archived-videos Looking for some comments/feedback...

Aegis

Aegis

Hi everyone - a couple of years back I shot some footage from my screenplay 'Survivor's Diary' - really just to get my head around directing - we made the cardinal sin of not getting the audio right but other than that (and a few glaring focus and continuity errors) I was pretty happy with the results.

It's never been seen publicly and the only feedback I've had is from friends and colleagues connected with the project so I'm curious to see what you think - does it make you want to see more? What do you think of the performances, style, dialogue and direction?

The sequence never had final VFX applied so the female character is missing what was supposed to be a wrist computer (where the bandage with the 'x's are) - also, the male lead is supposed to be standing by a window near the end of the film (again - I never had the time to finish the FX).

http://www.survivorfilms.com/Website/Survivors_Diary.html

Edit: Oh, it's probably NSFW - some partial nudity.
 
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scotttebeau said:
was having a hard time getting it to load.. maybe i have a slow connection at the moment. looks interesting the little i viewed..
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It's working OK here but it's hosted on my Apple MobileMe site which can be a little slow sometimes - when I get a chance I'll upload it on to IndieTalk which may help - thanks for taking the time to check it out!
 
Sound is god-awful.

I really like the lighting, though at times it did make some shots of the girl look like she'd been keyed into the scene. That might have just been the compression. Dunno. Overall, dug the lighting choices.

Actual content was long, slow & drawnout. That's gonna happen in a scene like that, though, with no other context. Looks like it's a "The Thing" type of movie?

I'd probably watch the whole movie, if you had a decent trailer.

Good luck with it. :)
 
This is just my two cents.

The GOOD: The dialogue acting, lighting, editing.

But, the good are also in -

The BAD: If you shut your eyes and listen, it's very good. But, her arm actions are really poor. He doesn't move much, so there's not much to say about his acting. I felt no tension between the two, except a very little when she was undressing. This has a lot to do with acting, editing, and music. The lighting though beautiful, is so distinct that when you shift from cut to cut, she's not always in her light. She kind of moves back and forth angle to angle. It makes it feel out of whack.

The dialogue was excellent. I had no real idea what was going on, because it's a single scene. It wasn't loaded with poor exposition.

Would I watch more of this? With better acting. If the movie started off with this type of acting, I wouldn't make it through the entire thing. Which would be a shame, because it looks beautiful.

One little continuity note: When she was getting undressed and took off her t-shirt. You see her back and it's clean as a whistle. If a woman is taking her cloths off, I'm looking at the skin.
 
Thanks for the feedback! Some great comments there!

Zensteve said:
Sound is god-awful.
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Yeah - the main reason I haven't shown it publicly or posted it on YouTube/Vimeo - we were supposed to have a sound guy for the shoot but he went AWOL at the last minute - we tried our best but uh... failed miserably :D

Zensteve said:
I really like the lighting, though at times it did make some shots of the girl look like she'd been keyed into the scene. That might have just been the compression. Dunno. Overall, dug the lighting choices.
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Thanks! We used two RedHeads - the blue one bounced off the ceiling and the orange key - wasn't enough room (or lighting options) for a rim light but overall I was very pleased with the look - it's pretty heavily post-processed using Magic Bullet though - the original footage is very different!

There's one shot (side on, where the female lead slaps the guy) that's very messy - they were both front lit and there was no depth to the shot - I had to rotoscope it and try a few different grading tricks to get it even remotely close to the rest of the footage - learnt some important lessons from that...

Zensteve said:
Actual content was long, slow & drawnout. That's gonna happen in a scene like that, though, with no other context. Looks like it's a "The Thing" type of movie?
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Yeah - it is a little slow - it's sits (in the script) between a couple of big action sequences so it's kind of a 'port in a storm' - hopefully the pacing will work in its correct context.

I'd love it to be a "The Thing" type of movie :D John Carpenter is one of my favourite directors - there's a definite "Escape from New York" influence in the script and yeah - there's a theme of paranoia and mistrust running through it.

Zensteve said:
I'd probably watch the whole movie, if you had a decent trailer. Good luck with it. :)
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Thank you! It's great to get constructive feedback! Much appreciated!
 
ussinners said:
This is just my two cents.
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Two cents to you, but worth WAY more to me :)

ussinners said:
The GOOD: The dialogue acting, lighting, editing.
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I considered myself very lucky to find the two actors (and the makeup artist) I got for this shoot - both of them blew me away in their auditions - I didn't quite get what I wanted in the shoot but I think that's more my inexperience as a director than any failing on their part.

Thanks for mentioning the editing - that was the first time I'd ever edited anything and I was pretty pleased with the final result (although the first edit was 15 minutes long!!)

ussinners said:
But, the good are also in -

The BAD: If you shut your eyes and listen, it's very good. But, her arm actions are really poor. He doesn't move much, so there's not much to say about his acting. I felt no tension between the two, except a very little when she was undressing. This has a lot to do with acting, editing, and music. The lighting though beautiful, is so distinct that when you shift from cut to cut, she's not always in her light. She kind of moves back and forth angle to angle. It makes it feel out of whack.
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That's great you mentioned the physical acting - I really didn't give them much to work with and that's something I'm going to make a mental note of for next time. Also, yeah - the whole scene needs more intensity - in retrospect, I rushed a number of the shots and next time I'll be rolling until we've got what the story needs.

ussinners said:
The dialogue was excellent. I had no real idea what was going on, because it's a single scene. It wasn't loaded with poor exposition.
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That's really good to know - the script needs another dialogue pass but for the most part I'm very happy with it :)

ussinners said:
Would I watch more of this? With better acting. If the movie started off with this type of acting, I wouldn't make it through the entire thing. Which would be a shame, because it looks beautiful.
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The next one should be much better - thanks for some great feedback!

ussinners said:
One little continuity note: When she was getting undressed and took off her t-shirt. You see her back and it's clean as a whistle. If a woman is taking her cloths off, I'm looking at the skin.
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My producer STILL gives me grief over this :D continuity is also on my 'must do better' list...

Thanks again!
 
Glad it helped. I'm just curious (because I'm a dumbass), is this on a set or in a room? If it's a room, how big was it (roughly)? I can never tell these things.

Thanks
 
It was a room in my Producer's parents house - they were redecorating at the time so it was in a state anyway.

Can't remember the exact measurements but I believe it was approx. 12' x 18' - it was a tight squeeze - several of the shots had me and the camera flattened right up against the wall :)

We only had two nasty, rusty-looking shelf units so we shot one set of angles then moved them to the other side of the room and shot the opposite angles.

The walls were covered in glossy movie posters which we had to matte down, most of the props (tinned food, water bottles, etc.) were dusted with talcum powder (as was the male lead :)) to give the place a dusty look.

We covered all the windows with blackout foil them hid them behind the posters - the only light was from the two RedHeads we used.

All in, it took us about 3 days to get the room ready.
 
Aegis said:
It was a room in my Producer's parents house - they were redecorating at the time so it was in a state anyway.

Can't remember the exact measurements but I believe it was approx. 12' x 18' - it was a tight squeeze - several of the shots had me and the camera flattened right up against the wall :)

We only had two nasty, rusty-looking shelf units so we shot one set of angles then moved them to the other side of the room and shot the opposite angles.

The walls were covered in glossy movie posters which we had to matte down, most of the props (tinned food, water bottles, etc.) were dusted with talcum powder (as was the male lead :)) to give the place a dusty look.

We covered all the windows with blackout foil them hid them behind the posters - the only light was from the two RedHeads we used.

All in, it took us about 3 days to get the room ready.
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WOW, pretty incredible. Thanks.
 
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