archived-videos Short film USB 1

A

actliketom

I am new to these forums, but would like to get as much feedback on the videos that my 2 friends and I created as possible. We started to make films under the name Bringyourownbowl, but recently changed it to JBT Productions and now we really want to take things to a more serious and successful route.

This was our first video created where we really cracked down and wanted to get things done right, but I am sure you all will have plenty to say, so please do not be lighthearted. I feel criticism is the best way to learn and leads to more and more compliments in the future.

The film is called USB 1 or aliased as Two Friends, a Russian, and a Madman. The sequel is coming out in the next few weeks and hopefully with your help we can fix a lot of our problems and make better and better films. Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mmoeF3e6gQ&feature=channel_page
click high quality under the video
 
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All help will be greatly appreciated, so feel free to comment in whatever manner you feel necessary, because we need all the help we can get.
 
My main concern in this film is the camerawork, the composition wasn't really great and the editing could have been better. I though the cuts were too slow. Although the story was good the gunfights were well choreographed and the ffects were actualy pretty good and the madman was just plain hilarious, now i would love to edit your next project, i don't know what you guys use, but anyway i use adobe premiere pro cs3 and i also do 3ds studio max if you needed any cgi. It would be quite easy just send the footage to me and keep a backup copy for yourself, tell me a bit about how you would like it edited and i'll do it free of charge as i just want some experience editing action, if you like i can send you some of my work that i've edited for films i've worked on with friends
 
Thanks for the input Motorstorm, but I am not the editor of the group and I will discuss with him if you cant edit one of our videos in the future. We made this last April and since then we have really become better in various ways including camerawork, editing, and screenwriting. I think we use Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Premier, but I am not positive so I will let you know as soon as I find out.

Our new video USB2 will be coming out soon, so I hope this thread can stay alive so everyone on here can tell us technically what we improved upon from USB1 to the 2nd and also to tell us what we can still improve on.
 
yes thats the first thing i noticed as i was watching the movie..... the shots are just to plain... like when hes contemplating putting the flash drive into the computer you could have used a low angle of him holding the usb device to try and get the viewer to think what the character is thinking.... use the camera to tell the story, dont just let the dialogue try and tell it

when the russian is on the phone use a program like soundtrack pro to put a muffle or distort the voiceover so it sounds like hes actually on the phone and not talking to him from 3 ft away.... i think soundtrack has presets to add to sound clips to make the "phone voice" or if you cant afford soundtrack then download audacity and play around with the effects

and for the love of god use an external microphone..... because that cameras mic is terrible.....
if your camera has a microphone input then buy a mic or if you cant afford a mic make one yourself

you can buy small microphones at walmart or sound equipment stores for like 2 bucks a microphone.... then buy an audio cable... the cable with one end that has the red and white plugs then the other end is just a regular plug.... cut the wire just before the red and white plugs then attach the wires to the microphones and BAM..... you have a great quality external mic for like 5 bucks.....

other than that its good... great music selections, the story is great, you just have to let me direct the next one ;)

lol i love it when they take their shoes off haha..... i geeked out
 
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ok nevermind about the sound.... i didnt click the high quality button.... but yea you should still make that external mic cause its never a bad thing to have perfect sound....

my bad
 
I would suggest deinterlacing your footage next time, as that seems to be a major problem with the film... I agree that it looks better in HQ, but there' still a lot of work to do before it looks near professional. Namely as Duder said, the sound...

However it seemed like a decent attempt at a plot, and I liked your deadpan acting. Just sort out some of the technical niggles, and you might have an alround more polished piece in the future.
 
For some reason this video did not deinterlace as our others have, but I assure you that it is not a problem that we have in our movies on regular basis, so when USB2 comes out there will be a major improvement on quality.

We will do our best to enhance sound and anything else, but I would like to thank you for all the comments we have been getting. They are surely making us better at creating films and looking more at the technical aspects while doing so. ~JBT Productions
 
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