UT Austin Student Film: Bittersweet

[speculator]

Hey dvxuser community. This is probably my twin brother and I's 2nd real full length short (not counting ones I shot on a whim) for a school project from my first production class. It's loosely based on Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and Jacob's Ladder.

It was shot using an HV20 w/ a Letus FE for the outdoor shoots (1st time using it) and Raynox 6600 for the indoor shoots. Sounds were recorded using a Zoom H4. Film was shot in less than 3 days and edited in around 2.5days.

Vimeo - Bittersweet: A Short film by The Brothers Cho *lowest HD quality

mirrors:
Facebook HD *best quality
YouTube - RTF 318 Project #3 Student Film: Bittersweet *minor ghosting

ENJOY!
-The Brothers Cho

 

[Jon Starr]

It's tough to critique the film as it really does look like one of your first films.

As a first film, good job, it's interesting.

As just any regular film there were some problem areas. Aside from the obvious lack of experience from the actor (which made his reactions all too over the top, or lacking), the script was a bit poorly structured. Some scenes were far too long (like in the bedroom) and some too short (like the fight scene at the beginning). It's just about pacing of your scenes.

The script felt like it was meant for actors of much higher caliber. It's like you gave them something with a lot of emotion and power, but they just couldn't deliver. Seems like you just tried really hard to make an emotional piece and it fell flat because of the actors. Before you blame your actors, remember, there are no bad actors, just bad directors. However when you're working with inexperienced actors, it's a little bit different.

One thing that REALLY didn't work was the fight scene at the beginning. It felt like the people throwing the punches didn't know how. It wasn't fast, quick, hard hitting, etc. So it lacked punch (no pun intended).

Cinematography was okay, not great, but not bad.

Over-all it felt like you chose a story/subject that you couldn't completely pull off. If you had gotten a bit more experience and tackled this script, it might have worked a lot better. Good attempt though.

 

[speculator]

I just want to add that because of the very tight school deadline (first film project as a first year film student) the total shooting time was 7 hours (including set up, camera angles, rehearsal, etc) as I had to work around the schedules of the actors that were involved (all were inexperienced non-professional and just friends of friends so I was really surprised in some of their performances, despite the obvious complaints). The rest was dedicated to post and I'm still trying to master that craft. No lighting was used...cause i didnt have the budget for it (pretty much an absolute zero budget production) so it was all natural lighting except for 1 reflector to bounce light.

The bedroom scene was far too long? For me, it was the most important scene in the film, but I figure the emotional impact I was looking for wasn't too concise based on a myriad of reasons.

Would've done more for the fight scene if everyone wasn't busy for the remainder of the day and had to go just when we was getting our game on. Certainly did learn a lot from this shoot though. Thanks for the C&C