archived-videos Criminal Bounds

sfoster

sfoster

Staff Member
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It's about time I posted a narrative onto this website.
Public release is going to be delayed until I have a sequel penned, but you lucky folks get to see this early.

Love it or shove it, here is Criminal Bounds ;)

Edited to add color grading and altered first cut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRsED2s6bjA
 
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sfoster said:
Thanks man. I'm glad that I have some good reviews because it seems nobody liked friend zoned. Not just here but other places too :lol: My knack is apparently for crime thrillers and not dark comedies.

Also I will now note the thing I am most proud of, that no one has yet mentioned. How CLEAN that kill is.

If roll up a body in a tarp, blood may leak out the sides.
If you roll a body into a body bag, it will get blood DNA on the outside of the bag, possibly transferring elsewhere.

By rolling a body into a tarp, and then the tarp into a body bag, there is absolutely no DNA able to be left at the crime scene. All they have to do is wipe down the fingerprints from the door and it's spotless.

I had to really fight with my crew to get that shot, no one believed that the tarp and body could both fit into the bag. But it did, that's really the actor in there :lol:
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LOL I did not know that, good job on the attention to detail!

Yeah, I saw Friend Zoned as well but I just didn't really understand it. I think if you read the script out loud to someone that knows absolutely nothing about the film you could get feedback on narrative clarity. Keep on shooting! You're doing a good job and you're only going to get better and better! :)
 
Posted it on it's own channel: 360 views, not too bad I guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo5Yl9kyn8k


This has gotten great feedback from everyone I know that's watched it. I took the time to send an individual message to about 300 different people that I'm friends with on Facebook.

About 20 took the initiative to ask to be informed when the next one comes out. A bunch of others said they liked it. Only two people shared it.

Even more people never replied and never watched.
Some people I've given a couple reminders too and they've just ignored me completely. Stirs up some emotions in me. I'm thinking I am going to purge my friends list and delete a lot of these people.

What is the point of these 'friends' if they can't even take 3 minutes to support me by watching something. Especially some of these girls that all they do is constantly post self absorbed pictures of themselves
 
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sfoster said:
What is the point of these 'friends' if they can't even take 3 minutes to support me by watching something. Especially some of these girls that all they do is constantly post self absorbed pictures of themselves
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:(

That's true, so many people prefer to waste time spending hours watching Vines (which are not only stupid but are seriously harming the goal of using video/cinema for something beautiful or meaningful, and are harming attention spans) or looking at stupid pictures on Instagram (that are not even taken to pursue the art of photography or anything interesting, really its just a narcissistic form of self-expression). There are so much negatives to social media that really piss me off, but just hold on to the real friends and people who are willing to support someone pursuing something that is truly beautiful and not narcissistic at all (generally speaking).

I feel bad that many of my friends are no longer willing to watch a good movie (and I'm not talking art films or Ozu or black and white and silent films or something, I'm talking about good old fashioned three act storytelling in the cinema), and they even tell me that they'll have a hard time watching my films (that is unless they are mindless films with special effects that are cut with shot lengths made for viewers with short attention spans).

LOL I feel like I digressed from my main point (if I had one at all) but I guess I'm just trying to say, good luck man and I hope that all of us filmmakers can find ways to get potential viewers out of these distractions and back to appreciating meaningful content. And I also hope that you'll be able to find friends that are willing to support you, it's so easy to actually support someone yet for so many people who are self-involved (thanks partially to social media IMO) its impossible to do so as they are continually taking 'selfies' and making 'deep' tweets and 'funny' Vines. This kind of culture depresses me :(
 
If someone watched my first film, and said it wasn't their thing, I wouldn't fault them for not watching my second or third, etc.. but this is my first film I have tried to promote. And it's only THREE minutes. Not 30 or even 10.. They can't give me a chance with 3 lousy minutes of their time for something that I worked very hard for and I want to dedicate my life to. Lousy bastards.

Although a lot of people on that list are from my Beer Pong days so I guess it's time I cut them out of the circle anyway.

Only a select few that didn't watch it or reply are going to stick around on my friends list. The purge is happening monday
 
sfoster said:
If someone watched my first film, and said it wasn't their thing, I wouldn't fault them for not watching my second or third, etc.. but this is my first film I have tried to promote. And it's only THREE minutes. Not 30 or even 10.. They can't give me a chance with 3 lousy minutes of their time for something that I worked very hard for and I want to dedicate my life to. Lousy bastards.

Although a lot of people on that list are from my Beer Pong days so I guess it's time I cut them out of the circle anyway.

Only a select few that didn't watch it or reply are going to stick around on my friends list. The purge is happening monday
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LOL good, and yeah that's kind of what I meant it's so easy to support since it's just watching a 3 minute video!
 
Nice work, SF. I'm really impressed and in awe, really, knowing that you're doing a one-man band thing. I should be so lucky to pull off such quality, if I attempted it.

The music. I think the music is fine, even good, if it's just what it is: a short. Maybe if it were a clip from a larger something, then I might agree that it's overwrought.

I think my favorite moment of the film is the few moments when the dude is pulling the other dude along the drive and the stand of trees and the mansion in the background are, like, in bokeh. I don't know what's happening there, the confluence of how the camera is processing it, the movement, whatever...it seems pleasing and satisfyingly dramatic to my eyes.

I would say that the murder scene in the tarp needed to be lit better. Hey, very tough to do when you're a one-man band and don't have all the gear.

I liked the kingpin all right. I wouldn't lose him, if he could do better. His look is fine. As others have said, his soft spoken delivery is good. But I don't think he's acting. I think he is, for the most part, just reciting his lines. He needs to do better, as in actually acting his part. I would bet that he just needs more direction, another chance. I understand that you can't just order up a new kingpin actor on the spot. You have to go with what you got. But, if he can't commit, I wouldn't cast him again. Nothing personal. But you need actors, not reciters.

Nice job!
 
Thanks! It's nice to have people enjoy my work, that first film Friend Zoned was a great learning experience but not received too well :lol:

It's a one-man band for the writing, set design, post production, but during the actual filming I have some help so I can't take all the credit. Not as much help as I would like since I still have to hold the boom mic, but I have a friend that I met off of here (he doesn't post) as the DP. And another friend helped out as the key grip / driving the car for us in order to get the driving shot near the beginning 'whats the next turn'

richy said:
I think my favorite moment of the film is the few moments when the dude is pulling the other dude along the drive and the stand of trees and the mansion in the background are, like, in bokeh. I don't know what's happening there, the confluence of how the camera is processing it, the movement, whatever...it seems pleasing and satisfyingly dramatic to my eyes.
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Seems to be everyones favorite shot. What we did there was have the camera moving at 20mph while zoomed in, which causes all of the background to spin around them. After several attempts we had to resort to autofocus, because there is no focus puller and the distance changes so rapidly. We were supposed to have two other cool shots (including a riddley scott tilt up/zoom in thing) but they just didn't work out for one reason or another.

I'll be filming episode two next month, and I'm hoping that this helps me to recruit some actors for it! There will be a femme fatale coming :cool:
 
I loved it! The only things, that were minor might I add, I disliked were the intensity of the music and the length.. When the music kicked in, it seemed much too intense for what was actually unfolding cinematically. That music made me think, "Big shootout," or, "Fight scene." Still, it wasn't a big deal. (:

The length: It was too damn short! I loved it and wanted more! Make MORE.
 
TwinCities said:
I loved it! The only things, that were minor might I add, I disliked were the intensity of the music and the length.. When the music kicked in, it seemed much too intense for what was actually unfolding cinematically. That music made me think, "Big shootout," or, "Fight scene." Still, it wasn't a big deal. (:

The length: It was too damn short! I loved it and wanted more! Make MORE.
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:lol:

Thanks! I promise the next one will be longer
 
Not bad! I'll list some things I liked and make some suggestions. There were a couple of shots that I liked because of the camera movement - the opening boom down shot and the shot of the hitman dragging the other guy to the house. I really liked the camera quickly tracking behind the trees.

For your radio broadcast, you should add a highpass filter to mimic the small speakers in that car. Take out the lower frequencies so it sounds like, you know, a radio.

When the boss says, "It's open," it sounds like he's standing outside with the other dudes. Even if he was and it's the only take you have of that line, you could add reverb (for distance) and then a lowpass filter to muffle that. Preferably, get the guy to shout the line, like you really would when yelling through a wall and door, from deep within a house.

I agree that there should be a knife sound. Go stab some soft melons and record it.

That nice opening long shot of the road and car, cuts to ....another longshot of the road and car. A little more shot variety would be nice, like a POV of the roadway, or a closeup of the victim sweating or eyes a little misty, because he's upset and scared. Don't be afraid of "close" close ups. Make a shotlist or storyboard (okay a shotlist!), so you can previsualize the thing.

Another thing to keep in mind is who's point of view you might want to put the viewer in. The victim would be an excellent choice. You can get a lot of angles from his vantage and make the audience feel like it's happening to them, right down to the stabbing, falling on the ground and the camera looking up at the killer. You could even put the camera in the tarp bag and have it sealing up to black. Then you move to the other guys. Just an example; but that's why pre-vis can help a lot.

So, is this one of your first movies? If so, it's a damn good job.
 
I actually did do a low pass filter on the It's open line, maybe I wasn't aggressive enough with it.

I don't know what you mean by a radio broadcast. Are you talking about the opening music? I didn't intend to seem like it was coming from the radio.

This is my second short, thanks! glad that you liked it
 
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Scoopicman said:
The guy talking about the tree? I thought it was a radio voice.

Really? Well done!
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The editing did get a little screwed up, sometimes because as a director I was also forced to hold the boom mic. IDK anyone talking about a tree, but thanks I will take your compliment! I had two other cool shots planned that both got ruined but I'm learning a lot from my mistakes.

the next episode will 3-4x longer.
 
sfoster said:
IDK anyone talking about a tree
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My apologies! I just watched it again to find it and it's not there... I know what happened, though. Right before watching your video, I was watching internet news. Apparently, one video ends and another starts. Since I had your movie opened in a separate window, some monotone guy from the news was talking about a storm tipping over a tree and I thought it was from your movie!! :lol:
 
Scoopicman said:
My apologies! I just watched it again to find it and it's not there... I know what happened, though. Right before watching your video, I was watching internet news. Apparently, one video ends and another starts. Since I had your movie opened in a separate window, some monotone guy from the news was talking about a storm tipping over a tree and I thought it was from your movie!! :lol:
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:lol: Awesome.
Safe to say then my film was better on the second viewing :cool:
 
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