Hey guys, even though I asked Ayz to post this on Onlining since it was a CC before/after, I've moved it to Rebel Yell since it's now become a general thread about the making of the short.
Which is awesome and what I hoped would happen.
Ayz, I'd love to hear more about your production audio. Did you pipe into the camera? Or dual system? What mics did you use?
-Stu
Lol, you totally sucked me into this. Great fun though, so thanks.
Audio... I'll have to check with my friend Andrew who handled on set sound, but what I can say is that I had Rode NT2 shotgun mic, which he attached to a boom we rented along with a mixing deck of some kind. I may be getting this all wrong, since I pretty much let him handle it. Anyway, he figured out a way to pipe the sound into the stereo mini-jack because I wanted the sound to be synced to the tapes. We had some issues with buzzing in one of the stereo channels ocassionally, but that we figured out it would be easily solved by muting that channel, and just using the other one -- since most dialogue is mono anyway.
I'll find out exactly what the equipment was and what it cost us. Wasn't too bad though.
Oh and on the day we shot the chase, we had no audio equipment at all. I knew i'd be sound-designing it mostly anyway -- so it was just oboard hv20 that day, which is hardly used in the final film.
Boz wrote:
A few more questions if I may....
What was your budget (roughly) for this flick? And what were the main expenses involved?
This is gonna sound bad, but I don't know the exact figure. I've guestimated it was probably about 500-800 bucks (not including the camera, which i had gotten earlier for $700 CDN). So basically well under a grand. Things I spent money on were:
- Audio equipment
- Pizza/food
- Buying some long PVC pipes that we used for dolly tracks lol
- Gas
- A flourescent lamp from ikea.
- random expenses
Having done this for a while, there's a few things I already had like tapes, worklights, a mic, editing gear, etc.
Boz wrote:
Also, I read somewhere that you used worklights for your lighting solution. Having used worklights myself I know there's some big caveats when using them. Did you use diffusion to soften the light and did you run into any problems not being able to get the lights up high enough? I've experienced both of these problems in the past, so I was wondering how you dealt with them.
Thanks.
I kept the lights pretty close the actors (just off-screen) but bounced them off some white boards i picked up from Staples. I'd angle it so it was pretty soft for the most part. In the END SCENE at the store there were a lot of desk lamps and stuff around (since its a furniture place), so I wanted it to look like some of the lights was coming from those practical sources, which meant i could get away with some harsh lighting -- but it was always bounced off something. I used a little flourescent lamp as fill on the faces, because it created a slightly different mix of color textures on the actors. So yeah, I found them bright enough as long as they were close off-screen.
God this sounds so ghetto fab. But it works for me I guess.
_________________ AYZ WARAICH N E X U S 6 R E P L I CA N T
God this sounds so ghetto fab. But it works for me I guess.
The stuff you keep apologizing for is the stuff we love you for man. You're among friends.
-Stu
Yeah, you're right. Thanks man.
This is why i'm posting this info here and not other forums I frequent. This place is cool.
Quote:
I guess you letterboxed in vegas too? did you plan for this aspect ratio from the start?
missed this earlier. Yeah, I can only compose images in scope in my head. I have no idea how to work in 16x9. That's why i used some electrical tape and masked off the viewfinder, so I couldn't see any "safe areas". I new I had room at the top and bottom in post if I needed to reposition (which I did ocassionally), but being able to see them on set throws me off. I ripped little gaps in the tape so i could still see the hv20's shutter info and such.
Then I later cropped the image down in vegas, and rendered out.
_________________ AYZ WARAICH N E X U S 6 R E P L I CA N T
Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Fairfield, CA
"It's not so much that it's wrong, but more that it's weird and embarrasing. I can imagine some of the more pro guys thinking it absolutely backwards. It's sort of like baking film stock before using it. It sound stupid, but it definitely has a certain look."
I am a HUGE stickler for colour correction. It's a conscious stylistic choice or to act as a repair in making the images look more real than what the video camera catches. I must say that your colour grading in this film makes me really happy. Trust me, I know what you mean about "weird and embarrassing" process. I've colour graded in Apple's Color (fantastic...if you really need all that), and done the whole Magic Bullet Looks *which I hate*, and when it comes down to it, it's all a matter of using the editing software's simple built in color correction and knowing what each of those few buttons do. They always say, less is more.
I've baked the film stock before using it..(so to speak)....whatever gets you to the look and "feel" that you want.
Great work. Mighty proud of you.
...for all of it...but mostly the colour.
Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:25 pm
Paul Del Vecchio
Joined: 26 Oct 2007 Posts: 477 Location: Syosset, NY
Dude, amazing short, man! It's great to see such high quality work done with so little. It's inspiring! What's next from you?
Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 4424 Location: Hollywood, CA
Quote:
...and when it comes down to it, it's all a matter of using the editing software's simple built in color correction and knowing what each of those few buttons do. They always say, less is more.
Maybe, maybe not. Here is a simple demonstration of what a plugin can do vs native NLE CC tools, even when those tools are supposed to be the same thing.
Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Fairfield, CA
Gage wrote:
Quote:
...and when it comes down to it, it's all a matter of using the editing software's simple built in color correction and knowing what each of those few buttons do. They always say, less is more.
Maybe, maybe not. Here is a simple demonstration of what a plugin can do vs native NLE CC tools, even when those tools are supposed to be the same thing.
Touche! hee hee. I think the point I was trying to make is that, you don't need to "Berlin" everything and have that be "good". I also don't colour correct blindly like that I utilize the charts and graphs. I think people underestimate how capable the 3 way colour corrector is.
Really well made. I liked your shots, editing, acting, writing. I liked it all.
Thanks for sharing your process too. I have vegas, but use it only to render out AVCHD files. Nice to see that you did all that color work in there.
_________________ VON PIXEL
float like a 32 bit comp
sting like a bee
Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:14 pm
digitalcos
Joined: 21 May 2008 Posts: 67 Location: Upstate NY
Damn nice stuff.
Something about it reminded me off THX-1138.
Music enhanced the mood well. The acting was top drawer also. Just great stuff all around.
I'm going to point out one thing that bugged me though. The screen direction of the guy that gave him the name of the store. It threw me off. I lost my sense of space.
Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 4424 Location: Hollywood, CA
Quote:
...you don't need to "Berlin" everything and have that be "good".
Okay. I see where you're coming from. I'm not a fan of Magic Bullet as a crutch, but it is a great tool. Colorista rocks. I do most of mt CC/grading in that and will go to Magic Bullet for extra inspiration. I never straight apply a preset, though. I'm not a fan of heavy looks in any case.
Anyway, nice to you have you on the site as well. Welcome.
Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:08 pm
rnjonjo
Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 4
dude!!!
Ayz, man...that totally FREAKIN' rocked!!!
that's wassup!!
for the untrained eye, it looks like a low budget flick in the 1-2 million range...at least that's what my girlfriend told me. Screw the untrained eye...if I had seen that short anywhere else, that's exactly what I would have thought.
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