The support means the world to me, and thanks to your kind contributions I was able to go and visit my boy in Britain. I'll try and mock up a proper recap blog—though I am notoriously terrible at doing those, I don't think I've ever managed a proper recap blog for any of the various conventions I've gone to over the years. I guess there wasSteps Trodden Black Trailer · 9:37pm Jul 15th, 2015
For the past year or so, I've been playing a leading support role in an indie film that one of my friends has been directing. It's kinda cool because we've got connections that can set us up to show this at the Maui Film Festival, which is like, a huge deal. Maui might seem like it's only a prime place for vacationing, but one of the few things it can boast claims to is that it has one of the most prestigious film festivals in the US. If we get good reception from there, we're going to see if we can push it on to Sundance.
My friend Keane is a special effects wizard, and you may remember him from some other blogposts I've done promoting his work. Here's a little link to his youtube channel if you want to see his other stuff: Shining Cat Productions
This movie is best described as a weird cross section of sci-fi thriller and teenage drama, and while it may not be the most groundbreaking film ever recorded it's certainly very strong for being written, edited, and performed by a group of 15-18 year old teenagers. I have high hopes for this movie, and I hope you guys will be interested in seeing a final product once we are able to get it out (we are planning a youtube release eventually).
Without further stalling, here is the trailer. I'm the dude with the absurdly red hair (I got it dyed for the character I'm playing, who is this cynical douchebag of a dude)
(feel free to help us out by reviewing the trailer, letting us know if anything looks funny or feels awkward, feedback is highly appreciated)
The sound cutting off at 0:55 seems kind of abrupt, but I'd still watch it.
lmao it was rather jarring jumping from a key turning an ignition to some bloody dude rolling around on the ground whilst getting shot at
hue I had a good time
The scene change at 35 was weird.
Congrats, hope you succeed
Wow. It looks awesome.
The red is a little... off-putting. People with fake hair dye always give me the impression that they love trenchcoats, piercings, feminism, and listen exclusively to hardcore death metal.
3241905 I do like feminism
but the idea was that my character is a giant fucking douchebag who rebels for the sake of it
so the hair is there for the character
Alright, make yourself comfortable because I have A LOT to say. Don't worry, most of it's good, and hopefully it's all constructive. Before I go further, I'm going to leave this here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6XZJMRpszs It's a piece of work I filmed recently. I'm not trying to self promote myself, I am trying to give you an idea of my work, before I go and critique yours, I figure it's only fair so you can decide for yourself if my criticism holds any value. I was the Cinematographer of this project, I also edited and co wrote it. I'm not going to critique anything besides the cinematography however, since frankly my opinions on the directing and acting are just that, opinions. While cinematography is also an art form, making it equally as subjective, it is also a subject I study formally and informally, as well as what I hope to do with my life. So, I have the ability to critique it far more technically. Obviously I'm not going to critique the writing either, as you're a far better writer than I am anyway. Okay, I'm going to start with the technicalities. Many of the shots have a magenta shift to them, meaning if you ran it through a vector scope, you would notice that the overall color leans a little towards magenta. This is a very easy fix, as you simply add green and it makes it go away. USE A VECTOR SCOPE to do this. It takes a lifetime of training to immediately recognize where your color lies in-between green and magenta. I'm not trying to toot my horn if you will by noticing that it was magenta, I run my work through vector scopes, and show it to many trained eyes before I release anything. Something I really liked however, is all of the creative shots. Especially at film festivals, (I've been to a few, my best friends sister runs the Naples film festival), creative shots are key. It is extremely difficult to keep an audience interested with the writing and acting, while I agree thats very sad, it's also true. Also, I Believe I saw a few steadi cam shots in there? Very cool, steadi cam shots when used correctly give beautiful pacing.
Okay, now were going to move into the subjective stuff, specifically use of camera techniques. As a general rule, the closer you are to the face, the more drama it adds to the shot, of course you can't get too close however, as it becomes awkward, it's a fine line that can take a while to learn. Of course this doesn't mean if you wan't to make a dramatic film every shot should be as close as possible, it's all about progression. An easy trick, for example, is to cut the shots a bit closer as the scene becomes more intense, from a medium shot to a close up, for example. Also, a common trick for keeping the focus on one subject is just that, keeping the focus on one subject. I'm assuming your not using a dslr, it looked like the camera was somewhere between consumer and prosumer range, judging by the depth of field. If this is true, one way you can achieve a shallow depth of field, (keeping the focus on one subject) is to move the camera waaaaayyy back and zoom waaaaayyy in on your subject. This effectively turns it into a telephoto lens, and means you can achieve a shallow depth of field without having to resort to a low f-stop. (F-stop is essentially how open or closed the iris is, when it's very open is called a low f stop, and the more open the iris is, the shallower your depth of field become, or the more out of focus background is than your subject). This is an excellent tool for highlighting the point of your shot, it also tends to make your footage look more "Cinematic". If you do this however, I highly recommend you use a tripod, as the more telephoto you go, the more obvious camera jitter becomes.
But for real though, I fucking love that your doing this. I go to film school with a lot of assholes that won't even shoot a short film unless their shooting with the Arri Alexa and Cine glass. Come on man, thats not what filmmaking is about, it's about using everything you've got to tell a great story, and that definitely looks like what your doing. Also, I'm sorry if that all seemed very conceited, I'm truthfully not a very good teacher and sometimes I get a little too passionate. I'm not sure whose filming your project but hopefully this helps them a little bit. And keep doing what your doing man, I've been making short films for years and it's awesome to watch yourself grow as a filmmaker. And truthfully, it's a shame were not friends in real life, It's a bitch finding good actors, and it's damn near impossible to find good writers.
I have to go but if you ever want to chat about film just let me know, and I'll always have tons to say about the cinematography!
3241992 I'm just an actor man, but I will pass on your comment to the director and filmers (it's just the director and one of our friends). Your feedback will hopefully be appreciated and interred, although we have done like 90 percent of the filming as of right now.
3241972
I hope you mean the "women equal to men" kind of feminism and not the more common "MEN ARE PIGS KILL KILL KILL" kind.
3242087 so you mean "actual feminism" compared to "tumblr feminism"
Definitely looks worth watching. I wish you luck in the festival. Will you be posting a blog once the full video is released on YouTube?
3242035 Well I wish you the best of luck then! I've never petsonally submitted anything into a festival, but a good friend of mine had her short film play at Cannes, truthfully it really wasnt a good short film, she just has really good connections, which is pretty much exacly how this industry works.
3242087 tbh that stereotype really doesn't exist. its just the one you see in media the most. Its been around since the beginning of suffrage, in the same way that black civil rights leaders were portrayed as militant rioters and gays are portrayed as perverts. I'm pretty entrenched in the third wave movement, and while its got its problems, they're more related to a focus on upper class white women and cultures clashing (hijabs and such) than to killing men. in three years i've only seen one person suggest anything like that, they were on anonymous and probably trolling and they were immediately kicked out of the conversation. anyway, side note over.
3241238 i wanted it to be a bit smoother, but the stock music i could find was too slow and it gummed up my plans a bit. we're working on a completely original score, i just put the trailer together because we announced the film a year ago and then said nothing since.
3241992 Thanks for the long post, don't worry about sounding conceited i'm always open to critique. I'm the editor/director/cinematographer/writer/vfxartist/makeupguy/ect. i'm also that guy in the suit with the gun. admittedly i know very little about the technical side of things, i just do what i think looks right. colour grading is something thats a bit of a struggle for me so its something i'm definitely open to suggestions about. the camera i'm using is just a cameracorder, shoots 1080p. its a bit hit and miss most of the time. i've managed to get some beautiful images, i've had to deal with some that are almost beyond saving.
i definitely get the hesitance to make shorts, part of the reason i did this movie was because i would introduce myself as a filmmaker but have very little to show for it. i went in knowing that if i did any reshoots i would never get it done, and to not to sweat the small stuff. there are some continuity issues and hair changes and stuff, but nothing very noticeable and it doesn't affect the quality of the film.
however bc of actor schedules a lot of times i can't shoot wides or get two actors in the same shot bc they aren't there at the same time or they're in two different places. this has made editing a challenge, but also really interesting.
i now have no idea what the point of telling you all this was. oops. rambling.
3242189 haha you made an account oh my god
3242222 Oh man let me tell you, that is the absolute most relateable post I've ever read. Something stood out to me in there that I've gotta say I think is incredibly wise, the part about not sweating the small stuff and getting the project done. That is BY FAR the worst thing about me, I am such a perfectionist. And really, It's not a strength. I have a ridiculous ammount of unfinished films. But I am getting better about it. If you guys have any questions, or need any help that I could provide, I'd be happy too.
3242271 really the most important phrase in any artist vocabulary is "fuck it. lets just do it."
3242329 unless you've been drinking kirkland signature vodka
in which case, rethink that shit
3242363 You mean, ESPECIALLY if you've been drinking kirkland signature vodka.
3242189 lmao are you Keane
I like the look of this. Subscribed!
Damn, I seem to keep missing these blogs. But color me interested in seeing this film. Not much to be gleaned from the trailer, here (though I'm sure I could figure out a fair few things by dissecting it), but enough to make me curious.
3264386 Well, I hope you enjoy it when it finally comes out