New Feature Film Trailer - My friend, Oscar.

[Brian Kaz]

****08/23/11 UPDATE****

My friend, Oscar. NOW AVAILABLE at www.myfriendoscar.com

"My Friend Oscar is a film about the profound power of friendship... Taylor Slade's performance
is a jewel. Seldom do you see such authentic talent in a child actor." -Wendell Pierce of HBO's Treme and The Wire

See it the way it was meant to be seen:

****10/06/11 UPDATE****

My friend, Oscar. has been selected to the New Orleans Film Festival and is an award finalist!
Screen dates are:

Sunday, October 16 - 12:30pm at the CAC
Wednesday, October 19 - 7:15pm @ The Theatres at Canal Place (digital screening)

More info here: http://neworleansfilmsociety.org/festival/detail/900/My-Friend-Oscar

If you're in town come check it out

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http://myfriendoscar.com/

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"We had access to too little money, no equipment, and little by little, we went insane."

After consuming two years of my life, our new feature "My friend, Oscar" is finally complete. Made with a volunteer cast & crew for a mere pittance, it has exceeded its no-budget origins in more ways than I could have hoped. 103 scenes, a dozen principals, nearly 100 extras, over a dozen locations, 40+ days of shooting...

-Shot with Nikon lenses
-Editing/grading/FX comps in Sony Vegas 9
-2 Cheap fresnels, Mini mole, 2 flourescent Cool lights, utility halogen, small roscoe LED, China ball
-Sachtler Video 18p
-Rode NTG-3 & Sennheiser ME-66/64
-Long Valley Crane & Dolly
-Crappy reflector

Regards,
Brian Kaz
Director/Co-Writer/Executive Producer/Editor/Sound Mix/Visual FX

 

[Justin Kirchhoff]

Frames look great. Nice grading.

 

[Jerrod Cordell]

I love how Red can fit in that shoe-string budget so nicely.

It honestly looks good and the acting is pretty impressive too. Good job.

 

[Jean-Charles Wolfarth]

Congrats, Brian !

It's not easy to complete such a project on your own. The colors are great, vivid... The actors seem talented too. I hope you'll find a way to make it available to the European audience.

This kind of project is heart warming.

Keep up the good work !

Jean-Charles

 

[Brian Kaz]

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Getting good actors was obviously paramount for this film, not only because of the subject matter, but they have the ability to improve some of the less desirable technical moments that budget and time constraints inflict. But I knew we'd be okay on this front seeing as my producer, Charlie Farve Hayes, helps run "Summer Lyric" at Tulane University, which produces some of the biggest theater shows in New Orleans. Lots of access to top notch local talent.

Still have a ways to go on this thing. I just recently started work on sound & ADR, and have a couple FX shots left plus final grading. Music is about 40% complete.

I hope you'll find a way to make it available to the European audience.

I'm sure we will. This film has a great quirky sensibility and some taboo moments that I think would play well out there.

I wish I could have worked that into the trailer better. It comes off a little more serious than I intended (the film is equal parts quirky comedy & drama).

 

[Luka Jovanovic]

Nice job, keep it going!

 

[Jean-Charles Wolfarth]

Brian, the trailer is good like that, in my opinion.

The website is nice too, noone could imagine there is such a small crew behind this. Very pro. This feature should be shown on the Red website, to change from all the Hollywood pics which pollute our screens :tongue_smilie:

This is exactly what the Red One allows now.

 

[Brian Kaz]

 

[Joe G.]

I liked the story. Acting was passable, but not stellar. The big thing is the sound. Get a pro sound guy to try and clean up and revitalize your dialogue.

 

[Brian Kaz]

Thanks for the comments, Joe. There's nothing on the technical end you can say that I'm not already aware of (or cringing over). I mentioned above that I only just started working on sound & ADR. Post begins & ends with me. I have no money to throw around to anyone, but rest assured that fixing the audio is a high priority for me.

Don't agree about the acting and I surely doubt you'll find better in a low-budget film, let alone one that cost $3500 ($1500 if you don't count food!). Especially given the fact that everyone involved volunteered their free time to do this.

Additionally, not a single person involved in this entire production have ever worked on a professional film set (most have never been on any kind of film set).

I apologize if I sound a bit defensive. But with everything we've been up against, I'm learning to savor what went right rather than dwell on what went wrong.

 

[Brian Kaz]

I don't know whether to laugh (well, maybe chuckle) or be supremely, infernally upset.

 

[Nick Gardner]

I'd go with laugh. But I can see how that might sting a little bit. Pretty damn funny though ;-)

Nick

 

[Brian Kaz]

What's funny is, I was planning on making a horror trailer out of the film at some point to be included on the eventual DVD/Blu as an extra (though I wasn't going the pedophile route...). I already have a fake commercial made from one of the businesses in the film.

 

[Brian Kaz]

And "Carl", I know you're just having a little fun. But it's not cool using my company name with that. I don't want people thinking we're associated with it. We're going to have enough trouble getting word out on the film as it is without something else possibly mucking it all up.

Thanks.

 

[Joe D'Arcy]

"We had access to too little money, no equipment, and little by little, we went insane."
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http://www.myfriendoscar.com

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After consuming nearly a year and a half of my life, our new feature "My friend, Oscar" is finally just about complete. Made for a paltry, laughable sum and with little to no crew, it seems to be exceeding its no-budget origins in more ways than I could have hoped. 103 scenes, a dozen principals, nearly 100 extras, over a dozen locations, 40+ days of shooting...

-Shot with Nikon lenses
-Editing/grading (still early)/FX comps in Sony Vegas 9
-2 Cheap fresnels, Mini mole, 2 flourescent Cool lights, utility halogen, small roscoe LED, China ball
-Sachtler Video 18p
-Rode NTG-3 & Sennheiser ME-66/64
-Long Valley Crane & Dolly
-Crappy reflector

Regards,
Brian Kaz
Director/Co-Writer/Executive Producer/Editor/Sound/Visual FX

Congratulations Brian. Thats an amazing feat. Hard enough doing a short on no budget, let alone a feature.
Which Nikons did you use? Did you use screw on NDs?
Regards,
Joe
PM sent

 

[Bill Anderson]

Do I understand what's going on here?: Brian Kaz posts his movie "My Friend Oscar" and carlweathers uses Brian's footage to make a trailer/vimeo movie called "My Friend Oscar" credited to "Carl Weathers" ??????? and then makes his first post on RED to announce this ???????

 

[Joe D'Arcy]

Do I understand what's going on here?: Brian Kaz posts his movie "My Friend Oscar" and carlweathers uses Brian's footage to make a trailer/vimeo movie called "My Friend Oscar" credited to "Carl Weathers" ??????? and then makes his first post on RED to announce this ???????

Yeah its hard to believe that someone would hijack a film. Serious moderator intervention required.

 

[Frank Weeks]

It's gone from vimeo

found this:

Sorry, "My Friend Oscar" was deleted at 12:12:11 Sat Jan 2, 2010. We have no more information about it on our mainframe or elsewhere.

Good luck with the real version Brian

 

[jimhare]

Fantastic! Amazing how the difference between a shoestring budget and a $10mil film is maybe a 20% difference onscreen.

I can really see what you were going for here.

 

[Brian Kaz]

Fantastic! Amazing how the difference between a shoestring budget and a $10mil film is maybe a 20% difference onscreen.

I can really see what you were going for here.

Thanks, Jim! I've been trying to meticulously fix as many technical deficiencies as possible. Maybe I can bring that percentage down even more before the end.

It's gone from vimeo

found this:

Sorry, "My Friend Oscar" was deleted at 12:12:11 Sat Jan 2, 2010. We have no more information about it on our mainframe or elsewhere.

Good luck with the real version Brian

I had my producer contact the vimeo people. Don't know if it was because of that or a "Carl" mea culpa. Either way, I'm glad it's off.