Witch Bottle by Justin Demeere

Updated the production notes with the final budget of the short. Total on screen was $84 and the off screen (food and beer) was $120. Not bad.
 
Thanks! I just hope it is somewhat entertaining for my first real short in 6 years. Doing youtube videos and webisodes in between made me feel rusty on this one. But now I must keep sharpening my teeth because I'm hungry for more.
 
Hey thanks dood. I went crazy with the fog. Constantly I said on the set "Fog! We need more fog!" Hehe. Looking forward to yours as well.
 
You know what they say, if you're going to steal, steal from the best! had a lot of fun catching all the Evil Dead shots and gags. and they were really well done. nice work!
 
You've got your look and your color down... however, you need work on sound and editing. Some of the cuts were strange. Some of the sound, especially dialogue, was pretty poor. Also, you're use of the smoke machine made everything seem like a cheesy haunted house and didn't really add much to the ambiance of the film (it was just too much in my opinion).

Keep working at it though, because the look was great. It got more of a thumbs up than a thumbs down for me!

(edit... ps... I loved the ending shot!)
 
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I think you definately have a shooting style. It is very much a huge homage to the Evil Dead movies, but fun to re-make some of your favorite movies I know! I thought the ending was pretty good. Sound needed a little extra attention, and the action got a tad rediculous. But I loved some of your shots (the clock) , the ext dolly of the girl through the trees. And you had a nice location too. I would say, a swell effort.
 
I would say my only gripes are with sound end editing. It was fun though. I love those quick canted odd framed shots, and I really liked the long dragging out of the house shot at the end.
 
Yup, I loved the Evil Dead inspiration. The retro soundtrack was cheesy (I mean that in a good way) and fitting. I enjoyed seeing that hook used to keep the machete attached to the head...I really laughed at that one (in a good way).

Now if you can just work on that vocal sound, it would dramatically improve the overall product.

cheers for your entry guys!
 
EditPhish said:
You've got your look and your color down... however, you need work on sound and editing. Some of the cuts were strange. Some of the sound, especially dialogue, was pretty poor.
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Thanks for you comment. Ah yes sound. This is the one thing I really believe is important. What I did learn from this short was that using the GH1 and an H4n with no mic is a pain to work with and will only get you so far no matter how much time you put into it. What I need is a mic. Sound has always been my big thing but with limited equipment its going to hurt me. First on my list of things to get is a mic so my next entry will be much better in that department.

EditPhish said:
Also, you're use of the smoke machine made everything seem like a cheesy haunted house and didn't really add much to the ambiance of the film (it was just too much in my opinion).
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Hehe well I will take that as a compliment personally because in fact I was going for that "cheesy haunted house" look. I am a HUGE fan of haunts and dark rides and have no shame in going for that cheesy, tales from the crypt like, look. Before I shot this I even said to the cast that "I want people to think back about it and remember a foggy, cartoonish experience". ;)

EditPhish said:
(edit... ps... I loved the ending shot!)
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Thanks dood. It was actually two shots combined into one (cuts at the tree) that took several attempts to get the most "fog" hehe. The first part I just walked backwards and the second half I walked backwards and then sat in the trunk of a car going down my driveway. It was fun. Thanks for watching my picture and the comments!
 
Pocusproductions said:
I think you definately have a shooting style. It is very much a huge homage to the Evil Dead movies, but fun to re-make some of your favorite movies I know! I thought the ending was pretty good. Sound needed a little extra attention, and the action got a tad rediculous. But I loved some of your shots (the clock) , the ext dolly of the girl through the trees. And you had a nice location too. I would say, a swell effort.
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Thanks! Yes it was my homage to Mr. Raimi indeed. It was a good way to get my feet wet again and very fun to do. I will get a mic next time. The audio sounded much worse than that when I sat down to edit and I thought it was almost never going to work but I just kept on trucking through and cleaned it up as best I could. A mic would have made a huge difference instead of using the GH1's mic. I actually used the H4n but when I sat down to edit I found the H4n was picking up EVERY noise in that house because it was the omnidirectional stereo mic built onto the H4n. Perfect for room ambiance but horrible for dialogue. So I used the GH1's mic instead since it didn't pick up every noise in the world.

The dolly of the girl (my wife) was me standing on a ladder and moving the camera with my arms while zooming in then back out again. I love this DSLR because you can get so many cool shots like that on the fly. About 95% of it was all hand held. Very easy to use.

Thanks for watching my picture and for the comments!
 
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dust'n the callipygous said:
I would say my only gripes are with sound end editing. It was fun though. I love those quick canted odd framed shots, and I really liked the long dragging out of the house shot at the end.
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Thanks! I will do better with sound when I get a mic for sure. Thanks for watching and your comment!

Denis Haineault said:
Yup, I loved the Evil Dead inspiration. The retro soundtrack was cheesy (I mean that in a good way) and fitting. I enjoyed seeing that hook used to keep the machete attached to the head...I really laughed at that one (in a good way).

Now if you can just work on that vocal sound, it would dramatically improve the overall product.

cheers for your entry guys!
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Glad you laughed because that was my goal. Hehe the ol' knife in the head trick is fun to do. Thanks for your comments and watching my flick!

Geoff_R said:
Fun movie. Dig the tone and world you created here. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks Geoff I really appreciate you watching it and hope it entertained.
 
One thing I thought of was how did you get all of that information on the bottle? LOL - it seemed like a lot for such a small bottle.

It was entertaining.
 
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