The Lifeguard

smashedburrito

smashedburrito

Well-known member
Hey everyone. We started this short film The Lifeguard over the summer and just now finished editing. It is about 20 minutes long and can be viewed at

http://thelifeguardmovie.com/

The file is big so it will take a while to load.

For all the technical info, the film was shot on the sony FX1 with about 50% being shot with the letus 35 adapter. We wrote and planned the movie in about 2 weeks and then we shot it in about three weeks, because we all had to leave to start college the day after shooting ended.

It was coverted to 24p with some conversion program (I dont know the specifics) and edited all in adobe premiere and after effects. All of the music was done by Siddhartha Barnhoorn except for the final song, which was recorded by our lead actor. I wrote and codirected as well as starring as the pool jerk.

Please leave comments/questions and let me know what you think.
 
It was good. I have been waiting for this since I first talked to Ben online. He's been working on it the entire time so its nice to finally see it. It was overall good, it was funny where it was supposed to be, the quality was good, the 24p seemed very good for being converted from 60i, so kudos to you guys for completing it. I did have my gripes of coarse like the sound, alot of the sound effects were either lacking or way to quiet to have much impact. The punches were the biggest part lacking, the part with the bat, when he caught it I didn't even hear anything.

It was funny how when I had Ben read a very short script of mine that he called it cliche because it had been done before. I find this to be no different. Many times ive seen films or shorts, cartoons, etc. where somebody is bored, and finds things around them that they have a quick fantesy about then flash back to reality, most of the time there being a realistic part that brings them out (like the pole and the girl). Things like this have been done but it was nice how you wrapped it around something different like a lifeguard and the water splashes (made me chuckle).

Good job guys on getting it done. Ide say this is a good example of how 60i footage can turn into pretty good 24p.

- Kyle
 
Kyle,
Thank you for the response and feedback. I do want to say that I did not describe your script as cliché simply because the topic had been done before. There were a multitude of reasons I said that, dealing with dialogue, the topic, the characters, lack of subtleness, etc.

We are not trying to do anything new with Lifeguard, and I hope nobody thinks otherwise. In fact, the appearance of banality was our goal for many of the scenes. However there is an underlying story of hope and love (and the evolution of both) in our dreams, and the quest that the two may so poetically connect (but of course rarely if ever do) that I hope you picked up on that I don't think has been done much before. Or I should say, has been done to the effect that it can be labeled cliché. Our goal has never been and still isn't anything more than simple family entertainment and the chance to become more familiar with whole process.

Your technical qualms have been duly noted; the sound was indeed a little soft at some points but not to the effect that I think it subdued the effect. However I'll take another listen to it.
 
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Done before yes, but it was also done very well. I enjoyed it very much. Very entertaining.

Also very well done. I especially liked the first "fade to" dream squence. A tilt up to the trees and the sky, and you fades to the other shot while keeping the trees. How did you acheive it though? Did you key out the sky and fade that out first?
 
Hey Jon, thanks for the comments.

That was just a chromakey in AE. Duplicated the layer, sandwiched the transition shot inbetween the two, and gave a bluescreen key to the top layer. Then faded in the middle layer.
 
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