Our Monday Morning Cut
Hello everybody! Happy Monday Morning once again. No video blog today. Instead here’s the final cut of our little four-day short film.
Four days due to scheduling; Francesca just started a play, Stephen has work every day but Sunday, and like any kid Aaliyah goes to grammar school. Sean somehow managed to pull all the elements together two days before shooting; prior to that, we were in doubt as to whether or not we’d even have a script to shoot with.
Hmm. About that diner/cafe scene. We had a place picked out beforehand, a real diner-type place, indoors and everything. The owner gave us permission, shrugged that Sunday afternoons were usually quiet. Good for audio. But we scheduled the shoot on Superbowl Sunday. At 12:30 on the afternoon of the shoot (when we guesstimated the sun would be just right), to our horror the place was packed. Stuffed. It was like trying to shoot a scene in a sardine can, if sardines could shout and laugh.
The five of us—Stephen, Francesca, Sean, Anna, and I—loitered the parking lot and brainstormed another location. We did have a hotel plaza set aside, but that felt too uncertain. So when Anna suggested her college, off we went. If anybody asked, we were making a student film. An hour-and-a-half later we started shooting. The sun had moved and we were well behind schedule. Here’s where those HMIs, or some variety of 1,000+ watt lights, would have come in handy…if we had them.
Sean and I started with the great idea of employing high wattage lights to balance out the contrast of natural sunlight, which got me real excited. Then we found out they were too costly to rent. So we used one reflector when we could; but with Sean operating the Merlin and me doing everything else, it was a question of who would be available to hold the darn thing. This is the Achille’s Heel of a two-man crew.
The satisfactory shots are the ones where we exerted the most control. The least satisfactory shots were done guerrilla style. That’s not a strike against the style, but when mixed with shots that feel more “designed” it tends look inconsistent. The alternative would have been to shoot everything in a Paul Greengrass/shallow depth-of-field style (bokake meets Bourne Ultimatum-type montage editing) and grade the colors into a processed, oversaturated look—which is fine and adapts well to guerrilla shooting. But I really wanted that minimal, all-natural appearance.
All said and done, I think we did a solid job under the limitations. Quite a miniature learning experience for one week. Hope you all enjoy the final cut, and well, I’m looking forward to our next project…whatever that may be.
Ah much better, though i would have liked to see the foot prints in the end. Maybe after the Fin, or credits.
I liked that twist.
You guys have so much talent. Acting, cinematography, camera movement, editing (except the coffee cup macro), all superbly done.
If the music wasn’t meant to sound cheesy, email me.
Rest assured, combined with Max’s grin, it’s supposed to look and sound cheesy in an 80s sort of fashion.
Job well done!
Edit here is better. Everything seems more organic, as compared to the other cut. But the contrast here is a tad too much, in my opinion. I kinda prefer the look of the other one. Also, I thought the thing with the footprints was kinda cool — which is missing here.
Nonetheless, you guys did a great job
There actually is a lot more footage that Peter never used. I thought the final cut would be longer. I liked the footprints too, but the shot was really shaky and not as professionally done as everything else (or, at least, we didn’t have as much time to put into it).
Lovely.
though i don’t think i’ve ever seen a man eat a piece of toast quite like that before :0P
Heh, thanks. Peter directed him to eat like that, it was all intentional