Our Monday Morning Scene
Happy Monday morning. No vlog today. Real sorry; this will not happen often!
Instead I'll show you all that unfinished scene we shot. It's a bit rough and the audio isn't properly mixed, but here ya goes.
This was for the 'ghost story' I shot for Halloween. It's really more of a cheesy love story. And like a nasty habit that's tough to shake, I wrote it the same night we shot. Anna memorized the entire script at a glance. What you see is her performing with zero time to prepare. I'd feel bad for her if only she didn't do so well. As for Sean, well, he's a swell sport who plays himself better than anyone I know.
To avoid any confusion in the scene: Sean is a random passer-by who happens to see Anna crying in the car; curious, he approaches. This was set up in the opening moments of the script, which would have been shot if we had decided to follow through with the rest.
Is it me or was the stage-line all over the place, in terms of crossing and un-crossing in the first few seconds; Then it was OK; Then all over the place again?
I like it though. Good dialogue, although the “You look ugly…” bit doesn’t sit very well with me. Ending was great too. Anna is really good, and it’s really funny when you said Sean plays himself better than anyone.
Can’t wait to see the finished product.
You’re correct: in the first shots Anna looks to the right frame instead of left; and in one brief, terrible moment she actually looks *into* the camera. The poor girl didn’t know where to look because we didn’t tell her; I stood outside the car and watched (not enough room inside), and Sean held the camera on the driver’s seat. In Sean’s shots, in which he’s acting to me and not Anna, the line of sight is spot-on.
My decision to make them look in the opposite sides of the frame, yet still safely cross the axis, was due to the cramped nature of the location/angles: it was more convincing to have them look across rather than to their sides. I wanted that distance between them.
And there won’t be a finished product. At least, not *that* much more finished. I enjoyed this as one of our crazy rushed projects. It’s intriguing, but it was a slight effort from the start and probably better just to move on.
Did you notice that on the first watch, Al? I’ve seen this scene three times and hadn’t noticed at all. I think it goes together just fine, crossing or not.
“You look ugly…” took me like 100 takes and coaching from Peter, Anna, and Aundie (the girl doing sound) to get it right.
Peter — It’s fine. Finished or not, this is fine on it’s own. And the outside stedicam shot, was that with the merlin or your usual tripod steadicam (which you’ve perfected)?
Sean — Yea, I’m kind of a Stage-Line Nazi
Any observations are certainly welcome. I’m a stage line fanatic myself, and a lot of my editing was spent trying to avoid the takes in which we hadn’t yet told Anna where to look. But I still can’t believe you didn’t like “You look ugly when you cry.” That was Sean’s John Cusack moment, when he utters a line so nakedly honest you can’t help but be won over by his obvious charms!
And that exterior shot was done with dolly track. We recorded a few at 30fps to make it smoother, but I ended up liking the slightly rougher 24fps version. It looked more natural, especially considering the lens flare.
That scene is really good. Maybe the rest was bad, but you have something you can build on.
Nice job.
Loved the shots. This scene is adequately well-written (speaking from the perspective of an amateur), but for common viewers, I think any “mistakes” in filming or even the dialogue is pretty much unnoticeable.
Hey,
What kinda cameras do you use for your shoots? And do you store the captured footage on SD cards?
Hey Aziz, check out this post.
We use a Canon 7D and shoot on 2 32GB Compact Flash cards. We have a store where you can see what we use, too.
Yay! Finally get to see some of this! It was really, really good! I think with more time the script could have really been perfected but you guys and Anna did amazing with the time you had. Sean’s John Cusack line does still bug me haha and ended up just making him sound mean afterall.. oh, well. The camera work is amazing to me in that cramped space. However I do think that the first shots should have been from Arthur’s perspective, not Destinys. Makes us feel like Arthur is the mysterious one..
LOVE THIS!! If you guys ever need help again, I’m around.
Aundie’s with me on the ugly thing. The line sounded mean — I thought it was only me.
I can’t believe this finnally got posted! Although I’d love to use the excuse of how little prepare time I had…I shall not! Honestly its because of my lack of experience- I apologize for looking not in the correct location…in the future I must be more aware of it.
Sean actually looks really good in this- he knows where to look and his angle is very flattering. lol.
I also agree with the Ugly line…however I find it hilarious.
Thanks for all your hard work guys!
I like the “ugly” line. It is so against the grain, I liked it. Don’t change it, it was one of my favorite parts.
Peter, Sean, Anna, Aundie, and the rest…
{Sounds like the theme from Gilligan’s Island, eh?}
When it comes to bad footage, or bad concept, this isn’t even in the running.
What you have here is, as was said earlier, a good beginning… take a little time and rework the concept, shoot the scenes around it, and you’ll have something really good.
Don’t be discouraged… writing is not easy, but when it’s finally torn from your hands and shot, it can be quite rewarding.
Wow, Anna is an INCREDIBLE actor.
This is the first time I’ve watched your videos, and I’m quite enjoying them.
Thanks so much! Anna is pretty incredible. So happy to have met her
you guys are great
in my opinion you guys are skillful at creating ambience.
and your night shoots are awesome!