On the cutting board

Hehehe! This is the best bit! Explaining how it was done etc... lol. I should make you buy the DVD!!! Not that there is one...

The tracking shot around the house was just lucky that it worked. It is all one shot, through to Simon holding the box but sadly he was laughing and saying his line, so we took another shot so NOW it doesn't QUITE seem like one whole shot (which again is a shame because that was the whole point of it). Still, it took far too many times to shoot that one shot so I've left it at that for now!

There is really no story. Our stimulus' were a knife and a pocket radio. The radio never came into it (though it was going too) and the knife... Well, Simon managed a storyline out of it somehow lol.

It's meant to be a no-brainer. The basic story is; Don McClane (Simon) is pissed off with Weir (Olli B) who has, presumably, skanked him up - in other words, shit drugs for a lot of money. Weir owns an entire village or something and McClane goes to his house to find him and get his money back. Weir, the two hooded figures and the guy in pink (Birky, lol) are - I guess, all expecting McClane!

I was more anxious to try out camera shots than make something with story, this time round. There's no sound because I take all of that out in the editing suite, to later replace with atmos and so forth. I left in the lines of dialogue for now, though they'll probably be dubbed and changed.

It's shot on mini-DV, crappy little Panasonic NV-DS27 - but I love pushing this camera to its limits. I do with all cameras. Thats why I keep breaking them, I guess. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I was going to fly with Birky out of the 2nd storey window too, but, he only wanted to do 2 jumps, that covered the high and the low angle but not the third angle I was after most [img]biggrin.gif[/img] lol. I upped the "levels" in Premiere because I like the crisper touch it gives the colours. Much more defined and takes that DV camera edge away from it for me (and you've got to remember the WMV does absolutley NO justice to its tv-screen debut).

But yeah. Some nice-ish looking shots, without needing to take my dolly or crane out with me. No storyboards, etc.

NO offence taken btw [img]tongue.gif[/img] I encourage you to post your movies if you can! Take on the constructive criticism & ignore the sarky remarks. Simple! [img]wink.gif[/img]

PS - I host my files at my website, Screen 7, which is hosted by Adventure Developers.

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ April 19, 2005 12:45 PM: Message edited by: m0d ]</font></font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 19, 2005 12:51 PM: Message edited by: m0d ]</font>

Hey SN, liked the scene. But again it could be because I was looking solely at the very pretty girl. Any chance, purely in the interest of aesthetic comparison between 16:9 and 4:3, that we'll get to see the original shot???

Okay, maybe not....

Shots I liked:

-That one shot where the character walks through the woods and the camera follows his movements from behind-left. Shame it only happened for a short amount of time, it pisses all over those locked off shots of the character walking towards or away from the camera in the opening few minutes.
-The tracking shot through the house. Fabulous.

I'm also very worried about the jump out of the window at the end. But then I've often argued that acting is akin to prostitution, and some directors are particularly sadistic. [img]wink.gif[/img]

m0d, just how high was that window? My first thought was, 'Oh, he must have done that by placing the camera at an odd angle and messing with our perspective.' But watching it back a half dozen times, tha shot where the guy in pink lands and rolls towards the fence certainly does look like he fell a bloody long way.

I'd place it at about 12-15ft high, but don't quote me on that [img]tongue.gif[/img] He jumped from a first floor (2nd storey) window.

Quote:

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I'm also very worried about the jump out of the window at the end. But then I've often argued that acting is akin to prostitution, and some directors are particularly sadistic.

---

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It certainly can get sadistic!! I try not to be too sadistic [img]tongue.gif[/img] but when I know a shot exists and it can be shot I will do everything I can to get it to BE shot and then to look right (if it doesn't the first time)...

I wanted him to jump three times, twice so I could get the angles you see and a third time so I could fly with him. We're re-doing the jump sequence entirely though.

Tho, you too can experience his PAIN on the jump! And see some of the failed tracking round the house shots.

http://screen7.adventuredevelopers.c...behind_su1.wmv (6mb)

(note Simon's kind encouragement lol; "do it man!")

Also there is a new version almost ready, I've taken on board what people have said and its looking pretty pucker now! So thanks for all your comments regarding this throw-away short.

PS - Matty2phatty, I downloaded temp2.avi but sadly it couldn't find the right codec. I think it's a machine fault because my computer hasn't been able to find any codecs for a while now.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 21, 2005 08:55 AM: Message edited by: m0d ]</font>

Yey thanks Matt, the divx codecs worked! I like your short, lol, can't say I'd ever follow those instructions myself though...! There's a nice shot of our hero coming out of the bushes to jump on the kidnapper, I really wish that shot was longer. You only get a glimpse but is it in slow motion? Anyway, good stuff! I like it [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Yes, alas, my short is full of plot holes. But then, when you're making the story up as you go along, that tends to happen [img]confused.gif[/img]

I loved the shot from the bushes too, though i never directed it like that, it was entirely the cameramans idea so i gotta hand it to him for that one.

you're not missing much man [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Just watched your footage, heh... the guy is brave, i gotta say. The 'making of' is always a good watch. I enjoyed it [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

If you do manage to get mine working, the tackle in the climax of the film was supposed to be a much more wild stunt than you see in the final cut. Unfortunately they grew progressively less powerful the more i would ask that we reshoot [img]frown.gif[/img]

Have you got the latest Divx? http://www.divx.com
Might have the codecs you need.

Nobody else want to comment on my short? Anything in the technique which really needs to be fixed up in future?