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Judas - Psychological Horror Movie (4K HDR + 3D audio)


A struggling filmmaker accepts an unpaid job from a one-hit-wonder but soon comes to regret her decision when the artist exhibits increasingly disturbing behavior.

Shot in 4 days with blackmagic pocket 6k. Graded in davinci resolve p3-d65 rec2020 HDR.

Let me know what you all think! Constructive feedback is appreciated.

Cheers!
 
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I haven't finished watching it yet, but my critique on a screen quality level is that it looks pretty good, but any advantage created by the HDR post is being somewhat lost because of contrast being too high. There's a lot of crushed black here in the final encode, and HDR really excels at creating smooth gradients, which are lost in high contrast. It's not the technical specs that bothered me though, as I looked at different scenes. It's the way the color was orchestrated, rather than the delivery of the color.

This isn't intended to be negative, just constructive critisizm, so I'll show you exactly what I'm talking about. Here's actionable information that you can use in the design of your next film, that will instantly give you a stronger overall look.

Use the composition guides for color WHILE you are designing sets and framing shots. You cannot fix this in post, it has to be done on set, and then polished and enhanced in post. It's easier than it sounds.


Now that you've seen this formula, you'll be shocked at how many films manage to nail this ratio almost every time. Star wars movies, or James Wan's horror films, or almost any high budget film or tv show typically sticks pretty close to this formula.

Master this one technique, and your next film will look twice as good. Not saying that this one is bad, just showing you how you might consider improving future endeavors.
 
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Thanks
I haven't finished watching it yet, but my critique on a screen quality level is that it looks pretty good, but any advantage created by the HDR post is being somewhat lost because of contrast being too high. There's a lot of crushed black here in the final encode, and HDR really excels at creating smooth gradients, which are lost in high contrast. It's not the technical specs that bothered me though, as I looked at different scenes. It's the way the color was orchestrated, rather than the delivery of the color.

This isn't intended to be negative, just constructive critisizm, so I'll show you exactly what I'm talking about. Here's actionable information that you can use in the design of your next film, that will instantly give you a stronger overall look.

Use the composition guides for color WHILE you are designing sets and framing shots. You cannot fix this in post, it has to be done on set, and then polished and enhanced in post. It's easier than it sounds.


Now that you've seen this formula, you'll be shocked at how many films manage to nail this ratio almost every time. Star wars movies, or James Wan's horror films, or almost any high budget film or tv show typically sticks pretty close to this formula.

Master this one technique, and your next film will look twice as good. Not saying that this one is bad, just showing you how you might consider improving future endeavors.
Thanks Nate North this is a really good tip. I am conscious of the high contrast stylized look I went with but I will definitely try for the more conventional formula on the next one, I agree audience are so tuned to that look that deviating too much will make them feel something is off or "cheap". The 60-30-10 rule is also interesting. I don't have a production designer but I'll definitely hire one of the next short if I get financing from my local film region. Cheers!
 
I'd add a note about contrast, from my own history. For years I made films where the contrast was too high. The reason was that it's how I remembered films that I liked looking. But my final look never seemed to come out as well as those of my role models. So one year, I took the time to get scientific about it, and go back with a microscope and actually pull the pixel luminance from the films I was trying to emulate, and compare it to what I was doing from memory. In every case, I was basically loosing a lot of smooth detail by turning up the contrast too high, in order to make the colors stronger, and the blacks deeper. It does look good frame by frame, but in the end, it's a net loss in terms of how the film looks.

At the end of the day, it's all about making the audience comfortable while they watch your story (talking about visual comfort only here) and if you go back and see what was most successful, you'll find that both contrast and DOF are used in careful moderation by the real pros.

If you look at the thumbnail from the video I posted above, that's a night scene, with dim lighting, but if you added up the pixel luminance from every pixel, you'd find that it's actually higher than some of your daytime scenes, and doesn't have even a single blown out pixel at the top of the range.

Sorry to go on about this, it's just that you've poured a lot of energy and effort into this film, and it's proof that you are someone with the drive to actually benefit from assistance. Best of luck with your funding round!
 
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I'd add a note about contrast, from my own history. For years I made films where the contrast was too high. The reason was that it's how I remembered films that I liked looking. But my final look never seemed to come out as well as those of my role models. So one year, I took the time to get scientific about it, and go back with a microscope and actually pull the pixel luminance from the films I was trying to emulate, and compare it to what I was doing from memory. In every case, I was basically loosing a lot of smooth detail by turning up the contrast too high, in order to make the colors stronger, and the blacks deeper. It does look good frame by frame, but in the end, it's a net loss in terms of how the film looks.

At the end of the day, it's all about making the audience comfortable while they watch your story (talking about visual comfort only here) and if you go back and see what was most successful, you'll find that both contrast and DOF are used in careful moderation by the real pros.

If you look at the thumbnail from the video I posted above, that's a night scene, with dim lighting, but if you added up the pixel luminance from every pixel, you'd find that it's actually higher than some of your daytime scenes, and doesn't have even a single blown out pixel at the top of the range.

Sorry to go on about this, it's just that you've poured a lot of energy and effort into this film, and it's proof that you are someone with the drive to actually benefit from assistance. Best of luck with your funding round!
I agree with you, thanks you have given me a new perspective and I'll definitely use the knowledge you have shared on the next one with or without financing from third parties.
 
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