The Two Wolves -- a film by AJ Brooks

Well done! Nice take on an old story/legend. Beautiful to look at and the lead actress gets my vote for best female lead!
Never a dissapointment from you AJ.
Cheers to all involved.:beer:
 
We went all out and shot on a fisher price pixel vision camera for main unit, and an iPhone for b cam. ;)

zucked said:
Hate to be this guy, since I know so so many other factors go into your visuals -- which were phenomenal, by the way -- but what camera was this shot on? Well done on a beautiful film
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Ryan E. Walters said:
We went all out and shot on a fisher price pixel vision camera for main unit, and an iPhone for b cam. ;)
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Yeah, Ryan wanted to break the bank and shoot on a laptop webcam, but I had to hold the reins and limit him to the more affordable Fisher Price and a stolen iPhone.

Had to remind him -- the enemy of art is the absence of limitations. :)
 
is it okay for me to say this was my favorite of the bunch? :) not that there weren't other shorts nearly as good, but the writing, dialogue and performances here were such knockouts that it put it over the top for me. and the cinematography, production design, editing, sound design, etc all came together in a great way.
 
You did not disappoint as always. The one crit I have is how your camera leads into the actors lines.
J.D once said that the camera should follow the actors lines.
 
Quick review (going to try to do this for each film)

Writing: This was probably one of the places I felt this film might have been the weakest. Not that any of the writing was "bad" but that it seemed to drag out a little. I could kind of see where the film was going, and basically knew from the beginning that she was a "voice" tormenting him. I just thought that some of the writing could have been a little more lean, specifically in the opening scene. That having been said, the dialog was extremely natural sounding, and never felt "written". I know this has a lot to do with your cast, which leads me to....

Acting: The strongest point of this film. Excellent cast, the two leads were awesome! I really don't have much to say here, because they were terrific! It's hard to sell "talking to yourself" but your male lead did a wonderful job.

Cinematography: Really good stuff from a look standpoint. Some of your darker scenes had a bit of "noise" but that isn't something that really bothers me. The lighting was balanced, natural, and your compositions looked GREAT!

Editing: As I mentioned in the writing note above, I felt like the film could have been leaner. I found myself wanting to see what happened next instead of listening more to her torture him. I think shaving a little here and there could have made this tighter and have more of a "pow" factor. I always find myself edging on the edge of "too fast" when I cut, so I know I do have that tendency. Editing for pace has a lot to do with preference too. As far as the technical side to the edit, flawless.

Overall: A very solid short film! I am glad I got to see it, and proud that a fellow DVXuser made it. I wasn't surprised however from seeing your past work. I wouldn't be surprised if you were in the top films of this festival. Good work.
 
I know, I know- it's all about the art... BTW did you ever give grandma her phone back? ;)

AJ Brooks said:
Yeah, Ryan wanted to break the bank and shoot on a laptop webcam, but I had to hold the reins and limit him to the more affordable Fisher Price and a stolen iPhone.

Had to remind him -- the enemy of art is the absence of limitations. :)
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Brandon Rice said:
Cinematography: Really good stuff from a look standpoint. Some of your darker scenes had a bit of "noise" but that isn't something that really bothers me. The lighting was balanced, natural, and your compositions looked GREAT!
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Thanks. To each there own, I know I'll never make everyone happy. AJ & I are happy with the images and that is enough for me. :) But just to clarify the noise is slight film grain that I added in. I like the texture that it added to the piece as I felt it added to the overall aesthetic and feel. :)
 
Ryan E. Walters said:
Thanks. To each there own, I know I'll never make everyone happy. AJ & I are happy with the images and that is enough for me. :) But just to clarify the noise is slight film grain that I added in. I like the texture that it added to the piece as I felt it added to the overall aesthetic and feel. :)
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Oh, to have the gear and budget to be able to choose when to add noise :)
 
Ryan E. Walters said:
Thanks. To each there own, I know I'll never make everyone happy. AJ & I are happy with the images and that is enough for me. :) But just to clarify the noise is slight film grain that I added in. I like the texture that it added to the piece as I felt it added to the overall aesthetic and feel. :)
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As I said, I noticed it but it doesn't bother me :)
 
I would love to know more about what you mean? Can you fill me in? Is this a camera thing, an edit thing, or both? I'm not familiar with what you're talking about. :)

Gord.T said:
You did not disappoint as always. The one crit I have is how your camera leads into the actors lines.
J.D once said that the camera should follow the actors lines.
Click to expand...
 
Lynchenstein said:
Oh, to have the gear and budget to be able to choose when to add noise :)
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We used very minimal gear, and had a very small crew- 4 crew members (Me, Audio, Gaffer, Grip). To light the entire thing I used 1x 4' 4bank "kino", 1x 2' 2bank "kino", and 1x 1' LED. (The "kinos" are kino housings that have been fitted with Daylight MacTech LED's- more info in the "What's In My Kit" section of THIS BLOG POST.)
 
SPOILERS. PLEASE STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS SHORT.

What I liked: AJ, as always your cinematography is top notch. Everything that I've seen that you've made has been very clean and inspiring. This was no exception. The actors were spot on throughout, too. Very solid. Even though it seemed a bit dark, I really liked your lighting throughout, too.

What I didn't like as much (but please take with a grain of salt): It was really dark on my monitors. There were a couple of shots that I couldn't see anything. I was a bit confused at the end. Did he bite his thumb or finger off? Where did all of that blood come from?
 
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