archived-videos Anamnesis

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finitefilms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6ZpTI-3-dE

When Adam wakes up in a childhood memory, he figures he must be dreaming. But as his girlfriend, Hannah, leads him deeper into his subconscious, he begins to realize the truth...

This film was created by www.finite-films.com, a website where a group of filmmakers accept creative "constraints" from visitors to the site (e.g. "One scene must take place in the rain"). Every month, users vote for their favorites; the top 7 constraints inspire our next production.

Anamnesis was inspired by the following constraints:
•One character must use refrigerator poetry magnets to leave a note/message for another character.
•One scene must take place in a women's bathroom — the male lead must be having a discussion with a female character.
•Someone has just revisited their worst memory from middle school.
•At least three characters must be related.
•One character loves taking blame for others' mistakes.
•The dialogue from one scene must be exactly the same in one scene as it is in another, yet the tone of both scenes must be different.
•The film must have one 2-minute-long shot.
 
Upvote 0
All I can say is INCREDIBLE!!!
The best short film I have seen -- ever. Everything about it was great.
I only hope anything I ever do is a quarter as good as this one...
 
Mind = Blown
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Every month, users vote for their favorites; the top 7 constraints inspire our next production.
Click to expand...

You do one of these each month? :eek:

Two fast Q's (prolly answered in the BTS vids, but it's late)

1) In the single shot where the two emerge from underneath the sink, did you use a plate or splitscreen to do that? There's not a lot of room under those. Or were the two just squished up real tight? :lol:

2) In the final scene, were the actors cheated vertical?

Incredible job, considering the time & condition restraints. :cool:
 
I've only seen 2 mins so far but it's well acted, well filmed, intriguing, interesting the list goes on on.

What equipment do you have, lovely smooth camerawork...

Reason I ask because investing in basic equipment can give you such incredible results. Is it all natural light and adding colour effects in post or are you using reflectors, lighting, scribs (don'y even know what scribs are but those things that shade from harsh light, filtering e.t.c)

Cheers

Will watch the rest when my partner has stopped using the blender...Damn That Woman..
 
Like the making of too?

If you would indulge me.

What equipment do you have use then? Tripod, Matte Box, Focus Pull, Sound rigs e.t.c I am working around having none of these but would like to know initial outlay of cost to get quality and camera work like that.

Thanks for your time.
 
I have one question regarding the title, are you referring to the Christianity form or Platos' Meno's one?

I would imagine it is Platos' given the fact the guy is searching for something he doesnt know he has lost, but I can't say for sure...
 
Hi Everyone,

This is Alex Calleros (the director). First off, thanks for all the positive feedback!! It's so great to hear people are enjoying our film after all the hard work that went into making it. :-)

I'll try to answer some of your questions the best I can...

@joey1320: Anamnesis is meant to refer to Plato's usage of it. I actually decided on the title after reading this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamnesis_(philosophy)

I first heard the word in an interview with a modern American philosopher, Ken Wilber, but then discovered it originated from Plato's Meno. In that context (not the Christian one), Anamnesis was probably the best word/concept to describe what I'm trying to get at in this movie.

@zensteve: The sink scene was done via split screen, with a little color correction to help blend the two sides together. And yeah, it was pretty tight under there--Mallory (who played Hannah) could fit, but Dan (who played Adam) had to sort of half back himself in and otherwise just sort of crouch out of frame.

The final segment of the last scene was actually shot on the floor, in a green screen studio. The actors are actually lying on the ground; a tripod was rigged to hold the camera upside down and tilted 90 degrees to get that angle.

@dariussutherland: We have a decent, un-fancy set of standard lighting & camera equipment. We often used a sort of a home-made dolly using PVC pipes and a set of wheels bought online. We also have an "indie jib" (a really cheap, but functional jib) that helped to accomplish some shots--like when Adam sits up and looks around in the first scene).

We have two basic lighting kits--a 3-piece Arri light kit and a 2-piece Tota light kit. We also utilize reflectors, dimmers, china ball lights, and the occasional scrim for light diffusion. Our D.P. Terrance Stewart has a set of really awesome Nikon prime lenses that he can attach to the Canon 7D with an adapter. They really up the production value since they're such quality pieces of glass.

Most of the movie was very carefully lit to achieve the look we wanted. We enhanced a lot with Color in post, but nothing we shot looked radically different than what ended up in the final product (with the exception of the 2-minute long take through the office building, which had quite a bit creative work done in Color).

Hope that answers your questions! Thanks for viewing--if you like our stuff, please share our movies and spread the word about www.finite-films.com!

--Alex Calleros
www.finite-films.com
 
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finitefilms said:
Hi Everyone,

This is Alex Calleros (the director). First off, thanks for all the positive feedback!! It's so great to hear people are enjoying our film after all the hard work that went into making it. :-)

I'll try to answer some of your questions the best I can...

@joey1320: Anamnesis is meant to refer to Plato's usage of it. I actually decided on the title after reading this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamnesis_(philosophy)
Click to expand...

Woot woot I was correct!!! What do I win? Lol
Alex I have passed that link to all of my closest friends and linked on my FB page, you guys did a great job.

About how long would you say it took, from beginning to end, to make the film?
And where did you find the actors?
 
Brilliant. Im such a sap, I cried at the end.

If you ever franchise the concept of finite films to Portland Oregon, count me in. What a fantastic concept.
 
Liked it a lot! Loved the subway train in the cupboard!

I did think it could have been slightly shorter, I get that you were going for a slow dreamlike feel and it did work but I found myself wanting it to move just a little bit quicker at some points.

Camerawork and lighting looked great, acting was good, story was good in the end when it was all tied up but before you really understand whats going on it occasionally seemed a tiny bit pretentious. I think this was partly due to the music which was generally good but a bit intrusive and overly emotional / dramatic at times. That's probably a personal taste thing though :)

All in all, nice job - and very impressive given the time and content constraints!
 
Wow, really well done. I`m looking at the other films as well and congratulate you on the cinematography and the story. All the actors know their craft too.
 
Hey! This is Michael, I'm one of the other co-founders of Finite Films. I've directed three of our other films and did some of the VFX on this film. Alex is at jury duty right now so I thought I'd do a quick reply in his stead.

joey1320 said:
About how long would you say it took, from beginning to end, to make the film?
And where did you find the actors?
Click to expand...

Alex got the list of constraints that people voted on for this movie in early November, but couldn't begin writing it because he was still working on Occupational Hazards. He started writing Anamnesis about a week into December, and it released on February 6th.

We're lucky enough to have a group of friends who are very talented actors. Dan Beckner (who played Adam) we've known since 2008, and he's been in a number of our short films. Mallory Marie Wedding (who played Hannah) is a friend of Deborah Jensen, who was the lead in Occupational Hazards. So most of our actors are friends, friends of friends, or occasionally friends of friends of friends.


Pete said:
Hot dang, I'm extra-impressed!

Where are you guys based out of?
Click to expand...

We are based out of L.A. Alex, Ryan and myself (the three co-founders) all went to school at UC Santa Cruz and then migrated down.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that we also release weekly production diaries that chronicle the making of all our films. So if you interested in checking out some behind-the-scenes action of Anamnesis, here's a playlist of those production diaries:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6D4B85A66EE3A01E

Thanks so much your feedback and for sharing it with your friends!
--Michael Tucker
www.finite-films.com
 
I really enjoyed this. The story was good and led the viewer. The execution (camera, sound, music, acting) was all first rate.

I'll be bugging you guys later, about possibly showing (or letting me show) this at the The Las Vegas IndieMeet, this June.
 
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