archived-videos "Of Mice & Guns" my first short film/video

C

ChanceOfGray

It's really just a four minute action scene, but it's the first serious film I took time to make with a few friends and I think it turned out excellent. I also think I did a decent job on the audio! But that's just me and I could be wrong... I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts! Near the end I had to cut some corners because we didn't get the shot's we needed, so I tried to cover it up but doing some weird cutting to blacks. If it gets annoying then... sorry? :(

Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtcalOQGrHE

I used a Canon T2i, no Microphone all audio inserted in post-production, I also use Sony Vegas and Adobe Aftereffects (for the muzzle flares).
 
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Cool.
Some suggestions..

the render is a bit squished, maybe you meant to crop it to wide screen, but you ended up just scaling it funny..

The Cut to black was effective, but only for the first three or four times, after that the effect got very tedious and annoying.
 
RVA, what-whaaaaat!!!

I just checked you out on FB, looks like we have a friend in common. Drew Sease acted in a silly short film I made, a little more than a year ago. Welcome to the forums.

As for some constructive critique -- First of all, let me say that I like your camera work. It's a little too shaky, every now and then, but for the most part, I like how you frame your shots.

Things that I would change -- you're really crushing those blacks. I can't see half of what is on screen, because it's so damn dark. Speaking of blacks, you've got these dramatic, repetitive cuts-to-black, all synced with the music. That kind of thing works wonders in a trailer, but in straight narrative work, I think all you're really doing is taking your audience out of the scene, by reminding them that they're watching a movie. Suspension of disbelief -- it's important. Also, I don't know exactly what's going on, but there's something funky with your aspect-ratio -- your footage is being smushed.

Cheers!
 
I will make excuses for nearly all of these things, obviously they don't change the fact that there were things wrong, but just explanations really. I am incredibly new to anything film related and have been learning things completely on my own with the help of youtube videos and such. I stupidly did a lot of editing of footage out of order in terms of what things to work on first. For example I color corrected all of my footage in after effects which was rather dumb when I should have done it in Vegas, the aspect ratio I can tell now is an issue as I had, again, no clue what I was really doing in the importing and exporting process, you should she the previous video I did, that ones even worse in terms of aspect ratio, not to mention lighting. And as I explained in the first post the cutting to black was a technique to cut to corners due to lack of shots needed to express continuity. It was my first actual short video that I took time to work on, but you can see where I cut corners and rushed in the editing process! :(

Anyways, those were just excuses, pay them no mind as I am thankful for the advice and will definitely be working on these sorts of problems once I start editing the footage I'm shooting this saturday.
 
hey, your a noob.. join the club! (seriously, welcome its a blast and very addictive!)
Im completely self taught, as many of us are.. film school? We don't need to stinkin film school!

YOU GET SUPPER KUDOS FOR MAKING AND POSTING! Some people spend all their time here talking about getting ready for their first shoots, you just went out and did it! ROCK ON!

Did you run through the Videocopilot After Effects Basics Training?
Nothing wrong with CC in AfterEffects, thats the BEST place to do it in my opinion.. though its way more technical then you probably needed.

What are you shooting this Saturday? If its more of the same, try at least one thing new!
Maybe do it all from a tripod? Learn the smooth panning with a rubber band trick!
 
I actually haven't gone through it yet! I looked at them a few times but hadn't stuck with it. I mainly go and look for things I plan to use and then try and learn it from there (i.e. muzzle flashes, color corrections, motion tracking, 3d motion tracking, sky replacement, etc). Also I'm sure AE is great for color correction, however for me it was a pain because my computer doesn't have the best processing speed which makes After Effects very slow. :(

This saturday I'm shooting something for an organization I'm in at school called Intervarsity and every year we do something called "Sock Assasination" where people who sign up get a name of someone else that's playing and they have to throw a sock at that person to assasinate them. It's quite fun and quite ridiculous. So I figured I'd make a video just as ridiculous. I definitely have a visual and big picture kind of mind so i've already planned nearly every shot in my head. I'm going to attempt one of those "bullet time" kind of effects with a sock. We'll see how it goes... Not sure haha. But it shall be fun! And hilarious.
 
Here is your title !!!
"The Kutsushita Protocol"

ah man, thats sounds ridiculously funny! I cant speak for anyone else, but when its all in my head, its seems to go POOF on the day of the shoot, so I have to write it all down. Im just starting with story boards thumbnail drawings and that helps too.

You could go the SUPER ACTION TRAILER route which might be fun, and be used to promote Sock Assasination day!
 
Oh snap! Grand idea! I should make a trailer for it! It goes on for like 2 or 3 weeks until the last person is alive, it's a full campus game with safe zones, etc. People have gone as far as to break into someone's car who is and wait for them to come into the car to hit them with a sock. Very ridiculous. But I should make a trailer to get people super stoked and then not show the real thing (which is a little ways down the road, next semester) until the day we begin it. Thank you so much for that idea! :D

But yeah I did actually draw out a story board for it yesterday during class cause I was super bored. That slow-mo shot I had to draw out in detail cause I wasn't sure how I'd do it. But I think I got something now, I just need to watch some slow motion tutorials before I get the shots so I know beforehand what to do.
 
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