DVC #3 "IRIS The KILLER" - Feedback
 

Dear friends,

I see that Dylan suggested we each start a thread for our short films. So, here we go.

Would love to have your feedback! Please feel free to comment here and if there are any questions at all, let me know. I'll be sure to answer.

Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy the film.

Sincerely
Brad

Bradley,

The photography looks really really good. The rhythm in which you time the spitting and the drinking are absolutely disgusting (but in a good way...). I'd love to have seen some interaction between the two characters and Iris, so that the two storylines would get more closure - but that´s just me.

Once again, nice photography, nice cutting, nice concept. I liked it a lot.

Hugo

I think this short is brilliant! It tells a story and the pictures are AWESOME. The characters are good and the spit-drink-smoke routine is great. And the ending... clever! I love it. Not much to mention except that in the beginning there is a ride/cymbal that gets cut off too fast. That's all. Very well done.

Beautiful Photography.
 

Loved the start with the lantern wicks, babbling brook, and aspens. Those were aspens, right?
Was that shot with a DVX100a? The color's are soooo.. sweet.
Where did you shoot it?

Ditto. I liked the fact that the lead was an urban legend and that there is no direct interaction. The part about being visually impaired, interesting that he's one of the best photographers alive. I'm not sure what you are telling us about your feelings toward photojournalists with this angle but I have a few ideas.

Then again, maybe I missed something? I only watched it once so far.

Sean

"Nuttier than a two-timing ex-wife with a bi-polar disease"

I laughed so much after that line I about cried... I don't know why... (Actually I do, but that's a bit personal) :)

I really liked it... It looks great and the dialogue was great. I liked how it was based off a legend as well. I know in the town I grew up in we had a "Crazy Mary" and everyone thought she was an insane killer... (I think she was blind too)

-Josh

Thank you Hugo- much appreciated! I had toyed with such an idea but in the end, thought it would have more impact to keep Iris (the urban legend) separate from Bert and Chuck.

Thank you very much Fredrik! I appreciate your comments. Please forgive me for this next question for I am brain dead at the moment...lol.

You mentioned: "...in the beginning there is a ride/cymbal that gets cut off too fast." Not sure I follow the meaning of ride/cymbal. Can you tell me more? I'm very interested.

i would have liked to see how these two parallel stories overlapped as well. feels more like the beginning of a larger story than a clear resolution. still, i like the contrasting interior/exterior spaces. pretty cool design for such a short film.

this is just me, i'm sure, but if i have to listen to that same garage band loop in an indie video one more time....! that particular one should be banned, it has been used so many times. also that little reverberating loop used in the closing sequence. i have probably heard one or both of these used at every single film festival (seven or eight of them, i'd say) that i've attended this year. over-exposure kind of flattens the music's impact.

this isn't a direct criticism of y'alls film, btw, more like an observation on the potential repercussions of garage band on every mac. shoot, i've used it myself in my own video and feel that i will have to go back, for the sake of my own sanity, and replace it.....

Thank you Dick! Much appreciated.

Yes...those were some beautiful Quaking Aspen trees just turning yellow. I posted a small description on where and what at this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...7&page=3&pp=15

However, to answer your questions directly, this was shot on a Canon XL1-S. The mountain scenes were filmed up on the Big Horn Mountains in Northern Wyoming at an elevation of 8,000 ft.

Very nice job with the shots inside the test, especially CU's of Iris' face.

Spill the technical details - camera, settings, lighting, post...

BRADLEY L. MARLOW. I'm keeping an eye on the name and the man. He's an amazing storyteller, visual and lighting artist, is just nutty enough to keep things really interesting :) .......the list goes on and on.

As for this movie, it's multi-faceted: poignant, funny, intelligent, quirky. Great work, Brad!!!

Thank you very much Sean- I really appreciate the winner of DVC2 commenting here and taking a moment. I'm with you on the "no direct interaction" but...you know that. Certainly respect the opinions of others however.

Wanted to explore some depths about misconceptions and rumor along with a tragic but hopeful character more than make a strong personal statement about photojournalists-though can see how that might come across. Care to expand on your take?

Simple really. If a visually impaired person can take noteworthy photographs, so miuch so that they would be used by major news organizations, then it goes to say that a blind photographer is apparently better than the bunch of photojournalists out in the field. Seems to say you have a dislike or distrust of photojournalism. I think that's about right but I will say photojournalists have stayed truer to journalism than the folks that deliver the evening news. Especially on a local level. I quit watching news because, for some unknown reason, it seems to have become OK for those unbiased bastions of journalistic integrity to give me their opinions. Opinions aren't journalism. In fact they are anti-journalistic.

Then again, maybe I'm just reading too darned much into that part.

I'm a bitter 16 year veteran of NBC and local news. Does it show?

Sean

Edit - sorry, dragging it OT again. I'm good at that.

Dear Meryem-thank you soooo much! I REALLY appreciate your comments...especially the one about the Garage Band deal. I was completely unaware that this was an overused loop (or mix thereof).

Given that I live out in the sticks where there are no film festivals (that I'm aware of) and we are "culturally challenged"...lol...this comment really helps me to be more aware and careful. Thank you.

It's about 0:31. It can be a crash, part of the drumset. It's about to whirl and then abrubtly gets cut off when you move to the flowers. A couple of seconds fade out would solve it.

you're a good sport, too, bradley. i'm glad you didn't take what i said personally, as i did not intend it that way.

the jackson hole wildlife film festival is taking place this week, and it is supposed to be fantastic. wyoming is big, though, and i'm not sure where riverton is in relation.

Thank you Stephen! I love getting these comments from past and current DV Challenge veterans.

I have some details on this thread concerning the equipment and a bit of the process:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthre...47&page=3&pp=15

Here is some more information-

Indoor Lighting: The lighting we used for Bert and Chuck was a small Britek kit literally just purchased and that was the first time I've tried that. It had one 650 watt with a 24x24 softbox and one 300 watt with barndoors and an orange gel. Set the camera on manual WB to a sheet of white paper and set the exposure around 0 to ¾ under.

Exterior Lighting: The only lighting (tent) used was the Coleman lantern, a headlamp and the faintest amount of natural light that was just beginning to come up. We shot this over two days very early in the morning…before sunrise with one shot at late at night.

Camera Settings: Wanted a cool/cold look so set the white balance manually on the Canon XL1S to an off blue (before going up there). Not totally blue like what you would see with mixing outdoor lighting and indoor WB. The weather was only agreeable late at night and early morning-which was most fortunate. Shot the majority of this in full manual mode and tried to keep the exposure between 1-2 stops under.

Hey Josh...lol! Crazy Mary!!! See? I think there is an urban legend in every town. I'm glad you laughed until you cried.

Perhaps now you might spill the personal reasons? Love to hear a bit about that!

Lorinda from Spudville-Yay! Thank you very much. You are very kind!

haha, well... basically, I have a two-timing ex-wife who I suspect is bi-polar. :) (And no her name is not Mary)

-Josh

No need to apologize Sean- I'm with you. Agree completely and actually have a wild conspiracy theory that our primary media is controlled by unknown and unseen forces that just want to spoon feed us dribble and spin. It seems I can get better and more accurate news from overseas sources. Dislike/distrust...yes I'll certainly admit to that all the while hoping not to offend those hard working souls in the business just doing their jobs and getting by.

16 years Sean...wow! Care to share maybe one bitter example? Most fascinating!

OH! I know exactly what you mean now! (duh...lol)

Yes...I actually wanted that abrupt cut off with the whirl/crash...straight to black...straight to the story deal but can certainly see how adding a few seconds fade might work. Thank you Fredrik.

Thanks Meryem- I know you meant no harm and truly appreciate your comments. Helps me become more aware of such things. I remember one of my film teachers beating me about the head (not literally) for using a "heartbeat" sound. He explained it in the same way.

I need to get out mere Meryem...lol. Jackson Hole is about 3 hours drive from here. Beautiful place! I would love to try to enter their film festival!

JOSH- You poor guy...lol

Really well done short, Bradley! At first, when I read the title, I thought it was maybe a take off of Ichi the Killer somehow. :P

Very good use of light and camera angles. I see you used the "Killer Camera Rigs" book. I just got that and can't wait to start building stuff from it. I really liked your dialogue and story telling. Excellent job!

Hi Tyler,

Thank you very much for your comments and I'm glad you enjoyed the film.

Let me tell you, that book by Dan Selakovich is terrific! I spent about a month prior to this contest building the Kiss Crane, the Dolly, the sand bags and even the Car Mount (though I didn't use the mount in this film).

Hauling all the equipment up the mountain was a bit of a pain but on the grand scheme of things, if it was the real deal, I would have spent thousands of dollars on big heavy gear and had to rent a U-Haul. With this gear, was able to fit everything into my truck and was thrilled with the results. Of course, had plumbing pipe and a homemade camera mount sticking several feet out of the back of the truck so I tied an old orange rain slicker on the end.

Up at the mountain site, two old boys rode in on their quads...stopped...shut off the engine and stared blankly at the crane contraption mounted to the dolly. One guy said, "Uh, what the hell is that?" I said, "It's a crane for a camera. I'm shooting a short film up here." The other fellow said, "Huh. I thought it was some sort of shower." lol!

On another note: I wrote to Dan on two occasions with questions on some of the rigs. He replied very quickly and helped me through. Highly recommended! You will love that book Tyler.

Bradley, I totally dug the title, I think the rev cymbal (I belive that's what it's called) was the right decision straight to black not a fade out. I think raising the volume a little more on the rev leading to black would have made even more of an effect.

Also from a sound standpoint I scored my movie with soundtrack loops as well, a fun thing you can do in garageband is create your own loops after which you can lay soem other loops on top and even if you're using 80% stock loops with the noticble new one, you won't run the risk of sounding like everyone else.

All of your shots were really well lit and I enjoyed watching your movie. I think someone had commented on bringing the stories together a little better and I agree with that. I mean the story about a story thing is cool but being able to tie the two together is even cooler.

over all i think it's a great job.

Thanks so much for the info - I've used the manual WB as well with great results - yours looked great as well.

BTW, the link above is bust and I could figure out the missing parts.

OK, one quick reason I got out of TV - by request.

Ah, I'll start a thread someplace and point you to it later. Maybe I'll write a book about it someday.

More later on that.

Sean

Wasn`t too sure what the spitting in a can was all about as I`m from over the big sea in UK but after a couple of watches, I got the jist of it. Loved the videography and humour. Especially the guy repeating "you know a murderer ?". For a while I thought IRIS was the guy who was talking about him, nice to see it wasn`t an obvious ending.

I`ve entered in the comp as well and when I saw this I thought "bugger, I`m up against this". Excellent short, we`ve not seen the others yet, but I bet this is up in the top few.

Thank you Nick! I apprecaite your comments.

Have you worked with Garage Band a lot? It is a new software for me and seems to offer much in the way of music. Your idea of creating a loop and topping it with another loop is perfect and something I will try.

Your welcome Stephen and am looking forward to your film. Do you know when it will be released?

Thank you Andrew-

Yes the spitting (chewing) thing is something quite common "round these parts"...lol. Am looking forward to seeing your film too.

Last I heard, Dylan was releasing them about 5 per day in the order they were received. If you look at the thread showing who was officially listed in and count by 5s, you ought to be close.

Mine should hit Wednesday.

Sean

Sean- I'll look forward to more on that. Will it be a rant?

In the meatime, I've got Wednesday marked on my calendar.

Sort of a rant anyway. Maybe I will write a short book on my years in television. Anyway, look in Totem Pole:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...431#post361431

Sean

Haven't really used soundtrack all that much, but that's more because I get burned out quickly and well, that's about it. Fortunately with this contest I didn't have time to get burned out.

Bradley,
I loved your short. Not liked it, not enjoyed it, I loved it. It was excellent in every aspect, especially the story. I was in good hands the entire time I was watching. Also, one thing I've realized in life is that you can never, ever judge a person. You do not know their life and where they are coming from. I liked that theme that this man was written off as a crazy murderer, but in fact traded in his sniper rifle for a camera and became an excellent photographer. Wonderful. Congratulations. No matter what happens you've made something you can really be proud of. I too find it unfortunate to see something so strong so early in the competition (but I wouldn't have it any other way).

Wow Mitchell- Thank you very much...this means a lot to me especially coming from the DVC#2 veteran and runner up winner with "Monday At The Office"!

You nailed it...at least the overall thoughts/impressions I was going for.

I really appreciate you taking the time and am looking forward to seeing your new film.