Thesis Film

A

agcohn

Well-known member
edit:***
All right. I've finally put the film online. It's a little less than 25 minutes.

Probably the best place to see it is here, though you'll need some divx plugin:
http://stage6.divx.com/user/agcohn/v.../Kevin-and-Amy

You can also see it at Google video, but it will be very pixelated unless you choose to shrink it down to it's original size (double size at the most), or download it to the Google Video Player:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...76876201&hl=en

***

These are some screenshots of the film we are working on for our advanced filmmaking class. They are in order of the way they are in the movie. We haven't finished shooting yet, but we've probably shot 3/4 of the movie. Our film takes place in a hotel, so we have limited amounts of time when we can shoot a lot of our scenes. Pretty much Sunday nights from about 10pm to 3am.

We've been a little rushed in a couple of our scenes when it was getting late, because the airlines people come in around 3:30 every morning, but it's something that we have to deal with. They have been very nice so far about letting us shoot in the lobby and hallways. We've only had to pay for the 2 rooms that we rented and shot in.

I'm working as the Producer and Cinematographer. It's pretty exciting. This is the first time that I've ever been able to work with actors I could really call talented. Also the first shoot where I've been given almost as much time as I need to set-up my shots and lights, with exception of some of the lobby scenes as noted above. Don't ask to see any of my other work, because most of it sucks.

We have been shooting with my personal DVX100A. For lighting we've been using the school's Lowel kits: pretty much just a bunch of Omnis and Totas, mainly with umbrellas.

http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/2359/amydeskjb3.jpg
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/5682/phonewc9.jpg
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/3946/spreadarmsxv2.jpg
http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/8266/kevintvmv0.jpg
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/167/jumpbedzo6.jpg
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/9783/poolfg3.jpg
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/2325/kevinwidetq6.jpg
^^^This was the most difficult shot of the film to light, because the actors walk all the way from those doors at the very back of the shot. We needed the lighting to be even throughout the entire walk, and we wanted the iris shut down enough so that we didn't need to be absolutely spot on when we racked the focus with them.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2825/amydesk2cb1.jpg
^^^I really want to re-shoot this angle, but the director doesn't want to go back to shoot at the desk. He's fine with it.
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/15/kevindeskot4.jpg
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/272/kevinbathroomyi1.jpg
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/7998/kevinbedlightyy1.jpg
^^^Part 1 of 2. In bed with light on.
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/9672/kevinbeddarkvg0.jpg
^^^Part 2 of 2. In bed with light off.
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/8337/amydoorlo0.jpg
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/7660/kevinhallxo6.jpg
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/4742/pillowfacepe9.jpg
^^^This scene is probably a little darker than we wanted it to be. We wanted it warm and dark, but we wanted the faces to be well exposed. Especially in this shot, that proved difficult, because of shadows on the walls and ceiling. I CC'd this shot and the remaining onces a little bit, because we balanced it to be warm, but it was a little too yellow. They are the only ones that have been corrected.
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/2553/twobeddw1.jpg
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/919/amybedtp8.jpg
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2504/kevinbedjz6.jpg


I hope all the images work :)
 
Last edited:
flipsidekrew said:
nice! any video clips you can share?
Click to expand...
I don't have access to the actual tapes right now, just a pretty crappy rough cut we had to assemble for class. What is a good site to post video clips? I don't really want to use youtube.
 
The lighting looks really soft. I would have taken the umbrellas off and used a little more hard-light. Did you use the anamorphic lens? Which one? How did you like working with that lens? Thanks
 
ShamrockFilms said:
The lighting looks really soft. I would have taken the umbrellas off and used a little more hard-light. Did you use the anamorphic lens? Which one? How did you like working with that lens? Thanks
Click to expand...
It's just the DVX's standard lens. It's actually letterboxed footage, and I just blew it up as big as it could get in quicktime and took screenshots for the stills.

I would have liked to use more hard lighting, but we've had to film in some pretty confined spaces, and the schools' Omnis, not the easiest lights in the world to control, cast shadows that are pretty hard to control. The shadows weren't as pronounced when reflected off of the umbrellas.

We probably could have made the lights work without the umbrellas, but the director likes the look. He thinks it imitates the actual lighting of the motel pretty well. I wish that the lighting had more dramatic effect in certain scenes, but it's pretty much there to have the actors well exposed.

And we're still learning after all.
 
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frankygunpowder said:
Cool movie. What CC techniques and settings did you use?
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CC was used very sparingly, mainly for corrective purposes in the 2nd bedroom scene and final scene. What you see on screen is generally what we saw in the viewfinder, except for the 2nd bedroom scene, which came out too "orange." Otherwise we boosted the contrast in a couple places, but nothing drastic.

As far as scene settings go, it was, if I remember right:
Detail -2
V. Detail -1
Coring +2
C. Level +2
M. Pedestal -6
Cine-Like_D (gamma)
Cine-Like (matrix)
Thin
24P (normal)

I think we got are settings from something that Barry Green said he used as his defaults, and we made minor changes in Pedestal and using normal 24p.
 
UncleBenji1977 said:
Great to see someone else using Divx. The film looked great. Nice shots.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

Yeah, I only found Stage6 recently, and I couldn't believe how nobody around is using the site. The file sizes for DivX are relatively small, while still maintaining outstanding video quality. You'd think with Youtube and these other sites absolutely murdering peoples' footage, people'd be all over Divx.
 
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