Hey Studentfilms, I just finished my short film called Duct Tape Miracles. I'm really working hard on learning the ropes, so any advice or suggestions are appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eozhs0DrkS8

Thanks everyone!

P.S- is there a site that will host my film in a better quality, or do any of you have any suggestions on how to submit my film to youtube with better quality?

Thanks!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hoohaProductions,

Studentfilms.com will host it at higher quality!

criticism:
deus ex machina ending...The production value was awful, and so was the camera movement and angles...except one...They did nothing to enhance the film. I did like the guy's acting though...the sound was alright, but inconsistent.

advice:
learn the 180 degree rule.

Your story was humorous and coherent(especially your main guy...he made me chuckle). Now you need to work on your technical and compositional skills so you can tell your story without distracting the audience with inconsistent sound or awkward cuts.

My biggest advice would be to lock the camera down

Thank you both for your responses. This place is really the only place I can find good critiques. People don't understand that it doesn't help me a bit when they say "I like it."

Evan, if you can recall, which camera angle did you not find awful?

Braininabox, I'll definitely continue to work on those things. And that's good advice.

Thanks to both of you.

Does anyone else have any advice? Anything would be appreciated.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hoohaProductions,

After re-watching it...

I think Evan may have been a little too harsh when he said all your camera angles were awful. :/

In my opinion you did have some nice shots and movements (slow pan upwards of the girl holding the huge pink bear...some of your shots of the boy chasing the duct tape) I wouldn't say that any of your shots were downright bad (except perhaps one extremely shaky one) I would just say that a good portion of your shots seemed accidental.

I don't know if you decide what shots you are going to use while you are on set, but a bit of storyboarding may be able to help you a lot.

Other than that I think you just need to practice developing an eye for aesthetics and learning what makes shots look pretty from a compositional point of view. (such as the rule of thirds, using natural framing elements, not leaving so much empty space between your character's head on the top of the frame, taking advantage of natural lines and shapes, etc)

Again, Brain, all your advice is extremely useful to me. Thank you. I've actually never story boarded before, but I definitely think I should start. It would solve a lot of my problems. As for developing an eye for aesthetics, I'm working on that as well. I don't know if there are any tools that you other filmmakers know of that could help me with that (maybe good examples of other scenes or films that could help me) but if there are please let me know.

Thanks again.

Oh, and by the way, where could I find any of your videos to watch and hopefully learn from?

This post is pretty much directed towards everyone on this site. Not just Brain and Evan.

Just watched it, and I enjoyed it. The only problems I really had with it was the inconsistent audio, and not so great camera work. I didn't even have a problem with most the camera angles, and positions, although some weren't so great.

The main thing with the camera work is that you really need to be using the manual features on your camera. It may or may not have too indepth of manual features, but you need to use what you have. The close-up shot of him sitting on his bed with his nephew had him out of focus and the wall in focus. That would've been a decent shot if he was in focus, but as it was it just made it look terrible. A lot of the interior shots were dark too. Make sure you turn on all the lights around, and even move them around. You can get affordable lights at a hardware store, or ordering a kit online. The one shot where you panned across the sliding door, it tried to "fix" the exposure as you panned across it, and made the shot look terrible as well (even though it was too dark to begin with). Auto-exposure doesn't like things to be blown out in a shot, even if that means having your subject look dark. Lock down and adjust the exposure to your subject and you'll have much better looking shots. I think that when he's trying to ask the girl out that instead of going back and forth between them you should have just had a wider fixed shot, and just let the awkwardness do all the work.

I liked the editing at the beginning, and the acting I thought was LOTS better than most student films. The story was pretty enjoyable as well. I think that if you can just get some of the aesthetics down that you'll be making quite good movies in no time!

Thanks Heliotrope!

You're right, I do need to learn how to use my camera's manual controls. I learned that in the editing process. I actually learned a lot during this film. This film was for a class project, so it had a pretty quick deadline. During the summer when I have some more time I'm going to storyboard and have things planned out. I think that really hurt me this go-around.

I agree with you on the ask-out scene. I thought it would add to the awkwardness at first, but I think it just made the scene look really unprofessional.

Thanks for the advice.
I really do learn a lot from this site.

i guess it isn't that the camera angles are all aweful...just they really seemed all over the place, and random, and they really failed (for me at least) to capture the scenes in a meaningful way....not that it was unwatchable per se, but just uninspired.... the camera angle i liked was the girl on the bed at 3:20 ish...but upon second viewing, there are others....

i guess my main complaint with the film is the contrived ending... i really liked the characters, and the ending did not develop naturally, and therefore was less meaningful, which is a shame because:

I thought your lead actor was great. When he says "...i found it" and "this is a keeper" i couldn't help but laugh.

Thanks again, Evan.

I definitely think you have a solid case in saying that my ending was a bit sketch. (I wouldn't go as far as deus ex machina, though)
The premise was to create two outcast, slightly insecure, yet charming and engaging characters and bring them together through the power of duct tape. As lame as that sounds on paper, it's the story I came up with when given my prompt. (This was for my high school's film festival)

The fact that the ending was a bit of a stretch probably stems from the fact that the duct tape had to be utilized in creating the miracle. Sorry if it didn't deliver for you, though.

Just out of curiosity, would you have any suggestions on alternate endings? I'm interested to hear what you have to say...

Any more opinions out there?

I just watched your film and here's what I think.

The acting was truly the best part. The actors did a wonderful job at creating charming and engaging characters and I genuinely liked them. The end was a bit of a stretch... but that's not a bad thing. I thought it was a perfect ending, especially with the limitations you had for the contest. I'm sure this would be an even better film if you worked with it a bit more. Perhaps reshoot with the same actors, however you'll have the advice we've given, especially with your camera work which isn't horrible but it felt a little uninspired and uninterested. Nonetheless, you have a good film here and I am looking forward to what else you have in store. I'd like to see this film reshot and cleaned up a bit. Keep at it, you did a great job!

HoohaProductions,

Here is my film 'Gangsters and Vengeance.' It'll give you an idea how I film my movies. I wrote this movie when I was fifteen and finally filmed it when I was seventeen a little over a year ago. Enjoy! Criticise as much as you please haha

Part One (5 mins)

Part Two (6 mins)

Hey, thanks Mark!

I appreciate it. I've thought about reshooting it, but my team isn't really into it. We're ready to move onto a new project with some new insight from my friends at studentfilms.com. lol.

I totally expect to see another 5-minute short from you within a month or two. Don't let me down

You got it, Brain! I'm working on a music video right now (for class) but as soon as I'm done with that I'm going to get started on my next project.

And Mark, I've actually seen Gangsters and Vengeance before, fancy that . Perhaps you posted the link on another thread or something...

It's a good short, and I actually learned a lot watching it the second time. I like your style, Mark. And I can really see a difference between really inspired camera work and, well... mine. Ha.

Hopefully you guys will see some improvement in my next film.

Why don't we all try and make a 5 minute short in the next month? No rules, no prizes, no contest, just doing it for the sake of doing it. I know I need to make something and I'm pretty sure everyone else could use to as well.

So, hold on. Did he totally forget about his little nephew and leave him alone at home while he chased a duct tape across town to a girls house?

Ha, funny how no one has brought that up yet, Armen. But yeah, that's the gist. So you watched it, any advice for me? What'd you like? What'd you hate?

And heliotrope, I'm down.
Today's May 19th. I'll be back with a new short on June 19th. You should start up a thread... err, something.