Tango - a suburban-noir short film
 

My debut as a fiction director, done with the help of an amazing cast and crew. I directed and edited, let me know how I did, thanks.

Good job both directing and editing!

A better sound mix will definitely help the suspense a bit, but other than that it's a good piece of work. Make more!

Simple and effective. Nicely lit.

Thanks for the comments, I would love to make the sound mix better, where should I start? We had trouble with the boom (lack of real film boom) so there are some rumbles throughout. Do you think I should have added a subtle background score? Thanks again for leaving comments, they really help.

could rerecord the dialogue. maybe use cleaner audio from different takes if you have (for shots when you can't see their lips moving).
i'm not so sure it needs a background score but i do keep imagining the classic slasher-movie 'heartbeat' thing, particularly around the close-up of the eye bit.

Masking bad sound with unnecessary sound/music is only going to make it worse.

If your recorded sound is unusable, try looking at other takes (if any) to see if you can salvage 'better' sound.

Are you going to show it on a large screen or festival? If yes, the only option is to ADR and Foley. Then do a good mix. However, if you're sticking to the internet or DVD, leave it as it is and move on. It's okay.

Yeah, I had a gut feeling that adding a score would hurt more than help. I'll leave it alone at this point, there are no real clean takes and the ones I picked work the best for the film anyway. Since this is my first short film, I view the whole thing as an educational experience. Lesson #1: Use a real mic boom. It's only a mistake if you do it twice, right? Thanks for the suggestions and comments, I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to help out.

josh bass
 

Here's another friendly tip. . .whatever mic you use, GET THAT SUCKER CLOSE! Too often I see people with mics on boompoles with the mic 6 or more feet from the speaker's mouth. That guy really wants to be close in. . .almost as close as you can get it without getting it in the frame. If you're at even two feet you're probably too far.