My 2nd short film, not shot on Red though.

[James Mulholland]

Hi Everyone,

Since I'm a new BT Red one mx owner I just wanted to share a film with you all. I find everyone on here give good honest feadback so I'd like some if you's have 20 minutes. This is the link.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-gTT6l_eRM

Basically I had no budget to shoot this, shot 3 days and paid for food and travel for anyone. To make up for production value I spent ages on the script. I know my Cinematography is iffy but if you can pinpoint stuff I should really try to improve on I would be grateful. Also let me know in general if you enjoyed the film on its own merits.

Some of the night stuff is really noisy because lens only stopped to f3.5 so had to push iso to 800 on t2i to get them. (plus where shooting in my nan's house and she wanted everyone out so had to get it done as quick as possible, but I tried to get the images and lighting to get the mood and feeling across.

Thanks

James

 

[John Stamets]

Hi James. I feel odd commenting as I am pretty new to narratives as most of my experience is in theater. I have years of stage experience, but relatively little in the world of narrative cinema, so take this with a grain of salt. I am learning to translate that experience to a new stage. I offer these observations only because you ask.
First, I really enjoyed it - especially once it got moving. The strength of any production is the story and how it is told. You have a fine actor there in Matthew and the script works especially well with his character. He (and presumably you) took the time to understand (and rehearse?) John and it shows. The role of John played out well. Because of that, I really felt that the voiceovers at the end were unnecessary - the story was carrying itself and the inner conflict in John was visually evident. An odd thing stood out to me - perhaps because I have had more exposure to a knife than I'd like, but the utility knife seemed... not so threatening as a stabbing weapon. It's more of a slashing weapon, if a weapon at all. I initially thought he was going for the throat, which would be pretty effective. I do get that the blade used to carve the tree had to be the same blade used in the attack (Dad's?), but I couldn't help but wonder if the blade would even get through the hoodie. A small matter to be sure, but it was a noticeable distraction to the story. The last thing was the shakiness of some of the shots. A lot of it worked, but there were a few times where I needed to shrink the screen back to YouTube default to avoid vertigo. I have the same problems in some tentpole features, so that is a directorial choice that I just don't deal with well. My favorite scene has to be the room scene with Mom. I wish we could have had more time to see John transition into that state, but once there... that scene worked and it looked nice too. The stark contrast of the warm light with the black shadow worked well to highlight the inner conflict. I felt the pacing was very nice. In summary, I would have liked to see the characters have an opportunity to develop more and a little less shakiness, but overall, I really liked it. Nice job! Now go shoot another...

 

[Peter Dmitriyev]

wow what a powerful short. I envy your work here I thought it was great and shot very well, looked very filmic throughout with very naturalistic but effective cinematography

 

[James Mulholland]

Thanks for the replies.

@John, Yes man me and Matthew talked about the character a lot to try not over do him and sustain the character more. Matthew done an amazing job and was a great fella for around the set aswel. The knife issue is true, We had a proper blade brought on set on day 1 (my original idea was the blade though) but the knife did not have any protection cover for it etc and we didn't want to have to try answer a question of 'how is he walking around a town with that knife, or where is he hiding it', maybe that was more me worried about that but we went back with the blade anyway because most people from that age group I know carry blades in Ireland. Yes I am sorry about some of the shakyness, It was one of the coldest winters in Ireland at the time and sometimes I would slip on ice a bit etc and the camera would do a huge shake (most notable in the V.O shot at the end) but I picked the shots with the best acting over the best shot but It is one thing that bugs me alot. Glad you still enjoyed it though.

@ Peter : Thanks for the nice words, I'm really happy you enjoyed it and found the cinematography effective. I tried to shoot it very natural almost like a play and let the actors role with it while I conveyed the mood through colors and lighting mostly.

Thanks to both of you and anyone else who took the time to watch the short. It's really appreciated.

Thanks

James

 

[RobertP]

Hi James,
I think you made something special here. I watch so many short films. You and I know that 99 percent of them need a lot of work. Not this one. Three days, no budget? You deserve some sort of award, LOL.

For improvements, all I can think of is more lighting techniques or more conservative cinematography, but the shaky cam actually works well here.

Don't ever stop making films.

 

[James Mulholland]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for taking the time to watch it. I'm really glad you enjoyed it. haha thanks, I'm hoping to do more DOP work during 2013 with my new Red Bt so hopefully that will help me improve before I shoot my third short 'Forgiving Amy' late summer 2013.

Thanks man