DVC9 - "Victorious" - Bryan Wilkat
 

I'm sorry I gotta do this, but its been a few days now with no feedback thread on this one.....so I'm just gonna start one. Mostly because I have a good question on this one.

But first, a few comments.

Bryan, I really like your work. I've watched this piece several times, studying it for your style. It wasn't until just a short while ago, as I was washing the breakfast dishes, that it hit me....why you titled it as you did. I should have gotten that sooner. Very clever.

Anyway, I loved the cinematic look you acheived with your depth of field, and it was a great setting.

I almost felt like this piece felt a bit like a crux scene that would fit in a larger movie documenting an interesting day or week in the lives of these characters. That would be a feature I would intend to watch. Dialogue driven character development is a very important skill, and by using it in such a way as making the viewer use their imagination to picture this mysterious character they are referring to....well, that was well done.

The only thing I noticed that I felt a little distracted by was that Iain, the actor on the right, came across as not entirely natural with the expressive use of his hands while speaking in a couple of shots....I almost got the feeling he was still experimenting with the right interpretation of memorized lines.

But that was a very minimal point. As I noted, I watched it several times, so perhaps I was eventually just looking for such things by then because I was really studying the detail of your work.

(I dug Brian's shirt, BTW.)

So, as for the question:

What was your technique for capturing the audio? I thought it was exceptionally well done. It sounded to me the way good film audio is supposed to sound. Very clean and clear with great levels.

I remember from your previous film, "Wolves", you mentioned running cable through the trunk and seats of a car to get good dialogue, but I'm guessing a different approach here since it was outdoors. Did you use a shotgun/boom combo?, and if so, what mic?

Thanks for sharing a great piece. It looked and sounded great and displayed a high degree of proficiency in your technique.

Great job.

-Jon

I really liked the cinema feel of this video. I too would like to know what mic was used.


Randy

I would have loved this if it were in focus. The composition is good, the exposure is nice. I liked the understated nature of the acting. Felt very Waiting for Godot.

Smile,
Kris

Give me hints of "Clerks" in there (the duo sarcasm). I liked the dialog subject here and there. What everyone has said so far about DoF, I feel the same, very nice. Yes, the sound, great sound.

hahaha, i can't believe i forgot to start this thread!! dammit!
(thanks jonathan!)


well, let me start with the depth of field, pretty obvious, its a 35mm adapter, the Letus35A with a nikkormat 50mm lens. very soft, i love the way it looks! there might one or two shots that were with a tamron 135mm.

the sound, i'm very pleased that you guys dug it so much! just like my previous film, i used the stock sony pd170 mic, it's directional(unfortunatly) and i had no helping hands so i brought with me a mic stand that i use when i jam with my band, and i was able to adjust it to get as close to my actors as possible without it being in the shot. so as you can see, it's nothing really fancy. but thanks for the compliments on it anyways! haha

and jonathan,
you're onto me. this is actually one of the opening scenes to a film the three of us are currently working on. it's going to be an off the wall satire with lots of back stabbing and stereotypes because, well, it's so much fun to make! heh. we hope to finish it this fall but i'm starting back at school in a couple weeks and i might find my hands tied up in school projects for the next little while, if i do finish it i'll let you know cause it'll definitely be up on youtube! and as for your remarks about iain, he does tend to over act sometimes but in this sense i felt it made him rather entertaining, if you're interested there's a longer version of this scene also on youtube, it's the original movie cut and runs about 6 mins long. i had to cut out so much of it to make it qualify for this contest! you can find it by doing a youtube search for my name, and be warned, its much more ridiculous than this 3min version youve seen here on dvinfo!



Thank you everyone for all your kind words!! wish you all the best luck!

-bryan

ps. i will be sure to tell brian that you guys liked his dialogue, he'll be glad to hear it!

Everything everyone else has said here so far is great. I think my biggest criticism would have to fall toward acting as well, but I understand time crunching, the deadline etc. so not a big problem. There are moments that do not feel natural, like when they are bickering early on, questions like "Could you just cooperate for once in your life?" just don't feel real. But right after that, when he says "No, if I wanted drugs I'd get them from you, this is seeds, it's something else just drop it." It was delivered very believably as well as reveals subtle information about their relationship. The short went back and forth between the moments that worked incredibly well and those that didn't as much. I'm sure if you had more time (length of film + deadline) those problems wouldn't exist. It was still a great short, I'm just letting you know what I thought worked/didn't work.

mitchell, i agree with you entirely. next time i will have to pay more attention to my actors acting and maybe even direct them a little bit. its always a little tough knowing youre on a deadline so certain things dont get the attention they deserve. just getting them to memorize their lines the day of shooting was hard enough! hahah! thanks for your thoughts!