watch Small Talk - Short Film

[Cracker Funk]

It's funny, the very first piece of advice I gave you (5 months ago, in a seperate thread) still applies:

Hey,

For the most part, it has a really nice look. Problem is, you made a stage-play. 4 minutes of 2 dudes sitting down talking? Seriously? That's a lot of talking. 4 minutes of dialogue can work in a feature, but if it's 80% of your short, that's waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much. Have your actors get up and do something. We wanna see people doing stuff, not sitting down talking.

Plus, there's the question of why we're making shorts. You're not gonna sell it, so that's out of the question. Winning awards at local festivals is fun, but I don't think we're really in this to just pad our own egos. In my opinion, the main point behind making shorts is to learn from the process, and grow as a filmmaker.

In that respect, 2 dudes sitting down talking really doesn't help you develop your skills as a filmmaker. I mean, that's just about the easiest, most straight-forward scene to shoot. Challenge yourself. Give us five minutes of people doing something, and you'll find that you'll probably make many mistakes along the way, and learn from them.

All that being said, to end on a positive note, I do think the writing was nice, a tad expository, but not annoyingly so, and the actors were pretty nice.

So, in this thread, when I said:

I think you need to spend a little more time on the technical filmmaking aspect.

I really just didn't feel like repeating myself, cuz just as you did in the last thread, you're ignoring the honest advice that we've taken the time to give.

Go to the 3:18 mark of "Small Talk". That is a really awkward edit. As are practically every single edit you make in this movie. The problem with this particular edit is that the shots are way too similar. They're practically the same shot, but from slightly different angles. And then you make the same cut, over and over again. And then we go back to the footage of the two dudes with the shaky-cam that continuously crosses over the line of action.

This is why I didn't bother critiquing the dialog that you have between the two dudes (which is what this movie is all about). I didn't critique it because I don't think that's what you need to work on. Just as before, it is my opinion that you need to work on the technical aspects of shooting a scene that can be cut together well.

 

[tommygdawg]

Conversations are perfectly acceptable styles of short film I think. It just touches on a different style of writing and theatrics. The shakyness was done intentionally, it's just there were times where I had to adjust my camera during a take which made it extra shaky. I couldn't do a lot of retakes because I had to get out of there and one of the actors was incredibly unprepared so we spent A LOT of time just waiting for him to get his lines right.

Also, to be fair, I think a lot more happens in this film than in World View. I don't see how I'm ignoring the advice you guys are giving? A lot of the things you've suggested I change are things I would have done differently in the first place if given the opportunity, which has been the whole point I've been trying to make.

 

[LastSunsetFilms]

it's not like it's terrible, but like myself, most of the criticism is of things i already know and would look to improve on, sometimes it's hard to take when you have put in so much effort, but when you ask for criticism then you have to be prepared for that.

personally i tend not to find much funny so i couldn't comment on the comedy aspects. sometimes getting something finished and learning from it is the best you can hope for.

 

[tommygdawg]

it's not like it's terrible, but like myself, most of the criticism is of things i already know and would look to improve on, sometimes it's hard to take when you have put in so much effort, but when you ask for criticism then you have to be prepared for that.

personally i tend not to find much funny so i couldn't comment on the comedy aspects. sometimes getting something finished and learning from it is the best you can hope for.

I agree. Thanks for the feedback.