The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

OK - here we go one by one...

1.  The dreaded boom mic...
Believe it or not - we didn't notice it during shooting, we didn't notice it during post - someone on the board first pointed it out - it's in there for 3 frames...I decided I didn't feel like changing it because hardly anyone notices it.

2.  Didn't notice that one...I will try to check it out again...It sounds like a human error in the color correct step but I will check

3.  You're completely right...that scene is my least favourite "looking" scene...we were shooting that scene and we were waaay behind - so we got only two takes from one setup for the second half of it...and in BOTH instances there were clouds overhead (the apartment had 2 huge skylights) which decided to part and let lots of bright sunlight through - mid shot...
We noticed it when shooting but figured we might be able to save it in post - and chose to move on.
But we couldn't save it - and couldn't cut around it.
WE thought about cutting the whole scene out - but decided it didn't work that way.

4.  I think you are mistaken - there is no letterboxing on the dvd - the MPEG2 is anamorphically encoded so the letterboxing is added by the DVD on the fly when you watch it on a 4:3 device...it is normal that some DVD/TV combos will not be able to display this correctly as pure black

5. Yes.

Thanks for the interest

Nick
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

Some scenes in the DVD look heavily compressed. chapter 6, when they are about to go on their heist, the wall with the two flat lamps created those pixelated vignettes.
 
why does that happen???? I'm sure that's not from the DVX. Is it the DVD compression? MPEG -2?

to mention another booboo. at the end where the janitor is dancing, you can see the movie light on the left just as he puts down his mop. But I noticed that while watching behind the scenes -when Jarred's camera? shoots in the direction where the lamp is placed.


i like that rig you guys used. where do i get one?  


:D
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

hey dvpixl...

the compression you are referring to - MPEG2 macroblock artefacting - is most obvious in areas of close but not entirely uniform color - i.e. gradients...

since the fall off of a light in a dark environment is essentially a gradient - that's the most obvious place to look for these artefacts...

as to your other booboo - I have no idea about that one - I don't see it as obviously a movie light - there were some practicals in that scene that look very odd but were real lights...

As for the dual camera rig - Jarred and Todd built that after I told them what I wanted to do for the titles - so there's no way to get it other than do-it-yourself.

Nick
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

yeah I actually just built a similar rig for the DVX vs XL2 dual shoot... you can see a photo of it at the end of the clip... stupidly simple to make but really a cool idea.. that Nick came up with all by himself (after learning how in Seabiscut they stitched 2 lipstick cameras together to create a cinescope image they mounted on the Jockey)

dual.jpg
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

thanks guys for the info. although, I have no idea how to even start building those. where do i get the primary hardware? EVS? HOME DEPOT?

Hey Jarred, how about you build one and I'll buy it from you. :D
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

[quote author=DvPixl link=board=nws;num=1099254912;start=45#45 date=11/11/04 at 07:01:00]although, I have no idea how to even start building those. where do i get the primary hardware? EVS? HOME DEPOT?
 :D[/quote]

In fact that is what we did... went to EVS for the ball heads, and home depot for the cross alum.. all you need is 3 super clamps, a 1" aluminum bar whatever length you want, and 2 ball heads for adjustments.
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

I finally got it it the mail... ;D This movie is great!
...I swear I watched every content on that disk.
The movie by itself, the commentaries, the behind
the scenes... effin great!
...The only thing I didn't like about it was the ending,
I was sitting there like its over? :'( (Cause I would haved watched it three times in a row even if it was was an hour and a half)
...Do you got a
part to in the mic Nick?
Cheers!
--Nick
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

I received and watched the movie yesterday and here are my thoughts:

The storyline was pretty good but, for the most part, I had to really work on my suspension of disbelief. Without giving away too much of the plot, I found the guy with "a penchant for the swastika" hard to believe. I don't think someone like this would be so willing to part with what he did without doing some hefty background check in the meantime. Not to mention the fact that he parted with his bag of goodies before he looked to see what he was getting in return.

Also, the time it took to fabricate the piece, given the limited information he was working on was also a little hard to believe.

While the yellow filter worked (to a degree) in the gym, I found it very distracting in the exterior shots, particularly in the cafe scene. It just screamed "effect" to me when I should have been concentrating on the story.

The camerawork was also a little odd to me in places. It seemed to lunge at people in a distracting way, I'm not sure I saw the point of this maneuver. Overall, I think the film could have benefited more from smoother camera movements.

I really liked the opening titles effect and, mostly, the acting was good. Distorting time to compress the story was a great idea and certainly achieved its objective.

Maybe I need to watch it again, but I didn't get what role the woman in the gallery had when she uttered "quite the contrary"... that was confusing to me. And maybe there's something there that's obvious to everyone else but I didn't see her role as being relevant in any way.

The ending was clever and overall I enjoyed it.

I have a lot of respect and admiration for the team for getting this project off the ground and I'm sorry if my comments are a little harsh.
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

HEy NickMilo - thanks for your comments...I'm glad you liked it...I'm not sure what you mean by "have you got a part to in the mic" - I think you mean is there a sequel...

there's not so much a sequel as there is a full feature length version - the script has not been written though the outline is clear...it essentially takes these characters and expands upon them - and adds a supernatural twist...

But thanks for watching the whole disc - extras and all - when we made it I was never quite sure if people would bother watching all that stuff but I wanted to make it anyway...so I'm glad it's not overlooked...

Nick
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

Hey disjecta - thanks for your comments...

no need to apologise for harshness...as far as I'm concerned it's better that someone is harsh but honest than full of insincere praise...

As to your points on the plot - sure...I agree there were some aspects that make it hard to accept as 100% realistic - for example - how could the statue be constructed photorealistically in 3d from 32 photos taken with a phone digital camera....given what I assume we know about the actual resolution of mobile phone cameras - and the parallax issues with taking a photo from an undefined (i.e. not measured in precise detail) location...

But I find that lots of people accept these assumptions when they are watching...I obviously appreciate that others do not...

The yellow color was an interesting one - I think it worked really well in the gym and perhaps not so well in other places (e.g. the daylit apartment - as has been mentioned above in the thread) - I personally like the outdoor cafe scene...raking the medium shots across the sidewalk/road like Todd did makes for a very cinematic depth of field - and I thought the colours looked very miami aswell...

Ah - the woman in the gallery...this was a big source of arguments...many (including Jason - the producer) said that it should be taken out as it does not add to the story - but as far as I'm concerned this is just a part of the story - that character is deliberately mysterious - though an additional scene with her and Stella was originally written - we decided to dump it because we thought it worked better as mysterious suggestion...as to what she actually represents in the entire saga...well you'll just have to wait for the feature to figure that out...

so once again - I much appreciate the time you took to watch and make comments...

Nick
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

Whoops  ;D  ...i meant to say: "have you got a part two in the mix"
...One thing I forgot to mention: I found your flick real inspirational.  After I watched it, I started writing pages into my script thats been taking me forever to finish.  Hopefully one day it will be done, and I'll be posting it on here 8)  
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

btw, Goldstar is a beer brand here in Israel (it's actually very good) so the production company name made me thirsty...
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

thanks nickmilo - I'm glad you found in inspirational...that was certainly part of the idea with selling it here - we hoped it would help people as well as entertain them...

In the west LG is the company formerly known as goldstar - though a lot of their DVD players etc seem much better than the crap they were making earlier.

GoldStar productions is Jason's company (the producer) but Art History (and a couple of other projects) are now owned by Purpose Films - www.purposefilms.com - I finally decided to start my own entity in the film world.

Nick
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

I guess now, since I just received my copy, I'll chime in too.

Like the others, hats off to the crew for their time and effort to do such a project.

The first thing I did when I popped the dvd in the player was go to the "behind the scenes". I know, that's lame. But I wanted to get right to part on how it was put together. Also went to the commentaries after that. Then I watched the short. Overall, it was enjoyable. There were a couple of scenes that I was impressed on the film-like look of the image. One was the metal shop scene. It was deep in color and rich looking (at least on my 32" XBR2 tv). Also, the scene where the 2 women were looking at the painting and the 2 shots of their faces look film-like to me as well.

Question: When looking at the "behind the scenes" you had inserts of the actual movie while showing video of the overall shot of the metal shop scene. There is quite a difference. What was done as far as camera settings and in post to get that "look" that you got? Was the behind the scene shot with the DVX as well?

Opening credits were excellent (neat 2 camera job with stitch). The amber/yellow look kinda wore on me after a while at the beginning. Loved the advance in time on some of the scenes. Reminded me of the effect used in "Blade". Seems like some of the scenes where the camera was held there was a little too much movement up and down. But then again, I'm a fan of slow steady camera moves.

Overall, I'm impressed. At least you guys went out and done it. I'm still sitting still. Keep in mind that my comparisons are to the big budget films so I believe that you have done a good job with the DVX. All of my thoughts on whether the DVX could give me what I was looking for in quality has been put to rest.
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

Nicky, are you guys planning to shoot the feature version on the DVX too? Or are you looking to fund a full Super16/35mm shoot?

Just curious.
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

HEy Eqwalker - thanks for your praise...
funny you should watch the behind the scenes first - I sometimes do that aswell on big movies - indie things rarely seem to provide them...

A good question on the behind the scenes picture in picture stuff.

Yes - the behind the scenes was shot with another DVX100 - Jarred's DVX100 (he was the one doing the shooting) was shooting with no anamorphic adapter and had very little post color correction applied (if any at all)
A camera (the other DVX100) was shooting through anamorphic adaptor and a couple of 6x6 filters so to start with even before we got into post we had a very different looking image. We made strong decisions on a look of the project in camera - so we didn't do a great deal of colour pushing in post - just punched things up a bit.

If you want to see what the uncorrected stills look like - there are some posted on http://www.stealart.com (in the play section)

Thanks for the kudos on the opening credits...I'm glad those were worth the effort...

Nick
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

disjecta - if the feature version gets done within the next 6-9 months - which we are hoping it will...it will be done on the DVX...

Nick
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

Well, I thought I would put it to the test. I let a friend borrow the DVD to take home and watch with his family and to see what their reaction will be. They don't have a clue as to what a DVX is or even that it is shot in miniDV. They just think that it is a short indie film. So we'll see what they have to say when I get it back....
 
Re: The first official DVXuser short film on DVD !

it will be cool to see what they say - most of the people I've shown it to personally either know me or know the DVX so it's never as "test-study" a case as yours sounds...

Nick
 
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