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star striker

War Short

Hello i posted a war film on here a while ago.
i decided to add a few new things to it like original music, new title and opening sequence and my first go at compositing effects. im reasonably happy with most of the effects as a first try, i know they wouldnt hold up on television but for the internet i think its alright. the only one im not happy with is when the bullet hit near the end (couldnt get the angle right)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IfSBzHlJdY

would be great to hear any feed back or tips and tricks

thanks
 
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Very cool :) Definitely worth a watch.

What did you use for the smokey explosions? That does not look like it was done on After Effects...looks pretty real to me. The gun shots traveling across the screen are a little awkward looking, and what's that thing on the right at around 2:44? It almost looks like your camera's strap got in the shot.

Other than that, it looks very authentic and your props are great, cool camera shake too. On a side note, something seems missing. I think you need more background noise, I can't place it, but if I compare it to something like Saving Private Ryan I think that had more filler noise.
 
The special effects were great for a newbie, except the bullets flying across the screen, don't do that.

I also like the way the grenade explosions worked, just add some more usual colors for the explosion, because the white only looks kind of weird.
 
Great
thanks for your feedback

your right about the camera strap falling into frame, we only filmed that shot once so its all i had when editing, there are a few other little mistakes in there too, at about 2.27 after one guy tries to drag the other he gets up and bangs the plastic gun on the tree and the barrel snaps off. Also the closing shot at the end when the last guy gets shot he actually tripped on a tree branch and fell over so i just put a sound effect in there (you can just hear laughing in the background) i somtimes like leaving those bits in for a bit of a laugh.

i agree with you about the sound, its from an old computer game, they are alright but it does sound a little hollow.

The explosion i just used ash from the fire place, we put it on the end of a plank of wood and stepped on the other end and it flings it in to the air like a see saw or catapult, on this occassion it didnt work aswell cause you can actually get it to go quite high in to the air on some occassions.
 
The frame rate issue might be a youtube thing, and not the film itself. When I watched it I think it was just youtube, stalling, but not sure. It looks pretty good, but yeah feels like there is something missing probably background noise. A lot of newbies, including myself get the hang of that later. One thing I have to say though, even the grenade explosions look real(or mortar explosions), the actors are too close perhaps. In real life, on average I read you have to be about 15 meters away from a grenade for none of the frag to hit you.
 
Not one character.

Watch the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. What do we see?

Tom Hanks is set up as the character to follow, and experience the D-Day battle from his point of view. Without that, it's just sound and fury... signifying nothing.
 
Thanks for your replies.

Im not too sure about the frame rate issue myself, i saved it as WMV file to my computer (probably not the best) and it plays fine there but it seems to skip on youtube. I have never been very good when it comes to formats and things.

In terms of the sound im just using effects from an old computer game, its great cause it has heaps of stuff, but they are begining to sound a little artificial, so im going to look at other places. Also i still dont have a shotgun mic for my camera so im just using the in camera mic most of the time, that will be next on my list of things to get when i have the money.

The explosions were done in real life, we used ash from a fire place. The reason they go off so close to the actors is

A) we use a plank of wood that the actor steps on and it flings it into the air.
B) someone of camera just throws it into frame.

So we are limited in that respect, but hopfully we can come up with a new way of doing them.

And in terms of characters, your right but this was purely made for experimental purposes (effects and grading) so we didnt really think about that stuff with this one, plus we only had about two hours to make it, and none of it was planned so we sort of forgot.
 
star striker said:
Thanks for your replies.

Im not too sure about the frame rate issue myself, i saved it as WMV file to my computer (probably not the best) and it plays fine there but it seems to skip on youtube. I have never been very good when it comes to formats and things.

In terms of the sound im just using effects from an old computer game, its great cause it has heaps of stuff, but they are begining to sound a little artificial, so im going to look at other places. Also i still dont have a shotgun mic for my camera so im just using the in camera mic most of the time, that will be next on my list of things to get when i have the money.

The explosions were done in real life, we used ash from a fire place. The reason they go off so close to the actors is

A) we use a plank of wood that the actor steps on and it flings it into the air.
B) someone of camera just throws it into frame.

So we are limited in that respect, but hopfully we can come up with a new way of doing them.

And in terms of characters, your right but this was purely made for experimental purposes (effects and grading) so we didnt really think about that stuff with this one, plus we only had about two hours to make it, and none of it was planned so we sort of forgot.
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Oh yeah, that's understandable, and for two hours of time, I think you did a great job.
 
I absolutely loved it, this is how a war scene should be filmed, loved everything about it, from the tension you were able to confer int he action as well as the camera angles and even the special affects. Bravo!
 
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