Muzman on 7/5/2007 at 07:55
HDV I think you mean, just to be nitpicky.
That's not bad as random, zero budget amateur stuff goes. It's not really scary or anything, but the line delivery is generally good, I wasn't feeling those seconds tick away so the editing is decent. The action sequence kinda...isn't, but there's worse. In short you're far better at this stuff than the guys who made the PHL show. I hope the prize was better than they suggest.
edit: I had to go and watch the rest. Holy shit! what a lot of shit! That one with the shark is a surrealist masterpiece! Personally I would have voted for the animation one, it gets a pass on its bad sound for being made by a clearly derranged Australian female (and its also quite funny).
I hope the prizes actually don't improve much next year so they keep things interesting by not attracting any pros.
pdenton on 7/5/2007 at 17:15
Quote:
HDV I think you mean, just to be nitpicky.
No we shot HD, offloading from P2 cards direct to harddrive at 1280x720.
Quote:
The action sequence kinda...isn't, but there's worse.
Care to elaborate? I know its rather quick, we were running out of time on our day and had to cut a good deal of shots.
Phyre on 8/5/2007 at 03:18
That's a nifty mini-movie, congrats on winning and all.:thumb:
Some things that may have helped the action sequence (IMO):
A little more emoting. I know that you don't want to fall into the melodrama trap, but I think more of a reaction when he ran out of ammo would be good.
A shot from the victims POV at the end (of the fight) might give it a little more... oomph?
Still very fun, I may have to go and watch the rest also.
pdenton on 8/5/2007 at 04:03
Thanks for your comments. I agree a better CU and some more shots of them during their final minutes would have greatly helped but we were tight on time and had to cut a few shots that were similiar.
As for the rest of the films, Station 8 is pretty cool as is Zombies Stole My Frisbee.
Muzman on 8/5/2007 at 04:59
re:HDV.
Is that the panasonic? While technically wrong, I tend to call everything not attempting a film level of contrast ratio and depth of field HDV, as most of them are the same old chips and formats making larger frame sizes. But it's nothing to be sneezed at.
re the action: Yeah, it looks like you were pretty short on coverage/options. There's not a lot of...energy to the last stand, for want of a better word. Seems like the guys would say things to each other and maybe move around a bit more. They've got a whole house. I bet you couldn't light a whole house very well for continuity and other problems, but I'm just saying.
It has that age old thing that bugs me at the start where it looks like zombies walk right up to them then we cut in as they look nervously at eachother and get our rack focus gun barrel (meanwhile, the zombies have presumably paused their advance for the sake of drama. Cheers hungry ones!). Its a bit slow really. We also don't see much of what happens to all these shots he's firing (no doubt another budget limitation). There's incoherencies like the guy apparently sticks his umbrella into a zombie, but we never see this happen. We just cut to someone's back stumbling away from camera and then a midrif shot with some sound effects. Not until a couple of shots later can we work out what's going on there (and umbrella guy doesn't mind having a gun fired next to his face). We don't really see a lot of the zombies coming in from our hero's point of view, which would add a lot. There isn't any suggestion of the space.
Things that suggest a lack of coverage or cutting around shortcomings in acting, location etc.
It's pretty understandable stuff given the constraints you're probably working with.
As to the others; I thought the Station 8 folks had a bit of potential, once they get to grips with some technical things. Zombies Stole my Frisbee... err, well there might be one person in there who has some idea, but they weren't in charge of the acting or the editing, or the lighting.
pdenton on 8/5/2007 at 06:04
Yeah we shot on the HVX. Fantastic camera.
I agree with your comments on the action scene. We had issues in terms of lighting the other side of the room and how much time it would take to do this. Our squibs also took a while to perfect, not to mention having twelve zombies go through make up and touch ups. I'll post a link to the higher quality video (it looks far, far better).
Should probably point out, we shot this over the course of three Mondays in February. Everyone (except the Sheriff) were actors and film students at my school. This project was not tied to the school in every way, so for our resources and the time constraints I'm immensely proud with the final product. But thanks for all the comments, I appreciate them.
pdenton on 10/5/2007 at 17:39
I hate to give this a bump but I am really hoping to get some feedback from people who have played They Hunger. I would try the Planet Half Life forums but, well, theres a bit of a flame war regarding the film festival creators.:erg:
Jeshibu on 10/5/2007 at 17:46
As someone who's played only the beginning of They Hunger, I can say that all I miss are the zombies that are missing their skull except for the lower jaw. ;)
icemann on 11/5/2007 at 15:13
Is there anywhere you can go to download the movies individually rather than having to watch the competition versions with the commentary etc?
Wouldn`t mind getting a hold of the "They Hunger" and Melon show one.
