archived-videos A Moment in the Life of Charlie

Connor Burke

Connor Burke

So I'm currently writing/directing my own show called "A Moment in the Life of Charlie." It's a short comedy about a young businessman named Charlie who is mesmerized by the little things in life that make him feel as if he is the only normal person left on Earth. It is heavily influenced by shows like "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Seinfeld," and Louis CK's show on FX, "Louis". I'm glad to get enough friends together to help act and make the show, my buddy James Snow is acting as Charlie.

Here is the first episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhnQ46GSMVo


Tell me what you think, any advice or help would be great! :)
 
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I liked the writing style! Only advice, check to see if you're camera has a manuel setting and go with that. There were a few times that it autofocused or changed the brightness and it seemed distracting. Other than that, great!
 
Thanks guys! I appreciate the help. I did notice that some of the cuts were too long, I have a bad habit of doing that with most of my movies.

Oh yeah, another thing, what did you think of the intro? I'm thinking of entirely cutting the intro or changing it for future episodes since it didn't seem to match the style of the rest of the video.
 
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It's amazing what a couple of frames either way can do. The toughest thing for an indie filmmaker to do is to cut material - they wrote it, they shot it and they're editing it; they have a tough time being objective and cutting favorite material. They also suffer from "forest for the trees" syndrome; I do myself when it comes time to mix. That's why a collaborator/partner/whatever is such a tremendous asset; especially one who knows you well and is willing to disagree, argue, get in your face...

My favorite length editing story was my first feature film experience as SSE/SD. The first cut I received was 160 minutes; the writer/director managed to get it down to 115 minutes. Some professional editors took him under their wing and cut it down to 83 minutes (they also had some very helpful things to say about the mix); 1,000% better!
 
Wow, that's pretty interesting. I thought I was the only person with this problem. The script for the show was only 3 and a half pages long, I was shocked when the episode came out to be seven minutes.
 
Connor Burke said:
Thanks guys! I appreciate the help. I did notice that some of the cuts were too long, I have a bad habit of doing that with most of my movies.

Oh yeah, another thing, what did you think of the intro? I'm thinking of entirely cutting the intro or changing it for future episodes since it didn't seem to match the style of the rest of the video.
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Just to try a different approach, experiment with ending sequences with nat pops (a cell phone snapping shut, a dishwasher door closing - you get the idea). You can also start the next scene the same way and morph them together. Things tend to have a flow that way. Worth a try. It gets you out of the dialogue driven editing mode.
 
CamVader said:
Just to try a different approach, experiment with ending sequences with nat pops (a cell phone snapping shut, a dishwasher door closing - you get the idea). You can also start the next scene the same way and morph them together. Things tend to have a flow that way. Worth a try. It gets you out of the dialogue driven editing mode.
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Okay, thanks for the advice! I'm going to try the nat pop technique in the next episode.
 
Look out for that jump-cut at 1:08. Kind of jarring. And I agree with the comments on pacing -- it could move a little faster. Also, were you using auto exposure?

Nice job, overrall, though.

RVA! I giggled when I saw your waiting-room location at the Commons. I was boom-op for a very similar scene at the exact same location. Nice and quiet.

You gonna join the 48HFP this year? You should; it's a lot of fun. I hope to see you there.
 
Cracker Funk said:
Look out for that jump-cut at 1:08. Kind of jarring. And I agree with the comments on pacing -- it could move a little faster. Also, were you using auto exposure?

Nice job, overrall, though.

RVA! I giggled when I saw your waiting-room location at the Commons. I was boom-op for a very similar scene at the exact same location. Nice and quiet.

You gonna join the 48HFP this year? You should; it's a lot of fun. I hope to see you there.
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Haha that's funny, I'm actually just at my first year at VCU right now, I'm living at home in Virginia Beach when not at school.

But I'm actually going to enter the 48 Hour film fest in Hampton Roads this year.

Do you go to VCU?
 
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I like your comedic sensibility. I could definitely see this being a bit in a Curb Your Enthusiasm.

You main character's acting is almost there. I feel like with him just getting more comfortable and some tighter editing, it would really bring his performance out. The employer's acting I was far less impressed with. But hey, when you're working with friends, you work with those who are willing. So that's not a huge deal :)

Apart from the part when he's waiting for the interview, I didn't notice any exposure/focus issues. As others have saisd, though, best to keep your setting on manual.

Out of curiosity:
I'm gonna go ahead and assume your're shooting on DSLR. Which one? Do you have much on your rig? Follow-focus? What's your audio set-up?

Pacing: I'll echo other commenters by saying you need to cut a couple minutes off of this. I think the best place to cut would be the interview scene. There is a lot of dead air between dialog which hurts the flow a lot. I realize a couple of those moments are meant to be awkward silences, but they need to stand with more contrast.

I would have liked to have seen him flip out like Larry David when he realized. Or at least to have seen his reaction. If you're going for that style of humor I think you need to make it uncomfortable. Aka: lots of conflict and confrontation. The kind of confrontation most people would avoid because it's not worth it. You know what I mean?

Sorry for the rambly post. I did like this piece. Be sure to share the next one with us :)
 
Connor Burke said:
Haha that's funny, I'm actually just at my first year at VCU right now, I'm living at home in Virginia Beach when not at school.

But I'm actually going to enter the 48 Hour film fest in Hampton Roads this year.

Do you go to VCU?
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No, I just live here. But I live just a few blocks West of VCU, and I work just a few blocks East of VCU, so I'm travelling through there almost every day (on bike, no less). So, I recognize all of your locations.

Have fun at the 48HFP. It's a terrific learning-method, I think.
 
Dreadylocks said:
I like your comedic sensibility. I could definitely see this being a bit in a Curb Your Enthusiasm.

You main character's acting is almost there. I feel like with him just getting more comfortable and some tighter editing, it would really bring his performance out. The employer's acting I was far less impressed with. But hey, when you're working with friends, you work with those who are willing. So that's not a huge deal :)

Apart from the part when he's waiting for the interview, I didn't notice any exposure/focus issues. As others have saisd, though, best to keep your setting on manual.

Out of curiosity:
I'm gonna go ahead and assume your're shooting on DSLR. Which one? Do you have much on your rig? Follow-focus? What's your audio set-up?

Pacing: I'll echo other commenters by saying you need to cut a couple minutes off of this. I think the best place to cut would be the interview scene. There is a lot of dead air between dialog which hurts the flow a lot. I realize a couple of those moments are meant to be awkward silences, but they need to stand with more contrast.

I would have liked to have seen him flip out like Larry David when he realized. Or at least to have seen his reaction. If you're going for that style of humor I think you need to make it uncomfortable. Aka: lots of conflict and confrontation. The kind of confrontation most people would avoid because it's not worth it. You know what I mean?

Sorry for the rambly post. I did like this piece. Be sure to share the next one with us :)
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Don't say sorry about it! It's very insightful, and I know it's going to help me out with the next one, I really appreciate the help actually.

I have to agree with you about the acting of the employer, it was a bit too dramatic for my liking (he's a theater actor, that's why)

Yes, I'm shooting on a DSLR, the Canon T2i. I have an opteka camera handle, a rode videomic, and a lcdvf viewfinder. Among that I also have 2 other lenses besides the stock 18-55 lens - an f/1.8 50mm and an opteka 6.5mm f/3.5 fisheye lens.




Cracker Funk said:
No, I just live here. But I live just a few blocks West of VCU, and I work just a few blocks East of VCU, so I'm travelling through there almost every day (on bike, no less). So, I recognize all of your locations.

Have fun at the 48HFP. It's a terrific learning-method, I think.
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Okay okay cool! And thanks, I'm excited about it, I've never done anything like it before.
 
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Connor Burke said:
Okay okay cool! And thanks, I'm excited about it, I've never done anything like it before.
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It's a lot of fun, and a crash-course in filmmaking on a tight schedule. Here's a couple pieces of advice, off the top of my head.

1. Have fun.
2. Don't let too many cooks in the kitchen. A small, cohesive, creative team can do just as well as the large teams with armies of professionals.
3. Do test-footage, test-rendering, test-DVD-burning, test-whatever-you-can-think-of in advance. Technical issues are not uncommon, and can kill a team. You may not know what story you're going to make, but you better be damn well sure that you can deliver the product, as far as the technical side is concerned.
4. Don't cheat. A lot of teams have generic stories, fleshed out in advance, and then they just force the required elements into their preconceived ideas. It's really obvious when they do this, and they never win. Besides, why are we doing this festival? Cheating kills all the fun.
5. Have fun.
 
Cracker Funk said:
It's a lot of fun, and a crash-course in filmmaking on a tight schedule. Here's a couple pieces of advice, off the top of my head.

1. Have fun.
2. Don't let too many cooks in the kitchen. A small, cohesive, creative team can do just as well as the large teams with armies of professionals.
3. Do test-footage, test-rendering, test-DVD-burning, test-whatever-you-can-think-of in advance. Technical issues are not uncommon, and can kill a team. You may not know what story you're going to make, but you better be damn well sure that you can deliver the product, as far as the technical side is concerned.
4. Don't cheat. A lot of teams have generic stories, fleshed out in advance, and then they just force the required elements into their preconceived ideas. It's really obvious when they do this, and they never win. Besides, why are we doing this festival? Cheating kills all the fun.
5. Have fun.
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I plan on having a lot of fun with it, I'm hoping to keep my team to about 3 to 5 people. And I would never cheat, that defeats the whole idea and spirit of the project! I'm excited as hell though! I've never been involved with any film contests or festivals before.
 
Connor, I found this recently and thought of this thread:

EDITING RULES YOU CAN BREAK AFTER YOU LEARN THEM:
1. When cutting from shot to shot, have at least a 30% change in shot size. Wide to Medium is good. CU to wide works. Medium to another Medium of same angle looks weird.
2. Try to cut on a motion to hide the edit. A raised hand, a head turn, a slammed door.
3. If you think a cut is too long…you’re right. It’s too long.
4. If a scene plays great in one shot…leave it alone. You don’t have to cut to CU, reverse, wide, medium. Let the story tell itself.
5. Overlap any action by 4 or 5 frames. Someone turns their head in a medium shot, on the next shot start the head turn 4 or 5 frames earlier (then the previous shot) and for some ridiculous reason it looks and feels right.
6. Don’t go bonkers over every cut. Often performance trumps continuity. Now if the lead actor’s shirt is a different color in two consecutive shots…you’re on your own!
7. With DSLRs I find you can scale a shot up to 40% and still have adequate sharpness if you need to reframe or make a medium shot a close up. Sneaky but I do it all the time.
8. As much as an editor feels he is saving the film, he’s probably not. There were a couple other people involved before he started editing.
9. Anyone who says “We’ll fix it in post!” needs to be made aware that they need to get it right during shooting.
http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2011/02/18/editing-shane-by-vashi-nedomansky/
 
The secret to success with film - and most any other endeavor - is discipline and patience. Discipline is doing the unpleasant tasks as well as the "fun stuff". Don't rush through things you don't enjoy, have the patience to get it right.

An Uncle Bob anecdote...

Back when I was first exposed to serious computing in the early '80's (programming in "C") I was feeling quite overwhelmed. Our IT guy told me "It's very simple; but there is one hell of a lot of simple."

The lesson is to break everything down into small, manageable pieces; that way it's not so intimidating. If you preproduce the hell out of your project the shoot and the edit will go smoothly. You're a Boy Scout - Be prepared!
 
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