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Shortfilm shot with A7S. Critics are welcome (edit isn't final final)
  • Hi, I made this extreme low budget short film. Shot with A7s (pp1) lenses: canon 24-70 f4 and 17-40mm f4

    I'm still working on the edit, have to fine tune some things. All critics are welcome. Thanks Ow and I'm not english, can someone tell me when a subtitle sentence isn't correct? thanks you!!

    pasw: habit

  • 23 Replies sorted by
  • Nice job. The tension in her apartment is well executed. Sound is on point as well which is critical in my opinion.

  • @aaronchicago thanks so much. This is very nice to hear.

  • At 2:16, it seems weird that the frame guide/battery indicator/rec are showing on her TV. At 8:34, there's a typo in the subtitles. "children" - not "childeren."

    Otherwise, I liked it - the pacing seemed about right to keep me interested. Good job!

  • Actually, the film looks very, very, very videoish. Like a news reportage video. Give me 20-30 seconds of your raw material straight from the camera (even some garbage part) and I'd make it look like a Hollywood motion picture.

  • Thanks guys. @producer, well, I dont know. I used pp1, sgamut and cine2. I think cine 2 was a mistake, I had to take cine4. I had really very low space in grading the footage. Really couldn't do a lot with the colors and stuff.

  • I agree about the video-ish look, and the pacing is kind of slow. I cant tell exactly what it is that makes it look like video, but its not bad, it could be a stylistic choice.

  • I thought it looked good, sounded good. Keep rockin!

  • IMO it needs a proper colour grade. The present treatment does not do the footage justice. The film is nice in concept... maybe a little slow in pacing.

  • I enjoyed the film. Very well done. Some images seem to repeat like her paranoia. Maybe if it creeped up on us a little more instead of being so strong from beginning to end. I think the cuts can be tighter at some points but don't ruin it by jamming the shots together. Some scenes need to breath. The ending however can be tighter.

  • Thanks for all the answers guys. About the video look and about the color grade. yeah. I really think I used wrong settings, I just can't get the colors how I want. I did a test today and cine2 and cine4 gamma is totally different. With cine2 gamma (at sgamut color) you can't do much I think. I'm uploading 2 short parts without colorgrade, maybe someone can try?

  • Well, why don't you upload a half minute raw fragments taken with either cine2 and cine4?

  • @Producer, I will. I first uploaden some framents of the shortfilm (without colorgrade). But the thing is, sometimes I used a tungsten whitbalance at day (for already give a more nightfeeling). And with cine2, really, all colors are just gone. With cine4 it's not all gone. I just tried this with cine 2 and cine 4, with cine 4 there are still colors if needed.

    This are some fragemnets from the film without colorgrade: https://we.tl/Wsf0i0T10M (prores)

  • Don't use Sgamut with anything but Slog, it's very hard to grade. Rather take "Cinema" or "Pro" with the Cine settings. Plus, Cine 4 is much better IMHO since it not only has a better distribution between shadow and light, but is delivering superwhites, which are cut by Cine 2.

  • Yes, cine2 was a big mistake. :(. It was after the shoot I saw that it was cine2 and nog cine4.

  • Yeah, I didn't give a f@@k about the color grade, but these guys know a lot more than me. I found the video tape camera frames around the opening sequence were distracting. You don't need them because it actually looks like sd video and the frame looks a bit cheesy. That was one. Two, when she meets the imaginary fan and he offers the change, I thinks that's too much and takes away from the final reveal. Everything until the hand/change shot dialogue is fine, but otherwise it takes away from the imagination of the viewer. Without it, we still know where this going, so while a good idea, it's just a bit too much. Otherwise, it's perfect except for maybe the grading concerns, which to be honest, didn't take me out of the story. Quite a fantastic accomplishment really. It's a bit of an uncomfortable subject but I really enjoyed it. If you go back and edit this, I would do so with an eye to defend the reveal at the end, because in so many ways we already see it coming, and it somewhat reduces the impact when we see it. Still, great work.

  • A very fast processing below. Try not to shoot so overexposed. I could correct such a scenes too, but that means I had to make a different processing for every single scene, while this is a total processing for the whole video. A really fast processing trying to make the atmosphere at all.

  • @producer

    Wow! You turned it into a sci-fi teen flick.

  • Interesting but her skin is too green in first scene and both actors skin is too yellow and disappears into background in second scene. I don't know if it's possible but maybe make it a tad more natural?

  • Huge lighting issues with sodium lights on the street. Looks like camera white balance has not been done. Also different colour temperature lighting sources on interior scene. Here's a rough grade.

  • Hey guys, thanks so much for helping. @caveport and @producer this is very interesting. I was more thinking about a lower contrast grade of the first scene though. But I'm gonne see and try a bit more what you guys did. I think this high contrast version is more dramatic. The second scene: yeah, it's difficult, all colors are gone and I filmed it with an too yellow whitbalance. But if I shot it with other settings, there was still enough room for shifting with colors.

    @maxdvz thank you

  • @caveport "Wow! You turned it into a sci-fi teen flick."

    Well, if depends on you, all the movies should look the same. I'm sure you've seen many movies with a conception like in my processing. But if you try to re-grade them as you wish, they all will look like your edit above. Not saying that your grading is bad, just different kind of opinions - the most banal and traditional look. The greenish skin is what I wanted to get, with the more normal look of the background, just to get the actress face more "obvious" (sorry, couldn't find the best word in English)... IMHO, expecially the scene which the thumbnail of my video shows is much more cinematic, at least the same scene is the best made from the whole video.

  • @producer I love your sense of humour! Pissed myself laughing at your comments. BTW When will your "FilmVision Custom Motion Picture Algorithm" plugin be available for us pro colourists to review?

  • At the end I just left it as it was. Because I have the feeling that all the color information was gone. I learned something here. Next time I will use slog2 (just over exposure for 1 to 2 stops). Anyway, thanks for the help.