The second rough cut of Project 2, shortened by 2 minutes. Some of the text has been edited as well.
Presented by Ryan O'Donnell, Jason Stecher, Laura Boctor, and Kristina Amerkanian. Special Thanks to Jason Timberger for his participation and support, and The Alexis Diner for their generosity.
All sounds are a product of iMovie, Freesound.org, and Incompetech.com. No copyrights have been infringed.
Ryan, this is one of my favorite films so far. I like how you edited and added things in post. It almost feels like a really movie to me. I like how you added in the definition of sonder right away so people understand where the film is going. The first scene where Laura looks at her phone, the screen is a bit overexposed. I'm not sure if it's just the way it looks on my computer, but I think you could adjust that a little bit. Also, the light on Laura seems like a little too much, whereas the background isn't lit too much...not sure if that is intentional or not, it isn't bad though. I think the only thing I'd change (which i'm not sure if you're doing or not) is to add in the voices and take out the text. Another thing I loved was when Jason dies, everything is in slow motion, I think it really helps capture the moment and intensity. It was a good decision to do that. Good job over all!
ReplyDeleteAmanda, I'm very glad you mentioned how it was similar to a movie - because that is, verbatim, what I was going for. Albeit a very short one, I still wanted to structure it in a way that made it seem as such. And your words in that aspect are sincerely reassuring.
DeleteIn regard to some of the more technical aspects, I can't disagree with you. During our course of filming we had one of our lights explode (literally, the bulb went "poof") and we had to make due with just one and the LEDs. And so much logistics went into getting the spot for us at Alexis, we weren't about to just scrap it all because of a light. Despite Laura's lighting, I'm just glad it wasn't so jarring to the point where it took away from the story.
In terms of the text though, that's something that will be staying as is without the literal voices. We thought a lot about how to do this, and during the course of planning I went ahead and made the decision to turn it into a kind of modern "silent-film" to give it a kind of creative twist, as well as to help accommodate the group as a whole and find a good balance for all projects. But believe me, I don't think that voices in their own right would be a bad idea either.
You have my gratitude for the feedback, Amanda, and I'm very happy you enjoyed it overall.
This was really good Ryan! It was a good lesson in a short film. I thought your technique of filming the letter was particularly neat. It wasn't a dimly shot of a letter for everyone to read, you zoomed in on the key words and phrases and left enough time to be able to read and get they point of the letter. It put the viewer in Laura's eyes and didn't drown us with excess wording that would hold little importance to the overall point. You can tell that you put a lot of time and effort into the making of this. Great editing as well, I thought you lingered on shots for just the right amount of time.
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost Shannon, you have my thanks.
DeleteSecondly, I'm glad you approved of that idea to present the letter in such a fashion. I'm going to be keeping that as is for the final cut as well, but the only difference being I'll actually be typing up the letter and using a much clearer image so it isn't so damn blurry.. that still irks me when I re-watch it. But the reasons why I decided to do so are in your own words - the rest simply wasn't needed. As long as those highlights were presented to give Jason's presence at the diner the foundation it needed - the rest was negligible.
This project took a lot of time and thought, but I'm very happy with the product, and even happier that it's well received. Thank you again for taking the time to leave your thoughts, I sincerely appreciate it.