Time Kampf - Buddy Cop Comedy.

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Levinthhour

New member
Hey everyone, this is my first post on here. I've kinda looked at the forums a little before, but I figured it was about time to start posting and learning some things from you guys.

Alright, a friend and I just finished this as a final project for one of my film classes. Let me know what you guys think in general, camera work, graphics, anything that pops into your head while watching. I know there are some continuity and audio things and it is supposed to be cheesy really, so keep that in mind. I thought it might be interesting to tighten this up and submit it to some festivals or something, so any tips would be helpful.

Here's the link: http://www.levinthhour.net/tk.html

Let me know if it doesn't work or anything. It's about 12 minutes long, just so you have an idea of how long you'll be sitting there. Thanks for checking it out.

Also, I shot this on a Sony V1U.
 
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It's pretty hard to sit through dude, to be honest. First of all that opening crawl/voice over is the longest one I've ever seen since Alone in the Dark, and it's read by a guy with the most annoyingly nasal voice I've ever heard. I kinda get the sense that the narrator did that deliberately to sound drunk or wacked out but having to sit through what felt like five minutes of it is just torture. Plus your film is only 12 minutes long, there's no time for that kind of long introduction.

The camera work is just dizzying because of the constant zooming in and out. I know it's meant to suggest "tension" but when you're snap zooming into the character's face on every single cut it's just annoying. Some of the handheld was just really shaky. Lighting was too dark in many shots.
 
What was up with the lighting in the first shot? That's as far as I got, sorry. Looked like you just pointed one bright light on them from the side of the room.
 
Couple things. First, did you guys find anything redeeming about the movie? Any of the jokes, writing, whatever? Also, can you guys offer me some tips and pointers. I obviously like the handheld look, what's some advice for shooting that style? Last, I think the exposure issues are compression based...looks fine over here...if that makes any difference. Constructive criticism would be appreciated, not just criticizing what you found wrong with the film. Thanks guys.
 
Well, I did like the shot where the guy kicked the table open, that wasn't bad. But you need to find some cuts where the camera isn't constantly zooming in and out; it's just so badly overused. If you're going to shoot handheld, please don't constantly zoom in and zoom out. Every zoom needs to be motivated and not look like you're just randomly messing with the zoom ring. Plus handheld works best when there's a lot of actions (characters constantly moving around etc.). That scene in the office where they're getting chewed out by their boss had almost no blocking. Everybody was rooted in one place or sitting down that introducing handheld in that scenario just looks off. Lighting wise, it really was underlit and there's some white balancing issues probably due to the practical lights you were using. Everything in the room looks slightly green. Might as well crush the blacks or something to give it that film noir look.

The single biggest thing to improve the film is to chop out the entire beginning voice over or at least cut out 80-90% of it. The guy's voice is so completely annoying (it's not funny to talk like that, seriously) and the whole sequence is so tedious that I almost couldn't get through to next part. And you might want to pare down the part after that where they're just driving in the car and the intro comes up. It looks nice and all but it's like 30% of your film was spent just trying to introduce these characters. Need to get to the meat of the story quicker.
 
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Levinthhour said:
Couple things. First, did you guys find anything redeeming about the movie?
Click to expand...

Honestly? No. It was uniformly bad in every possible respect.

I post this only because you asked.

For constructive criticism . . .

Lighting: create some contrast. Shadows are your friend -- they add depth and character to a shot.

Framing: the whole first scene looked like the camera was in the back of the room and you just cut between zooms into the sides of your actors' faces. You need to get in there in order for the audience to feel involved.

Some basic photography classes may help you with composition, framing, etc..
 
There's nothing bad about people telling you what's wrong with your movie. If you have a list of things that didn't work, then you have a basis of what to change next time. Of course, having others tell you what you could do better is helpful, but as far as I'm concerned as long as they tell you why they didn't like as opposed to saying "you suck" it then it's a valid comment.

People should honestly give their first impressions, as opposed to finding something redeeming about it to balance out a critique. But no matter what, don't be offended. Just keep working at it until you can produce something that people will enjoy.
 
Like David said, maybe check into some photography classes... I know I learned a lot by studying up on the boards here, and just get a feel for the art and technical side of creating a pretty image.

Don't get down on yourself, nobody is great the first time.
 
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