I love the show, it is also well done

NEW Action Drama Bank Robbery
 

Check out the newest trailer for Trigger:

http://pages.emerson.edu/Students/b/...i/trigger2.mov

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Brian

Looks pretty good. Can you tell us more about what you shot on, what your intentions are with the project etc.

My suggestions would be to change the font you use for the titles. I would also get rid of the text that reflects what they say. Just didn't seem right for some reason. To over the nose. Maybe some text that sums of what is said on screen.

Then I would cut it at LEAST 1/2 the lenght. Less is more. I just think it would work better as a shorter trailer. I don't know what the whole film is about, but it seems like a bank robbery gone wrong. However, if there is more background of the characters I would show that in the trailer. I didn't get a connection between anyone in particular as you showed mostly the masked men. It almost seemed like random images from the movie, rather than a synopsis, which I think makes a better trailer. Try to close your eyes and listen to what is said. Do you get what it is about? Then try to shut the sound off and see if you get what it is about. Both should explain it equally.

Finally, it seems that the ambient noise of people in the first shot seemed to prominent. It sounded unnatural to me. I would either change it or lower it. Otherwise good job. Good luck.

Podcasts win Silver "Ady" for "After Twilight"
 

Got the word the other day, that the podcasts for our short film "After Twilight" won a Silver "Ady" award. A nice bit of icing for the effort. You can see most of the podcasts on the myspace website at

http://www.myspace.com/aftertwilightfilm

You can see how we did the 'poor mans process' with a night shot in the cab, scouting locations, interviews with the main actors, low budget stunts and such. Most of all take a look at that monster Mitchel BNCR we shot with. A HUGE 35mm studio camera, that was a real treat.

The Tunnels (my short - reprise)
 

I already in the past put my short on this website, but it didn't got that many reviews as it was a Dutch film. Now I've put English subtitles on it, although the film is primarily visual.

I made it when I was 18, without any budget.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVPKSi7UTEE

Please watch it, give it a review and/or a rating on Youtube or here (I would like both, so I have some comments on it)

Thank you

Interesting, to say the least. Well shot, but I didn't quite follow the ending. Definately creepy and inventive. Keep up the good work.

Burned Message - a 10min Ghost Drama
 

Hi,

"Burned Message" is my 10 minute ghost story film and is more of a supernatural drama than horror. My previous effort was "Curry Head " a 2 minute short inspired by 80s horror B movies, that I posted on this board a while back. Since then, I have started a course in film making and I think this film is much better.

It is a story involving love, jealousy and murder. The ghost of a dead mans wife returns from the grave to give him an important message, which his brother holds the key to. It is a message of truth to stop a wrong destructive belief her husband has been led to believe.

It was shot in HD on the Z1, with some shots filmed in SD on a PD170 with anamorphic lens. The PD170 gave the look I wanted for the last few shots. I edited in standard def in Premiere Pro and used Digital Fusion for some of the effects.

I still got a lot to learn so let me know what you think. Looking forward to any crits.

You can watch it on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCsxk55e-Ro

There were a bunch of shots that were free-handed unnecessarily, I think. Freehand should be motivated instead of just "when i don't feel like using a tripod", which is how it appeared to me.

Other than that, not bad at all. It probably could've been shot/edited a little tighter, but I like your angles and some of those quick cuts around a scene, very stylistic and keeps the viewers attention.

New Comedy Skit
 

Hey all,

Just finished another skit.

www.greenbench.tv/videos/Rights.wmv

Check it out, let me know what you think!

haha that was funny. Good job, short and sweet.

That was some funny stuff. Like the slow mo shots

Glad you guys enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks for the review. I have my own explination about the ending, but I rather listen to what other people make of it, because it's intended to be a bit open, although I think most will at least 'sort of' get the ending.

Thanks for your input Brian, I will definitely consider the advice. Sorry for not posting more about the film. I had another thread on these forums and got no reply, so I'll write it here. Trigger is a 60 minute action-drama following the lives of four thieves and two detectives, during hte planning and build up to a bank robbery. Things go severely wrong when detective Jason Neilsen rises from a group of hostages and takes aim for the bandits.

We shot the movie on the Canon XL2. For some scenes, a Mini-35 adapter was used with a set of prime lenses.

There's also another trailer available at myspace.com/triggerfilm

I checked out your website too. What camera did you shoot your films on? The production quality looks outstanding.

Drag track footage (HVR-A1)
 

This is a little vid clip I made for a local shop. You can tell there is alot of compression, also my shotgun wasn't working for some reason so there is not really any audio (which is why the audio is a music track). The best thing is that it is shot at night so you can see how well the A1 is at night.
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...9c28bdb69069cb


Comments welcome

I use the HD100 with a Mini35, both which I own. Just another suggestion for your film. 60 minutes isn't considered a feature film, so the market will be extremely limited. Second, 60 minutes is considered a short film, but VERY long for a short film. Most short films really should run 3-15 minutes at max. I learn as I go along. I am not sure if you can, but if I was you I would cut it down to 10-20 minutes if possible to get a greater chance of a viewing audience and festivals. Remember, the attention span of people today is limited at best.

Otherwise good luck. I would still cut the trailer as I mentioned before. if all of it is just for your school it doens't matter as much, but still try to finish your project the way it would be shown at a festival or TV, short or not. Thanks again =) and good luck with your film..

No One's Home
 

For your consideration the second society presents: "No One's Home":

http://one.revver.com/watch/181756/flv/affiliate/55579

The most beautiful film released by the second society (http://2soc.net) to date, "No One's Home" takes distillation of film-making art to a new level.

Shot using the new "In 3's" technique to be featured in their upcoming "Project M", "No One's Home" is a triumph in high-speed, high-quality film-making.

(We took a considerable quality hit when encoded in the revver format, if you'd like to see the film it it's highest quality let me know and I can provide you with a hi-fi copy.)

Hi Daniel. Thanks for your comments. I understand what you are saying about hand held shots. I did at the time think I have reason to use hand held on some scenes, to represent/add to emotional tensions of the husbands mind in the house kitchen scene and the tension between the brothers in the restaurant kitchen and house bar scene towards the end. Maybe it was overused and I should have been a bit more selective on when to go hand held.

I'll be honest...I don't get it...

LOL! I get it, I'm just not sure if it was worth getting?

Sorry, just seemed pretty pointless to me. Some very nice camera work though.

Cheers,

Mike

Riveting. Seriously, I dont get it either. The picture looks okay, but I dont know what to think about your shot angle choices since I dont really get the concept of the video. What did you shoot this with?

Thank you for the feedback guys.

The point here is simply to capture something beautiful, quickly.

For those looking for more (a plot perhaps) we'll be applying this approach to our upcoming "Project M" where we'll utilize these techniques to tell a more extensive story.

Thanks again for taking time to review. If you'd like to know I'll do my best to share whatever details I can.

FADE - a short film
 

FADE is a 4 minute piece originally shot January 2007 for the Dvxuser Online Drama Festival, using a DVX100 (PAL). It's a kind of abstract drama, with a theatrical feeling. Synopsis: "He who seeks inner peace, is bound first to confront himself.”
FADE contains soundscapes and music created by the English group SonVer (www.sonver.co.uk). The final film has been mixed in a film studio to 5.1 surround on a Protools 7 HD hardware/software system. The computer animation has been made with Maya.

Watch FADE at http://www.orphicfilm.nl/html/fade-mediaqt.html
(Quicktime 7 H264 version, including English subtitles)

Note: turn on the volume for getting more fade per inch! ;-)

Four funny Shorts I did for my church
 

I shot and edited this series for my church last year. They were written by our Creative Arts team. Three of the shorts were shot with 3-chip DV ENG-style cameras and one was shot entirely with a digital still camera on burst mode. I used Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.

It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Each short ran in services each week during the series, and we got plenty of positive feedback. I was even paid modestly for my work, which is always nice!

Here's the link to the page with the Flash videos and more information on the series.

I can't wait to do another series with my new Canon X-A1!

Enjoy,
Brian Brown
BrownCow Productions

Hey Brian. Pretty funny, and they make some good points too !!!

The last two were ingenius. Very clever and well edited.......

I'd love to get some reviews on this...beat it up, I have a thick skin. You can start with the failings of using an unbalanced microphone with cheap floursescent lights, and ending up with hollow sounding dialog from all the audio scrubbing I had to do to them. Then hit Cinematography, lighting, blocking, editing etc.

HIT ME!

Only one suggestion.... leave the text on the screen a little longer for older, slower, folks to read.

My new short film (for OTL submission)
 

hey guys...I posted this on the XHA1 forum in full HD...but had to take it down because it was eating up my transfer rate on my website...so...here it is in non HD glory...but thought I would put it out there for you guys to rate it..comment on it...etc...thanks!!

Film Permalink: http://films.thelot.com/films/30436

Video & Film Isnt...
 

Video & Film isn't just a theatre and an audience...

http://rileyharmon.com/diorama.htm

counter-terrorists win, nuff said

Well, I'm not gonna BEAT ya up, but here's some observations.

Good:
Lighting was very nice, except for a rare few instances. Talent was talented. Girl was scarily made-up, which is good. Nice range of shots and the editing was fairly seamless. So you must have had good coverage (rare indeed on a low budget). It was funny!

Bad:
A few times the light shadows on the Dad's face (towards the end). A lot of the b-roll archive footage seemed out of place. Now, this could be fine, if that's your intent... but start rolling it in during Dad's speech, too, so you set up your audience to accept it.

The scene just went on too long, IMHO. Dad's speech could have been way shorter and really place more focus on Mom's zingers.

Ugly:
Audio, like you said. Much of Mom's key dialog is lost in the muddiness. Maybe this is why the b-roll came into being in the first place... to mask your edits and/or script changes. But ADR it or something, since it's so paramount to the piece.

Also, the video took forever to download/ stream. Much of your audience will give up before watching it.

But overall, I was entertained. Which is what you set out to do. So please keep up the good work!
Brian Brown
BrownCow Productions

Duplicity for On The Lot (5:35 run time)
 

Hi!

If you can check out my film Duplicity and leave some feedback it would be greatly appreciated.

http://films.thelot.com/films/28878

"A private investigator takes on a seemingly effortless assignment only to uncover more than he bargained for."

It was shot on the XL2 if you are wondering.

Thanks!

Hollywood, CA (used to be Western Mass)
 

Shot this with a DVX100, hardware lights, and a boom mic. There's no mercy for low budget out here. Let me know what you think.

http://films.thelot.com/films/21143

Thank you very much sir. Hopefully the audio will be better in future productions. My production company just purchased a Canon MA100 and a Used Sony ECM 672 shotgun to replace my Audio Technica ATR55 that we've been shooting with.

Thanks for taking the time to watch, What kind of file size do you generally look for when downloading films, I know some of the sizes on this board are just gargantuan. I'd, obviously, like to make my work open to as wide an audience as possible.

What do you mean by this, Dan?

Isn't here anybody who needs a little Fade? Looking forwards to your opinion, thanks.

Good work. The pacing was pretty smooth and I really liked the lighting in the last scene. I just left you a review.

I don't think it was a file size issue. I'm used to 50-100MB+ video file sizes, since I have a 1.5Mb connection. It seems your domain server was a bit sluggish, but it could have been a temporary thing. It stalled out at some point and I went along surfing and reading posts here... and your vid finally popped up and started playing like 20min later.

Whatever your encoding settings are, they look great. And it's nice that you've done low-res. versions for folks on dial-up, etc.

Brian

ah yes, the server is on DSL. I've traded off server connection speed for unlimited drivespace and bandwidth usage...and price. It's a friends' server, so it's free...I bought him a drive upon which to host my stuff at one point in time. We're looking into faster options as we speak.

Wacky posing routine
 

This is just for fun. It's clip from a bodybuilding contest that I shot last year. The videography is not exemplary, I just thought I'd post it to give you all a laugh.

I can't believe this competitor had ever SEEN a bodybuilding contest before, let alone been in one! He didn't have a clue what to do! Nor did he have any muscles!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXLdNgyhJl0