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something is missing

dlevanchuk

dlevanchuk

We finijshed our 48 hour film project this past weekend, and I got to see it in the movie theater (which was soooo sweet)

I always knew that something was missing and felt little bit odd throughout the movie, but I couldn't point out what.
After comparing it with other, more experienced filmmakers movies, I realized that maybe I have poor shot compositions.. like there is no universal binding theme to it.. am I right? How can I fix that? Use similar colors through out the scenes, maybe some sort of geometry, or some other visual cues?

Wondering how I could make it more professional looking

Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMc6H6UBK5Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Any suggestions?
 
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My guess, when you say the pro look, would mean color correction/grading, some effects with the lighting. Stuff like that. Which I don't think you would have time to do in 48 hours. I didn't realize how big of a difference this makes til I watched a tutorial on Magic Bullet.
 
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Well I enjoyed it and thought it was a cute concept.

In terms of shot composition: 48 hour film projects are really a good test of your ability because they force you to compress the traditional pre-production and that means that you have to focus on getting the shots you need, rather than the shots you want.

Some observations: If you are shooting a scene with dialogue you shouldn't feel like the audience has to see the speaker's lips moving. Only occasionally did you cut to the 'audience' when someone was talking, but you shouldn't feel like you need to show either of them. Get the interesting shots for people to see- they can close of their ears so they will always hear the dialogue, you need to show them what you want them to see.

I also think it would've been better if you'd used a range of close ups and wides, especially on the woman and horseman. We kept coming back to the same position of them from Humpty's POV and whilst that was interesting before we saw Humpty, it gets a little repetitive towards the end.

That also look to my eye like it might've been shot at 30 fps (If I'm wrong please ignore) and you will benefit a lot from the motion blur that you get shooting at 24 fps (or 25 fps if you're a European). As you say, controlling the colour palate will give it a more professional look but that's up to your decisions with lighting and then grading in post.

But I wouldn't worry too much because I thought it was pretty darn good ;)
 
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Frokeyman: do u have a small example of better shot transition?

Brettzdamn: thank you very much!

Murdock: not so much as color correction but the shot composition.. High quality shorts are framed in such a way that everything I'd like well balanced photograph.. Like the nothing that distracts the observer. Maybe shallower depth of field or more blended background colors.. I just can't point it what is it that's separates good looking shot from amateur looking..

Nickclapper: I do feel like I didn't have good enough coverage for the shots.that's deffinatelt something I need to work on some more, and break the habit of showing talking people..


Thanks for suggestions and opinions! Time to write another short..
 
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These are some best professional short films that i ve seen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdeioVndUhs

And another great one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy0HNWto0UY
=============================================
And here is not so professional (mine haha):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zql9XlkWryw

and the one from original post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMc6H6UBK5Y
 
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Dude great video i must say! IMHO... sometimes during conversations between 2 people you should have a shot of the individuals hands or something...Just to show the physical expressions of the individual. But this move/technique can only work for some situations. But man, great job! i laughed my a** off haha
 
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I haven't had time to watch them all yet, but the first thing I notice is that the two good films

have an original score that goes with the film and helps drive the mood. That can do a lot for

you. I think it can even change the way you perceive(ms) the movie. I'll watch them all

later and see if I can spot anyhting.
 
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Frokeyman: Good advice! i ll have to experiment with that.. it probably depends on awhat mood im going for, right?

Feral: Thank you! We didn't sleep saturday to sunday, trying to edit this beast..

Murdock: I agree, music makes a huge difference. i'll have to start paying closer attention to that.
 
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Wheatgrinder: thank you for watching! none of my friends had any experience in acting, I just kind of grabbed whoever wanted to be in the video. Since we had pretty inexperienced acting crew I hoped that the story would ocunterbalance that haha
 
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Oh wow! I was going to pass this off as just another film, but then as soon as Humpty Dumpty showed up it became one of the best videos I've seen on this site!

Back when I was trying to nail down the exact differences between amateur and professional films, I noticed it was mainly to do with depth of field (/focus, I never remember the difference between the two). At the moment, all the shots have the same level of focus on foreground and background objects, which makes the shots feel very flat. If you take a look at most feature films, you'll notice that, for example in dialogue scenes, the main character is in focus whilst the background is blurred. It's possible to do it in post-production, but seriously ill-advised - the best approach is to get a better camera. DSLRs are perfect for this now, because they now are starting to have the ability to record high quality videos. I've heard good things about the Canon 550D and Canon 7D, and I'm personally going to buy the 550D once I get the funds (it's half the price and basically as good as the 7D, from what I hear).

Another note would be the sound. At the moment you have a lot of background noise overshadowing the actual dialogue, a problem you can get around by using a boom mic (and an external recorder if your camera doesn't have a mic jack - a problem I had with the Panasonic HDC-SD60, back in the day). Background noise should be recorded seperately and added in afterwards if required - it gives the sense that the scene is actually real, whilst seperating the dialogue from the pointless noise. Actually, watching it again, there's background MUSIC during the entire thing, so that's another reason to get rid of background noise all together - background noise and background music clash very badly.

Another note on the sound - Humpty's voice and the face probably could have been recorded outside, because the sound quality of his dialogue is distinctively different from the womans. I assume you recorded that inside.

Still though, absolutely genius script, and hilarious short film! Very nice work, and I bet given the right presentation you'd easily win an award for this kind of thing! Amazing. :)
 
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ThatGuyFromThatPlace said:
Oh wow! I was going to pass this off as just another film, but then as soon as Humpty Dumpty showed up it became one of the best videos I've seen on this site!

Back when I was trying to nail down the exact differences between amateur and professional films, I noticed it was mainly to do with depth of field (/focus, I never remember the difference between the two). At the moment, all the shots have the same level of focus on foreground and background objects, which makes the shots feel very flat. If you take a look at most feature films, you'll notice that, for example in dialogue scenes, the main character is in focus whilst the background is blurred. It's possible to do it in post-production, but seriously ill-advised - the best approach is to get a better camera. DSLRs are perfect for this now, because they now are starting to have the ability to record high quality videos. I've heard good things about the Canon 550D and Canon 7D, and I'm personally going to buy the 550D once I get the funds (it's half the price and basically as good as the 7D, from what I hear).

Another note would be the sound. At the moment you have a lot of background noise overshadowing the actual dialogue, a problem you can get around by using a boom mic (and an external recorder if your camera doesn't have a mic jack - a problem I had with the Panasonic HDC-SD60, back in the day). Background noise should be recorded seperately and added in afterwards if required - it gives the sense that the scene is actually real, whilst seperating the dialogue from the pointless noise. Actually, watching it again, there's background MUSIC during the entire thing, so that's another reason to get rid of background noise all together - background noise and background music clash very badly.

Another note on the sound - Humpty's voice and the face probably could have been recorded outside, because the sound quality of his dialogue is distinctively different from the womans. I assume you recorded that inside.

Still though, absolutely genius script, and hilarious short film! Very nice work, and I bet given the right presentation you'd easily win an award for this kind of thing! Amazing. :)
Click to expand...


Thank you very much for your input! However, we did record the video with t2i (11-55mm, no nd filter) and h4n with boom mic.I just dont think i really utilized the camera to its full advantage haha
As far as sound we got kind of a tough spot. The wall was next to a highway, and airport.. we had no time to find a better location..

Anyways, enough of my bs excuses haha

Time to write an actual good short movie, with carefully planned shots, unlike 48 hour project...

Thank you for your suggestions!


wheatgrinder: nice!! thank you for re watching the video! i ll have to upload official HD version in two weeks though...
 
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With such a hard location to record audio in, it wouldn't be such a terrible idea to dub it over with audio recorded in a better location.

Or, you know, buy a shotgun mic - they're pretty good when the only noise you want to get is a person talking. They basically exclude any audio not coming from the direction the mic is pointed in.
 
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Being sterile does not mean the egg cannot "pleasure" his wife, so there are some problems with the facts and logic that impede the movie by confusing the viewer.

Most of the shots (up to the point of the man's entrance) are at the same angle and distance. This deprives us of connecting emotionally with the characters. I would add close-ups of the woman's face to show her emotions.
 
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