage to check lighting and whatnot and I'm quite happy with the results. Today I was bored and threw together this small clip, figured it'd be better than simple grabs. It's not much, but I don't think I ever posted any footage at all, so... yeah.

http://www.xl70e3.com/poker test.mov (right click, "Save as...", only 7MB)

Oh, keep in mind, that this is not how the actual short is gonna look like. This was really just to test if the available lighting was enough (and fortunately it pretty much is). It's all handheld, while on the shoot we're gonna use tripod and dolly... and there will be no funky music... and don't mind the "chips" - we ordered real ones for the shoot... and the QT movie looks somewhat flat no matter what I do :angry: Pheew, that's it, I think.
 
Some parts are a little shaky (not sure if thats the look you're going for). But the footage looks really good.
 
I think this looks great and seems like I would be a lot of fun to shoot something like this. Looking forward to seeing your completed work... Good Job. What kind of equip did you use for the project... and what are you waiting for (if you don't mind me asking?)

SmithHouse
 
Thanks, guys. Like I said, this was totally random stuff - friends were just chatting and gaming while I was messing around with the camera, shooting anything of interest, looking for angles, playing with zoom and focus etc.. Totally handheld and because of constant zooming (to decrease dof) quite shaky. It's not really the look I'm going for for the short. No accessories used whatsoever.
I'm waiting on my Chrosziel mattebox - finally broke down. Not that I'm really gonna need it this time (although many lights there cause flares either by reflectting in windows or the table surface), but it looks damn cool :) That, rods support (gonna rent FF), boompole, new shock-mount (don't let your dogs near your K-SSM =/) and I'm thinking about getting my own curved-track dolly instead of renting it (Spider dolly looks sweet... the price doesn't).
 
Wow. What a coincidence.


I watched Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels tonight again.

And the poker scene in it is great.

Was that the song that was actually in L,S,aTSB?

This looked a lot like the poker scene. You been taking some notes on Guy Ritchie? haha.
 
Yeah, the track is from the Lock, Stock, just not sure which scene - might not be the poker one, been a while since I watched it. The music and the overall shakiness/handheld look really dictated the editing style...
 
I liked the music choice and many of the shots. Some of the shots didnt work for me for some reason. I would say a few were not lit enough, but that might have been compression making it darker. I liked the over the shoulder shot of the cards.. I think a jack and a 3 it was.. Some of it was a little too shaky for use. But alot of it was good. What kind of mood or feel are you trying to get with the lighting? Are you trying to eliminate the background by spotlighting the table. Could give some wicked shadows with just one big spotlight above the table.
 
Hey, looks cool. I think it'll be really fun to shoot a poker short.

I liked the handheld shots you had off the top. Thought they had a nice feel. I wasn't fond of the sped up clips- they felt clumbsy to me.

Good luck.

rook
 
the music in the poker scene of lock stock is "i wanna be your dog" by iggy pop. at least thats what kicks in when he realizes he lost...
 
Once again, thanks for comments, guys.

Hector, it was actually all available light, wanted to see if it's enough. I was thinking about adding a couple of lights outside right behind windows. Might have to post pics and ask for opinions in the Lighting forum.

ggoerl, it was F6 with Chorma level -3 and Master Ped -5. But the footage you saw was cc'd, anyway. Here, compare:

original.jpg
cc.jpg


mick, maybe, it's been quite a while and I don't remember...
 
Haha, I'm a bit confused. Do you want comments on this? Because if I'm not supposed to comment on the lighting, props, shooting style, color, editing, or music... well there's not much left, is there? Anyway, I realize what you've thrown up is just random shots, and some of them look pretty nice, but there's no STORY here. Every hand's a story in poker. If you showed me that scene in a finished movie I'd be two steps from walking out. I'm sure you have something more scripted in mind, though.

Reminds me that I really oughta watch Rounders again, though.
 
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