The Circle - deedive

Your film totally embraces the medium and uses it to its advantage. This could only work as a short and I love that. Kudos guys.

P.S. dvpixl can you come in here and talk about your lighting and shooting techniques for a bit? I think it's great that you were able to accomplish that with DV. I would think muted lighting is difficult to pull off in that format. Makes me wanna try it. :)



It's great to see positive comments from everyone as Dee and I didn't know what to expect. But he had no qualms about it - which is cool. He wasn't out there to win prizes.... even though i was.

As for lighting and shooting techniques, it was really the director calling the shots-as he should- and I took cues from that. Dee is an accomplished photographer and he has a distinct taste for imaging that is mature and subtle.

I focused on not using any yellow lights. We replaced all yellow light bulbs in that place to daylight compacts. That was mostly my goal: to put out lights that make you feel sleepy. That gave the chill and washed out the scenes as that location was really warm and welcoming originally.

And oh yeah, this was HDV, not DV. I have no HDV/HD experience and I had a hard time really understanding what I was getting as a result. But I didn't think it was a big deal of a difference.

It was a difficult shoot. As simple as it was in terms of blocking the actor and placing cameras, we wanted the images to have some weight on them. We took a lot of time setting up and didn't roll as much for the sake of efficiency.
I think Dee values rehearsals and that paid off for the actor to get it right in conjunction with camera work and lighting.

Also, I definitely learned the lesson of not assuming anything about a shot until you have tried it.
 
Dee, you know I am a fan, I thought this one looked great. I am glad to see the minimalistic lighting keeping it natural. I get what you were trying to do, but I wanted a little more meat on the bone as far as the action of the character. You can really create mood though and it shows here. I liked the soundtrack as well.
 
Oooooh, very clever. This is .... really smart. More of a puzzle than a movie...

I really like your stuff. It makes one think. Like "Check", this was more than eye-candy or a conventional beginning-middle-end story.

Congrats.
 
sorry if i havent commented on this thread or others. Tomorrow i have off and is offically ALL HALLOWS DAY! i downloaded everyones movie and i cant wait.

dvpixl, am going to start calling you modestpixl. Great work dude. and it shows. I think anyone who saw "Not The Same" can see your style at work here too. very sensitive lighting style.
 
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Super big THANK YOU TO
mikkowilson
Kyser
Dmitry Yun
Defcon
Luis Caffesse
Billy Pilgrim
hybridtheory
mentatDUKE
cinealma
Brandon Rice
bosindy
Joops
gabrielflorit


and all the other hallo-heads.
also thanks to the people that didnt like it, thx for watchin.

I CANT WAIT FOR TOMORROW!
 
just got home from the sweatshop i call work, doing my 10+ hour days. I got in trouble for being on the forum in the past. now i goota sneak. Whenever my boss is tryin say im not workin hard enough he calls me deedive. thats bastard

sorry if i havent commented on this thread or others. Tomorrow i have off and is offically ALL HALLOWS DAY! i downloaded everyones movie and i cant wait.

That sucks!

Looking forward to your reviews though...

Cheers,

Mike
 
I loved the neverending twist this one achieved, truly original and cool! I think it sucks that it was DQed. Thanks for putting it out!:thumbsup:
 
Hmm, perhaps you could have hidden the title, credits and DVXuser acknowlegements throughout the film in art direction and subtle text animations?

I like the idea but somehow I doubt you'd think it would have worked. Good show in any case, great movie. That's commitment--willing to be DQed for the sake of the film's integrity.
 
Buddy!

Hey man! Great flick... great great great twist! At first I too was like "huh?" but then I realized and it was awesome!! :) hehe... great short short dude!

Lighting looked good, actress was good, some of your frames I didn't particularly like, but that's a style thing... they didn't look "bad" :)
 
BWahahahahah!

You bastard!

Perfect.

I was your perfect sucker too.

I hit open apple / F to watch full screen on my laptop. So I had no idea the effiin' movie was looping. I even thought I was seeing different things for the first couple of passes. Finally I went back to actual size to see how long this friggin' thing was and saw the play head jump back.

Hahahah. You bastard. Brilliant.

There's two things here.
1) You managed to give me a cool little Halloween prank.
2) You made a piece of art that interacts with the viewer in a new and innovative way.

and you did them at the same time. But yeah I think that's a characteristic of real art, something that goes beyond enertainment a bit by (as one example) challenging the way the audience interacts with the medium ... which definitely happened here.

plus it lines up on another level - we kind of get put in the same position as the main character, which is sort of the goal of filmmaking, not SYMPATHY per se - often it is but not always, but almost always we want EMPATHY ... to feel what they are feeling, we don't always have to like the character or see them pet a dog for a film to work, especially a short film. But we do wanna feel what they feel - feer, lust, joy, whatever and I definitely lined up with the character with a feeling of WTF is going on here.

Beyond that. You definitely put thought into the look and aesthetic of your film(s). I think the subtle muted look serves the lost in headspace vibe you created in both shorts.

I thought it was a fresh prank / concept and well executed.
 
I get your point. But I don't know if the two are necessarily mutually exclusive ... him getting you and you having mad cow disease.
:cheesy:
 
Looking forward to your reviews though...

I'm going to steal you pushes and pulls. and i love the shot of the people on there doorstep.

Thanks for putting it out!:thumbsup:
Thanx for watchin it.


Hmm, perhaps you could have hidden the title, credits and DVXuser acknowlegements throughout the film in art direction and subtle text animations?
I thought of the subtle text animation but im not good enough to make it work well. your idea about the titles hidden in the art direction is a friggin great idea. that could have been cool.


At first I too was like "huh?" but then I realized and it was awesome!! :) hehe... great short short dude! Lighting looked good, actress was good, some of your frames I didn't particularly like, but that's a style thing... they didn't look "bad" :)
dvpixl was great. he has a very organic style. tammie was cool too. Always ready to go, and was always adding to her character.


1) You managed to give me a cool little Halloween prank.
2) You made a piece of art that interacts with the viewer in a new and innovative way.

trick or treat or both! Jack:)
 
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I thought of the subtle text animation but im not good enough to make it work well. your idea about the titles hidden in the art direction is a friggin great idea. that could have been cool.

Just brainstorming on it 'cause it sucks you had to be DQed for the film to work.
 
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