The Secret of Ale Stones: DV Challenge #2
 

Now that the challenge is finished I am ready to tell all secrets of "The Secret of Ale Stones". This is my second movie I ever complete. It was shot with a friends Canon XL-2. I did everything alone. That ment trying to focus a point where I will stand and talk. I am proud to complete my 2nd movie. That's an achievement in itself. I am definately going to make more movies. I learned a lot from this challenge and here are some key points:

- Rehearse what you are going to say so you know it by heart.
- Do proper research first.
- Scout the locations before shooting.
- Think about the sun/light
- Make sure you've got control over where the wind is blowing so you don't get strong windsounds.
- Make a script with edit info and all angles/shots
- Dubbing takes time and you need to see the mouth of the one you are dubbing
- Have plenty of batteries and tapes.
- Movies are more fun to watch when stuff in the movie move.

I recorded the raw movie data in about 1½ before sunset. Now I wish I had spent another day up there to get more shots. Every sound in the movie is added in post production. The wind blew quite heavily up there. In the beginning my dubbing is a bit off the mouth movements. The bull in the closing shots was real weird. He did a lot of scratching and screaming with the stones. It was kind of bizarre and I lost a bit focus of it e g laughing hystarically. At the end I was taking some pictures of the stones and he was inside the ring. He started staring at me and the camera and he looked quite pissed. When he started walking towards me and the camera I figured that it was time to go home. Luckily I got some real nice shots in the end and I wish that I had the complete jump of the bull.

Well, that's all I can come to think of now. I hope you'll get me some good/bad comments. I must say that this has been great fun and from all of the other films I have learned so much stuff. I will probably do challenge #3 as well...

Fredrik:

Your short was beautifully done! It had significant aesthetic appeal--from the camera work, to the story, to the narration. All in all, it was well done and much enjoyed. My wife and I were so impressed that watched it several times through in a row.

The bull in the final scene was somewhat out of place IMO, but it did add a mystical appeal to the ending. I encourage you to keep up your good work. I look forward to seeing more of it in the future!

Fredrik
This had potential for a shot at Best Picture, and might have won if the competition wasn't so strong.
It would have taken best Cinematography for sure if you had maybe come up with a more diverse shot list. Some of them became a bit repetitious, and you missed nailing your exposure every time. A bit more practice, but you were well on the right track. I really enjoyed learning about the stones too.

I liked it and it had the potential for being an interesting documentary, bull or no bull. No bull.

Sean

After reading your synopses, I would have liked to have seen more of the bull. I think that you used the challenge well, as an exercise in documentary film making. But one thing that I have learned, is that sometimes (or often) unexpected things happen, even after meticulous planning, when it comes to the actual shooting. The big advantage of this challenge is that there is no client you have to please. That means you can change your plans according to the circumstances. If there was a mad cow at location, making it difficult to shoot, I think that, in your place, I would have made that cow the new objective. The stones will be there for a long time - you may never have another chance to make a film about a bull going bonkers. But that is just me, I'm sure.

Good job, I liked the atmosphere of the piece and the musical score very much.