Micro short film

[Shawn Nelson]

Here's a fun little short I just finished. Micro crew, had fun shooting this one myself (usually I have a DP use my Epic). Just me, an AC, a boom op and a grip to hollywood a half soft frost for me.

Apologies for the sound, something went wrong with recording straight into Epic (I fed it a line signal from my SD302, maybe Epic doesnt do line level?)

Was a demo reel piece for the actress, she lives in LA but was visiting up to Portland over Christmas break (that's when we shot it).

I believe the whole piece was done with my RPP 50mm.

http://vimeo.com/44985429

[Kevin Wild]

Very nice work, Shawn! Great performances for such a small little project.

[Shawn Nelson]

Thanks Kevin! I appreciate you watching it and commenting.

[Chris Henze]

The piece looks beautiful. The light, lens, location and camera are great. I would have liked to see some more angles during their talk. Also to me the camera kept calling attention to itself by being in the space of a middle observer. But maybe that tension was supposed to represent someone who wasn't there. Lastly I would advise the actress not to show this to anybody she's hopping to hire her. She won't get the job. Her blinking and micro expressions are all over the place and shows she was not settled into the roll or performance and even if she meant to do that, her face needs to be quieter for close-ups. If she wants to work she should know that and be capable of doing it. I imagine you did the best you could.

[Shawn Nelson]

Thanks Chris! Very thoughtful review, I really appreciate it. I sent you a few PMs with a follow up Q or two.

Anyone else? The RU lurker effect is massive, 282 views on the thread and... 2 replies. Come on guys! Click on the link, it's LESS THAN 4 MINUTES, and critique me, be specific, or whatever. Feedback is golden. Thanks.

[Justin Marx]

Not bad at all.. Visually there were some great shots!!

The blue tint of the boy and her warm look is a bit odd, it doesnt cut together very well to me, also the angle of the shots is a bit sidey. Either you used a different lens or a different stop, because your depth of field was extremely different between shots..

For an emotional piece, it seems as though I wanted to be closer in on the conversation. I found my eyes wandering to the very nice BG with the bridges, it almost seemed as if the BG was more important then what was going on.

As for this being a show piece for your actress, I would really advise against it.. The audio is hard to understand, and her expressions seem a bit odd? Was the boy there when she was delivering her lines?

Im not some bigs hot director or DP, just a person that has been doing this for awhile, so please just take this as my 2 cents.

You are on the right track, just don't rush.

[paulherrin]

shawn, i liked it :)

actress did well, but show her michael caine on blinking... ;)

[Shawn Nelson]

Not bad at all.. Visually there were some great shots!!

The blue tint of the boy and her warm look is a bit odd, it doesnt cut together very well to me, also the angle of the shots is a bit sidey. Either you used a different lens or a different stop, because your depth of field was extremely different between shots..

For an emotional piece, it seems as though I wanted to be closer in on the conversation. I found my eyes wandering to the very nice BG with the bridges, it almost seemed as if the BG was more important then what was going on.

As for this being a show piece for your actress, I would really advise against it.. The audio is hard to understand, and her expressions seem a bit odd? Was the boy there when she was delivering her lines?

Im not some bigs hot director or DP, just a person that has been doing this for awhile, so please just take this as my 2 cents.

You are on the right track, just don't rush.

Thanks Justin! Given the direction of the sun, the boy is being backlit, hence why his back is the same color temp as her face. I think there was some color temp variation in his takes and her takes that I tried to even out, but perhaps didn't get all the way there. I need a better monitor setup.

They were in effectively the same real positions as they delivered their lines to each other during the opposite takes. We had to maneuver a bit since we had full crew on that dock, and I didnt want anyone close to the edge.

Thanks!

[Shawn Nelson]

shawn, i liked it :)

actress did well, but show her michael caine on blinking... ;)

And I learned to watch for it as a director