Film Class Movies

[BeoX2]

Boy it's been a while....

Well I recently finished my second film in my Film I class. I really think it did well, and yes, I used a Rei theme song in it. Sue me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ_Wzti4nOI

PS- The auditorium scenes are inspired by Eva as well

Is anyone else taking any film classes who wants to share their work?

[supershinjiasukashipper]

Boy it's been a while....

Well I recently finished my second film in my Film I class. I really think it did well, and yes, I used a Rei theme song in it. Sue me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ_Wzti4nOI

PS- The auditorium scenes are inspired by Eva as well

Is anyone else taking any film classes who wants to share their work?

This belongs in the films and video subforum.

[BeoX2]

This belongs in the films and video subforum.

You're right, sorry. Forgot about that.

[supershinjiasukashipper]

Its a good movie though. Lets hope the mods move it for you instead of scrapping it.

[MugwumpHasNoLiver]

Specifically, we have this wonderful and very talented thread.

[child of Lilith]

Welcome back, BeoX2.

[BeoX2]

Many thanks, Lilith.

[C.A.P.]

WARNING: The following will probably piss you off.

Well, it's no "Citzen Kane", but it's obvious you put a lot into it, and for that, I congratulate you on completing it. Hope you won't mind me trying my best on critiquing it.

First off, If there's one thing I'll compliant on, is that the pacing is nice; short and sweet, nothing overlong to make it convoluted. Also, it's a interesting idea to use the whole consciousness theory to help express love; it says something that I wished you keep that going so we, the audience, can know about these two lovebirds more. The use of Rei's theme actually helps express that scene pretty well actually; great to know you know on how much you know about the impact of music in film.

But if you wanted the impact of this film to be greater, you should of focused more on the character, without a doubt one of the most important aspects of anything in the realm of fiction. That was one of the problems with the film; who is this guy, and why should I, an audience member, should care about him? Sure, he has love issues, and he's obviously in love, but again, why should I care? What does this relationship has that I can cling onto? If we look into our 'hero', we don't know if he seriously love the girl, or if he unsure about the concept of love and is just going through the motions just because he wants to; his motives are not clear. I'm hoping that if you're going back to that angle in the future, you will fix that so we know on what makes future couples you will make special.

Another issue is the character himself-again, why should I care about this "goth" character? Even if I cared about him, what on earth is he thinking? Is he serious about his love? Does he care about the world around him? These are a few questions that we, as filmmakers, have to take into consideration about movies; audience members will remember the characters most, and if we give them nothing, then they'll remember nothing. So, if you're going to make more original characters, here's some suggestions on what you should do to them; make facial expressions, make the character enduring, silly, absurd, malicious, anything in the human emotion to express himself, using body language, the way you move, basically anything to make the audeince care about this character; the more you express, the more they will remember. I can't stress that enough; you have no idea on how much charisma is so important to any film ever made.

So bottom line, if you're serious about film and want to make any of you future films better, I recommend taking your characters much more seriously, but more importantly, treat them as CHARACTERS, not plot points to express what the movie's story is. Once you got that down, you'll go places. So with that, I wish you luck in the near future; you'll need it (so will I).

[Eva Yojimbo]

I watched it, and I quite liked it. Visually and tonally it's quite strong, and I'm going to go ahead and largely disagree with C.A.P. Most of what he says if in the abstract, but not really when you're dealing with short, experimental films. You can't really develop character in any traditional way in the span of 6 minutes, and it's perfectly fine to have to have character take a back seat to tone, theme, and aesthetics. I don't think we really need to "care" about characters to get lost in the surrealistic world of films. What do we know about the characters in Un Chien Andalou, for instance?

Anyway, my critiques are more technical. The sound is really off throughout the film and the voice acting is rather sub-par. It detracts from the overall experience. Honestly, I would find a way to mute the opening talk about consciousness, because your protagonist isn't listening anyway. I think the diagram explains it well enough visually without having to go into a short lecture about how the levels of consciousness works (the opening Poe quote says enough itself). Even the "wake ups" at the end are kinda annoying, especially the one where the background sound cuts in and out.

Other than the sound, as I said, the visuals were quite strong. I liked the diversity of the angles and the light motif, but I think you needed to refine a few shots here and there and even get some more. The pan down from the exit sign is much to rough, jerky, and fast. It should've been slower to capture the dreamlike mood, and I would've panned straight down. It looks to me like you tried to center the exit sign, but compositions are more dramatic and effective when you use the rule of thirds (placing an image in one of the points where the imaginary lines would meet if you divided the image up in thirds vertically and horizontally).

I also think you needed a reaction shot after he dropped the apple to make it clear that it was him seeing the girl. That panning shot in the corridor is rather pointless, methinks, but the shot that switches over the door he passes that the girl appears at is quite good. I would've just set it up a bit more (ie, followed the guy with the camera and THEN panned over the door, as the static shot that starts moving when he passes is a bit strange). As for him watching the movie, I might have recommended a bit more diversity in the cutting; that constant shot behind his head gets old.

[C.A.P.]

I watched it, and I quite liked it. Visually and tonally it's quite strong, and I'm going to go ahead and largely disagree with C.A.P. Most of what he says if in the abstract, but not really when you're dealing with short, experimental films. You can't really develop character in any traditional way in the span of 6 minutes, and it's perfectly fine to have to have character take a back seat to tone, theme, and aesthetics. I don't think we really need to "care" about characters to get lost in the surrealistic world of films. What do we know about the characters in Un Chien Andalou, for instance?

Ooooh, good point. But I still stand by my character critique, but you raise a good point; yes, we don't need character to get lost in "the surrealistic world of films", but you need motivation in character in order for the surrealistic world to work; if the character is just there just for the movie to give us someone to be there, what's the point of the person being there if you can easily do the movie without him/her?

I mean, just because it's experimental doesn't mean we should totally ignore what was previously established in film. That's one of the problems with experimental films; you have to be really careful on what the purpose of the film is, and you have to willing to take blame of the risk if it doesn't work.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

How many of these class films have you made? Because this is a very good start if this is you first.

To start with, you have a very strong sense of framing and cinematography. The lighting is very bland, but the piece didn't need any strong stylistic lighting anyway. Your sense of story-telling hasn't developed quite yet either, but, again, this is an abstract piece. It didn't need to have vivid story-telling techniques (character development, ect.) rather, it just needed strong visuals. And you have quite a few of those. Though it was obvious to me that you use Final Cut Pro imagery for the opening and closing. It's not that big of a deal, but in the future I would spend some time on creating a more creative looking title from scratch, or just leave it simple white font against black background. What you have now works for this piece and I don't think many people will see it and think "Effects>Video Generators>Render" when they see the title. I'm just letting you know that's the first thing I thought. That, and it's always better to see what you can come up with on your own first before resorting to whatever your software presets have.

I would also have liked to have seen the film look more closely at the different levels on consciousness, or if you already had them there, maybe make them more obvious by cutting to a visual motif every time the character goes into another form of consciousness.

But regardless, it was very impressive. I can't wait to see how you grow as a filmmaker and as an artist. You definitely "get" it, and you show that very well. You just need to perfect it and grow within it.

[C.A.P.]

^If there's anyone Beo should listen to for fair advice, it's this guy.

[BeoX2]

Answers:

This is my second film in my Film I class.

I'm aware that the voice acting is trash, it was time constraints that killed it. We had to get it in quickly, and I'm gonna redo it as soon as I can.

A lot of the camera shakiness or overall shittiness, Jimbo, is due to the crap equipment we Film I people get to use. It has to be jumped around just to get it, but I don't really like those scenes either.

The goth kid was just a kid in our group that we chose to act. What a mistake that was. He rarely showed up and didn't really care about the movie. I think the character development was implied, or at least ambiguous, and was unnecessary in a 6 minute film.

Some of the shots were needed to hit the shot requirements for the class. That's the reason there was the shitty stop motion.

Freaky, we did want to explore at least three other levels of his consciousness. It again came down to time constraints and equipment quality. If you saw our storyboard, we actually wanted to end the film with an infinite mirror illusion after the "memory film" scene. We just couldn't get the props needed.

Also, you're right, we are using Final Cut Pro, which unfortunately doesn't allow for much customization. The funny part is that was exactly how I made the titles, hahaha. Do you have any suggestions on how I could get more creative titles into FCP?

Overall, thank all of you for your critiques. Our next film starts soon, and I'll repost this film once I edit it up a little (voiceovers, durations, etc.), as the teacher of the class recommended we send it to a state film festival. Thanks a lot for the honest reviews.

[C.A.P.]

The goth kid was just a kid in our group that we chose to act. What a mistake that was. He rarely showed up and didn't really care about the movie. I think the character development was implied, or at least ambiguous, and was unnecessary in a 6 minute film.

Tell me about it. I had the same problem with someone when I was trying to make a commercial. Boy, was I dumb to trust her; probably one of the rare times where I couldn't turned something I was involved in on time, or finish on the matter. Never again will I make that mistake...I hope.

Some of the shots were needed to hit the shot requirements for the class. That's the reason there was the shitty stop motion.

Doesn't mean you have to shoehorn it in. There's ways to insert something like that into a film you wanted to do.

Anyways, you're welcome. Good luck with the festival.

[Eva Yojimbo]

we don't need character to get lost in "the surrealistic world of films", but you need motivation in character in order for the surrealistic world to work;

*Cough*StanBrakhage*Cough* ;)

[C.A.P.]

-shurgs- So I'm ignorant...or/and have a poor sense of memory.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Freaky, we did want to explore at least three other levels of his consciousness. It again came down to time constraints and equipment quality. If you saw our storyboard, we actually wanted to end the film with an infinite mirror illusion after the "memory film" scene. We just couldn't get the props needed.

Also, you're right, we are using Final Cut Pro, which unfortunately doesn't allow for much customization. The funny part is that was exactly how I made the titles, hahaha. Do you have any suggestions on how I could get more creative titles into FCP?

Oh, trust me. I understand time constraints. I don't know all of what kind of footage you've shot, so I can't tell you whether or not editing would have been you friend when it came to exploring the different conciseness levels. But at the very least, you could have cut or fade to black and play an appropriate sound effect to suggest going into different levels of conciseness. That infinite mirror image you mentioned would have looked awesome in your film. It's too bad you couldn't get the props in time.

And yes. I know Final Cut Pro and all of it's tricks. That's how I knew exactly how you created that title. I haven't used the editing program that came with the RED cameras yet, but FCP is arguably the best editing software in existence. But even with the adjustments you can do to the title graphics you have there, it probably would have been better to shoot water or a rippling bed sheet or something and fool around with the colors and contrasts in FCP to make it look like fluid, rather than having all of FCP's graphic presets get in your way. Even I only use those graphic presets for creating animated DVD menus in FCP for DVD Studio Pro. (I'm gonna assume your class uses the full Final Cut Suite.)

Also, this really has nothing to do with this particular video, but make sure you make at least one film that isn't a class project. That way you have all the time in the world to make it look your very best. Use class to learn techniques and how to deliver on a schedule, then shoot at least one film at your own pace. You will probably have to do it along side of class projects, but it's worth it. It will look amazing and will bedazzle anyone who sees your demo reel. I shot Sweet Sixteen on my own time and made sure that most of the footage from that would look good on my demo reel. Tips: producers like cool cars, liquid being poured (beer/wine, ect.), or hot chicks. We'll call these "eye-catch shots". Ask if you can film a fashion show for free, ask around to see who owns a sports car you can film, do whatever it takes. The father of the lead actress in Sweet Sixteen had a sky-blue 1969 Jaguar, so I knew if I filmed it that I had at least one eye-catch shot for the demo reel. It's been in every version of my demo reel I've cut, the latest version of it getting me all sorts of jobs.

[C.A.P.]

^Huh. Thanks FF4E. That'll actually come in handy for me in the future.

[BeoX2]

^Huh. Thanks FF4E. That'll actually come in handy for me in the future.

Same here, thanks.

And we actually only have Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro. We use iDvd for burning and such.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

You're welcome.

We use iDvd for burning and such.

Um... avoid using bright red at all costs. Red is a very tricky color for video to capture anyway, since red has the least amount of readable color shades for any video camera. Hi-8, Mini DV, HD, RED, it doesn't matter. It's not a very video friendly color. (This is why they had to re-design Optimus Prime's color scheme for the Transformers movies.) But usually it doesn't look noticeably bad... unless your burning with iDVD. The reds bleed horribly in that program no matter how it looked in the view finder or on FCP. Any other color isn't as noticeably different in iDVD, just avoid bright red!