DVC12 - "No Quarter"
 

What a great contest. This is my first submission and, just like everyone else I'm sure, a few things worked out better than I'd hoped but most of this piece has been a study in compromise. Anyway, I'd certainly love to hear any feedback or input you guys have! Thanks!

Alex

A really funny story, enjoyed this one. As far as improvement, maybe control the lighting a little better, and a different effect for the reversal of time say blurred streaks moving into frame?

Just some thoughts

Jim

Lighting
 

Jim, Thanks for the feedback! I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on the lighting, etc. as I feel this is probably my absolute weakest area. Thanks again!

OK I will try to go through it piece by piece

The interior of the store was not consistant throughout, from a pale green (fluorescents) to a warm feel, where you do a wide on the customer.

The exterior could have been shot earlier or later in the day, the magic hour, to give it a little more depth.

The night scene was almost perfect, with the balance of light between the arm and face was off. The most important part of this scene is the actors' faces not their arms, light accordingly.

At the end (quarter on night stand) you needed to place the practical light so that it reads, meaning not blown out but turned on. Bouncing a light from the ceiling would have implied the light coming from that lamp, created a sculpturing effect to the lamp itself and created a space for that lamp by casting some interesting shadows. Replace the light in the lamp with a lower wattage to make it appear to be on, not lighting your scene.

I found this site very helpful in both lighting technique but in actually seeing the process of making a movie. The tutorial is worth the price of admission.

http://www.digitalcinemasociety.org/index.php

Jim

Good advice. Thanks Jim! I definitely hear you on the "magic hour" shoots. That's one of the "compromises" that had to be made this time, unfortunately. I only had my actors for a few hours, alas. In the middle of the day and in the middle of the night. Thanks for the tips!

Another first submission that makes me jealous. It's becoming a trend, new people signing up and putting me to shame. Stop doing that.

I'm with Jim on most of those points, but I actually can't see any problems in the supermarket. Maybe it's my monitor, or my eyes, or something else entirely, but the lighting seems fairly consistent throughout the scene. Mismatched white balance or not, I didn't mind it, and the whole thing played out quite nicely. The cashier was great, as short as his role was. Seems he's got his rhythm down, as I guess they tend to. And I didn't expect the girlfriend's second rejection by the car. Much as I hate goofy acronyms, I did indeed laugh out loud when she complained that they'd only been dating seven months.

I must ask, did you do anything special for compression before uploading, or is the quality of your picture merely a product of shooting in some HD format? I know those cameras make pretty pictures, but hot damn, this is some crisp Youtube material.

Robert, much appreciated thoughts. Thank you. I tried an experiment with the Youtube upload this time. I encoded an .mp4 file (apparently .wmv gives inferior results after they process it) using the Youtube preset in Adobe Premiere Pro. However, I tweaked the resolution and datarate up before I encoded. I put the resolution to 640x360 and just slid the datarate up arbitrarily. That way, when Youtube "processed" it, it was the first time it had been encoded at that resolution. I think I lost less data that way. Thanks for noticing! The whole thing was shot on my XH-A1 in Hi-Def at 24F. I shot using Steven Dempsey's VIVIDRGB preset. Thanks again for your thoughts and feel free to send any more advice that may occur to you in my direction!

I loved the idea! Good use of simple special effects to get the point across!
Some lighting issues I would work on. The biggest thing of all I would say to work on is that this was such a good idea it needed a bigger ending! Like he loses it and gets stuck marrying her or somehow he screws up time! you know what I mean? Seemed anticlimactic to me? But we would hate to have to hear the alarm twice! I agree

Overall great job and a very clever idea

Next contest I'm doing my best to finish earlier than the day of the deadline so I have time to play around with my compression. I always wait 'til the last minute. Matter of fact, I'm going to go try some things right now, just for curiosity's sake. Thanks for the tips, Alex!

Jesse, Thanks for the input! In a perfect world, I'd love to have time to go back and do this concept again with a bit longer cut. That would be a cool idea for an ending (getting stuck marrying the wrong woman).
Robert, Let me know how your experiments with compression go. I'm always interested in making these things look a little better. Thanks for the feedback!

*Possible spoiler, so don't read if you haven't watched first* :)

Okay, Alex, I have to admit that the whole movie made MUCH more sense to me the second time around when I read your description on YouTube. I could see that the coin was different, but I couldn’t tell he was losing 5 cents at a time. Once that came into focus, the ending worked for me. If I understood it correctly, who would want his last “wish” to be wasted on a few seconds more before the alarm goes off? Arrrgh, is right!

Great concept and well shot/edited, too!

By the way, I took your title in the military sense: no mercy. Hah! :)

I didn't quite get that he was losing money every time he dropped the coin until I read about the 5 cent thing. that would pretty much be my only qualm but as far as production quality, it puts my video to shame haha

Yeah, the specifics of that were rather lost with the resolution, I'm afraid. I've just sorta been hoping that people notice he starts with several coins and ends up with one (that's also why I inserted a shot of one nickel specifically disappearing) alas. Thanks for the feedback!

Alex,

Really fine little short film. We should all get a couple of "do overs" when talking to women. That is the universal truth that really makes your short work for me. On an Acting/Directing note, I would have shot some closeups. When the guy says each line, I'd have a still shot close on her face for a moment. Some time like she is processing what he said. And then cut to the explosion.

My trick is to sometimes use reaction shots that are taken before we even begin the scene... Always a real reaction.

I totally got the wasted wish on a snooze moment. Funny, I thought.

Dick

Dick,
I'm glad you got that. That's some sound advice with the reaction shots. I normally try to get my talent to do all of their scenes completely through multiple times so I can get different angles, but I didn't do that on a few of those scenes, alas. Next time. These Challenges are really educational aren't they? Anyway, I really appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

Wow, that was hilarous! I actually laughed out loud.

I didnt see much issue with the supermarket lighting, could be my monitor though. My only gripe would be he should have changed clothes for the wake up scene, and i would've replaced the car scene (although you did it quite well) but thats minor.

Thanks Jay, that means a lot. Believe it or not, those are different clothes for the wakeup scene. I should have switched his shirt colors too. Hindsight is 20/20, right? I've been trying to see the lighting issues in the supermarket scene too, and I admit that I still have a hard time putting my finger on them, but I'm prepared to take Jim's word on it. He seems to be quite good at the whole lighting thing. Anyway, thanks for the thoughts and good job on your own!

See now that I watched it again I now understand that he was losing change each time!!! I thought it was a magic quarter that will always work. That is why i felt the ending was weak! now that I get it I think your ending is perfect! hahahaha I'm still laughing! I only saw the compressed version and in it, the coin always looks like a quarter.

Excellent job!

Groundhog Day!
 

Alex, your sound was fantastic. I wish I could create sound as full, crisp and realistic as yours. I could find nothing technically wrong with this movie. The supermarket scene had vibrant colors and YOUTUBE did not ruin the quality at all for me. I wish mine could have looked as good as yours after YOUTUBE destroys it as an MPEG4. The idea was great. But what if he acquired the change in less of a mundane way? Why that particular cashier? More acceptable if her wore a turban? HAHAHAHHAAHA! Hey, this was a great movie and your images and special effects were great!

Thanks Hugh, I've enjoyed your films, so that means something coming from you. I recorded all the audio with a fairly Cheap ($125-ish) Shotgun Mic. If I remember correctly, it's an Audio-Technica. The complement on the audio means even more to me because this mic has a power switch and for several scenes I forgot to turn it on (It's not my mic, so I'm not very used to it). Hence, a small portion of the audio is completely assembled from other footage and (in the case of the horns, crashes and car doors) sometimes I ended up mixing sound from other points in the film with a Sound Effects Library. Just one of those crazy complications that seems to pop up every time one endeavors to shoot something. Thanks again.

Great short film, this one, Alex! :-)))
I really liked the story... really original... and great use of effects :-) I really loved the part with the boy and girl talking about their relationships future. That was incredibly funny :-) I guess every man wants that power to reverse the conversation the way he does ;-)

I only find two small things to criticise about:
1. In the shop, when he recieves the change, the person in the background jumps in the cut. That's only a small detail, but I noticed it the first time I watched it. I noticed something wrong and imideatly wanted to go back and study what happened in that shot ;-)

2. When the man stands outside the shoping center, he's standing in front of the sliding doors. After he drops the coins, and when the second car-crash almost happens, you see the same sliding doors, now in the background, but the man is not there anymore. Where has he gone? That's another small detail that I noticed ;-)

Tor,
You nailed both of those errors on the head, I'm afraid. They're things that I was hoping would slip past the notice of most of the viewers, but that's not terribly likely with this audience. The answers to your questions are:

1. The Cashier took forever to get the change out of his till, and I didn't take the time to put a matte behind him so the person's legs wouldn't jump. I definitely should have.

2. Where has he gone? He's driving the car that almost hits "his" car. Ha ha ha. This was really a skeleton crew production.

On another note, the thing that has surprised me the most that no one has asked about is whether this piece addresses the theme with the coins or with changing time. I've been rather surprised about that one, but I guess it's neither here nor there. Thanks so much for the input. I really enjoyed your piece and I think I can learn a lot from you. Feel free to chime in with anything else that crosses your mind!

Alex,

I didn't ask about the 'either-or' theme because I felt that the piece addressed BOTH aspects of the coins and time. It was a great mix of the two elements, all neatly tied into the overall theme. That's one of the aspects of what makes this a great piece. Nicely done.

Cheers.