Short film shoot on Scarlet-X

[Michael Millichamp]

Hey guys,

Here is a short film I DP shot on my Scarlet-X.

Overall I am pretty happy with how everything turned out. We shot it on a tiny tiny budget and we are happy with the result.

We shot it in three days. I wish the schedule could have been stretched a little more and I could have had more time to do some lighting tests and set ups. I also wish I had some extra time to learn how to use a Steadicam. Those things are amazingly fun, but jesus they suck if you have no clue how to use them.

Shot with CP.2's 28, 50 and 85. Mostly used 5600k FloLites and a couple of tungsten arri's here in there. Mostly 650s or 350s.

The grade is by John Tissavary which couldn't have come out better. He was extremely generous and helpful and I couldn't be happier with how outstanding he was. I will most likely get all of my work graded through him and I suggest you all look into it as well!

So, that's that, now tear me apart and critique me hard. I need to improve so I would like to know what you guys think.


https://vimeo.com/55687804

 

[Tolin]

I tried posting some feedback yesterday but it ended up focusing too much on the non-cinematography aspects of the film that I didn't much care for, so I'm cutting it simple.

Pros: One will hardly ever compliment a DP on his lighting if he's not satisfied with it himself. I thought it looked solid though.
Cons: Cropping chins and scalps all the way through. Also, the camera tends to react to the scene and not the other way around - Characters that enter the frame and miss their mark, only to have the camera adjust accordingly (Very distracting).

Overall I can't say I disliked the cinematography - I feel it worked. Which is way more than I can say about the rest of the film. Who casts a lead actress that can't act nor lip-sync for a role that relies on both? I don't care much for the shaky handheld style but watching this I've never wanted the camera to move more - Just to bring Some life to a film where the actors clearly fails to. The audio was crap as well - "Good audio can save bad cinematography, but good cinematography can't save bad audio"; sadly your work probably does suffer.

(The grade work really was great! I've seen so many movies shot on Red that had the potential to look good but just didn't because of poor grading)

 

[Edward Johnson]

The :shocked:intro i was no convinced about the love scene and the lip sync suck...... I love the approach keep it up and it will fall in place..

 

[Jagger Christian]

Really enjoyed the film. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Jagger Christian]

What steadycam were you using with the Scarlet?

 

[Doug Beatty]

The grade was great, but overall there were a couple of scenes that started early and left late (rather than the other way around). Does the audience really need to see the lead walk into the studio and say hello to the board op (who doesn't appear at all any other point in the movie)? I would have used her vocals as the score underneath the steadicam shot of her walking in the parking lot and then cut right into the medium shot of her singing.

Also, the shot of her checking her phone in the stairwell begged for a MCU or better yet to be to be cut altogether. I don't need to see her eating dinner and then throwing away her trash and then going back down the stairs and having that conversation with her boyfriend.

Lastly, I agree with the note on the sound really hurting you. As a sound guy myself, I always love it when directors allow for a CU or MCU on dialogue scenes just to give the boom a chance to get the mic in close to the actors. There were a couple of wide shots that were much too thin and distracting.

Also- unplug the fridge! It ruined a perfectly intimate exchange between the characters. And I think that the boom hit the ceiling on the tracking shot after the classroom scene. While I'm at it, you can't have the off camera dialogue of the teacher overlapping into close ups for your main actors because the perspective mismatch is distracting. Have your teacher dialogue clean and your close up clean, and then mix the levels in post.

Critical, I know, but I think you have a great eye and the rest of the details will fall into place with practice.

 

[Michael Millichamp]

Thank you all for your feedback!

A lot of things discussed, sound wise, are definitely a problem. I also think Vimeo is to blame for the sync issues. The actress is actually a singer and we recorded that live in the studio. So, it could be a possible sync issue with Vimeo, although I'm not sure.

The director and myself also wanted to shoot this very minimalistic. A lot of use of wides and long one shot takes. I guess given the movie, it should have possibly been shot a different way.

But I would definitely agree the sound needs work. The director is a graduate student and our work primarily focuses on directing/editing and it's hard to get a good sound guy with good equipment, so they are forced to use people who aren't great at sound with equipment that isn't great either.

Keep the critiques coming! I love trying to learn more.

Thanks!

 

[Doug Beatty]

Good sound is hard to come by, I agree. I took the bull by the horns and invested in a great kit and have learned a lot about location audio by getting out there and doing it for myself. I find is easier to get a grasp on things through experience and listening to advice from those with experience. Better than film school I say!

If you ever need quality audio professionals, I can hook you up. Check my thread for samples and gear.

www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?90126-LA-Location-Sound-Recordist-For-Hire

(BTW- I'm from Houston, so it was fun hearing the Houston specific details in your short!)