Canadian Feature Film "Cody Fitz" Photos

[Kurt Harder]

Hey guys, been a reader of the forums for a few years but never really got around to posting too much. I'm a 19 year old director from Calgary, Alberta up in Canada who just finished directing my first feature film on Red MX. We shot the film in 17 days in July and are just starting post production. We're all a bunch of young kids who wanted to make a film and the majority of us are within the ages of 15-20. Currently learning Premiere with the whole final cut situation.

The film revolves around two childhood friends who've recently moved out and looks into what a person appears to be opposed to who they actually are. The film looks into early adult lifestyle and whether or not what we do is positive or not.

Would love to hear what you guys think as I'm pretty new into the industry and looking for advice/feedback! Here are a selection of (ungraded and lower rez) stills from the film;

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And for good measure here's a couple of our set photos;

Hope to hear from you!

Cheers,
Kurt
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[Rick Darge]

KUDOS to you man! Looks great!

DO OR DIE.. THERE IS NO TRY!

 

[David Battistella]

Right on! Congratulations on your first wrap!

The images look good. It's good to see you guys went out and shot a film. There is no better way. Whenever I see threads like this it reminds me of the first days of RED and the whole idea of democratizing film.

Keep us posted. Make sure you post the trailer.

What made you guys shoot RED?

 

[Jean Guerra]

what lenses did you used?

 

[Kurt Harder]

We used a set of RPPs. 25, 35, 50, 85, and 100.

I was set on shooting on Red since early pre-production as I've done quite a bit of camera assisting with different camera's and the functionality of being able to shoot Raw is just incredible how much you can do with the footage. I can't wait to try out an Epic.

 

[NormLi]

Kurt was a camera trainee on one of my features I shot in Alberta and was a very smart fellow with lots of potential. All the best with your cinematography career Kurt!

 

[Kurt Harder]

Thanks for the compliment Norm! Back when I couldn't even coil BNC cable Hope to see you around more as I'm probably heading west pretty soon.

I actually didn't light the film myself. We had this really talented kid by the name of Ryan Jenq (www.ryanjenq.com) who's based out of Rochester NY. He flew up here for the month of July to shoot the project.

 

[Kegan Sant]

Great looking stuff Kurt. Congrats to directing your first feature at such a young age.

Definitely going to keep an eye on this,

Kegan

 

[Matthew Bennett]

Lovely compositions! Can't wait to see this! Go Canada!

 

[Kurt Harder]

We have a teaser trailer up! Here is the link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU6xotoDR6w

 

[Kurt Harder]

We've released our theatrical trailer today. Love to hear what you guys think!

We're a couple days away from picture lock and we're starting color correction and audio mixing next week. Really stoked.

 

[Ramesh Jai]

I think you are doing a great great job! Keep on it.

Just my thoughts - keep the trailer short and make it a little bit more interesting.

But really kudos to you and your young team. You've made this movie with passion and that's the magic ingredient of any production. God bless.

 

[Zeb B]

19 years old doing a feature . . . A? That makes Joseph Hutson over the hill

 

[Richard ndumu]

look's great, but you should get a colorist,

 

[Joel Kaye]

First - absolutely awesome for being so young and jumping into the deep end. Way to go. (you've noted coloring is yet to come and I can see some great potential in the footage)

Second. Do a 90 second cut that tells us what the premise of the story is. Basically - what's the 'big idea'? What spins act one into two? You may be better off at a tight 60 seconds. Less is more sometimes. If I had to guess I'd bet the movie is cut too long also. (because EVERYONE cuts their indie movie too long )


Don't tell us the whole story - The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo extended trailer online is a notably horrible example of that mistake. God that's a rotten trailer.

A trailer should tease me into wanting to watch the whole movie. I should know what the story premise is as well as the genre. Thriller trailers are thrilling. Comedy trailers are funny. Dramatic trailers probably should show some high drama. Right now I couldn't tell you what your story is or what the genre is. I guess it's a sullen coming of age drama.

Seemed like there were two lines that tried indicate what might be important... "hey wanna party at a cabin?" and "they feel real... like I'm dreaming but I'm not actually dreaming". Both of those feel like setups for some kind of story. Also...consider a cut where the diving board fall continues to intercut all the way through the trailer until the noose shot near the end of the trailer. I liked the cut between those two shots, good idea. I also liked the time lapse shot. Maybe that plays earlier.

Good potential, for sure. But a strong editor would probably change a ton of that.

And don't take this as a big knock. It's not. I've seen a lot of before/after trailers and marketing materials. Including my own and people who are really good with trailers have a unique skill. A friend of mine cut a trailer for "Big Name" director and the big name Director was incapable of doing the edit. He left after a week and said "I give up, you guys figure it out".

 

[Kurt Harder]

Thank you for your feedback everyone. :smiley: Great advice Joel, I'll definitely keep that in mind going forward.

 

[Jeremiah Kuehne]

That's awesome, man! I'm a 16 year old looking to begin my first feature in a few months. Stage 1: Screenplay. Looks promising. Would love to see it when it comes out.