The Poet - A Kurt Jewell Film

Looks good. Nice BTS stills. I like the way you socially engineered your way into getting locations. Good job. Looking forward to seeing it.
 
mentatDUKE said:
Looks good. Nice BTS stills. I like the way you socially engineered your way into getting locations. Good job. Looking forward to seeing it.
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Thanks. Finding a way to film in a real school is tough. I've heard that chocolate sometimes does the trick.
 
The grabs are looking good too. Yeah, that whole insurance thing is kind of crazy. Glad that worked out. I'd also like an answer to your question about when to zoom.
 
leenewton said:
The grabs are looking good too. Yeah, that whole insurance thing is kind of crazy. Glad that worked out. I'd also like an answer to your question about when to zoom.
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I'm still wondering about the zoom thing. I've been too busy to try search the forums.
 
RobertE said:
Very cool to use a school. I like the 'texture' of your banner. It looks somewhat like a little notebook.
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When we got int eh school with all our gear I was worried that the building mgr. might change his mind, but he was cool with it.

It was funny about the notebook comment. My second option for the poster was a cool torn notebook sheet of paper handwritten. I thought it was cool and appropriate, but this one has a little more class.
 
It looks like you had a number of shots in the school hallway? What aspect ratio are going with on this one?
 
RobertE said:
It looks like you had a number of shots in the school hallway? What aspect ratio are going with on this one?
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Yes we filmed a lot in a school hallway. I dropped my squeeze footage in a standard 16:9 Sony Vegas NTSC widescreen timeline. The screen grabs do come out a weird pixel ratio (873x480), but the renders are true 16:9. For my quicktime render to submit, I was able to render out to 576x324 using QT Pro H264 at high quality. It comes in at 42M. Another advantage to keeping my story tight, I can get away with a slightly larger size than if it were the full 6 minute.
 
leenewton said:
how long did it end up being?
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In the end it is around 4:30...not exactly sure. I was under the limit by a ways. It was nice to not have to have to work hard to cram stuff in. I ended up not filming a few intermediate pieces. Mostly cause it was too freakin cold outside. I think the week I was filming it didn't get over 10 degrees out.

So what's your status? Have you had a chance to finish your piece?
 
My rockin dolly - kinda

My rockin dolly - kinda

My rockin dolly. Actually it has a bit of a vibration to it. I think I need more wheels or better wheels. Got the wheels off kids rollerblades at the rummage sale. Oh, and it has two handles now too. Oh, and it has an eye hook in the middle to secure the tripod.

Think I need more wheels or just better wheels?
 

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kurtmo said:
In the end it is around 4:30...not exactly sure. I was under the limit by a ways. It was nice to not have to have to work hard to cram stuff in. I ended up not filming a few intermediate pieces. Mostly cause it was too freakin cold outside. I think the week I was filming it didn't get over 10 degrees out.

So what's your status? Have you had a chance to finish your piece?
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I finished the part for the fest, but I'm still working on the entire thing, which has 4 chapters and now I'm thinking it will be 12-15 minutes long. I was hoping to have it finished by the fest, so everybody could see the whole thing.


Dang it. I want a dolly like that. Been telling myself to make one.
 
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Nice dolly work! This movie was pretty good. The outcome was seen coming a mile away but it wasn't bad. Maybe I would have had the girl at the locker not turn around as he walked away.

Still, pretty nice camera work. The audio was sketchy in areas but it must have been tough to film in some of those locations.

Good job.

Mike
 
THE POET -- Spolerisms Ahead, Mate!

Two prime locations, man. School and a Coffee House. THAT is impressive. Along with havin' the go-ahead to work with young actors. It's hard. The overall image is great. I don't want to get into that, though, because there's something here in the execution that's good, could be stronger.


I am FINE with a linear story. That's great. Guy's after the hottest girl in school, most popular what have you, then realizes that there's something that's been there all along. Got it. I think where it gets lost in itself is that this "quiet girl" barely gets any real screen time.

She's an integral cog in the story, but played too small (to me) to really help move the rest of the machine. It isn't in the dialog, but it's actually the time she's allotted as an actual character on screen as opposed to a background element. Until the end, she just doesn't exist as more than a locker girl or counter girl.

For somethin' that's character driven, each integral character should get screen time in a way that lets us know that they're part of the main story. You have it with the main character, and although it's about him, it's also about the girl in the background.

This is what got to me the most. Other than that it's actually pretty solid. I'm not thrilled about the music, but locations and composition I like.

Good job!
 
Kholi - Thanks for taking the time to provide some substantive feedback. What can I say other than "you're right on". The story is this love trianglish thing and I didn't explore the third point. Coulda, shoulda! I see it now how it would have been easy to do and would've developed her character. I like your point about balancing screen time on each character. Yo, where were you when I was reviewing the script?
 
kurtmo said:
Kholi - Thanks for taking the time to provide some substantive feedback. What can I say other than "you're right on". The story is this love trianglish thing and I didn't explore the third point. Coulda, shoulda! I see it now how it would have been easy to do and would've developed her character. I like your point about balancing screen time on each character. Yo, where were you when I was reviewing the script?
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LoL. Well, you know where I'm at now! If I had to say something about it, though, and really give "advice" it would be directorial: dig in.

If you know that she's a part of the story, find her. Bring her to the forefront to let me (audience member) know that hey this chic is part of the story. It's okay to do that if you find a way to balance it out with the rest.

It could've been as simple as finding a medium on her at the locker, seeing her evesdropping on the conversation at the lockers? I don't know, those are just thoughts.

I think it definitely shows A-Grade effort, though. And, like everyone else, it's LEARNING.
 
Finally got around to seeing The Poet. I liked it man. Well done. There were a couple of audio problems like when he said "I can do this" it was hard to hear with the sound of the music. Other than that, I liked the performances. It reminded me a lot of my high school. Good job!
 
Hey kurtmo, checked out your film! Well done.

I like the simple and poetic story. It works.

Dolly shots worked, too! (nice!)

And your titles... wow! Well done.

I feel that you could work on framing. Your subjects appear smaller than they should. (at least to me.) Also, the camera placement reverse on the friend seemed to low and too far away. I know that I don't know the rule on reverses... I seem to spend too much time trying to find what looks best. And maybe I am wrong about what you did. As I said, I really don't know the golden rules.

I felt that the girl that was eventually the love interest was too "staged" looking... not natural. I would like to have seen her fumbling through her locker in the hallway scene and in the coffee house, I would like to have seen her back as she was buying coffee or something. She just looked "placed" until her stuff came up. Do you know what I mean?

The audio could use some work. I felt that the background noise in the coffee shop was too loud for the dialogue.

I see that you have some skills here. Keep at it! (and watch those lights in the reflections! I know I was and I didn't want to be! :grin: )

Great job!

-Ted
 
Ted Arabian said:
Hey kurtmo, checked out your film! Well done.

I like the simple and poetic story. It works.

Dolly shots worked, too! (nice!)

And your titles... wow! Well done.

I feel that you could work on framing. Your subjects appear smaller than they should. (at least to me.) Also, the camera placement reverse on the friend seemed to low and too far away. I know that I don't know the rule on reverses... I seem to spend too much time trying to find what looks best. And maybe I am wrong about what you did. As I said, I really don't know the golden rules.

I felt that the girl that was eventually the love interest was too "staged" looking... not natural. I would like to have seen her fumbling through her locker in the hallway scene and in the coffee house, I would like to have seen her back as she was buying coffee or something. She just looked "placed" until her stuff came up. Do you know what I mean?

The audio could use some work. I felt that the background noise in the coffee shop was too loud for the dialogue.

I see that you have some skills here. Keep at it! (and watch those lights in the reflections! I know I was and I didn't want to be! :grin: )

Great job!

-Ted
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Thanks for the comments. I know what you mean about framing. I felt the same way...after we had finished the shoot. I also thought about trying to "correct the reflections in post." Ya right next time, just shoot it the right the first time. both could have been re-shoots, but I think I learned a few things even without re-shooting. We'll find out on the next film!

As to the other love interest I agree. I'd originally intended another scene at the begining with all the mains in a classroom going from A watching B to B watching C. I also to get better framing in the hallway to get her overhearing the guys. I just dropped the ball.

Thanks again for the comments! I'm still working my way through all the films, not to "Love" quite yet. I
 
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