This is a very diverse and opinionated community, which is one of the things I love about it. I was wondering if some people would take a few minutes and watch a student film a friend and I made and give their reactions. I'm not self-promoting or anything, I'm just always looking for any sort of criticism so we can improve. Thanks.
Watch in HD on YouTube
Wut
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Jacktheawesome
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Re: Wut
As usual, surreal, confusing, but on the whole enjoyable to watch. I've never studied film, so you won't get any technical critique or praise from me, but I liked it.
Re: Wut
I really like that. Good job. As an apprentice filmmaker myself, I have to say, that was very good.
Some critiscism: I have this problem too, but I'm too cheap to buy the fix: a stabilizer grip Some of your shots were really shaky (especially the banana shot, those zoom shots are very hard)
You also might want to get a better microphone to stop all the wind noises, or you could use a microphone on your computer and record sounds separately, like I do. It helps angle switches, dialog, and sound in general, even though its fake. It is a lot of work with things like doors opening, footsteps, and clothing rustling (I only do this for fast kicks and punches and such), and voice overs, which are surprisingly easy, but still a lot of work. Your music was perfect though. Where did you get it? That is one of my biggest problems.
A last suggestion would be to use more angles. This is especially important in tight spaces, but your video was mostly outdoors, and the indoor scene at the end was perfect how it was. Even though you had so much more space, angles help things feel more intense.
Other than that(and that last one was barely a problem) it was really good, and I like the unique idea. MAEK MOAR NOW!
Some critiscism: I have this problem too, but I'm too cheap to buy the fix: a stabilizer grip Some of your shots were really shaky (especially the banana shot, those zoom shots are very hard)
You also might want to get a better microphone to stop all the wind noises, or you could use a microphone on your computer and record sounds separately, like I do. It helps angle switches, dialog, and sound in general, even though its fake. It is a lot of work with things like doors opening, footsteps, and clothing rustling (I only do this for fast kicks and punches and such), and voice overs, which are surprisingly easy, but still a lot of work. Your music was perfect though. Where did you get it? That is one of my biggest problems.
A last suggestion would be to use more angles. This is especially important in tight spaces, but your video was mostly outdoors, and the indoor scene at the end was perfect how it was. Even though you had so much more space, angles help things feel more intense.
Other than that(and that last one was barely a problem) it was really good, and I like the unique idea. MAEK MOAR NOW!
Re: Wut
Thanks for the feedback and compliments, really appreciate it. The music I made with Propellerhead's Reason and a MIDI keyboard. Reason is worth every penny as it gives you a wide range of tools, really diverse sound creation, offers ease of use, and lets you get creative right from the start. Music is really important, I've definitely found it can aid whatever mood you're going for in a scene. I've had terrible movies that have become decent with a good soundtrack. I guess make friends with musicians or fiddle around with the music yourself. I believe everyone's got music inside them somewhere, if they just find some way to express it. Do you have any films online? I'd love to see your work.
Re: Wut
Only the VERY recent ones are OK, but I haven't yet released the one I'm working on that will be serious, with music, the best special effects yet, sounds, a sort of decent story, hearable dialog(watch the ex agents and you'll see what I mean), etc., so I'm definitely still improving, but hopefully some are decent. I'd love some feedback too!
http://www.youtube.com/user/adwuga
http://www.youtube.com/user/adwuga
Care to explain it to us mere mortals then?
'Coz all I saw was a young lad finding and eating assorted foodstuffs in a suburban setting. Then a banana apparently caused him to go spastic and experience flashbacks about being locked in the cupboard under the stairs.
Also, what kind of person throws away chocolate in favour of a banana?
'Coz all I saw was a young lad finding and eating assorted foodstuffs in a suburban setting. Then a banana apparently caused him to go spastic and experience flashbacks about being locked in the cupboard under the stairs.
Also, what kind of person throws away chocolate in favour of a banana?
Re:
That was the only nonsensical thing. It was about a man in a quest for sugary snacks, but apparently was half monkey. Along the way, he found who he was, and was able to come out the closet (metaphorically, that scene was in his mind).Zhukov wrote:Also, what kind of person throws away chocolate in favour of a banana?
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Renegade_Turner
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Re: Wut
Now that's just being a pretentious git.adwuga wrote:I thought it made perfect sense. I guess it's too deep for you guys.
Re: Wut
Ahahaha this thread. Thanks for the reactions everyone.
adwuga, nice videos. Your strong point by far is special effects. Very slick stuff. However I would recommend challenging yourself to make a video that doesn't rely on special effects to be entertaining. Just play around with camera angles, get creative with editing, and think about communicating moods through the visuals. Good special effects coupled with amateur filmmaking is hard to watch for many people, because they can feel manipulated into being entertained just by big explosions and blood sprays. If you try to draw in the audience naturally by using professional cinematography, then they will readily enjoy your excellent VFX. And I don't mean using HD video equipment, I just mean camera techniques. Work on getting continuity from shot to shot by thinking about how each shot transition will look in editing. Think about where you want to draw focus in a scene. In ex agents, when he entered the house, the light coming through the windows was such an overpowering backlight on the subject that it made the shot difficult to watch. So just keep an eye on how the lighting affects your scene before you hit that record button. All in all, you have a lot of great stuff and just from looking at your videos, you are definitely improving. Keep up the good work!
adwuga, nice videos. Your strong point by far is special effects. Very slick stuff. However I would recommend challenging yourself to make a video that doesn't rely on special effects to be entertaining. Just play around with camera angles, get creative with editing, and think about communicating moods through the visuals. Good special effects coupled with amateur filmmaking is hard to watch for many people, because they can feel manipulated into being entertained just by big explosions and blood sprays. If you try to draw in the audience naturally by using professional cinematography, then they will readily enjoy your excellent VFX. And I don't mean using HD video equipment, I just mean camera techniques. Work on getting continuity from shot to shot by thinking about how each shot transition will look in editing. Think about where you want to draw focus in a scene. In ex agents, when he entered the house, the light coming through the windows was such an overpowering backlight on the subject that it made the shot difficult to watch. So just keep an eye on how the lighting affects your scene before you hit that record button. All in all, you have a lot of great stuff and just from looking at your videos, you are definitely improving. Keep up the good work!
Re: Wut
Thanks! I definitely agree with everything you said, My next video will hopefully be interesting as well as cool. Since I'm an amateur, I could probably start by mirroring some short story, maybe The Sniper. My special effects definitely need work, but I should probably focus more on what you said first. I'm a low budget dude, so I wont be getting reason, or a MIDI keyboard, so I'll just have to find music, or a free but worse alternative. I'm also not very musically talented despite playing instruments my whole life.
As for the grip, do you have a tripod? I fold mine up and use it as a grip(like a gun of some sort), it works quite well.
As for the grip, do you have a tripod? I fold mine up and use it as a grip(like a gun of some sort), it works quite well.
Re: Wut
We use a tripod occasionally and often just go hand-held. We recently put together a fig rig out of PVC piping and it has helped a lot to get smooth movement shots. You can buy metal fig rigs but they're pretty expensive, so making a homemade one was a great, if a bit a shabby alternative.