DVC5 Feed Back "The Dream Stone"
 

I'm travelling for the next week, so I'll post mine now.

First, I had a real challenge with the lighting. This is probably due to poor equipment and inexperience on my part. The lighting situation caused the uneven look to the indoor shots. It also played a role in the flaws in the effects.

Second, I can sum up my acting like this: Bwahahaha!

I used a DVC30 Rode VideoMic to shot it. Lighting consisted of two 125 watt lights.

Editing was done with Premiere Pro 1.5. Much of the sound was created with Adobe Audition

Overall, I am disappointed with it because the effects did not turn out as well as I had hoped. I am learning a great deal, however, and ultimately, that was the primary reason that I signed up for this.

I am looking forward to your input.

I thought that this was very cool! Interesting concept and conclusion. You brought the reflections theme and the backdrop theme into the front of your story very well. And you pulled-off some aggressive effects work. Nicely done!

I thought that the effects were very good. How did you do the "dream stone lighting up" scenes? What software/plugins did you do for that? The only minor effects glitch that I noticed was in the background of the dream-stone handoff scene, which must have been a tough scene to do.

And the sound was wicked-cool (especially with my headphones on)!

Good job!
Bill

i wish i could view this, but i use a mac with flip4mac to view wmv files, and it doesn't let me download it. i tried saving it, but it only downloaded the front page of the website. it's got a compelling title, though! wish i could watch it...is there any way to bypass the front page which defaults to suggesting i download still! more! viewing software?

Scott:

I had hard time viewing too. Best way to do this is to allow just straight downloads so people can download and review a couple of times. The way it is set up now, we keep using up bandwidth try to watch the full film. I kept having it stop and start. Some people might not be as patient.

I finally was able to watch in full, and thought it was great. Special effect/split screen mirror scenes were great. I did notice a line with the the scene you were on the floor being handed stone.

Acting was great. I have the same problem you do, probably, can't stand to see our own acting.

I too am interested in what you used to get the light from the stone. After effects or something like that ?

I liked this, I thought the acting was bad in a good way; understandable since we're not actors, and it worked well enough to get the point across.

I would have liked a selection of different recordings of "Bring me the dream stone", it sounds like the one you have here is just repeated several times. And the scene at the (shiny, glass) breakfast table looks like the perfect place to add another conversation with your reflection. Unless the guy lives in the bathroom.

That split screen/matte work is hard, especially relying on natural light. Changes regularly, and the two halves may not always match. Having attempted it at all is commendable, and at least you become more familiar with the process.

Input
 

I'm not sure if this allowed or not, but if Dylan gives the ok I'll post a link directly to the video, but it is quite large (about 75 MB). For the MAC users, I tried to render using Quicktime's format but ran into the bloated fuzzies that were described in a thread a couple of weeks ago. I have done some research and figured out how to produce a decent Quicktime version, but I am out of town at the moment. I'll have to post the QT version next week, after the contest.

I used the flash effect in PP 1.5 to light up the stone. Also, the low rumble you hear during the dream sequences was a sound that I picked up at one of the outdoor locations. I have no idea what it is and didn't even know I had it until I got home and looked at the footage. I just tweaked it a bit in Audition and then looped it. I think it really adds depth to the sound during the dream sequences.

I apoligize to the Mac users that haven't seen it. I will take care of you next week--although it will be after the contest. :(

Also, on my acting, I'm glad to hear that works well enough for the type of movie I made, but it is still painful to watch. I knew going in that I should avoid drama!

Hi Scott!

Love the title! Your film was good too. Yes- the special effects for the Dream Stone were very nice. Am not sure why you weren't pleased with them. I thought you did a wonderful job.

Don't be too hard on your acting. It wasn't so 'Bwahahaha'.

Did some split screen stuff myself and certainly understand the challenges these shots present. I ended up creating layers, exporting the clip out and back into the timeline, more layers and blending, export/import, etc. Perhaps that will help? Though I didn't find what you did to be overly obvious-so that's good. Perhaps sometimes, compression can be our friend.

Like Meryem, I have a mac and flipformac software too. Not sure why hers didn't work however, it took 1.5 hours before I could finally watch the whole thing through. Just as it finished up, my Firefox system crashed. Whew! Glad I got to see it.

Now as the contest goes on, I can't help but wonder when watching the next film...if there will be a guy standing in front of the sink either brushing his teeth or washing his face. It is interesting to see how many people worked with that concept.

Best Wishes~
Bradley

Bradley,

Dylan said that he'd double our score if we included a mirror scene with tooth-brushing or face-washing. Didn't you get that post? :)

In seriousness, I also found it interesting that many people went for the mirror with some twist on the reflection being different, and also that so many people did something different with it!

Bill

Bradley---------------> out re-shooting his entire film. Will not be back for several days. Please leave a message.

Seriously- Scott. You were the QT Bloated Fuzzies guy? I remember that post. It looks like you and I posted in your thread at almost the same time. I use a mac too and while it was a difficult download, I managed.

PP 1.5? Can you spell that one out for this uninformed individual?

Best Wishes~
Bradley

I liked your short film, and the story. It may be somewhat unoriginal, but it looks like you had fun with it. I really liked your sound design, pretty loud and atmospheric stuff.

scott, ed slonaker solved this for me in an e-mail. (bradley, maybe our browsers had something to do with it, since you're using firefox, and i'm using safari. i'm a bit of a dim bulb with web stuff....)

anyway, i just clicked on this link in safari, and it played in a teeny little 1 x 1 window. hard to get the full meaning in that size but better than nothing...

http://slygo.com/vids/ds1.wmv

I can tell you put a lot of work into it, and I really liked the idea. I almost wonder if it would have worked better if it was a different person in the mirror, or at least a different version of himself -- more animal-like or scary in some other way, like a jekyll/hyde kind of story. I could keep track of who was who in the mirror -- you kept the continuity there fine, I just wonder if the emotional impact would have been better.

I felt a little bit weird about the fact that he knew right where to go to find the dream stone, and while the stereo effects were good effects, I couldn't find a motivation for them -- were they cars on a highway, jets flying over, or just dreamy/weird dream noises?

Hey, some of us ARE actors!

Unfortunately, I too, have been unable to view this movie. Can you make it available as a link to a QT or wmv file?

Well, okay, most of us, then. Those of us who had to star in our own productions, that is. Yeah, there you go! That's what I meant.

You pick up a mean cup of coffee, though. Do you give lessons?

I'm not an actor! Is that good or bad ? (I do however teach acting classes, everthing I know I learned from watching tv with the sound turned off, Lessons 1-10 wag your head alot...:) True or False? You be the judge.[00

I really liked this film. I didn't think it was predictable and I thought the soundtrack was pretty cool (except for the annoying pppphhhhht during transition).

I gave the entire thing high marks. Since we're judging, one of my personal criteria is "Enjoyment factor", in this regard it scored high with me. I saw no major flaws in production and the story flows well. The special effects were very good. And I am always appreciative of obvious effort put into post production.