My short film. - by witherflower
witherflower on 25/1/2010 at 23:06
Anyone want to check out the trailer for my short film Amygdala?
It's norwegian and without subtitles, but there's not much dialogue.
(
http://blip.tv/file/3130827)
comments are welcomed:)
Yakoob on 26/1/2010 at 01:28
Somebody's been watching his Lynch :)
I wish the trailer revealed more regarding what the movie is actually about tho; right now it just seems like a random sequence of semi-scary images :/
But congrats on getting it done AND released, that's a big accomplishment :thumb:
TTK12G3 on 26/1/2010 at 04:54
I'll try to check this out when it's out.
dreamcatcher on 26/1/2010 at 05:01
I'm sure that you will make a fine trailer someday. Today is not your day though, for this one was awful, and i should know, as i've made a fair share of awful video myself. For all I know the rest of the film is actually good, but I've yet to see it. No offense meant, this piece just isn't the one. Good luck with the next.
P.S.: post the film if you can, a trailer may not do it justice.
witherflower on 26/1/2010 at 05:33
Quote Posted by dreamcatcher
I'm sure that you will make a fine trailer someday. Today is not your day though, for this one was awful, and i should know, as i've made a fair share of awful video myself. For all I know the rest of the film is actually good, but I've yet to see it. No offense meant, this piece just isn't the one. Good luck with the next.
P.S.: post the film if you can, a trailer may not do it justice.
Thanks for the reply. With this being my very first attempt at film making, I really appreciate feedback from someone far more experienced. I'm just curious as to what specifically made it awful. No offense taken... I'm just thrilled you took the time. And I don't have many objective eyes to turn to. :D
37637598 on 26/1/2010 at 07:12
The quality of a few things was a bit off, but I did like the effects! Creepy stuff :D
The camera angles were obviously amateur, which is something to work on. It took me about 4 short films to realize that the reason they all looked so poor was mostly because of the camera work. I'd suggest studying camera angles and techniques of current 'scary' films. There's a lot you can learn just by making a concious effort to pay close attention to angles, movement (or lack of), and other certain things that just make all the difference.
The faces of the actors, a few of them didn't 'look' the part. They looked like they felt stupid or embarrassed. The females did much better than the lads.
Color Correction is your friend. Black and white is fun, but if you made it 90% black and white with just a little color, then add a color correction effect which automatically adjusts contrast and saturated contrast, and adds a slight tint or mask of burnt color over the film, you'll have a much more professional looking visual. It still looks black and white, but it also gives more of a feel that you're there, in the black and white movie.
The girls shirt in the beginning didn't have any buttons undone, this is a huge no-no, but she was the scariest part.
The sound was good, but the voices were too quiet and muffled. You can get free software on the internet to edit the audio and normalize the volumes a little. It just makes it more watchable.
These things all help the viewer not be reminded that they're watching a home made film, and thus you can get much better reviews. I really like the direction, and again, the effects. Don't forget to post a link to the final video when it's finished.
:thumb:
witherflower on 26/1/2010 at 08:19
Quote Posted by 37637598
The quality of a few things was a bit off, but I did like the effects! Creepy stuff :D
The camera angles were obviously amateur, which is something to work on. It took me about 4 short films to realize that the reason they all looked so poor was mostly because of the camera work. I'd suggest studying camera angles and techniques of current 'scary' films. There's a lot you can learn just by making a concious effort to pay close attention to angles, movement (or lack of), and other certain things that just make all the difference.
The faces of the actors, a few of them didn't 'look' the part. They looked like they felt stupid or embarrassed. The females did much better than the lads.
Color Correction is your friend. Black and white is fun, but if you made it 90% black and white with just a little color, then add a color correction effect which automatically adjusts contrast and saturated contrast, and adds a slight tint or mask of burnt color over the film, you'll have a much more professional looking visual. It still looks black and white, but it also gives more of a feel that you're there, in the black and white movie.
The girls shirt in the beginning didn't have any buttons undone, this is a huge no-no, but she was the scariest part.
The sound was good, but the voices were too quiet and muffled. You can get free software on the internet to edit the audio and normalize the volumes a little. It just makes it more watchable.
These things all help the viewer not be reminded that they're watching a home made film, and thus you can get much better reviews. I really like the direction, and again, the effects. Don't forget to post a link to the final video when it's finished.
:thumb:
Wow! That's really helpful. Thanks a lot. I see your points very well now that you've pointed them out.
Being a complete newbie I was and still am confused when it comes to aspect ratios... I was shooting with a standard definition 4:3 camera and was under the impression I should frame for 16:9 and then crop the footage in post. Someone later informed me that this was bull since most dvd players automatically converts the image to fit. So I decided to go for the 4:3 format. I'm still confused as to what to actually do, though. I've invested in a native 16:9 camera so I can forget all about it in later projects. Yes, the camerawork is amateur, I shall improve:)
The buttons didn't occur to me at all... thanks.
I should take the time to praise my friends who invested their time and energy in this project for free. Yes, they were just as uncertain as I was- but they really pushed their limits and came through in extraordinary ways. Some scenes show their discomfort more than others. But as they say; there is no such thing as bad actors just bad directors.
So, rather than make it pure black and white I should just lower the saturation a bit and color correct? Good idea:)
Again, Thanks a lot, man. Really appreciate it:)
Yakoob on 26/1/2010 at 08:27
Quote Posted by witherflower
Being a complete newbie I was and still am confused when it comes to aspect ratios...
Oh yea that can be a bitch, especially when you start getting into HD, pixel aspect rations (fun fact: pixels aren't always squares!) etc. etc. etc. But for now, if you're just getting into it, I'd say dont worry about the little technicalities and just work on making the actual film good. If you want to be a director, it will be your cinematographer and editors that will take care of that stuff in the end anyway.
Quote:
So, rather than make it pure black and white I should just lower the saturation a bit and color correct?
Never ask "should I..." when it comes to purely artistic choices. Go with what you feel helps the movie work better. Unless you're still working on defining your style and experimenting with different ideas, which it sounds like you are :)
Fragony on 26/1/2010 at 10:48
That is very nice.
Muzman on 26/1/2010 at 11:27
Quote Posted by witherflower
Being a complete newbie I was and still am confused when it comes to aspect ratios... I was shooting with a standard definition 4:3 camera and was under the impression I should frame for 16:9 and then crop the footage in post. Someone later informed me that this was bull since most dvd players automatically converts the image to fit. So I decided to go for the 4:3 format. I'm still confused as to what to actually do, though. I've invested in a native 16:9 camera so I can forget all about it in later projects.
Fun with tech talk time:
Your friend is wrong about what dvd players do. Well, depending on what exactly they said of course. There are a few details missing though.
DVD video is standard definition and a widescreen dvd is still using a standard definition frame size and stretching it to 16:9. That's right. But widescreen dvd video is anamorphic. If you were to look at one untouched by the player the image would take up most or all of a 4:3 frame, but it is obviously squished so that when it is stretched out it looks correct.
Now, some SD cameras have a 16:9 mode that will squish the image for you. It's a convenience more than anything since it doesn't increase the resolution of the camera's CCD or anything like that. But there's only one step you have to take to finish on widescreen DVD, and a lot of editors will display the picture correctly while you edit etc.
If you shot with an SD camera and didn't use 16:9 mode, that's the picture you're getting and no DVD player automation is going to alter that (if it did it'd make everything look all distorted horizontally, or maybe uses some no doubt destructive zoom method). If you want a 16:9 finish you still have to letterbox it in the edit, as you thought. This isn't so bad since you get to reframe as you go and perhaps improve things a bit. The trick then is that, to make a widescreen DVD out of it at the highest quality that the player will actually resize for you, you have to crop out the black bars and squeeze the rest into a full 4:3 frame.
It's not that hard once you know the numbers. Some programs can take care of a lot of this for you as well, if you know how. With the automatic-y 'home' ones like iMovie, and Moviemaker it's a bit less straight forward to fool them into doing what you want.
Having a 16:9 camera doesn't get you entirely off the hook either. Unless it's an extremely spangly one it's probably HDV or something like it, which isn't full HD and using the aforementioned non-square pixels (1440x1080 for 1920x1080 display). It's a popular format though and most editing systems are made to handle it pretty well, so if you click the 'make dvd' button or whatever it'll probably be good to you. It's nice to know what changes are being made on the way through though, for when it all goes horribly wrong and you've no idea why.
