The Shepherd - 13 mins

A hunting weekend turns deadly when past secrets are revealed.

http://vimeo.com/3014767

I was invited on a hunting trip this summer and since I dont shoot guns I thought I'd bring along my HV20, I put some adds on the internet that I was looking for a short script about 4 guys on a hunting trip and one came in a couple days before the trip. The guys were reluctant at first to try the acting thing out and I didnt really have high hopes for their performance but I was surprised how well they did at short notice.

I had just finished reading Stu's book so this was my first time color correcting in AE , took a while to learn but I'm glad I went the extra mile.

Garnet

okay
acting wasnt good, which is understandable
the editing was pretty...bad at times but most of it was fine

the camera work, i thought was amazing! really great job on that.
the story was kinda weak but you didnt write it so thats cool
and i hated the gun shot sound

loved the ending, with the hands, and then what we didnt see. good stuff.

but great job all around!

and you dont shoot guns? at all? or just not to kill things?
may i ask why? just out of curiosity

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I stand corrected, I shouldn't have said I don't shoot guns, I should have written " I don't hunt". Shooting guns is great fun, but gutting a carcass and hauling it down a mountain doesn't have that same appeal. I'm glad I had the opportunity to tag along with these guys all in all it was a very fun experience.

Hey Imaginate,

Nice effort on a last minute thing. Overall if looked good, but like Tazer said, it had it's weak points. I really try to just say nothing if I don't have much nice to say, but one thing Tazer said surprised me: "the camera work, i thought was amazing! really great job on that. "

Interesting. That bothered me possibly more than the acting did. The framing was confused, the camera moves were rough... Working on camera work would have been my first suggestion. Not a bad effort, just a bit to correct for next time.

Feel free to rip into it. I'm not emotionally attached to it at all. These quickie shorts should serve as examples to on how or not to do things. If we aren't learning from our past mistakes we aren't growing. One problem I had when editing this was several times I had crossed the line shooting certain shots out of sequence... the shots had to be flipped horizontally to correct.... but in places it couldn't be saved.

Another problem with the couple shots was the shooting in shadows with bright backgrounds. I guess if I did it again I would reframe the shot to avoid the bright backgrounds...

I appreciate your open and learning attitude, but to be clear, I didn't hold my tongue to keep from ripping it apart, I held my tongue because I was very lukewarm about it. One thing you'll learn about me, here, is that I am pretty much 100%. I post when I love sh*t, and I post when I hate sh*t. I'm not good with the middle ground. And it almost kept me from even posting what I did - I understand that it wasn't really helpful, and I apologize for that. Photographically, there was a lot that just left me disinterested.

Forgive me for a brief framing lesson. I don't say this is how it HAS TO be, but this is how it WORKS. (Keep in mind there ARE some nice shots, but I'm going to point out the ones that offend me.)

The big thing is that you are cramping your frame.

All three of these guys are talking over their shoulders - which is fine to convey a point or feeling, but really they are framed to cramp their conversation. They are all talking in the opposite direction than they are framed, this closes them off. Typically, you want the frame to LEAD the subject; if someone is walking or driving to the LEFT, then you frame them on the right with their JOURNEY ahead of them. If they are traveling LEFT, though, and they are FRAMED on the LEFT, then it feels like they are trying to ESCAPE something on the right. Which is fine, if that is what is going on.

Now in that THIRD frame above, that guy is a bit hostile, so framing him the way you do gives us the impression that he ISNT in on the whole thing and he is a PROBLEM and it makes us uncomfortable - and that CAN be GOOD. But when it's combined with the exact same type of framing for EVERYONE, including the first guy who is just casually starting a conversation, then uncomfortable framing loses it's meaning.

Then 30 seconds later he gets up and walks away and there is a bad/jerky pan to follow him, and then the shot after that is this:

And they all get their heads cut off for lack of headroom. For scenes where I dont want full handheld shaky-cam, but it needs some sort of fluid/organic movement, I'll put the camera on the tripod and then leave the head completely loose. That allows me the freedom to move around and follow with the freedom of handheld, but without the shaky. You were VERY locked down - to the put that you held shots that cut off their heads. Cut off heads, bad moves, cramped framing just adds up to bad camerawork for me.

Pic THREE above MAY have been considered good framing to me considering his attitude and how he ended the line - which was TURNED AWAY and LOOKING OUT:

...but since the rest is off, it just comes off as a happy coincidence.

And to be fair, there are many nice shots - it's just that the BASICS weren't followed.

As for crossing the line - you'll grow out of it with practice. Shooting out of sequence doesn't do it, unless you are shooting actors separately - it's just merely ignoring the line. If you think of the "line" as a concrete wall that you cant cross or and the camera cant see through, then you wont cross it.

And again, it was a nice short, especially for a last minute thing on a hunting trip.

One REALLY good thing came out of it, and that is that I am immediately removing the words "Kill them. Kill them all." from one of my screenplays. I didn't write it, but I thought the line was fine - I actually liked it. Maybe not.

Thanks for the specific examples, thats advice I can use on the next shoot. Practice makes perfect. Its amazing how you think you know how to put a shot together then in the heat of the moment when the pressure is on and time is against you, getting the shots is much harder.

Absolutely. There is a TON that I forget to think about as well. I am a big fan of filmmakers taking a photography workshop to learn the fundamentals of photography - composition, exposure, and lighting - because just as a basketball player who has learned the fundamentals of dribble/pass/layup can do those with their eyes closed - same goes for the photographer or filmmaker that takes the time to learn the fundamentals. Think about how many millions and millions and millions of cameras are out there in the world yet so few people know how to REALLY tale a PHOTO - they all take SNAPSHOTS. My mom has been taking family pictures for 50+ years, but she has never progressed beyond taking SNAPSHOTS. The same thing goes for someone picking up a video camera.

Now, your shots are definitely past "snapshots", but with just a little study and practice, you wont even have to THINK about it, you'll just shoot it, and shoot it right.

	Quote:
	Its amazing how you think you know how to put a shot together then in the heat of the moment when the pressure is on and time is against you, getting the shots is much harder.

You learn it so it becomes second nature. So that no matter the time nor pressure, you make the shot. Now...shooting the shot well and coming up with the right shot to shoot are two different things. I think you have good instincts on choosing the right shot, you just need to learn how to shoot it well, now. Luckily one of the best and easiest lessons for great shooting (and great shot choice, but that's a different subject) is watching great films. I cant tell you how many times I've watched Fight Club and Se7en just to see how he uses light and framing. Your DVD player is your best teacher.

I just found this site its great for studying scene composition. http://leavemethewhite.com/index2.html

That is freakin awesome! Great find!

Imaginate, that link you posted is blowing my mind!

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