Web Premiere: "Greg"

LUXGAP

LUXGAP

Active member
After a week of final editing and finding webspace here is [glow=red,2,300]"GREG"[/glow] . This short was shot in 4.5 hours at 24p standard and lighting was kindly provided by nature. The work is 13 minutes long and 32MB large. This is the first production shot with the DVX100A and it was edited with Avid Express Pro 4.3.5. Discreet Combustion was used for the credits/title.


http://www.luxgap.com/Greg_300k.mov

We are very open to comments and questions.

Thanks.
 
Re: Web Premiere: "Greg"

Well, no one else seems to be responding, so I will, keep in mind my opinion is worth more or less exactly what you're paying for it. And I am a 3 day owner of a DVX so I don't know a thing.

So Technically, I am not equipped to give you any real advice, I would recommend that you do a search for "Sorenson Squeeze" and talk to some of the other posters on this site. Disjecta (I think his name is) seems to be particularly knowledgeable on the subj., look for "Work In Progress", basically you had a lot of mosaicing (what a godawful adverb) at the beginning of each scene change, and I think your compression methods had something to do with it. Have I ever compressed anything? No.

Subjectively, I just wasn't feeling this story. It just sort of went on for a while. I don't know if you want a subjective opinion or not, and I realize thatthis style of humor isn't my cup of tea, so I'm not really your target audience, but I would be surprised if a 8 or 6 minute edit of this piece wasn't at least as effective as this 12 minute edit.

Other than that, congratulations, it looks solid, and has a coherent story, and is -done- which is nothing short of a miracle from my side of the screen.

Phil
 
Re: Web Premiere: "Greg"

I think machardi's review is pretty solid.. and he is right about the compression as well.

anyway heres my bluntly honest revioew

..2 minutes or less would fit the story in , and keep it moving enough to stay interesting. the shots went way longer than what was needed to establish meaning or understanding, and imho they also passed the artful lingering important emotional moment amount of time, and crossed into the "why on earth is this still on my screen" realm. I actually had to quickly scrub through the last 2/3 of the film to the end cause i couldnt take it anymore. I am art film type of guy, so its not as if i dont have an eye or attention span for things to play out.. it was just waay too long. anyway having said that.. It was interesting in its concept, although it felt very familiar and travelled. the cinematography felt somewhat cliche but was good. the music drove me batty so i turned it down.
the guy acting did a good job, and held charachter nicely. and i am a cheeze ball so you dont have to actually care about what i think at all. .. cause im cheeze... swiss.. aged.. anyway if it was shorter i would like it alot more. as it was it was good. just waaay too long. :)
 
Re: Web Premiere: "Greg"

[quote author=iamloser link=board=Clips;num=1092381799;start=0#2 date=08/13/04 at 10:08:37] the shots went way longer than what was needed to establish meaning or understanding....I actually had to quickly scrub through the last 2/3 of the film to the end cause i couldnt take it anymore....the music drove me batty  [/quote]


Kill bill anyone?
 
Re: Web Premiere: "Greg"

I also vote that shorter is better. The shots without Greg are the best shots.
 
Re: Web Premiere: "Greg"

I think this could have been a very effective drama had it but cut in half and we started feeling awful for the character - I felt some of that at the end. I thought the actor did an outstanding job.

Good work,

Matt
 
Re: Web Premiere: "Greg"

Also I think 30 something MB's for a 13 min video is killer. My latest music video is 4 min and is as large. I'm a quality freak though. I want my full frame rates.
 
Re: Web Premiere: "Greg"

I must agree with the previous comments regarding the length. Especially the beginning where Greg is running to get to the picnic location and then the entire picnic setup.

As for the picnic scenes, I think you have some nice shots mixed in there. A few of the hand held shots were a bit shaky and distracting. But, then you also had the steady well framed shots. So, it's obvious you made an effort to experiment with different shots.

The entire piece is a good character study and the actor does a great job.

I didn't find the music supporting the short. A little repetitive. It would be fine in a few portions, but a mix would be better.

I think you could edit the footage down by 1/2 and have yourself a nice tight interesting short.
 
Re: Web Premiere: "Greg"

;)

Thanks to all for your comments and opinions, that is the main reason we posted this movie in this forum. When one creates something from scratch, one has complete control of the content. In this case however, "Greg" is one of many characters that was written by John Paulsen.

John Paulsen is a writer, actor, director, teacher, and solo
performer. Northwest Asian American Theatre (NWAAT) presented his
original work, Doolymoog, in 2001. Working with the Rachel Rosenthal
Company in Los Angeles, John performed in the 2000 Bald Ambition
Festival. In Seattle, John has appeared on numerous stages including
On The Boards, Hugo House, Annex, Printer's Devil, 14/48,
Freehold, New City Theatre, The Speakeasy, and Bumbershoot.
John's film credits include "Steaming Milk", "Year of My Japanese Cousin",
"Balancing Pies", "Men in Scoring Position", and "Out of the Blue".

As you can see, I simply had the fortune and honor to be able to videotape his performance. I had to give very little, if any, direction to this very well defined work. His performance was nothing short of exquisite given that we only had those few hours to shoot and the heat and humidity were less than comfortable. In post, I could not be able to change anything in the timing and well versed feel of this tragic character, Greg.

There is nothing more insolent and thoughtless as trivializing the work of an artist and consequently the performance that you see is all "Greg" the man and not some charicature that has been abridged and cut loose from his soul and essence only to appease the short attention span of contemporary viewers. Perhaps some will say this is self indulgent but isn't anything that you believe in, in essence, selfish in the true meaning of the word?.

We believe we honored the work of John Paulsen in this short film.
The producers and I stand by this piece without reservations, our aim wasn't to get hurrahs from everyone but rather in the hopes of perhaps reaching a couple of viewers that have alike sensibilities.

Again, thanks to all and we will continue to try out different filmic exercises on this forum.
 
Re: Web Premiere: "Greg"

The bandwidth quota had ran out. But, I waited until the next day, which now is, and had a look at it.

I agree with others. The story was very boring. Nothing was happening. I just didn't really get interested in it.

If it was a little shorter, it would probably be interesting.

All the best

Fidel.
 
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