DVC 22 - Broken by Clint Harmon

[Clint Harmon]

Hello everyone and thank you for watching my short. I would like to take this time and express my thanks to the DVinfo crew for putting on this challenge and to Guy Cochran for offering up that sweet sweet camera for prize support.

This project was a disaster for me. At first we wanted to tell the story of the individual as he was driving, all done in FIRST PERSON. We had the character drinking out of a glass and we used that as a transition to go back to the memories. Everything that was to take place in the present was going to be black and white with the memories starting from the most recent(bad memories) to the older(best memories) incrementally going from black and white to full color at the last memory. This worked better than expected until we moved on to post. There are no cut aways or b-roll to use, no close ups, no way to emphasis any object or subject matter. Any poor shots were unavoidable and stood out like a sore thumb. After realizing this, we trashed the entire project.

Here is a photo of my first person camera rig: (See next post for photo. Edited by Lorinda)

After a week or so, I attempted to fix the issues and reshoot some of the problematic scenes. Organized locations and actors, got preped to finally have everyone and everything cancel resulting in nothing being filmed and becoming a huge waste of time. Project scraped again.

Three weeks after announcement of the theme and scraping the project twice, I decided to have another go at it. This time, I decided that all the footage in present time would no longer be in first person. Completely rewrote the story, added characters, took away memories, ditched the car crash ending, removed scenes with the child, and saved a lot of previously shot footage. After shooting completed I started editing. This time the footage was so shaky and out of focus, I was only able to use 50%. So I did the only reasonable thing...I threw my hands in the air and walked away, giving up again and feeling broken.

Two days before the deadline, the "drug dealer" wanted to see how it came out. He liked it and offered some ideas, one of which was to move the memories to the side mirror. Why I did not think of that, who knows! That inspired me to go and re film again with no time left. I came up with the final ending on the spot just to try it out, and lucky with the wind it all looked great. Finished the project ~6 hours prior to deadline after quitting 3 times on this project.

Since I have no formal training, one of my weaknesses is that I do not know After Effect and every time I use it, I get frustrated. So this entire project was done in the editing suite and no use of after effects or any other digi-effects programs.

[Lorinda Norton]

I resized your photo so folks like me wouldn't have to scroll from side to side in order to read the comments, Clint. After reading about all your troubles with this great film I wasn't about to ask you to do it! :)

[Chris Barcellos]

Clint:

Wondered what you did to get the memories in the mirror, and even in the reflection of the mirror. I thought it was a great job. Film had a dark mood to it, despite mostly broad daylight filming. I am sure that was what you were looking for. Great work, once again.

[Clint Harmon]

I rendered out a still from where I had the camera in the mirror. Then I took it into photoshop and created a white matte circle where the mirror is. I then put all the "memories" in their own sequence and put that sequence over the original and tracked that sequence to the matte of the mirror.

Then I did the same thing but mirrored for the reflection on the window.

[Simon Wood]

I think it turned out rather well (in a nihilistic sense) considering how much went wrong for you. I'm glad that you stuck with it.

I'm sure doing a whole movie from the POV of a character would be a real hassle to plan for (you would have to arrange every transition down to the last detail to be seamless). It can be done; have a look at Gasper Noe's crazy movie called 'Enter the void'. And there I was thinking your movie was nihilistic (wait till you see that one)!

It worked, but the tone is very bleak, which is what you were aiming for!

The effects worked well by the way. I also never use any effect programs like AE; I always use a basic editor, so you're not alone in that!

[Toni Dolce]

Clint,

Thanks so much for the attached picture- I am totally envious of your rig!

Overall, with all the challenges you discussed, I think you did a great job! I think the biggest thing is that you didn't give up even though the odds were stacked against you.

Honestly, the mirror reflection was very impressive and I am glad you explained how you did it. So cool and a really interesting effect.

Interesting to learn that meth is known as glass- that I didn't know.

Toni

[Joseph Tran]

Hey Clint,

I have to agree -- I'm really happy you didn't give up despite your many uphill obstacles. It's a really compelling story, and in fact, I think having the progression of the storyline happen in the sideview mirror is one of the most creative things I've seen in this DVC! Honestly, if you didn't tell us that it was a choice out of necessity, I would've believed that it was a directing choice! That part really stood out in your piece.

It's funny how things work out sometimes when we're trying to create a movie in such a short amount of time, and I'm sure you'll hear it again and again throughout this challenge: I'm really glad you pushed through to finish! Congrats, Clint!

[Andrew Bove]

A big thanks to your "drug dealer" friend for helping you push through and finish the film. That production story is nuts. You did a great job, and deserved to finish something! Sometimes you just need that extra inspiration (kick in the pants.)

I've been thinking that I'd really like to see mini documentaries of all of us trying to make our films, and now I'm sure I would- yours sounds like it might be hard to top!

Originally Posted by Clint Harmon

Here is a photo of my first person camera rig:

That is a nice rig! Very cool. (I think you have found your new facebook photo.)

The resulting first person wide angle view of the door and woman discovery was really disturbing. I think it was the fisheye effect. I can't imagine a whole film shot like that- it probably wouldn't be quite as effective as the way you used the shots in your final version. Very creepy.

Originally Posted by Clint Harmon

....I do not know After Effect and every time I use it, I get frustrated. So this entire project was done in the editing suite and no use of after effects or any other digi-effects programs.

Use what gets the job done! This effect was superb, and you obviously didn't need AE for it, since you nailed it.

[Mat Thompson]

Hi Clint

The trials and tribulations of short film making on no budget....don't you just love it ;-)

Well done for finishing under tight circumstances. It was a compelling story with some hard hitting moments. I really liked the unorthodox hands shots, it felt quite computer game which seemed to fit well and give it an out of body feel. It's funny you also used a mirror as a story telling device....nice idea! I think it worked well although as a extra once established you could have cut to a close up of the mirror which would have made the memory images larger and easier to read. You did really well to produce this effect in an editor alone, in fact I'm surprised you could...which software was it? My only other suggestion would be to expose more for your background in the car shots, you would have got a nice rim light on the face and taken in some of your bg.

Your film made compelling viewing, its certainly in the running, thanks for sharing !

Mat

[Dick Mays]

Clint,

This is a very strong film. I loved the memories in the mirrors. Very cool. Well shot overall, I think it is challenging to shoot outside, and your footage looked great, not blown out at all. What lens do you use for your wide angle? That is a really neat look too. I would have liked to know more about the girl he is mourning, is she his daughter, girlfriend, why did she take her life?

Can you smoke Meth? I had no idea, my whole knowledge of meth comes from watching Breaking bad. I was expecting to see an initial rush of really good feelings, before the O.D. death. Makes me want to reconsider trying meth at all.

[Clint Harmon]

Allow me to clear up some things...

Lens is a Bower 8mm fisheye. Super difficult to work with and would not suggest. I do like it but its more of a pain then anything.

My rig was made up of 2 Cavision shoulder mount rigs frankenstiened together. The photo I uploaded was only the first version, I later improved upon it prior to filming by adding a small manfrotto head to make it more stable. In both first person shots in the film where you see my hands, that is actually me putting my hands out with the rig on me. No green screening.

I have no idea if meth or any other drug is called "glass". It was really just an ad lib for that scene. Also, I have no idea how one takes meth, but one of my "experienced" colleges told me that I did it wrong lol.

Here is the original storyboard (abbreviated):
Driving scene 1 (turns radio on)
Flashback 1 (walks in on gf/wife dead in tub)
Driving scene 2
Flashback 2 (looking at grave, pans back to see gf/wife dressed in black crying)
Driving scene 3 (heres where I noticed things got redundant)
Flashback 3 (child on death bed)
Driving scene 4 (I know I should have seen all this driving as boring)
Flashback 4 (happy scene with kid/flash to meeting gf/wife first time)
Driving scene 5 (guy drives car into lake and commits suicide, camera switches to see guy accepting death)

So I saved flashback 1 from the original storyboard and that's pretty much it. So the woman in the tub committed suicide was the gf/wife.

ALSO did anyone notice the piece of glass next to her in the tub. Originally I was going to tie in some form of glass in each flashback.

Tomorrow I have some time so I can leave comments on other videos and I will upload a behind the scenes/deleted scenes video for everyone's enjoyment which includes a moment where I nearly broke my toe while filming... I did mention that too didn't I?

[Frank Moody]

Mr. Harmon

I liked your film very much. I cant say I was surprized at the end i kinda saw it coming however I was very pleased with the effects and the memories in the mirror. I know it takes time to do that work and you did a great job!

Overall very nice film

Thank you

Frank Moody

[Mitchell Stookey]

Man Clint those are some serious Tales of Woe! I doubt I would have gone back for a third try, but I'm glad you did. In fact, like others have said, it doesn't even look like you had any set backs and just made the film you always intended to. I LOVED the POV shot of the beer can dump before going in the door, all the motion, the fish-eye lens and timing of it worked so great.

I'm not sure if it would cheer you up in a commiserating sort of way, but if you haven't seen the documentary Lost in La Mancha, you should check it out!

Anyway, great work, congratulations on your perseverance and getting a great film done regardless of the obstacles!