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Please have a look at my short film? I'll give you a cookie...

C

claychicken

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2007
26
0
Hey all, can you guys check out my film I created for VCE (final year of high school in Melbourne, Australia) last year and give me some feedback?

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=oKXy55tvcoI

Of course it was made on my MBP 2.2 C2D Final Cut Express, with a Canon XL2.

I know it is not great, because I only had about 4 hours to film all the footage, and I had not had much experience with the camera, hence why many scenes are a little unfocused, but it was more to gain experience than anything else.

Also, if it doesn't make any sense, don't worry; it's a bit "out there" and experimental "arthouse" cinema. Next time I am definitely making a comedy!!

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
 
Looks very nice, very simple concept... I especially like films that say more than words ever could! Colour grading is great and I'm guessing you filmed in 24p? Harder to tell with youtube clips...
 
I'm just a layman, but... Beautiful. Great continuity. And I'm partial to some Cafe del Mar myself. Out of curiosity I'd like to ask some questions, if that's OK. Firstly, what's the significance of 24p (northernmunky's question)? How did you get the colours like that? Is it a simple filter in FCE? How did you get the girl's coat to be so bold? Were you influenced by Schindler's List? :) Have you done anything else?
 
Hey guys, thanks heaps for the kind words. I am currently stuck with the curse where you absolutely hate all your own work! So it's great to hear some positive feedback.

@northernmunky, I did shoot in 24p to give it that film look. The only problem I found with using very little dialogue is that it is harder to entertain an audience with your film, as they have to view it more like art, and you have to have a very clear message to make sure people do not get lost: something I am not sure I succeeded with.

@MrSmith,
24p mean the footage is filmed at 24 frames per second instead of 25 for pal (australian/european standard format) film and 29.? for ntsc (american standard format). Film on the other hand runs at 24 frames per second, so filming at this rate makes digital footage look a bit more film like. The 'p' stands for progressive, which means that the footage is not interlaced.

I got those colours predominantly by adjusting the levels of the image (done in FCE) and adding a colour tint. Changing the levels also made the colours very vibrant and the shadows very dark, which suited the mood of the film. That was the main reason I chose that red coat, as it stood out against the stone.

I have to tell you guys, this is actually boosting my confidence - something I never thought internet forums could do! Go macrumours!
 
Hey thanks :D

That video/song is awesome! Very unique and it has a great sound. I mostly chose Gymnopedie because I wanted a yann tiersen like sound without any copyright.
 
You definitely gotta upload this the right way, using Vimeo. It deserves much better than CrapTube. :cool:

Did I spot the "Plesantville effect" with the scene where the girl's coat is red and everything else is (nearly) black and white? A lot of interesting color grading to give it a sad and dreary feel... a sort of depression era black and white feel to much of the video.

BTW, I watched it, so where's my cookie? And, do I get to choose, or is there only one flavor?

P.S. You don't enjoy cutting yourself, do you? Sorry, I just wonder after watching the video. ;)
 
MrSmith said:
I'm just a layman, but... Beautiful. Great continuity. And I'm partial to some Cafe del Mar myself. Out of curiosity I'd like to ask some questions, if that's OK. Firstly, what's the significance of 24p (northernmunky's question)? How did you get the colours like that? Is it a simple filter in FCE? How did you get the girl's coat to be so bold? Were you influenced by Schindler's List? :) Have you done anything else?
Click to expand...

I hope I don't steal anyone's thunder, but I thought I'd answer a few.

24p signifies the frame rate of the video. Video, as you know, is not the same as film, and one of the differences is that video is normally 60 frames per second, while video is approximately 24 (23.976). Some cameras, catering to the desires of the prosumer/professional, offer a 24p capture option in order to help imitate film. However, as many will point out, 24p alone is a long way from looking like film (saturation/contrast/hue/focal depth/lighting/color grading/etc are all factors).

As for isolating specific colors, it was popularized by the movie Pleasantville, in which a town of black and white is slowly turned to color. Basically, you isolate the specific color you'd like to pop out, and you turn the saturation to nil. That makes that particular object look black and white. Well, this is the opposite of what you want, right? Simple solution at this point is to invert the process, instantly making everything else black and white and the object in color. You can do with the color corrector 3-way in FCP. It's easier than it looks, but you have to make minor adjustments to get it to look just right. It's popular to use this to highlight blood in a movie.

Search YouTube, and you'll find lots of people posting tutorials. It's one of those effects which has become commonplace, so people don't mind sharing with others how to do it (other effects may be trade secrets, so there are no YouTube tutorials).
 
claychicken said:
I have to tell you guys, this is actually boosting my confidence - something I never thought internet forums could do! Go macrumours!
Click to expand...

Forums are infamous for the random attacks by people you don't know, and seemingly they come without reason. It's great to get good feedback and feel encouraged, isn't it? :)

BTW claychicken, how did you edit a 24p sequence in FCE? To my knowledge, it does not support 24p.

P.S. Mr. Smith, iMovie doesn't have any support for 24p, so if you ever wanted to use it (and had a camera that shot in 24p), you'd have to move up to FCP.
 
Hey guys thanks again for watching.

@mithrilfox, you hit the nail on the head! I wanted it to look pretty sad and dreary.

I was trying to go for some kind of 'pan's labyrinth' type story where the little girl creates a fantastical world around herself to blind her from the brutal, harshness of reality.

Haha and I don't cut myself, as much as this film gives that impression - I forgot to include the 'hope', uplifting part of the story.

Unfortunately, I cannot fulfil the promise of a cookie. But it would have been a chocolate one; a chocolate one with sprinkles....

Also, I have no idea how 24p got into FCE. It may have converted to 25p when importing - which would be crap if it did.

Oh well. As I said, next film I do is going to be a comedy - I'm actually writing it now.
 
claychicken said:
Hey guys thanks again for watching.

@mithrilfox, you hit the nail on the head! I wanted it to look pretty sad and dreary.

I was trying to go for some kind of 'pan's labyrinth' type story where the little girl creates a fantastical world around herself to blind her from the brutal, harshness of reality.
Click to expand...

You did a good job of that.

Haha and I don't cut myself,
Click to expand...

That's probably a good thing. :)

Unfortunately, I cannot fulfil the promise of a cookie. But it would have been a chocolate one; a chocolate one with sprinkles....
Click to expand...

You better hope I don't find out where you live, pal. :mad: I want my cookie! :p

Also, I have no idea how 24p got into FCE. It may have converted to 25p when importing - which would be crap if it did.
Click to expand...

My guess is that FCE worked with it as a 30p timeline? I'd be interested to know, cause I've never actually used FCE (just FCP). In fact, if you open up the program, click on the sequence in the media browser, choose settings, under "Editing timebase" it should show what frame rate it is.
 
I find the constant use of fade in/out to black a bit distracting. Other than that the pixel aspect ratio is not right I think. But I'm just nitpicking, the movie is really nice !
 
Hey sorry mithrilfox, I actually made this film last August, so I don't have FCE to check the frame rate.

I actually think the fade ins and outs are a little much now, but I remember at the time I thought they made the film look much cooler - how inexperienced I was...

haha I really shouldn't have made that promise of the cookie! Now I'll have a giant, worldwide angry mob coming to hunt me down :eek:

Thanks again for watching this guys. It's a great feeling to know that people are actually experiencing your creation.
 
The acting and screenplay were darn good, too. I actually watched the entire thing. YouTube's HQ mode is still unwatchable full screen, however.
 
x2 for Vimeo.. www.vimeo.com it's just way better than youTube for quality footage and user interface. It's just so clean and easy. youTube is always going to be better for exposure though :)

as for 24p, I don't see the advantage over 25p. Very similar only 24p is a real pain in the butt to work with. 25p will work flawlessly in iMovie '08, FCE, FC, etc. No need for pull downs, de-interlacing, conversion, etc.

THANK GOD FOR PAL!
 
claychicken said:
Hey thanks :D

That video/song is awesome! Very unique and it has a great sound. I mostly chose Gymnopedie because I wanted a yann tiersen like sound without any copyright.
Click to expand...

Well, did you record this version yourself? Or is this recording in the public domain as well?

Regardless, I really liked the movie. I just thought that using Satie twice was a little much, and as much as I love it, I got a little sick of it.

(That, and I scored a movie one time where the director wanted Gymnopedie in the opening sequence, so I based a lot of my themes for the rest of the film on that. It might not be only because you have it twice in your film, but also because I spent so much time with Mr. Satie on mine.)

Anyways, great job, and keep at it.
 
Hey I enjoyed the film a lot... very well shot, and the colors are great.. just a couple of notes if you are interested...
1. if you just cut down the opening title screens by 3-5 frames it would set up the movie much better in my opinion.. At the moment they just seem to drag a bit and i find myself losing interest even before the movie begins.. it's a small thing, but on student films its the small things that make a film great.
2.) I once had a film teacher who would get insanely angry when I used fades in my cuts for no real reason. He said I wasn't confident enough in my cutting, so I tried to pad it with fades... he was right, fades make me feel like the editor just doesn't believe he can make the cuts right... while I know there is a definite place for fades, but i thought it was just a bit much...

Don't take these as negative words though, just some food for thought from one filmmaker to another. I've been in those slumps where you just think all your work is awful, but just keep going.. you will never rid yourself of that negative voice.. you just have to keep going... and i'm sure you know that when you are lucky enough to love what you do like all filmmakers do, then you are always going to try and keep pushing yourself forward and growing.. best of luck to you!
 
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