archived-videos My humble little film (go easy on me plz)

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SgtPadrino

This movie is basically about a guy who gets treated like shit all his life. One night he snaps, grabs a gun, and through the course of the night tracks down and kills everyone who treats him like shit on a day-to-day basis (the idea of a one night ordeal is based off of Collateral)

It's about a half an hour long, and you'll need DivX to watch it.
Download the film here (file size: 80 megs)

Also, you don't need a profile or anything to download the file; FileFront is a free service. And the movie's not based off the game Postal 2, I just told them that so they would host the file. And I'm sorry it's not a direct link to the file, but with my host that's a little impossible.

And I know the movie's not that great, just keep in mind that every scene you see was improv'd on the spot :)
 
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Great use of Godspeed you black emperor!!!
Big problem though. It was DARK. WAY to dark. Half the time I couldn't see what was going on, and that made it difficult to follow. It's a shame too, because the editing, acting and pacing looked excellent- and the story was very dark and twisted... I loved it. But this kind of movie (Especially as stylized as it was) needs strong visuals. Half the time I was just looking at outlines or small lights in a field of black. I watched it all the way to the end because the story captivated me... but it was painful because of the lighting. Thankfully you can always hire a cinematographer, so it's fixable.. but your talent behind all that is pretty irreplacable- good work. Nice story and great acting. Get lights next time though!!

-Logan-
 
It was dark, indeed.

Not sure if that was the CoDec used though, or the lighting. The WMV has brightness/contrast slides to adjust that helped... but they blew out the well-lit restaurant scenes, so I guess lighting...

Lots of good visuals. You could easily shave 9 minutes off the film, though. It took a good 5 1/2 mins to really get to the crux and identify who the V/O person was, alone. Not that there's anything wrong with an opening sequence like so... it's just hard to pull off, especially when the V/O is as low-key as the visuals, and the dreamy music.

Have clearance on those tunes? Not that it bothers me for a fun non-commercial film... it tends to bother film fests though, should you decide to give that a whirl. (I swear one of those songs was SoundGarden, but didn't see the name in the credits)

You may have a slight problem with the entrance to the restaurant too, where one can plainly see the "Subway" sign on the door.

_______

Overall, it was a great short. :cool:

Could have been cut a little tighter, but that's just my opinion.

Oh, some of the V/Os had really bad "esses" and P's & T's. Sounds like a cheap mic plugged into Windows Sound Recorder. If you can't get a better mic, slip a thick sock over the mic to help cut down on that.

_______

Btw... great ending. :)
 
Thanks for the feedback. As for the lighting, yeah I know it's pretty bad but when you're watching it on a TV or the LCD screen on a camera it actually looks pretty good - faded out and dark, but you can still see everything that's going on. And watching it on TV the most complements I get is for cinematography, so I guess the strong visuals are there, you just can't see em' on a computer monitor.

Unfortunately no, I don't have permission to use the songs, and if I did enter it in a festival it would only be a local one like a high school competition or something. I also didn't actually use a mic for the VO's - I just got into my car with the camera, recorded them and then just laid the audio over the movie when I was editing. And even though I used East Hastings by Godspeed in one of the original cuts it didn't end up making it into this version (the final version uses Angel by Massive Attack for the entire mafioso-Subway-driving sequence.) I might've accidentally kept their name in the credits, though. Here's the list of songs I used, in order.

The Black Amnesias - Hope of the States
Air - The Klazz Brothers and Cuba Percussion
Distractions - Zero Seven
Run Uphill - The Kronos Quartet
Franklin's Requiem - George S. Clinton
Loaded Gun - Hednoize
Island Limos - James Newton Howard
Shadow of the Sun - Audioslave
Car Crash - Antonio Pinto
God Moving Over the Face of the Waters - Moby
 
(NOTE to Zen--you heard Chris Cornell, formerly of Soundgarden, singing with his new band Audioslave...which is Rage Against the Machine with a new singer).

Regarding the short -- I will echo Spatula's review. There was a lot of impressive work in this movie. Good sense of style, great editing...I thought the pacing and acting were good also. The lighting was also a problem for me, though. I saw very little of what was going on in most of the scenes. I can appreciate the stylish-dark look, but I think TOO much of the detail was lost in darkness.

Overall, I would say that it was a great job!

(Favorite monent in the movie:
the sound editing when Yellow Coat raises the gun in Subway
.)

Question -- was the yellow jacket symbolic of the insect, one that stings when provoked? Or is that just a coincidence...?
 
John@Bophe said:
...was the yellow jacket symbolic of the insect, one that stings when provoked? Or is that just a coincidence...?
Click to expand...

I was thinking more along the lines of Paddington Bear.... :D
 
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