Super 8 short film Disarmed online

Post by **astralpictures** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 9:08 am

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to post a link to our first super8 short "Disarmed." It was definitely a learning experience using this format. I've been studying super8 filmmaking for 2 years but have never had the chance (money reasons) to use my camera for a project. If I had the chance to re-film it I'd do a lot of things differently, but I've learned and now am moving on to the next project.

This is still a work-in-progress as our composer is still scoring it and I'm still working on color correction and better compression.

It was shot with a Minolta XL-84 Pro camera with K40 film stock and transfered to video at Pac Labs Inc.

Please tell me what you think.

http://www.astralpictures.com/movies/disarmed6.wmv

Post by **astralpictures** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:39 am

Any comments?

Post by **Ultrazero** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 5:43 am

Interesting..

Music and sound effects would definately enhance the film. The colors look really good. A few shots are a little out of focus...

Does the audience know why the girl is so melancholy? Maybe I missed that part.

Her attempted suicide made me laugh. The setup for that was fantastic as the tone came through without any sound.

She'll never be able to kill herself that way.

I enjoyed it. Make sure to show us the finished product.

Post by **woods01** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 5:45 am

I downloaded but I got no sound :? so I can't fully comment on it.
What I can tell you is that I liked your video transfer. The shots of the
fish in water gave me a few ideas, thanx for the inspiration

But the one thing I can give you a solid critism on is your credits
suck! The color and font do not meld well with S8 film. Use plain white
on black, or better yet, film your credits. Early in your movie
your actress looks at a book. Print up your credits and mock up a
book. Open with a close up with turning pages of your book.

Oh and add a few guns and nude scenes :twisted:

John

Post by **mattias** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:23 am

i couldn't view or hear it at all. how about an mpeg-1 version?

/matt

Post by **S8 Booster** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:35 am

See - no hear on MAC WMP.

R

Post by **astralpictures** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 6:51 pm

It's actually NOT supposed to have sound because I wanted it to be a silent piece. Like I said originally, the composer is working on a light piano score right now.

Ultrazero, I'm glad the attempted suicide made you laugh! At least some people get our humor.

And the reason why she's so melancholy wasn't supposed to be explained; we just wanted to make a short surreal piece that basically says life is never as romantic as it is in books. She's reading Shakespeare's Hamlet and the part about Ophelia drowning and decides it'd be a beautiful way to end her life (you can tell she's a nut-case).

woods01, I'm glad you commented on the credits. Originally they were just white on black, but we were getting comments they it was too boring. I was actually just thinking about either shooting some more shots of the creek and superimposing credits over the footage, or have the credits be in Medieval style writing. And there were almost some nude scenes since the actresses breasts kept trying to pop out in the creek and once the strap broke.

And to the people who couldn't view it, I'll be making a bunch of different files once the score and final edit are completed, so maybe you can check back then! Sorry about that.

Post by **mattias** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 8:00 pm

astralpictures wrote:Sorry about that.

if i may be frank i don't think you should apologize to us, even though you should perhaps be sorry. what i'm trying to say is that it's mostly your loss if people can't view your work. :-)

/matt

Post by **teadub** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 7:16 am

very nice exposures (no blown out whites, and not under exposed either). was it an overcast day? you didn't use reflectors or kickers did you?

astralpictures wrote:I was actually just thinking about either shooting some more shots of the creek and superimposing credits over the footage

this will nice (like the footage of the koi fish) but when you encode it there may be actifacts. its good to do light text on dark colors.

astralpictures wrote:or have the credits be in Medieval style writing

no, bad idea.

overall very nice imagery. the only thing that stuck out was, "where did the black bra come from?" i know it may have something to do with the actress being shy about being in wet eveningwear. but you do plenty of shots showning her without a bra for the first 3 minutes and even a shot walking aroung her entire body showing off her bare back.

Post by **skyy38** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:56 am

Get yourself a tripod and use it often-It is key to a pro look and production.
Give yourself a little more breathing room on editing- some shots cut away too quickly before they have a chance to be absorbed.
Yes do some shots of the creek(fairly long like the end credit shots on "Twister") and have them dissolve from one to the other.Don't do any music for the end credits,record the creek sounds and use them instead.

Producer me!

Post by **studiocarter** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 9:02 am

WMV does not play on my machine

Post by **dannyp** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 3:07 am

Final version of Disarmed can be seen here

For those who want to know why she is melancholy, wait until the book is finished.

Post by **disjecta** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 6:05 am

I really enjoyed this film.

There are a couple of points that I disagree with in the above posts.

1. The use of a tripod. I'm all for that, but I got the "insanity" thing with the girl right away and the shaky cam certainly contributed to that feeling of discombobulation and enhanced the discomfort she was feeling. It's almost like we were seeing the world from her own distorted perspective.

2. The cuts were also very well done in my opinion. Again. the swiftness of some of the scenes perfectly matched her state of mind: disconnected and not necessarily cohesive.

The look and feel of the shots is really beautiful and it's nice to see the limits of Super 8 being pushed. The narrow depth of field close-ups of the girl's face were exquisite.

The soundtrack reminded me of a silent from the Golden Age, it also went very well with the visual.

I saw this on your site a few weeks ago and keep coming back to it for inspiration. I think it's a very good effort and look forward to your future work.

Having said that, I also watched the "massacre" movie on your site. Man alive, did you go into rehab after that? I can't believe you also did Disarmed. "Massacre" was like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets America's Funniest Home Videos.

Anyway, nice job and thanks for sharing.

Post by **disjecta** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 6:07 am

One more thing....I thought you were going to change the titles. They look amateurish. Maybe you are still working on it although you said this is the final version.

Post by **jumar** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 7:39 am

Gorgeous colours. Wow. I agree on the titles. White on black would really suit this piece.