DVC 8 | ¨˜”°º•.. Daddy's Turn ..•º°”˜¨ | by Dennis Khaye
 

PLEASE DON'T HATE ME!!!

...I know how bad my day for night is so please forgive me. This was a 14 hour labor of love. My goal was to stay off the wall of shame. If I submitted me staring at a TV for five minutes I was prepared to do just that.

I used my new HV20, a homemade PVC figus-rigus, and no lights (I know, it shows or doesn't show as the case may be). Special thanks for Erin and Jason who allowed me to barge in on their Sunday afternoon and film on location with a real baby. I was driving around looking for "It's a Boy!" or "It's a Girl!" signs and I found one. After they chased me off with a sawed off shotgun (those aren't legal are they?) the next one I stopped at was Erin and Jason's house. A quick run to Starbucks and Krispy Kreme and they said it was OK to film them. Luckily for me they were still in their PJ's.

I hope you enjoy it.

Good luck! I have the HV20 as well, I submitted a teaser for a short that I didn't have the time to finish. :(

Looking forward to seeing your entry.

I emailed you as well. Let me know what you think of the HV20.

Good luck!

Mike

Used HV20 on mine too. With the Letus35a. Can't say much for content, but trying out new stuff was fun....

Admirable entry! I'm a father of 3 (including twins), so I've been there. Very impressive camera work in the first, long shot. Nice concept to move from the hall to the one room to the other room, and to move from high to low to track the feet. Well done here!

I didn't realize that you were trying for "day for night" until I read your posting in your thread, so I was prepared to say that it looked too blue and that you should "yellow it up". I've lived through this experience and this stuff happens during the day as often as during the night during the first few weeks, so I think that the piece could certainly have worked just as well as a morning, daytime scene instead of as the night scene you were intending.

Your use of the theme was interesting. What exactly was the remote supposed to be doing? Waking the "baby" up?

Oh, and nice use of music also!

Nice work, and nice to see you pushing the boundaries and growing with the camera movement!

Bill

Nice work! It was a tad dark in spots but not bad.

I really liked the use of music as well. :)

Interesting entry... I won't give it away though.

Cheers,

mike

Dennis, that was pretty cute. Where do you get that great music? It made the movie for me.

Are you saying that these people were strangers to you and let you in their house to film? If so, I’m amazed. That’s a funny story by itself, and they did a good job!

Dennis,

Way to stay off the wall man! I'd say your day-for-night needs a little more crushing on the blacks and lowering of the contrast. And even a work light would have helped the bedroom scene. But for a quick entry, it's a nice film.

I don't totally understand what's going on. Is the wife remotely controlling the baby to cry?

I liked the camera follow on his legs from the bedside to the crib. Very nice composition, showing simply the required act of standing up and moving rooms, even though in his head, he's still ready for sleep!

Nice.

I'm still relatively new to this forum...but how do I get to the video? Where do I click?
Ok...never mind...I think I've found it.

Hi Dennis!
 

Nice job! Those baby giggles were adorable! The crying was effective too...lol.

The music was very professional and in the beginning, had a Danny Elfman kind of feel. Cool.

SPOILER ALERT: Towards the beginning, I could see it was a TV in his arms at 1:35...along with the cord. Was that your intention? Am curious.

Finally, I took it that he was "changing the baby" so am wondering if what you are REALLY SAYING is "There is nothing but CRAP on the TV" Hmmmmmmmm

:)

Wow...crystal clear audio and great music...(where did you get the soundtrack by the way?) I love the music. Sounds like perhaps writen on Finale with real instrument sounds?

Nice job and thought provoking idea for the script.

Jeff

I thought this was a really clever take on the theme. The sounds of the baby helped to distract away from the reality- great use of audio. And as others have said, the music was also nice, and worked well with the piece.

Music is from the SmartSound collection. I used SonicFire Pro to put it together. Thanks everyone for the comments. Sorry for the late reply, I've been swamped both work and personal. All the dialog (what little of it there is) was ADR'd. The blanket sounds, the floor creeks, the wire hitting the crib - all foley.

No I didn't do a home invasion to shoot this. Just having a little fun. Jason and Erin are very close to me. They just had a baby so I called and asked to shoot at their house. The part about the donuts is true.

Man I was hoping to see the "baby" whizz in the character's face. It was set up perfectly for it. But I guess that wouldn't make much sense. Interesting use of theme.

Hey Dennis -

I really liked the overall feel of your film, your camera movement really captured that "getting up in the middle of the night" feel! I particuarly liked the shot of his feet walking into the baby's room and then the tilt up to see him at the crib. There was one shot where the cord was visible...when he was moving the "baby" from the changing table back to the crib...it gave away what was about to happen a bit...

Overall I really liked your concept...cute...well shot....well acted by Dad too!

Jamey*