UNDERBITE - My first film with DVX100B

B

BlueLaw

Member
The Short Of It…

My first Panasonic DVX100B (pal) film. Here’s the link, right click and save:

http://www.dudleyrees.co.uk/underbite.mov (55MB approx.)

My website provider insisted there was no limit to how many times it could be downloaded. Ha! – We’ll see about that. If the link goes down, sorry, and at least we know. (Looking at it now, it might be because it takes hours to download - what do you people make of this?)

The Long Story…

After months of posting annoyingly simple questions all over this forum, and thanks to the many tolerant answers I received, there is finally something to show.

This is my fist little movie, entitled UNDERBITE, it’s 10 minutes long and was shot in Edinburgh over a week. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think. As a director I wanted to try and give time to the actors, rather than focus purely on the technical side of the production. Consequently it’s an odd mix.

I can’t help feel there is something fundamentally wrong with the pacing of the film.

Now a request… We’d like to show it at short film festivals etc. But we’ve used a temp score that we don’t have the rights to. Solution anyone? – You’ll see that the orchestral scale of the score is integral to the feel of the film, and we don’t really want to take Casio Keyboard second best.

Thanks for watching.

:dankk2:
 
let me just say.... that was FANTASTIC!!!

first film on the dvx, but definitely NOT your first film... if it is, i should retire right now.

great acting, i found the pacing was FINE!! seriously, i was interested the entire time. I wouldnt change a thing pacing wise, no problems there for me.,

your sound was golden, what did u use for your audio?
 
Ha ha, you bloody legend - that is so sweet to hear. Thank you!

I'm at that stage on it where I can't really see it for what it is anymore, you know? I spent ages trying to sort the sound, taking out blips and layering tracks that fade in and out of each other. I was using a RODE NTG1 and didn't really spend any time learning how to use it properly. Some of the sound I captured with the help of my Dad driving his car around, yesterday. I really don't have much film experience, I trained as an actor and whilst on the course acted in 1 film plus some screen lessons. To be honest, I did a lot of pre-production, I watched Terminator (as you can imagine) over a million times. I’m a 22 year old, out of work, broke actor, if I was going to spend that much on the camera, I was desperate not to mess it up.

Thanks again for your comments!
 
i know how it is brother. i too am an aspiring actor trying to find my way in this mess of a business. But u have a great piece there!

are you acting in it?
 
Yeah, I'm MAN 3. I wrote it, with me in mind for that character. Haha Neil Thomas plays Neil Tait, and Elaine Catrina Gracie playes herself. There's James and David as men too.
 
Wow, that was well done. Good acting, interestin story, great camera work. I think you should definitely enter this into some film festivals. As far as the music goes, I don't know how much you can spend, but "Royaltyfreemusic.com" has some great tracks for this kind of thing. Try clicking on "comedy/suspense" and then listen to the "Hollywood" series demos. You get about 8 to 10 quality tracks for $100 (US). Your movie is definitely worth spending some money to put a good music track to it.

What I would like to know is what kind of video format or compression you exported this as in order to get such great quality video in just 55 Mb of file space. ???
 
HOLLLY that was great man. i generally cant stay sit through a whole short film but this really took my attention. Cant wait to see the other one. I though the choice of music should be changed a little, like when they are stupid moments and such make it funny. Can you tell me what was in your equiprment bag? Audio, lenses Etc. Oh by the way you should do a little color correcting on the opening scenes.

All that said. Great work
 
oh i'm sorry i forgot to mention about the openin scene also.could of had a little more depth on some shots but overall the good made me frget the bad,and kept my attention.
 
haha that was great, except i was hoping for an end and not a to be continued... i would have loved to drive by while you were filming in the streets, that would have been hilarious. anyways howd you get such great shots when it started to turn to nightime, very professional
 
Yeah i agree with everyone. Excellent. I sat through the whole thing and didn't stop it one second. Kept my attention the whole time. You really showed the passing of time very well in this piece. By the use of blues for the mid-day etc. Excellent work, great sound, perfect pacing...Great job brotha!!! As far as soundtrack, you have to get a royalty free if u want to go to festivals...i know how it is, you are probably stuck with that music, but try some options out, there's a ton of people on myspace and such that would give you their scores for free as long as you credit them.

-NOAH S
 
Hey Thanks.

Hey Thanks.

Great! Thanks for all the positive comments guys!

I’ll definitely check out royaltyfreemusic.com – see what they’ve got to offer.

Compressing the file:

That was easy, I used final cut pro. I went to export using QuickTime conversion then clicked the dropdown menu and used “Broadband - High” then I adjusted one setting in that because my footage was shot in anamorphic squeeze, so click options, then size, and change the dimensions to 720 x 405 (do not be tempted to press preserve aspect ratio, it messes everything up) Then export, that’s it!

My Equipment:

DVX100BE, Vinten Pro 6 Tripod, Spare Battery, Rode NTG1 Mic, Boom Pole. No lenses.

The Look:

Virtually every shot is colour corrected using the 3-way colour corrector in Final Cut Pro. I had no lenses or anything and no experience at editing so I was feeling it out for myself, and guessing.

I generally tried to film at the time of day we were going for, but there is some hideous day for night stuff going on during the rickshaw chase.

I made the mistake of not taking white balances, which resulted in the films inconsistent look. I’ll know next time.

:huh:
 
Music Problem Resolved?

Music Problem Resolved?

Great news!

Inspired by the comments on here I decided to put a little more money into the film - Just to sort out the music problem.

I firstly looked at the royalty free sites, which were quite good. It’s interesting, I’ve learnt that the price of a track changes depending on what you want to do with it. Well I don’t really know where the film might go so it was difficult to specify.

Then I put a call out for “Composer Needed” on a British site called talentcircle.co.uk and offered £100 ($70,000 or 2million €)…

…and I’ve got some interest!

So it looks like we’ll be going to the film festivals after all, see you at Cannes baby!

:beer:
 
If you're still looking for music, check out Cinescore (or SonicFire Pro 4). Cinescore's about $150, although SonicFire is a bit more . Plus you can use it again and again in the future.

I just got it and I love it.
 
i liked this alot.
the villans were awesome lol.

in the beginning, it would have looked maybe better if you white balanced to get a blue-ish tint? it seems more cinematic that way sometimes.

dont mind that though it still looked really good.
 
Really? You think?

Really? You think?

Really?

We're talking about the first scene in Elaine's flat? Where they're just talking? - I wanted it look kind of golden, but someone else mentioned colour correction early on.

It's not too late to put some blue on is it? what do you think?

You think the colour in those scenes are at odds with the rest of the film?
 
I think it looks too golden, like a poorly adjusted TV set. I love the light coming through the glass panels on the door, though.

By way of a nit, Neil says something about the creatures being hairless. They most definitely have body hair.

How did you mount the camera to the car?
 
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