watch It's Kind of a Furry Story - Episode 1 (web series) - My First Real Project!

[VladCantSleep]

As I've mentioned in other thread before, I've worked on some stuff in the past, but never did a personal project from start to finish. So, here's my first real project. Hope you guys enjoy.

Just a note: the actual run time is just a little over 7 minutes. The rest is bloopers+credits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2QT_0n9p0U

Things I've learned:

-Getting dialogue from someone that has a mask on is VERY hard. We discovered a trick where we pointed the microphone upwards, into the neck opening of the mask. That yielded the best sound. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how bad the sound was without that trick until post production. This is why in the beginning, the sound is INCREDIBLY muffled Also, another problem with pointing the microphone upwards for Jack's dialogue, the microphone would pick up quite a lot of noise (ventilation, lights, etc.) compared to all other dialogue. So we ended up recording all the dialogue with the microphone underneath the actors for similar sound -- which made us end up with a lot more noise than I was happy with. I might just do some looping for Jack's dialogue next episode, while recording everyone else's the normal way.

-Tripod is a must. I left my tripod at the gym (was shooting some promotional stuff), and was unable to get it back in time for the day of shooting. We had to shoot EVERYTHING without a tripod. It was a bitch and a half.

-Plan camera angles better. Despite trying my absolute best with lighting the background, the shadows were very, very harsh in most scenes. I found out that there is little I can do to fix this (outside of some serious upgrades to my lighting kit). So, for next episode, I need to plan angles a little better, so as to not get so many harsh shadows in the shot.

If there is anything else you guys pick up on, please let me know! I hope shoot a better second episode

Before anyone asks, the equipment I used:

-Canon Vixia HF21 (naked)
-JuicedLink CX211
-Rode NTG-2
-2 Clamp lights with 250 Watt tungsten bulbs
-2 500 watt halogen worklights
-2 Chinese lanterns with 75 watt tungsten lights

 

[VladCantSleep]

Sorry to bump this, but I'd absolutely love some feedback. The only reason this episode wasn't a complete mess was because of you guys. Everything here, I learned from this forum. You guys are amazing, and I just want to continue improving

 

[chilipie]

I honestly liked it a lot more than I thought I might; funny script, fairly good acting and well cut together. The first thing I picked up on was the unnecessarily poor quality of the audio of the guy with the horse mask - unnecessary because for the first few minutes his head wasn't in shot so you could have recorded him without the mask on, and for the rest of it because you couldn't see him speaking, so there was no need for lip sync. I would have run the scene through again (in the same location), with the sole purpose of recording his dialogue sans mask.

The other thing that could have been corrected easily was the focus on most of the feet shots at the beginning - you can manually focus on your camera, right? There were also some shots where he was hiding behind the girl, but the focus was on him instead of her - I think you can let your camera autofocus on the right area and then lock it in to place for the duration of that shot.

I think you planned your camera angles better than you're letting on - you certainly covered the scenes well. You could probably make the lighting feel more natural just by softening it; shine your key light through a white shower curtain or bed sheet, or bounce it off a wall.

My final two suggestions are to cut it a little bit tighter in places to keep the pace up, and maybe lose the bloopers at the end - I know I've been put off watching things before because they're too long for me to bother. Overall, I think this is a really solid start and you're bound to improve in the next episode as you get more experienced. Well done!

 

[Flicker Pictures]

I'd absolutely love some feedback.

Because we don't see they mouth of Horse Head, you could have recorded all of his lines as a separate track, thus making that audio much easier to hear. Although if you were going for "realism", a voice would sound like that under a mask so I suppose it works.

The content didn't grab me so I probably won't provide you with the ideal audience reaction, but I am a certified member of the "Audience at Large" who is looking for good stories and well-written films.

Keep making the movies you want. That's what matters.

 

[Tinalera]

Masks! MY FAVORITE!

Tripod has been mentioned obviously-its slight but the distraction is there.

How easy/hard was it to get permission to shoot in the mall?

Dialogue with mask-I'm thinking about just a voice over for the footage-I think it would be fine, and "matching up" the dialogue. I learned recently that even in "regular" movies, dialogue is re-recorded by the actors and dubbed over a lot of the time-very rarely is the "on set" sound used.

The fact your main character was tall made him all the more noticable, though I did notice a couple of times where you were trying to keep from "cutting off" his head

I liked it quite a bit-I like masks used in cinema, and for things that are "different" than the usual uses :

Seeing the short reminded me of a "Daft Punk" video, where the guy is wearing a dog head throughout.

It's a very creative idea though! I enjoyed it!

 

[VladCantSleep]

Masks! MY FAVORITE!

Tripod has been mentioned obviously-its slight but the distraction is there.

How easy/hard was it to get permission to shoot in the mall?

Dialogue with mask-I'm thinking about just a voice over for the footage-I think it would be fine, and "matching up" the dialogue. I learned recently that even in "regular" movies, dialogue is re-recorded by the actors and dubbed over a lot of the time-very rarely is the "on set" sound used.

The fact your main character was tall made him all the more noticable, though I did notice a couple of times where you were trying to keep from "cutting off" his head

I liked it quite a bit-I like masks used in cinema, and for things that are "different" than the usual uses :

Seeing the short reminded me of a "Daft Punk" video, where the guy is wearing a dog head throughout.

It's a very creative idea though! I enjoyed it!

The mall shoot was actually just smoke and mirrors. All the dialogue was shot at a university shopping area, after hours, on a sunday night. The following day, I grabbed my camera, and we ran over to an actual mall and shot some coverage I thought would fit; Guerrilla style.

Thanks so much for the feedback guys!

As far the sound, yeah, that was my biggest gripe. We're rerecording the first scene on sunday -- just to have usable sound. From now on, we'll be shooting two versions of everything, one with mask, and one without, simply because I don't have a decent dubbing mic (or the skills to mix in looped dialogue convincingly).

 

[VladCantSleep]

Just a small update: For one reason or another, youtube contacted me to make the video a partner video after it only got 300~ views. Pretty awesome stuff

 

[Kevin_KRW]

Just a small update: For one reason or another, youtube contacted me to make the video a partner video after it only got 300~ views. Pretty awesome stuff

Thats strange, but cool

By the way, I liked the video. My only problem was that I couldn't understand the guy with the horse mask half the time.

Overall it was good. Rating:


3 Smiley Faces out of 5

 

[VladCantSleep]

Thats strange, but cool

By the way, I liked the video. My only problem was that I couldn't understand the guy with the horse mask half the time.

Overall it was good. Rating:


3 Smiley Faces out of 5

Thanks!

Any other crits? We're shooting episode 2 on sunday, and I want it to be as good as possible