My first movie
 

Well, here it is, such as it is. This is a flash version so the compression is pretty extreme. I made this to learn the technical side of film making more then anything. Comments and criticisms welcome. But please be specific in your crits if you would :)

http://www.b-scenefilms.com/Aquarium.html

lol, that was funny. Very simple but I liked it.

Nice 'Hitchcock' effect in the last shot too. Was it a Track+Zoom or green screen?

No green screen. Was shot at the location with a dolly. The Z1 allows you to set a start and end zoom/focus point with ramp up/down and a delayed start time so it's kind of like having a focus puller and that made the shot a lot easier. DP just set the shot transition and then rolled the camera on the dolly.

Shaughan, I already knew the joke - but your movie put new life into it.
Very well done....in all aspects.

Shaughan, amazing job. For a first video this is quite impressive. It's a funny story too. Keep it up.

Justin

For the non-US folks, the word "fag" is a derogatory slang word for homosexual. :)

Very funny video. Liked the script, short but effective. The only thing that bothered me was the mission impossible theme withe zoomdollyshot, that kinda ruined it for me. Music is very important in film. And to use this theme it gets kind of silly in a negative way. But overall a good first attempt. Keep up the good work good luck

Greets Dimitri

Thanks for the comments and good catch, Dimitri! I had that mission impossible thing in there for so long meaning to replace it that I totally forgot about it. Correcting that now!

:)

Too funny! I loved it! I may have to send that link out in an email! Very nice!

Good one Shaun, though I didn't know the joke, and have to say I saw the ending coming, but it still made me laugh. It's really good to see a simple idea well executed. I though it was really well cast, the different actors certainly fitted their character types, especially the last guy, certainly not a person anyone in their right mid would want to insult!

Good one Shaughan, I didn't know the joke, though I saw the ending coming, but it still made me laugh. It's really good to see a simple idea well executed. I though it was really well cast, the different actors certainly fitted their character types, especially the last guy, certainly not a person anyone in their right mid would want to insult!

I liked one edit in the first conversation - where it cuts back to the two shot just as the intellectual says "Then you're not gay" and we watch the other guy slowly realise, had a really nice feel. The timing of the "Whoa!" from the actor was spot on. For one guy it was -Conversation over, for the other, sloooowwwwly dawning realisation.

The only bit I wasn't sure about was the dissolve in the second scene when the tough guy sat down. It seemed a bit strange - was it trying to make up for some missing coverage? It might be better to open that scene in the wide shot as he sits down rather than go from the zoom of the book cover. Over all though it's really nice. I might direct some of my students to it to see what can be done with a really simple set up (even though I've actually banned them from doing the Hitchcock shot!)

Thanks for the kind words, Dylan. Why do you forbid the hitchcock shot?

Shaughan - I'm being flippant, I don't ban them from anything that's not unsafe, illegal or unethical.

It is a shot that can get over used. I think it worked well in your short because of the comic tone, but it gets used so much it can look a little cliched, yet when students do it (and usually the mess it up) they tend to think they've re-invented the wheel. But really, if they want to use it they can.

It took a few hours to get that shot. Was a lot of screwing around getting the dolly level since the ground was grass and slanted down towards the subject. Since it's a tight closeup, it allows for very little margin of error. It's easier to be sloppy on a wider shot doing that.

It's a hard shot to get right.

Many years ago I was a DoP on a student film and the director suggested the shot. I resisted as I felt that with the equipment we had (an Arri BL and a wheelchair) it wouldn't be possible to do the shot well. Anyway, after 9 days of a hellish schedule I was close to exhaustion and sent home, in my absence, the director my AC did the shot.

And guess what - I was right :-)!

I actually did a variation of it in one of my own student films, but it was on a TV image that zoomed out, while we dolly in towards the TV set. It looks cool. Later I saw practically the same effect done in The Matrix! I oughta sue!