"The Robin" A 500 cuts Picture

Thanks a lot for the comments Amy. Nick Childs has an awesome voice! He was really great to work with, and if you haven't already, you should check out a short film that he made, just go to youtube and type in "muledick".....it's not dirty, I promise. He did all of the work on the film, and also starred in it....which is really impressive because it's got a ton of after effects work, and he also does an excellent job at acting. Thanks again! I'm going to post two more stills in about a half hour...stay tuned
 
I'm looking forward to seeing more of the stills - thanks for posting them.

I enjoyed this film- I though that everyone did a good job on it. Patrick - it looks like you did a good job of shooting flat for the CC later, as the CC really made the shots pop.

Usually I don't like VO films, as most of the time they do not work for me. But the combination of Nick's voice as well as the script made it work for me in this film. Nice work!

As for Nick's other short - muledick- if you haven't seen it, check it out- it is funny, and impressive with all of the work and time he put into it.
 
The following stills are examples of a really baffling problem that I ran into during production, and was discovered in post. If you'll note, in the first picture the camera bag appears to be a blue/grey color, and in the second photo, the exact same bag is shown, and appears to be a brownish red color.​

bag2_before.jpg

Bag filmed without Polarizing filter​

bag_before.jpg

Bag filmed with Polarizer and ND filter​

If anyone knows why this happened, feel free to jump in. I think it may have been a problem with the way in which the filters were oriented in the matte box. We used Schneider brand filters, a circular Tru Pol, and a .9ND. The ND didn't seem to effect the picture at all, but when we stacked the two together, we got this weird effect. My theory is that the polarizer somehow filtered out a certain wavelength of light that was being reflected from the camera bag, effectively changing its percieved color. Below is the color corrected version of the red bag shot, which still exhibits the problem.​

bag_after.jpg

After color correction​

The important lesson that I carried away from this is to always do screen tests if at all possible. In this case, screen testing a relatively minor prop on a production that was already pretty tightly scheduled was easy to overlook, but it's still very troubling to me that this happened. I'm sure it's some "no duh" mistake on my part, just not sure what. The other option would have been to have a production monitor on set to more accurately view the color of the scene, on a bigger area than the 3.5'' LCD or 1'' viewfinder that the camera offers. The main reason that we did not have the monitor at this particular location was the need to go as light as possible, so we could get in and get our shots with a minimal amount of setup/takedown time. This is definitely one for the filing cabinet of mistakes/lessons.​
 
Thanks Ryan. I, too, despise VO in movies. Because most V.O. usually just tells you what you're seeing, or gives you internal reflection that has no action. But there are a few great examples... One of Clive Owen's early films, "Croupier," uses V.O. to great effect. Check it out if you haven't seen it.

Also, I distinctly remember NOT having the polarizer in there when we were in the cemetery. Remember Pat? It was just the ND that was causing that weirdness with the camera bag. Am I mistaken?
 
I liked the way this was done. The VO I thought was good.
I liked everything here except it was too short. I felt need to see what the outcome was going to be. A full 6 minutes would’ve been nice.

Still enjoyed it!
Ian
 
500Cuts said:
Thanks Ryan. I, too, despise VO in movies. Because most V.O. usually just tells you what you're seeing, or gives you internal reflection that has no action. But there are a few great examples... One of Clive Owen's early films, "Croupier," uses V.O. to great effect. Check it out if you haven't seen it.

Also, I distinctly remember NOT having the polarizer in there when we were in the cemetery. Remember Pat? It was just the ND that was causing that weirdness with the camera bag. Am I mistaken?
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I remember the polarizer being in when this happened, because we also had the polarizer in when we were doing the shot of Jackson in front of the green screen outside, the shot where his black gloves took on the same reddish tone...of course, it's finals week and my mind isn't so fresh- so I should do some tests to see if I can recreate the anomaly with that camera bag.
 
Very nice job. This is definitely one of my top 3. I thought the VO was done very well. His voice reminds me of Gary Sinese and I could see Gary playing the role due to that. I think the actor did a great job with the voice-over, but when he was acting visually, it didn't quite do it for me. I think that was the weakest part of this piece.

The visuals were very well done. My favorite shot is of the poster on the telephone poll where you're changing the zoom / angle and keeping the background the same while the pole zooms out. Nice job!
 
Michael_Petro said:
pretty cool.. not a big voice over fan.. but this is the most effective voice over of heard recently
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Thanks. I'm in full agreement. VO is almost always a cop out for actual story, but in this case, I wanted to see if I could pull off that journal entry style of storytelling. You know... "Stardate 446! Captain's Log!"

Thanks for watching.
Co.
 
AmyO said:
The only place I felt this film stumbled is the cemetery scene. I felt there was too much time between when The Robin realized he was "made" and when he left. Visually, it looked like he was still trying to decide if Jackson saw him, but the VO clearly indicated that he knew he was spotted.
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Hey Amy, thanks for the feedback. I think the problem with the cemetery thing is that it's too internal and we didn't get enough coverage to get the idea across. The theory is that The Robin has a gun in his bag and he's deciding whether or not he should confront Jackson. But ultimately, he chickens out and rationalizes it to himself that he's not chicken, he's an artist. He stays distanced. He doesn't rely on thuggish things like guns. The truth is, he knows he'd get his ass handed to him by a pro like Jackson.

I kinda wish we had a better shot of Nick (The Robin) fumbling with his gun. I think it would better show that he's not super confident in a pinch.

Thanks for the comments!

Co.
 
Hey, just did some tests today with the same matte box/filter combination that we used on The Robin, with the same scene file settings- and it was in fact the .9ND that produced the weird rendering of the black- it made a black t-shirt brown. I am thinking maybe it's a defect with the filter? I will call Schneider on Monday to see what gives. This Neutral density doesn't seem so neutral!
 
I actually really loved this piece. The editing [the opening rocked...], the look and the voice over: solid. And the ending was perfect... loved it!

Simple, striking, effective.

Oh, and the soundtrack was pretty sick too. :)

Great work!
 
jojopop said:
I actually really loved this piece. The editing [the opening rocked...], the look and the voice over: solid. And the ending was perfect... loved it!

Simple, striking, effective.

Oh, and the soundtrack was pretty sick too. :)

Great work!
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot! I'm really glad people like it. Anytime you make a film, you wonder, "Am I the only one who thinks this is cool?" Nice to get positive response outside of our little group.

Co.
 
My Thoughts:

At first, I thought it was the same guy from that Life Goals song. at any moment, I was expecting him to say, "... and brush your teeth"

I liked the look of this film a lot! I'm not sure I followed the storyline and some of the flashbacks were confusing and it took me a bit to re-adjust to the story. Music was superb! I'm not sure if the grundgy elements fit to the rest of the film, but it was cool none-the-less.

cool entry. looking forward to seeing more of your films.

cheers!
/j
 
Co, Patrick, and team ... my final review. I could have done this one before many of the others, actually, but this one was special to me because it shared the same DP, so I wanted to do it last. :)

I enjoyed this ... the story, the writing, the camera movements, FX (GREAT smoke work in the BG), etc.

My biggest gripe (and this is actually small in the spectrum of things) is that I would like to have heard more OC voice vs. just full on VO. In other words, I think it could have brought another dimension of life/reality to this if when we SEE through his POV of looking through a camera, we hear him talking under his breath to himself (i.e. "You've kidding me").

Also, the music. With so many gifted composers on here, I wonder what ever level this could have been brought to had it had some custom score vs. the looped tracks I heard. You may have specifically wanted the grind/grit effect of those looped tracks, but I'm just a fan of custom scores ... even if they have much the same sound, there's just something more alive about them.

Otherwise, great twist, and really impactful to show the cold brutality that can often accompany the world of espionage ... that innocents can be taken out right along with the mark ... in this case, the mark's family.

Well done. Very well done.
 
I absolutely loved the tone of this film. Great color correction, it adds a ton. Nice lighting as well. The VO was ok... but the story... a little bit lacking. It was the weakest point of an otherwise very compelling short. Nice work!
 
Hey, I know, definetely a little late, but just wanted to say that I loved this one. It reminds me of something that we would have done. Alas, the idea is worth as much as the execution, no? And both were just great, great, great. Sorry to see that you didn't make it into the top three. But next time, eh? Looking forward to your work in the future.
 
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