DVC13- Chris Barcellos "A Lucky Day"
 

Hi All. This film was made with help of fellow DVInfo member Chris Swanberg. David Lawlor was lead in a fantasy film Chris and I worked on, and he wanted to do another more contemporary film so we got together on this shoot again. We look forward to your comments.

Loved it...especially the part when...

Oh, who am I kidding, there is no link!

We have been asked not to post link until they are listed at DVChallenge. As many participants have done, I started feedback to be ready when it is revealed.

Links to "A Lucky Day"
 

Okay, here are links to “A Lucky Day”


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehy_PS5h-KA

http://www.makeyourfilm.net/downloads/LuckyDayMP4.mp4

Very Good!
 

Uhhmmm... I think I saw a mike boom. (That's the only bad thing. Sorry!) Your male lead did a fantastic job as the understated, unappreciated boyfriend. He made his role look effortless in that his acting was not forced or contrived. Damned good!

Better not let California's governor see this movie! Somebody might get hurt! (That airplane scene was funny!) Do you work for Corona? Just kidding. I loved the twisted ending (it reminds me of some other guy's entry in this thing.) A very clever, well filmed movie. One technical question: The frame rate seemed a bit... different. What did you use to film this?

1. I never saw that boom in the rush of edit, and with all the persons that saw it, noone ever noticed until my brother in law noticed it day before yesterday. I guess I was always riveted on the acting.


2. Met Dave Lawlor on a shoot in which he played lead role in a fantasy film. He is great to work with, and very easy to direct.

3. Technical: Man, can't get anything by on you Hugh. Shot this all in 60i on a Z1 with some B camera from an HV20. I did try something new and converted finished edit to 24p in Cineform's HD Link. I had done this with my FX1 footage before, so I thought I would give it a try here. I then pulled that finished CF file onto a time line, and rendered to files of choice. All done in Vegas.

I am curious from your point of view what you noticed.

Funny, funny stuff!

You don’t venture into comedy often, so I could hardly believe what I was watching! But the first part with the guy in the house really captivated me. The line that makes me chuckle every time I watch it: “There goes another seven years...” :)

Questions: I’ve listened many times now and can’t get it – what does the girlfriend say before she leaves the bathroom? Did you all laugh when the money roll landed perfectly by the hammer? Oh, and I loved the cut during the hammer swing!

I don’t know where you filmed the airplane scenes but I was totally convinced I was onboard. Great job with that! Tell me more about the gov’s assistant outside the plane. Greenscreen?

Enough questions for now, though I have a bunch more. Overall, this was great fun for me, Chris. Seeing your funny bone at work after such a long time of dramatic films really made me smile. :)

Thank Lorinda.

Questions:

1. "I’ve listened many times now and can’t get it – what does the girlfriend say before she leaves the bathroom? "

I noticed it gets lost a bit in sound compression for you tube-- She saying, " I'm done with you, idiot."


2 Did you all laugh when the money roll landed perfectly by the hammer? Oh, and I loved the cut during the hammer swing!

"Actually, this was on my front driveway, which had quite a slope. I could post 6 takes where it rolled out of frame, this one was fortuitous, we were trying to let the hammer stop it on other side,,, and we were giggling about it. . for sure."


3. "I don’t know where you filmed the airplane scenes but I was totally convinced I was onboard. Great job with that! Tell me more about the gov’s assistant outside the plane. Greenscreen?"

Interior plane was a my travel trailer, with an office my office chair with a terry cloth towel over seat. Bathroom door was, the trailer bathroom door. I added movement to shots in post to gift it rolling small plane feel.

Exterior shot was green screen. I threw a green cloth I have over the an umbrella in back yard, and shot her phone call against it. Chris Swanberg had wandered out to Mather Air Field, and caught a commuter jet on tarmac, and I had benefit of it to look at to try to get lighting close. It helped that area was dealing with heavy smoke from NorCal fires. Sound was actually from tarmac scene. Chris's shot was hand held though, producing too much movement for the green screen, so I had to freeze frame it for the shot. I added a blur filter too, to give a reduced depth of field feel.

It helped to have some others on board with experience to input. I really enjoyed working with these experienced guys.

Chris,

I will ditto Lorinda and Hugh here. I didn't catch the line, but I got the idea that whatever she was upset about didn't strike your actor as bad luck.

Great lighting. I noticed the 24p in the scene where the wife is packing in the background.

The Corona product placement was nice. I thought you might have used a DOF adapter for that rack focus. Was that shot with the HV20 or the Z1?

The blurring of the jet in the background is nice. I liked the POV of the blue ice as it targets the guy lounging in his chair.

Very nice visual images, nice story, likable lead actor. Very enjoyable to watch.

Dick: Thank you for the comments. I did not use DOF adapter. However, I used the
Z1's scene transition with camera very close to beer then had it zoom wider and change focus to him. That is a really nice feature of the Z1/ FX1 cameras that I am surprised I have heard more of. You don't even touch the camera, except to activate the scene transition.

Nicely done. This was a fun film. The acting was good, your lead really carried it. I liked the bit of roll in the airplane interiors. Nice touch.

Smile,
Kris

Well, Chris...

You tell a story well with this medium. Actors did well, the camera work flowed well, and the humor and sight gags all worked great.

I didn't notice the mic boom ( I managed to spot mine in teh edit and did some cropping where I didn't really want to but...it happens to all of us!), like the others have said in different ways, you did so many things right.

All in all one I enjoyed a lot.

I am curious from your point of view what you noticed.[/QUOTE]

I don't think YOUTUBE liked your frame rate. It stood out to the point where I noticed it. But that didn't bother me because the story, acting and premise were great.

How many had, at one point in our lives, wished it were that easy to break up with someone? Lol... great story, Chris! And some very clever use of greenscreen to get an airport! It makes cutting away to the interior very clean and deceptive. I also noticed you rocked the shot back and forth to simulate plane motion... a nice detail.

Loved it
 

This was funny, particularly the ending. I never really thought about this before I saw it, but getting killed by a falling crap-baggie is probably the unluckiest way to go. Still, he had a good time up til then, so maybe it wasn't so bad. Anyway, very clever short and well acted too. I liked this quite a bit.