archived-videos Info. (Film Noir style short)

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f.torres.5

Hello all. This is my 3rd project directing and made it sorta as a film noir style. Its the first time I did something with lighting and in a studio. Any suggestion or opinion would be greatly appreciated. The one thing: Its in spanish but its basically a short interrogation scene. Hope you enjoy it and any critique would be welcome.

http://www.vimeo.com/8080844
 
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I didn't understand any of it, so its hard to say, but the actors looked decent. So i guess I can only critique it from a visual standpoint. If you are dealing with only one light, you really need to take care in the lighting a bit more. It looked good on the first opening shot, but you didn't flag off the backlight for the interragator, so it washed out your guy on the chair to the point where his face was just a big white silhouette. Watch your exposures. Other than that it was moody and looked pretty good.
 
Iceblue is right regarding the use of light. I find it really difficult, maybe more takes would have helped to get the right one. I guess it's time that gets on the way.

Also the acting could be improved, mainly due to the fact that there are only two characters, and you rarely see one of them. The main guy needs to hold the whole film (even if 2 minutes), any mistake he does can't be hidden, as there is nothing to hide with.
Examples: when the tape is removed it's like if nothing has happened in his mouth, there is no reaction to that at all. Also when the gun points at him, he looks at the shadow (nice effect), but why?! A guy in such situation would look at the gun scared, not at the shadow and then get scared...

Film noir is hard... very hard to get the story, characters, and visuals right. I have to admit that we tried and kind of fail in it :-)
 
I didn't care for the lighting. Perhaps it's what you were going for, but there wasn't a lot to look at. I felt i wanted to see something in the background. His face was overexposed as well.

I don't really know what was happening, but if all that happened was him turning off a light at the end, it seems a little anti-climatic. I'm sure I would think differently if there were subtitles.

I really liked the opening shot and the one where he walks towards the guy on the chair with the light behind him was nice as well.
 
@backlash: I agree completely about the acting. The problem was that those 2 guys aren't actors and well the main guy couldnt portray the sense of helplessness that I wanted but they are school friends, who study film not acting, so I cant nagg them over that, the next time there will be better actors for sure hehehe.

@devhaven: I know its troublesome for most of you because the audio is in spanish and I really dont know how to put subtitles in. The reason I didn't want to portray background was that The light on top of the man in the chair is the only thing I want seen. On the LS on the first shot it shows that he is in a vast nothingness which I what I wanted to show. That he is no where and he cant see anything that would give him a clue. But I agree, it can be hard to imagine everything without understanding whats being said. At the end the bad guy says (while moving the gun up) "I have ways for making you talk." The "turning out the light" at the end is a simbolic way of saying that "he's toast."

If anyone know a program or anything to put subtitles then it would own.


Thank for your advice and opinion it helps me alot. Keep em coming!
 
Keep in mind my critique is also personal taste and you don't have to agree with any of what I said. I'm happy that you got what you wanted then. That's always important.
 
The first light was good, when the second light popped on, it overexposed your scene.

It was a good practice scene for a setup like this...now try a more challanging noir setup.
 
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