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watch Helper - First Short Film

M

MaximL

Warning: Graphic Violence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOtEDNPehW8


First Short film shot with my friends for my mates A level. It had to focus on the subject of drugs. It was made over a day. Written in the morning, shot in the afternoon, edited through the night. We should of spent a few days on it but.. well we are last minute people. The song was also choosen in a rush so sorry for the clicheness.

Edited in Afte effects and Premiere Pro CS4
Sound: Requiem for a Dream Dubstep remix

Equipment
Canon 550D
18-55mm Kit lens
50mm f1.8 Canon
28mm f2.8 Pentax m42 mount
DIY sholder mount

I know there are a mirade of problems such as the far from epic acting but this was my first proper short film so go be easy
 
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It was really good, and the acting was actually not bad for what it was.

The parts that didn't work for me was the running of the friend at the beginning. It didn't convey a since of urgency or of frantic action. Keep tight on the run and only go wide at certain points maybe?

The other thing was the blood effects. It didn't look that good at the last shots on the silent henchman. The spray was to fake looking.

Other than those things, it was actually really good. I found myself into it. I also like the end scenes with the walking away and still shots of the carnage.
 
i absolutely loved it. seriously i thought it was amazing. for your first short film and if it was made in a day you deserve a medal for that. seriously when the drug dealer gets shot the blood and the whole atmosphere is really good. however as mentioned above when the second person is shot it does look slightly fake but it was really good!
 
Thnaks for the kind words guys. I am currently planning my next short. I have decided to use the same actor as well he is my best friend and he is free :D I really want to show my range so while it may well still contain violence it will be a more story driven piece. I have also go plans to build a better steadycam, dolly, fix my tripod head and get a dedicated sound guy.

More advice on thsi would be great from other inputters aswell.
 
I didn't look at the edits during the run scenes at my first view which those scenes can be tricky. I did go back over it again and in one spot I thought could have been better because when you had him running, you would have him running straight at the camera before you changed direction from left to right or right to left. And you set it up by having him run to left in two quick scenes in twos. This time when you did the switch from run left and then run right it wasn’t in twos. I hope that made sense, but you had a flow and then went away from it. Maybe you wanted that? I don’t know. Like I said, minor issue and still worked okay but if you start with a pattern you should stick with it. Or funnel it by doing twos, then ones and then a run left and a quick run right as if he is getting closer. Seriously, don’t mean to confuse anyone but I saw a pattern in the editing and then you strayed (I think). ; )

I agree the acting was pretty good.

The natural light worked in your favor. The faces in the medium or long shots could have been a little bit highlighted. I think a soft box set a bit further away from the talent could have helped at a lower wattage globe (would have had to tested it but something could have been done). But maybe not since the back light was is such in high contrast, so a higher watt globe would have been fine too. But in all, that overcast and natural light does wonders for the film.

Some jump cuts between the characters with dialogue @ 1:38 and @ 1:44. I’m sure there are others. For me it doesn't work for the scenes if you meant to do it. Should have kept it smooth because the run scene was enough to disorient the audience

I think the framing of the shots were fine. Last person I did a review I had said I didn’t like the top of their heads cut off because it was a dramatic scenes and not as quick moving. But here it’s okay (for me).

Looked like the light during the count down was spilling into the lens. If done on purpose I didn’t mind it. Got over exposed and even dark but I think it was kind of effective.

Over all, for a first shoot, hell of a job. Review the 180 degree rule or have a script supervisor give a hand (EDIT: also a storyboard will help). It will be interesting to see what you get when shoot indoors without daylight. Make sure you study up and practice.

Story was fine and good build up, but I’ve seen it a hundred times before. But you did it effectively.

Sound was fine and music could have been controlled/mixed a bit better.

good luck.
 
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Thanks alot for taking the time to give me all of this which i definatly will take into account.
I don't actually own any lighting equipment yet so I could only use natural light, and this factory has zero electricty so I couldn't of used it anyway. The light in the count down was on purporse, in post it just flowed well so i used it.
Im terrible at sound, need to get some people to help me with that.

Ive got another film coming up, bit of a different feel but on the same topic of drugs (needs to be to get credit at school) so Ill use al of this there.
 
Cracker Funk said:
Riiiiiiiiiiiggghhhhhtt.
Click to expand...


Youcan choose to believe me or not but its the truth. Took about 2 hours to write between 3 of us, the script litterally consisted of nothing more then "Runs" "Punches him in the face". Then took 4-5 hours to shoot and about 6 hours to edit... though if we want to get techincal you can say the editing went into the next day...
 
I counted upwards of 85 shots. Not editorial cuts, of which there are many more, but at least 85 different setups of the camera. Yes, you save time by not lighting the scene at all. But you didn't discuss blocking, even for a moment? Your actors never had to rehearse their scant lines? Wow, you work with the most efficient production team ever.
 
No tripod at all. It was all done on a DIY sholder mount so that save ALOT of time.
It take no time to shoot a short convosation
2 Angles of Man Y speaking (One close, One wide)
2 Angles of Man X psekaing
Then pan round Man Y in one shot when Man X is talking to produce another angle in same timeframe

Running scenes where well running scenes so it was nothing more then greg running. The scenes counting up to a second where litterally one second long each. the onyl scene that took major reshoots where the final death as his drop was just horrible but we ran out of time in the end.

I didn't disscuss anything about ating with my mates, I just said, do this, do that when you mention this... if it looked good to me.. next scene. Thanks for calling us productive, I got angery quite alot when they messed around.. becuae i had to get a train to get back to school so I really didn't have time to waste. But I follow a simple rule that helps me alot, 1 hour of recoding = 1 minute of footage... obviously there is a lot of leeway for this but it helps me stay on track and get the job done.

What would i gain from lying to you ? This was shot in 4-5 hours it was like 2pm till 6-7..
 
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I dunno. Your reportedly extremely high level of efficiency is possible, but then you throw in the fact that you've never done this before? Smells fishy. I suppose I'm kind of being an a-hole, but if you've truly done what I have a hard time believing you've done, well that makes your accomplishment that much better, right? Regardless of whether you did this thing in a span of less than 24 hours, it's a terrific piece of quality work, and I guess that should be what I hope you take from my doubting -- this is too good to have been done in 24 hours by a complete rookie. Backhanded compliment, I guess.
 
IDK, if you're doing mainly one take per shot, and especially without lighting or sound, 85 shots is completely doable in 5-6 hours. I know, no professional shoot could get it done, but don't underestimate a motivated noob.

And all the OP said was that this was his first proper short. I think it's obvious he has been messing around with a camera and editing software.

@OP, nice job.
 
Dreadylocks said:
And all the OP said was that this was his first proper short. I think it's obvious he has been messing around with a camera and editing software.
@OP, nice job.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Yeah, I used to have a HV20 with a 35mm adaptor which I messed around with (effect test videos basically) and taught my self editing/compositing, it also helped me with framing and other such stuff.
I have only recently had the 550D and was still getting used to it during filming hense some of the mess ups.

You can even see I made a mock trailer for my school before with the HV20 (Its terrible though) on my other uploads.

I can assure you though that this was shot in 5 hours and I even had sound with a sound man BUT since we had no clue how to use the H2 since it had just came in the post that morning all the recodings were to quiet to use :D
 
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"bit of a different feel but on the same topic of drugs (needs to be to get credit at school)"


Hahahaha, no, you are only fooling yourself. If you can make something outside the box for them and they can still enjoy it, then you have won. Remember, you’re the storyteller, not them.

As for shooting in one day or three weeks, the important thing is it came out effective. I think the quick shots hid the mistakes (kind of like in heavy metal music when they play fast it hides the imperfections). Be careful, because when you slow it down the mistakes are much easier to see.

Also, I would continue with the same characters in this story. Try to string it along so maybe you can get a feature out of the story. Your last segment was a good sequence, maybe toward the end of the film. Now string 8 or 10 more together and you have a feature. Also for story, try to make them all homeless kids, they live in tents near the river or something. This will help eliminate too many indoor shots. One last thing, because you're not paying for my advice and sounds like you couldn't, I would make sure you have 4 or 5 main locations which you usually revisit through out the film (the empty warehouse being one of them). Take this idea for what it's worth.

Good luck.
 
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No as in the project is the effects of drugs on peoples lives so it has to be about drugs :D

Im not a massive fan of the story hence why I want a refresh. Its was nothing speical storywsie and had nothing unique about it we had to come up with something in 2 hours so being 17 year old boys action felt like the only option :D

There was meant to be more out door shots (It was originally going to be done on the roof, you can seem them beating him up in the background ;) ) but then it started raining so we went indoors. My precious 550D isn't very whether proof.

My Dad was impressed with the film and he said to me "If you can make a film better then this one, with more of a story then I would fund you for a film for a festival" So I have even got a great incentive now to make a better film.
 
Thank you for the offer I may well take it up.

Next film is going to be about WHY someone may take heroin. Its not going to be that violent but very graphic. Going to start writing soon.
 
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