archived-videos Short Film Contest Entry - And Oh! What Things to Have Been

[Chavz]

This is the final cut of what was originally made for a local short film contest that requires that your film be made entirely within 7 days, while also satisfying three criteria (a prop, a line of dialogue, and a character) that are different every year.

The 2013 criteria were:
Character - Lena, an over-achieving human female who drops the ball
Prop - A seashell
Line - "It's not the heat; it's how hot it feels."


My brother and I share credits as writers, actors, directors, editors, and camera operators. Needless to say, it was difficult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7GUADtx_-Y

 

[ChimpPhobiaFilms]

Nice work!

The audio is fairly crisp, and acting isn't bad. I liked the montage, and the vocal music. Very quirky and fun

There is either a fan or flickering light in the bathroom. Either turn the fan off, or use a different type of lighting.

It looks bad. I don't think sea-shell part really "fit in". I wish you had came up with a more clever way to reveal it.

Some shots are over and underexposed. There's some "white walls" scenes (basically, a wall without anything interesting on it). That can be fixed by hanging up some pictures, and some gobos to break up the light.

There's some really dark parts in the film that look kind of ugly. Throw some light on it!

Long and at times boring. Cut out unnecessary scenes, and do some tighter editing.

Overall, it's a very flawed but good film. I enjoyed it though, and I hope to see more from you

 

[Chavz]

Thank you for watching and for your feedback. There were a few shots we wanted to re-shoot, (the bathroom shot being one of them) but we simply did not have the time. Part of that came from the fact that the LCD display on our camera makes the shot look brighter than it is actually being recorded, so while it looked fine during the shoot, when we started editing, we noticed it was significantly darker. Knowing this, we tried to compensate for that during Lena's scene, but I suppose we over-compensated. The over-exposure wasn't quite so noticeable on the camera's display, so we went right ahead. Re-shoots after the contest screening were hardly possible continuity-wise because we had originally been unshaven for several days during the shoot, which was only possible for me because it was during my vacation from work. Otherwise, there would have been an obvious continuity problem, so for the most part, we had to work with the footage we already had for this final cut.

As far as the criteria are concerned, we generally don't bother much with creatively working with those because they are ultimately contrivances. We consider those things generally negligible given that we aren't really concerned with winning the contest, but rather, with simply having our work shown in front of a live audience. We certainly had fun with the line of dialogue, though, for which we did receive a nomination.