my current project

[chrust19]

hi,
Due to Mr. Now's suggestion i have decided to share my progress in my current project, and a few problems i am encountering, and a question i have.

Progress: I shot 100ft last week, and i will be shooting 50 more tomarrow, then my 150 go off to be processed while i anxioulsy wait, and wait, and wait for my babies to come back.
Problems: I don't have a clue as to how my film will look, my camera only has one setting . . .automatic.
I have no lights, so my shooting depends on the weather, fortunately i live on the coast so i get a lot of overcast
Question: A character in my first scene undergoes a very dramatic change, this will be the most visual part of the film, any suggestions about how to make it very dramatic, or drastic would be great,
thanks
christi

[mr. now]

what's the change that takes place?
does the character turn into a cocroach?
what is the story about?
I just saw JFK the Oliver Stone movie , I had seen it before but now I paid special attention and I could see the grainier pictures that were probably shot in super 8 the combined effect was thrilling- maybe because it made me think that I could shoot those seenes. The problem is that I don't just have Gary Oldman hanging aroundto make a movie with.

[eddie]

totally depends on what the change is and what the film is like.
I made a film where one character turns into another. (One actor turning into another one).
Shot this with camera on tripod using one actor jumping around and acting weird.
Then another actor standing in the same place jumping around and acting weird.
Then when I edited these together I started with the first actor, then quick cut to the second, then back to the first, and I carried on jumping between the two, first quickly, then spending more time on the second, with quick flashes of the first, until we just saw the second actor. Transformation complete.
Perhaps that would work, or flash the screen white, or black, or psychadelic, whatever, something unusual to draw attention to that scene.

[chrust19]

Ya,
i was thinking about flashing the screen white.
The change is that an actor puts on a piece of clothing (a pair of shoes) and becomes someonelse, and he is then instantly transported to a new location, and he is an entirely different person, the exact opposite of what he had been,
I was thinking about zooming in to an extreme close up of the shoe, then zooming out using either a very high or a very low angle, opinions?comments?
thanks for the help,
christi

[pekeberg]

Hello!

I have never shot a film before, but I have made a lot of videoes, and I think I could help you.

In the end of the shot where the characther puts on the shoes do a very fast pan to either left or right.

Then when you do the shot where he's/she's transformed to another place and person you start the shot out with a very fast pan and stop it on your characther.

It is important that you do the pan the same way in both shots, so if you leave pan away to right side, you want to pan in from left.

Then you make the cut in the middle of the two pans, and they will look like one continues shot. This is of cource depending on the speed of pan (which should be very fast, so you can't recognize anything), and that teh lighting is about the same in both the shots. Shouldn't be a problem if your shooting in B&W.

I have tried this once my self, and it works good. I did it on video, but I cannot imagne it be too much of a difference. My teacher who thought me this said that they do this effect in Superman, but I'm not sure cause I have never seen Superman.

Wish I had a film camera too

Olav

[eddie]

Yeah, I would casually zoom into the character tying his shoe lace, and then zoom out on someone else doing the same thing.
trouble with that is you would need a seemless cut on the shoes, and thats difficult. Perhaps you could zoom in until it went out of focus and blurred, then zoolm out onto the other actor??

[pekeberg]

Well, the problem about the zooming is that it takes a lot of time. I mean, you waste a lot of time, and the audience get bored.
But then again when it comes to my thing about this pan. You'll waste a lot of film. The pan away is easy, but to pan fast in on the subject and get a satisfactory result takes a lot of tries, I took about 20 of them before I feelt I made a good one, but that was with video and that is so much cheaper.

Well, whatever you do, if you do a film with sound, make sure to get a good sound effect to carry you trough the cut. That will take away the attention from the cut it self and make it smooth.