Pics from last weekend of filming - including a set

Post by **Scotness** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 9:47 pm

We did our final filming on Hold Me Tight last weekend - this included a fairly big set we built.

Frame grabs are here (this is all HDV):
http://www.mango-a-gogo.com/hold/stills3.htm

and pics of the set building are here:
http://www.mango-a-gogo.com/hold/bts4.htm

Now for the editing

Scot

Post by **HTTK** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 1:15 am

Very cool looking set and screencaps from the movie. I would be interested in how you built the set. I think I'm going to do that one day and would like some pointers!

Thanks for sharing this with us. 8)

Post by **Scotness** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 1:23 am

I was lucky - I got the flats from another short film they were made for - but they're basically just ply fronts on pine framework -- the painting was something else though - I had two quite skilled people doing that

Scot

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 1:55 am

Great locations... on the second page of stills, there are a few shots with the character holding a dead mallard. What did you use? The beak looks like it might be wood, but it looks like it has real feathers. I ask because a project I want to do requires a few shots with dead ducks.

Post by **Scotness** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 10:08 pm

The ducks were sedated - I didn't have the heart to kill them - luckily my wife works at a vet surgery and it was easy to organise to sedate them - there's more down the bottom of this page:

http://www.filmshooting.com./scripts/fo ... sc&start=0

Scot

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 11:23 pm

Wow, my memory is really poor. Must be old age :? I wouldn't kill the ducks either. The problem for my project is that I need "alive" ducks (swimming in a river) and a single "dead" one (which will be picked up from the water after being shot and then cooked in a pot). Buying a dead one for the second part is a possibility, but I'm not sure how to get a shot of two live ducks in a river. Maybe I can shoot it where ducks actually live, and cut it in with the other footage.

Post by **npcoombs** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:54 pm

First of all, I have to say I admire anyone on a low budget and without substantial logistical or financial support that can bring together people, costumes and locations for narrative pieces.

...but having a look through your stills I don't see many shots of cinematic quality. And its not just the use of HD. There seems to be an abundance of medium and close ups, which give more of an impression of a soap opera or tv drama than a feature film. There are no striking compositions that grab me particularly...

Sorry to be so negative.

Post by **Scotness** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:52 pm

Don't you think it's a bit silly to start drawing such strong conclusions from a bunch of stills? I think from this it's not possible to say whether it's going to be really good or really bad - you'll have to wait for the cut. It's a short btw too not a feature - there are more wide shots than what's posted too - and I'm actually waiting for the cut before I decided if I need more of the bush as cut aways to show passing of time etc - I'll most likely do them in 16mm becasue I don't think the resolution of hdv will work very well with lots of trees and small leaves.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate your comments - wide shots/establishing shots etc are important and I do have them - but to draw conclusions about a whole film from a selection of stills is never going to be accurate.

BTW I was looking at The Burning of Girolamo Savonarola - there's some nice shots in there - I know it's only a temporary off the wall telecine but if you want to get rid of the flicker on it there's a good virtual dub plug in that can do it:
http://www.compression.ru/video/deflicker/index_en.html

- I got good results on Sleeping On Her Couch with it.

Scot

Scot

Post by **mattias** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:19 pm

did you use the cinegamma and cineframe features? your images look more like video than the short i just shot on sony hdv. don't get me wrong, they look great, just curious about the difference. the quality of light of the swedish autumn is most likely much easier to work with than aussie spring which could be the reason? we pretty much have magic hour all day over here...

/matt

Post by **mattias** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:22 pm

Scotness wrote:Don't you think it's a bit silly to start drawing such strong conclusions from a bunch of stills?

i actually thought the same. i didn't draw any conclusions exactly because i thought it was much too early, but np seems to like doing that. he saw a trailer of mine once, and while i enjoyed his feedback which wasn't at all negative he went on to define my entire career as a filmmaker based on it... ;-)

/matt

Post by **npcoombs** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 5:00 pm

Mattias since when do you start being so sensitive?

Fact is, both your films deal with teen sexuality. You could equally level the charge that my films have a macabre fixation on death, or Scott is obsessed with colonial guilt. Critics will do it, so why not fellow filmmakers?

Post by **Scotness** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 6:21 pm

The video look:
Yeah the exposure range was just too high for the camera - so unfortunately we just had to live with blow outs - some days the hot spots were just totally off the scale (and I ahd to be wearing a !@#$ing yellow costume!) -- but we're trying to make it work for us - by desturating a bit (not seen in most of these frames posted!) and just making it look hotter and drier and tougher than it was even. I'll dig out the camera settings - I've got them written down.

Colonial guilt:
Look I've got to admit you're right - I've got other projects in the pipeline which have nothing to do with it - but it is a major theme I'm interested in - I'm even planning to go back to Uni next year to finish my anthropology degree. I think I just feel sorry for so many indigenous cultures becasue so many of them were nearly (and actually for some) wiped from the face of the earth. And in Australia that's still not fully understood or accepted - most of us don't know our own history that well. Although it's not just colonial guilt - I just love period films because they tell me about more than just the characters but something about human culture and development as well. And I love seeing women in all those beautiful dresses :lol:

I'm also interested in our relationship to the natural environment - and the older the setting the closer to it we seem to be.

Scot

Post by **tlatosmd** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:15 pm

npcoombs wrote:Fact is, both your films deal with teen sexuality. You could equally level the charge that my films have a macabre fixation on death, or Scott is obsessed with colonial guilt. Critics will do it, so why not fellow filmmakers?

Might even be better if we fellow filmmakers spot it before it gets into the headlines. ;)

Anyway, I guess I share a deep interest in period films with you Scottness, at least up to WWII. Somehow I feel like anything that followed the year 1945 isn't so much history as it's some sort of early present.

Post by **mattias** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:44 am

npcoombs wrote:Mattias since when do you start being so sensitive?

i'm not. like i said i thought your feedback was interesting and i think you were right in a lot of your analysis. it's just that "fact is" you have a history of jumping to conclusions, and i meant that as tongue in cheek. sorry if it sounded otherwise.

/matt

Post by **npcoombs** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 7:02 pm

mattias wrote:
npcoombs wrote:Mattias since when do you start being so sensitive?
i'm not. like i said i thought your feedback was interesting and i think you were right in a lot of your analysis. it's just that "fact is" you have a history of jumping to conclusions, and i meant that as tongue in cheek. sorry if it sounded otherwise.

/matt

Matt: Just out of interest how much do you charge to DP on productions?