archived-videos The Third Degree

[DeadChannel]

I made a short film as part of a course that I took. It's overall not very good, but I learned a lot from it.

It was shot in ~6 hours (including transportation to locations)

Not sure if the concept actually comes through, but it looked good on paper. The idea is that he's narrating his daily routine, but the images that you see actually take place after the interrogation. I did think that my main actor generally did a good job.

I have some stuff that I want to actually seriously shoot on my own time (over the course of a few days) once I get my camera.

But for now this is all I have.

Sorry about the mediocre cut and appalling audio. The whole thing was edited in just a few hours.

You can clearly tell what bits were recorded in studio and which ones were recorded in the field. And the sound effects are really bad.

But, here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrri2GPIU4I&list=UU7sDSan6nqzrDAqzBEiIWRg

 

[DeadChannel]

Bumpity Bump

 

[DeadChannel]

Bumpy Wump

 

[ItDonnedOnMe]

Ok, first a bit of a rant...

Stop telling people how bad your film is if you want them to watch it!!!!

This isn't just directed at you, it just seems to be a pattern around here.

Saying things like it's not very good, the edit is mediocre, audio is appalling, the sound effects are bad, and how little time you put into it does nothing to convince anyone they should devote any of their time to your movie. For the few people who do decide to give it a shot, all those comments do is direct their attention towards the flaws - flaws they may not have noticed or cared about if you hadn't pointed them out in the first place!

Ok, rant off, back to the film itself. Here's a few things I noticed:

I would have liked to see more close ups on the actor to emphasize moments of emotion and parts of the dialogue. For example, an overhead shot in the beginning to show his face as he delivers his line, cuts to CUs during the interrogation when he reacts more strongly, etc.

The lighting in the theater needs some work. You want to shoot a scene like that brighter than you need, and then bring it down in post so that the shadows still show some detail. Right now it's mostly black, and the people's faces get kind of lost too.

Try L-cuts instead of fades into the background scenes - i.e. "What did you do after the movies?" Protagonist starts saying "I went to the cemetary" and we cut to the cemetary as his voice continues. It would speed things up a bit and keep the edit flowing better.

Overall I think it's decent, although the story does get a little muddy. I think it would benefit a from a little more time put into the writing and a tighter edit. Some of the cinematography is pretty good. The film is certainly better than you made it out to be!

 

[DeadChannel]

Ok, first a bit of a rant...

Stop telling people how bad your film is if you want them to watch it!!!!

This isn't just directed at you, it just seems to be a pattern around here.

Saying things like it's not very good, the edit is mediocre, audio is appalling, the sound effects are bad, and how little time you put into it does nothing to convince anyone they should devote any of their time to your movie. For the few people who do decide to give it a shot, all those comments do is direct their attention towards the flaws - flaws they may not have noticed or cared about if you hadn't pointed them out in the first place!

Ok, rant off, back to the film itself. Here's a few things I noticed:

That's fair, I guess. I'll try not to be so hard on myself. And I am proud of parts of it.

I would have liked to see more close ups on the actor to emphasize moments of emotion and parts of the dialogue. For example, an overhead shot in the beginning to show his face as he delivers his line, cuts to CUs during the interrogation when he reacts more strongly, etc.

I agree on this point.

The lighting in the theater needs some work. You want to shoot a scene like that brighter than you need, and then bring it down in post so that the shadows still show some detail. Right now it's mostly black, and the people's faces get kind of lost too.

That's really good to know, actually. Thanks!

Try L-cuts instead of fades into the background scenes - i.e. "What did you do after the movies?" Protagonist starts saying "I went to the cemetary" and we cut to the cemetary as his voice continues. It would speed things up a bit and keep the edit flowing better.

I felt like the edit wasn't very smooth in that respect, but couldn't figure out how to fix it. I'll remember to talk that into account next time I shoot, and not just take the audio.

Overall I think it's decent, although the story does get a little muddy. I think it would benefit a from a little more time put into the writing and a tighter edit. Some of the cinematography is pretty good. The film is certainly better than you made it out to be!

>The story being muddy was something that a lot of people brought up when I showed it to them. This troubles me a touch because I usually take a lot of pride in my writing. But I need to make sure to write something a bit prior to the night before.
> Apart from the theater scene, I am actually fairly happy with it visually.
>Glad it wasn't as bad as I feared, and thanks for your criticism. Hopefully I can turn something around using what I've learned once my camera comes in.

 

[HIFF]

The important thing is that you did actually film it. The more you film, the better you will get. Not many folks actually complete a short or film - well done.

Keep it up.

 

[DeadChannel]

Hey, thanks. Hopefully I can make something again soon.

 

[WalterB]

..............

Stop telling people how bad your film is if you want them to watch it!!!!

.............................!

+107532525642135275855244144156345^n!

It is saying: don't waste your time, there is nothing worth seeing.
It's like:
"AAAWWWW this tastes like dogshit that's overdue! Do you want to taste it?"

Never apologize before presenting something.
Only when it's work in progress you can tell things like: the sound isn't mixed yet, we still need to colorgrade, or: this is a very rough edit, it still needs finetuning.