SHORT: "We Build, Then We Break" - Short Drama | Synthetic Edge Studios

MarkyMarkV

MarkyMarkV

Member

"We Build, Then We Break" follows the relationship of two high school students, Scott and Jessica, from the first encounter, rise, and fall of their relationship.

Directed by Mark DeMaria
Written by Selina Su
Starring:
Sandy Le as Jessica
&
Robbie Nealy as Scott

Shot over a period of about 4 months and entirely with DIY and low-budget equipment, "We Build, Then We Break" is a culmination of our film-making abilities.

Equipment:
1) Canon HF-S 40
2) Audio Technica ATR-6550
3) DIY Fig Rig
4) DIY Boom Pole
5) DIY microphone pop filter (For narrations)

Software:
1) Final Cut Pro 7
2) Audacity

My thoughts on this project are extremely mixed. We started production back in the end of August, 2011 with recording narrations. Then, over the next 3 months, we filmed both in and out of school, using my house as both Scott’s and Jessica’s house, and Selina’s room as Jessica’s room. This is my very first short film, and I’m glad that I decided to direct this project because it’s taught me so many things; ranging from how to handle actors, budget time for shoots, pre-plan the script with shots and scene directions, etc.

As far as post-production goes, this film was an utter mess. This was the first time I had used Final Cut Pro 7, as my computer at home wouldn’t have been able to take such a long project in Sony Vegas. Plus, files from SD cards in AVCHD format can’t be imported into FCP unless you log and transfer, but half of my files were on my friend’s card, which we wiped, so I only had the AVCHD files, not any other files that FCP needed to log and transfer. Thus I had to convert them at home, distorting them to 16:9 when we shot in 1440x1080.

Additionally, since this was my first hands-on experience w/ the camera, I did not know it was adding gain to my microphone. That’s why the audio quality of different scenes differs dramatically. We shot out of order, and whichever scenes we shot last have the best audio since I started to learn the camera.

At first I was afraid to post this on here out of fear of getting ripped apart, but I don’t really care now, I want to learn. Any criticism is appreciated!
Thank you!
 
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Good for you man, Glad to see to stuck through it and pulled it off. You did a great job for your first short film. Make sure to post your second film so we can see how much yo have grown. good luck :)

oh, and the kid that played the lead did a great job, He has talent as an actor.
 
You did good by posting it. If you didn't post it...Well....nobody could have told you what to think about in the future.

A few "general" things:

- your first short will always be a mess... if someone shows you his/her "first" short and it looks great, well he/she either had a good crew (professional) or it was not the first short...
- be sure to ALWAYS have backups from the shoot and be sure of the format.
- preparation is important. A good preparation can save A LOT of time during shooting. Stupid example: if you know where the button is to shut down a ventilation system, you don't loose time by searching it during shooting days.

Shooting wise, I think some "finetuning" in making shots and dare to direct. Look what's in the screen, be sure every shot is needed etc...

The continuity is not bad also.

I think the ATR-6550 is not the best mic... But the noise can also be because you have the 2nd channel open...(sound).


 
maranfilms said:
Good for you man, Glad to see to stuck through it and pulled it off. You did a great job for your first short film. Make sure to post your second film so we can see how much yo have grown. good luck :)

oh, and the kid that played the lead did a great job, He has talent as an actor.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Maran. I will definitely post the next one. It will probably be some sort of science fiction drama. I'm not entirely sure yet. We'll have to see. And I will pass your compliments on to Robbie; he has acted in several school plays, so he definitely has some experience.

dre83 said:
You did good by posting it. If you didn't post it...Well....nobody could have told you what to think about in the future.

A few "general" things:

- your first short will always be a mess... if someone shows you his/her "first" short and it looks great, well he/she either had a good crew (professional) or it was not the first short...
- be sure to ALWAYS have backups from the shoot and be sure of the format.
- preparation is important. A good preparation can save A LOT of time during shooting. Stupid example: if you know where the button is to shut down a ventilation system, you don't loose time by searching it during shooting days.

Shooting wise, I think some "finetuning" in making shots and dare to direct. Look what's in the screen, be sure every shot is needed etc...

The continuity is not bad also.

I think the ATR-6550 is not the best mic... But the noise can also be because you have the 2nd channel open...(sound).


Click to expand...

I'm glad I did post it. I'm surprised by how well it's being received. Almost 2K views on youtube in 24 hours! mind = blown.

And I will certainly try to not make those mistakes again with the card data and such. I have a T2i now, so I'll be able to have an intimate knowledge of the camera, and I have ML installed, so I think I'm good to go as far as gain is concerned.

The ATR-6550 is not a good mic by any means; it's only good when compared to on-board mics, so it has some worth to it. And how would I close the second channel? It records mono, so it's all left-channel. In FCP i had to balance the audio pan to be at 0, so does that mean I was basically keeping the right channel fuzz and just joining it with the left channel audio? Even then, the left channel still had fuzz in it, due to the gain. So I don't think it was entirely avoidable until the end when I learned about the AGC.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
Well if you closed the unused channel... what could be possible is noise reduction.. But that's limited also.
Or simple High Cut EQ...could help also...
 
I'll look for that next time in doing a short film. I didn't really have time for this one because of a deadline.
But won't that make the audio somewhat "tinny" sounding? I experimented in Sony Vegas on some clips, and it hollowed out the voices and made them unusable. The scene where the protagonist is confiding in his friend has some fuzz-removal to it. It's noticeable in Robbie's voice mostly. Is High Cut EQ more fine in its adjustments?
 
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