archived-videos The Foreign Exchange (my second short)

C

calif0rnian

I was supposed to do a documentary, but I didn't get anyone to join along on my project, so I jumped on a other project. This is a film made as a collaboration, a group project in film class. I did the editing, shooting, color grading and audio. LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qxLTd5KiQc

I actually also got to star in the film, which was fun! I'm the Norwegian killer guy.

I've noticed a few problems, a few shots are a bit off color wise, and we broke the 180 rule once again, in the fight scene. Oh well.

Shot on a t2i with takumar 50mm and the 18-55mm kit.
Tascam DR-100 and a shotgun mic on a boom pole for audio.
Graded with colorista.


If you have the time, take a look - give me honest feedback. I take criticism very well, after all I just want to become better at what I love.:D
 
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I quite liked that, the acting was decent, the shots were good in general as well as the audio. My only problem was that sometimes the colouring was a bit distracting and the focusing was shaky towards the end. Other than that i like it :)
 
I just learned how to embed the youtubes the other day.

See that link code gibberish at the end of the link? After the equals sign?
http.//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qxLTd5KiQc

Select & copy that.

Goto the "Advanced" screen.

At the menu bar's far right there's a
yt.gif
icon. Click it.

Paste your "7qxLTd5KiQc" between the brackets.
Should look like [YT ]7qxLTd5KiQc minus that space I added to goof-up the code.

Wah-lah!
Easier than finding Obama bin Laden!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qxLTd5KiQc
 
Abraxas Studios said:
I quite liked that, the acting was decent, the shots were good in general as well as the audio. My only problem was that sometimes the colouring was a bit distracting and the focusing was shaky towards the end. Other than that i like it :)
Click to expand...

Thank you, yeah the coloring is a bit off.. too much difference on the pictures. I need to fix this today, film is due today. Other than that, I screwed up the focus on the last shot, basically because the actors decided to just walk away and I was like wait wtf.. hold on.
 
"Hey Haagen Dazs bitch... it's hammer time."

Okay, this made me laugh.

Could have used more motivation on the killer's part.

You might have shown him in the beginning, and given all of them some reason to be in the school.

Also the staging was a little silly, cheesy. Stoner break in the middle of the hunt for the psycho killer, etc. And what was he doing on top of the lockers?

Very odd. Drenched in cheese. But funny.
 
polfilmblog said:
"Hey Haagen Dazs bitch... it's hammer time."

Okay, this made me laugh.

Could have used more motivation on the killer's part.

You might have shown him in the beginning, and given all of them some reason to be in the school.

Also the staging was a little silly, cheesy. Stoner break in the middle of the hunt for the psycho killer, etc. And what was he doing on top of the lockers?

Very odd. Drenched in cheese. But funny.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it is super cheesy. I definitely would of changed a lot around if it were my script, but I just felt that I couldn't really tell the writer who's also the director otherwise.

The grading has been fixed, and the weird shots are now more balanced with the rest of them. Did some vignetting for fun on some shots, looks ok.

Currently exporting to a DVD, going to show it at my local school film festival :)
 
This was meant to be a comedy, right? Good, then you did it fine. The main problem I see with it is the comedy:action ratio and the acting your cast chose because of it - the actors and way the sound presents each shot feels like it's meant to be subtle comedy, but the script (and the writer's intentions, no doubt) contrasts that with full-on portions of humour. The only actor that seemed to work perfectly with the script was the pot smoker (you as the killer didn't have enough action for me to really talk about that), with the others acting like they were just reciting lines with none of the emphasis required to pull off the jokes.

The music also probably needs to be sorted out - rather than being laid over the entire video without stopping, think about putting pauses to emphasise certain humourous sections and dampen the volume over the dialogue.

For an example of a good comedy film masquerading as an action film, see Hot Fuzz - it pretty much nailed it.

Pretty nice video though, it'll be interesting to see what you make next :)

Also:
"The foreign exchange student started stabbing people"
"What? THAT is CRAZY!"
"No, it's not."
Click to expand...

Not sure if that was intended or not, but someone somewhere would bust your balls for being racist - not that anyone would care, but it's always good to try and avoid those kinds of accusations where possible.
 
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Hey hey. I liked a lot of your shots and thought you had some nice framing. I'd cut some of the fades, though, just because you don't see them used all the time in narrative very often. Also, the soundtrack didn't work for me. It just seemed a bit too serious the whole way through. ThatGuyFromThatPlace had some good suggestions on that. Finally, when the three of them are talking about going to find the killer--that's the one place I didn't like your shots. Adding in some more shots of the other actors' faces while they're making a "dangerous" decision might be helpful, or doing a wide shot that pictured the three of them. Overall, though, good job.

Good luck at the festival!
 
I really appreciate the amount of feedback people here give me, it's just fantastic. To think that someone actually takes first of all time to watch it, but then also to review it and be serious about it - giving me feedback both positive but also negative. In ways I can work on what I do and become better.

I really don't think there is anywhere else you can get that kind of interaction, except for indietalk :).

My next movie I am really hoping to be able to shoot my own written screenplay, or something more serious. Comedy has never really been my favorite, other than watching once in a while. We'll see.
 
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