Trout Short Scene

K

kevinkt

Active member
Hey guys, please tell me some helpful hints and tips after watching my first short scene filmed with the canon 550D. This was a short assignment for my class. I would love to get your critiques on it so I can improve upon my future works. Anything would be helpful. Thanks.

http://vimeo.com/15797491
 
The picture is clear, I'm guessing many people could have a problem with the set (too much white wall), but I'm ok with it. I dunno if it's my headphones, but your dialog seems to be panned to the left? Just checked another source, yes it seems your audio is panned to the left significantly. There is a lot of 'room' noise in there. The vocals are clear, but reverberate a bit more than makes me think I'm watching a movie. It's too believably recorded.

Some music could've helped, but nothing too major... actually forget music, I'm not too sure.

The one thing that really bothered me were the actors. The dude is really really aware that there's a camera there, makes both performances seem 'not very good'. But still, I think if you switched the guy, (or didn't tell him you were rolling) she would have done better.

My two cents. For taste, I would've felt like less light was seeping through. Get the dark and hazy of last night in there, with some really hard rays of light seeping through. The next morning in bed for me is dark, blinds still closed, with the daytime fighting to get in. That way, if the blinds could open light would drastically change, taking you form one place to another.

P.S. This is the first critique I gave. I dunno if I did it right, or nicely enough. I apologize in advance, but I have to learn to do this part as well... Cheers all
 
wow thanks a lot for the critique. All of those things are things that I had thought about while making and editing the movie. Lighting was a key issue because I wasn't sure how believable it was. Also the actor's performances, I blame this on my directing abilities, I'm still very new at directing, and hopefully my directing will only get better with more projects. In this particular scene, because I also DPed, I realized that I was focusing more on the technical aspects of capturing this footage rather than performances. Something I will not be doing in the future.

As for sound, I'm not too sure how I would improve the sound. I used professional recording equipment but still got that room tone. Any ideas would be helpful for my next project.
 
kevinkt said:
wow thanks a lot for the critique. All of those things are things that I had thought about while making and editing the movie. Lighting was a key issue because I wasn't sure how believable it was. Also the actor's performances, I blame this on my directing abilities, I'm still very new at directing, and hopefully my directing will only get better with more projects. In this particular scene, because I also DPed, I realized that I was focusing more on the technical aspects of capturing this footage rather than performances. Something I will not be doing in the future.

As for sound, I'm not too sure how I would improve the sound. I used professional recording equipment but still got that room tone. Any ideas would be helpful for my next project.
Click to expand...

Hey Kevin. Read my critique again, and (as I ahven't been feeling too good about myself) I'm sorry if it was a bit 'smash' to the actor. I have had the same issues. I still do think it is a good idea on a small set for the director to have some kind of direct control on the picture. I am confident that one day I'll be able to rehearse for days on end with my guys, and they'll know what to do on set. If the crew is small enough, it is possible.

Again, this may be a personal hitch, but (for example) I've heard in the last five years that you don't have to play a musical instrument to be a musician. This kind of thinking has come with the advent of technology. It is, and will always be, to me, bogus. When I hear stuff like that, it spits on my years of practice on the instruments I play.

Technology gets better, gets smaller, makes things easier, makes an end result (similar to pro/large/industrialized budget work) possible, I think a responsibility comes with it to uphold a craft. Whether anyone likes it or not, film won't go away. If it will stop selling one day, or not be feasible anymore, it'll turn into a classic/upscale/traditional/art form type medium. It was so much easier fifteen years ago to cut an album and have some demand for a cd. Now it's near impossible to put out a cd. Soon enough, the only way for musicians to make money will be to pick up an instrument, and play.

So, dude, mucho respect for trying to get a hand on it all. It is not bad work. This is my critique, one of my first. Putting my feet in the dvx water if you will.

In the best schools for hotel management in switzerland, they say you have to do everything from cleaning bathrooms to running the hotel before you're set. I like this.

I'm SURE that if your crew is small enough, your planning is tight enough, your gear is small enough, and your actors (and you) are delivering your lines with the same confidence that one has singing in the shower, you CAN dp and direct, and do it well.

That said, I just put up a reel, looking at it, it is dismal in comparison to what you shot. I would like to share it with you, and have your thoughts. it's at tarekkandil.blogspot.com
 
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