the Se7en remake

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benhaus

Member
Hey guys, i'm new to the board but i wanted to see what you guys thought of my short..

http://www.benhaus.com/seven_final.mov

It's a shot-for-shot remake of the car ride scene from the film Se7en. I shot this using a dvx100A and some white screen in a garage last summer... and i finally finished it this week. It took 1 day to saw and fit the metal grate inside the car, and 1 day of shooting. I cut it exactly like the original, down to each frame, and tried have my actors match the original actors dialogue as best they could.
The 3 actors work at http://www.rainmakerstudios.com they also did the mix. Most of their dialogue was ADR in the studio.

It was a really challenging project but overall i'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Take a look and let me know what you guys think. Thanks :)
 
let me just say that, I am very pleased with that short, as I am big big fan of david fincher and seven as we all know is his masterpiece, I loved the short, very good, if I had to comment on anything I would say the adr, it sounds too digital, you need to add some reverb on the voices, specially on john doe, but overall I enjoyed it, good work
 
Very cool, the shots mesh well.
Only one thing: it would have been cool to let the actors reinterpret the scene. You know, just take the script and change the beats. Would have been interesting.
 
Green screen work could definitely use a bit of improvement. The edges looked a little rough, could possibly use some feathering. I'm not an expert on green screen techniques, but definitely keep practicing. Good effort on the remake, though. Matched up with the footage well.
 
deedive said:
Very cool, the shots mesh well.
Only one thing: it would have been cool to let the actors reinterpret the scene. You know, just take the script and change the beats. Would have been interesting.
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I agree, though the actors' impersonations were really close, but it would have been more interesting to put a different spin on the dialogue and characters.
 
Thanks for the comments guys.. it's great to hear what others have to say when they see it for the first time... very insightful :)
 
Exquisite! What an honor to one of the best movies of all time!

I thought you did a great job, and honestly, I preferred how you kept the cuts/acting/beats as close to the original as possible. I know every scene of this movie by heart.

I'm trying to get a group together to do the same thing for "Glengarry Glen Ross." Unfortunately, I'm short 2-3 men.

Really, excellent work. I'm extremely impressed & inspired.
 
Rubix³ said:
Exquisite! What an honor to one of the best movies of all time!

I thought you did a great job, and honestly, I preferred how you kept the cuts/acting/beats as close to the original as possible. I know every scene of this movie by heart.

I'm trying to get a group together to do the same thing for "Glengarry Glen Ross." Unfortunately, I'm short 2-3 men.

Really, excellent work. I'm extremely impressed & inspired.
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Thanks man! I appreciate the comment. Yeah it really is a great scene and a lot of fun to put together. Glengarry Glen Ross, huh? Excellent choice.. i love that movie.

If i could go back and re-shoot it again, i would have added more light.. it's too dark in certain areas. And i probably would've shot the metal grate separately so i could layer it later on in AE.

One thing i've learned about this camera, it's better to have more light and to darken it later in post than to shoot using less light and have to lighten it up. My green screening job isn't the best but i'm not sure if i could do better than than on this shoot... maybe if i had used ultimatte instead of the luma key. (thinking out loud here)

If i lived in the Chicago area i would love to help you out with Glengarry glen ross project. Are you gonna shoot the Alec Baldwin scene? Classic.

"PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN! Coffee is for closers."
 
Rubix³ said:
I'm trying to get a group together to do the same thing for "Glengarry Glen Ross." Unfortunately, I'm short 2-3 men.
Click to expand...

A theatre in my town is putting on a production of Glengarry Glen Ross right now actually.
 
That was really cool!! Good work.

I really liked how the actors replicated the original. It's gotta be easier said than done. One of the more entertaining things I've seen on here in a while.
 
This was a lot of fun to watch, as 'Staven' said, definitely one of the more entertaining things on here for a while now. Nice job!
 
was great remake man, but honestly, the acting didn't cut it for me. the driver was the only one with any substance, the rest just looked like actors.

good stuff!
 
damn, i was hoping to see the funniest line in the movie...

"WHATS IN THE BOX, WHATS IN THE BOX?!?!?"

well done on the remake. Acting was a bit uninteresting, but the shots looked good.
 
Good job overall, but i agree acting wasn't very good. One thing looked kinda funny, the fence that separates the prisoner from the police looks kinda wierd, like you added it afterwards.
 
Acting did need work. I agree with others you should've re-worked the scene. How the scene plays should be determined by the actors and what they see as honest emotions. If actors aren't giving honest emotions they put themselves through, the audience sees it despite what your intentions are.

My opinion is, most of directing is casting. But once you've got the cast, make scenes work the best that they can even if it's not what you initially wanted.
 
The acting comments here are not fair. He was going for an "impression," not acting. There's a huge difference. Keep in mind, he's putting these guys against Spacey, Pitt, and Freeman. They weren't allowed to act at all, the goal was replication. IMO, I think very VERY few people could've come closer - meaning, it was obvious that a great deal of study and effort went into this.

Take Mike O'Connor, the guy who played Pitt. His mannerisims were spot on.
"When someone is insane, as you ... clearly are" - scratch of the head. Stuff like that that I remember perfectly from the movie. The "lean forward" of Spacey, the 10 degree rearview mirror glances from Freeman...

Again, impressions, not acting. Think of this as a clip paying homage to a wonderfully directed movie with great acting.
 
benhaus said:
Thanks man! I appreciate the comment. Yeah it really is a great scene and a lot of fun to put together. Glengarry Glen Ross, huh? Excellent choice.. i love that movie.

If i could go back and re-shoot it again, i would have added more light.. it's too dark in certain areas. And i probably would've shot the metal grate separately so i could layer it later on in AE.

One thing i've learned about this camera, it's better to have more light and to darken it later in post than to shoot using less light and have to lighten it up. My green screening job isn't the best but i'm not sure if i could do better than than on this shoot... maybe if i had used ultimatte instead of the luma key. (thinking out loud here)

If i lived in the Chicago area i would love to help you out with Glengarry glen ross project. Are you gonna shoot the Alec Baldwin scene? Classic.

"PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN! Coffee is for closers."
Click to expand...
And what you did with this is exactly what I want to do with Glengarry. I was sitting down with a buddy of mine, someone I've watched the movie with over 100 times, explaining to him that even though he's not an actor, I'd be aiming for impersonations of the characters. Hell, whenever we call each other at work we're reciting lines.

If you can feel it, try and act it, and if not, just mimic what you've seen 100 times from the movie. The project would be extrememly fun and hilarious in the end.
 
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