"Raw Meat" — RED 4K Challenge

[Erik Bien]

As hinted in the Scarlet thread (http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?p=172666#post172666), I spent a most enjoyable weekend working on an entry for the Vuze 4K Challenge (http://www.vuze.com/channel/4k_challenge) film competition. :hv20-smilie72:

At the moment the channel still isn't displaying all entries (wouldn't you know, it was the Vuze host, not the cameras that barfed and delayed everyone's upload), so here's a direct link to ours: Raw Meat (http://www.vuze.com/details/D7KVWHONLCIPPAJNZVR7E77JB5PHT4J5.html).

And a screenie: :hv20-smilie29:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/uploaded/535_1232270464.jpg

It looks as if nine teams (http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=362035&postcount=149) made the deadline, and all qualifying entries will be screened Saturday, January 31st at the Downtown Independent (http://www.downtownindependent.com/) theatre in Los Angeles.

Ironically, another entry, "Casting (http://www.vuze.com/details/7MHUFIZGK5SCNXU72LD4TLOK7AF3YEYA.html)," was put together by most of the usual suspects (http://www.vimeo.com/user607222/videos) I've been doing RED gigs with in Missouri ...

So, please view, download, enjoy, comment and, uh, you know, RATE KINDLY ... :hv20-smilie31:

[Ian-T]

....geez...you look evil.... I'm skurred!!!

[spideralex90]

Good Luck in the fest. I'll try to download the video. The screen grab looks nice, in a scary way. lol.

[t_prakash]

Nice short, images looks almost like a film and of course great lighting.

People please be aware of the "Creepy Homeless Guy" and this is definitely not for weak hearted :hv20-smilie79:

Good luck with the festival, Erik.

Cheers,
Prakash

[Ian-T]

I'm at work...gotta wait till I get home tonight. Looking forward to watching this.


....I think....:hv20-smilie15:

[1]

And thus we have another problem with all this HD stuff (not unique to RED):
these files don't work for me - my computer can't download nor display them.
No offense but your DIRECT link is not what I call a direct link which links to the file, It's a webpage with the files embedded, which don;t work here.

What happened to the days where we just uploaded [and linked to] the files?
I miss those days. Sniff.

Good luck with the movie, Erik.
(Unfortunately I'll have to wait for a lowly YouTube version...)

[Zacatac]

we have ours up on Vuze as well...

its looking nice

http://www.vuze.com/details/TA3M5GLYMSJO5LVNBU7XWVKFIXMPNZWS.html

[Erik Bien]

LOL

Well Vuze is just a fancy UI for a BitTorrent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol)) client; it's not like it's super-duper-new-fangled technology! :hv20-smilie84:

[1]

Wait, I'm supposed to download the application in order to view these?

I'm keen, but not THAT keen!


EDIT: well, I tried some more, and now give up.

What's this jnlp extension?

"not like it's super-duper-new-fangled technology"

It is to ME! :)

[Erik Bien]

I don't mean to be insensitive, but I've viewed all the entries presently available on a circa 2003 Gateway PC ... the download of the Vuze client app (http://www.vuze.com/app) (I hadn't updated my Vuze player in a year or more) took less than a minute ...

[-Rogue5-]

we have ours up on Vuze as well...

its looking nice

http://www.vuze.com/details/TA3M5GLYMSJO5LVNBU7XWVKFIXMPNZWS.html

hmph... I dled it, but it says "Cannot Render", but Erik's played fine.

-Rogue5-

[1]

I don't mean to be insensitive...

You're not insensitive.
I'm just too lazy & stubborn too install yet another program to watch a movie via the internet.
I figure I have a so many players, and so many codecs already on this machine, I REALLY don't need any more. :hv20-smilie77:

[mrgreed202]

I'm doing something like this in a couple weeks, a 24 hour video race. You have to make a 5 min video with the supplied theme, prop, and line of dialogue. It's fun.

[CWildenradt]

Wow, I think this is the first file on Vuze that I've gotten a 778k/s download rate on! Downloaded in like 20 seconds literally. I'll watch in a bit and comment back........

[CWildenradt]

Hmmmmmm......interesting plotline. If I could offer some constructive criticism, I think the story would have benefited a great deal from some more engaging cinematography. The angles and framing for the bulk of the movie seemed very ordinary/plain. I thought that the steadicam work was fantastic though, and really stood out from the rest. One other thing that I noticed was there was a definite contrast between the acting of the boxer and trainer (which I thought was good), and that of the two girls. The girls' acting left a bit to be desired if I'm being honest.

Overall though, considering time constraints I think you guys did a great job. Best of luck!

[mrgreed202]

I've had the same problems when it comes to working with girls and acting. I don't know what it is but it's hard to get some "real" stuff from them. Probably shyness.

[Erik Bien]

I think the story would have benefited a great deal from some more engaging cinematography. The angles and framing for the bulk of the movie seemed very ordinary/plain. I thought that the steadicam work was fantastic though, and really stood out from the rest.

Thanks for your comments. I won't disagree, but I will say in our defense we were somewhat constrained by our chosen locations: the boxing ring essentially took up the entire room save for one end, with only a few feet between the ropes and the walls:


http://runningshot.com/raw_meat/img/20.jpg

That left us little choice of where to place the crew and equipment ...

http://runningshot.com/raw_meat/img/1.jpg

Since the pub was not only open for business but inexplicably crowded on a Saturday afternoon, the problems were much the same, with waitresses and patrons passing right behind the crew:


http://runningshot.com/raw_meat/img/244.jpg

And yes, our Steadicam flyer, Alan, is both fiendishly good with his rig and as humble, hardworking and affable a guy as you'll ever meet: I think we all hoped to use him a lot more, but money to rent a remote FF wasn't in the budget, and two separate attempts to borrow one fell through. It speaks volumes about his skills that he was able to keep the actors in focus by distance alone!


http://runningshot.com/raw_meat/img/84.jpg

[Dana Love]

"...cause if that's the case, I will knock you the lalalala out right now."

That was a great line, and well delivered. It's funny, when my wife watched it she said the women's conversation felt more real than the men's, and I felt the reverse...so I guess the dialogue hit top marks for both of us.

Did you use ADR? (heh heh)

[CWildenradt]

Thanks for sharing the photos, Erik. That did sound like it was tough to make it happen considering the circumstances. Kudos to you and your crew for pulling it off!

I don't know how much of a need you'd have for any restaurant/bar "connections," but my step-brother is actually a regional manager over several restaurants in your area. He's based out of Boulder. If the need arises for another restaurant/bar scene in the future and you need a location, let me know and I can talk to him about one of his locations. He's a really cool guy and I'm sure he'd be happy to accomodate. Just thought I'd put the offer out.

[Erik Bien]

Did you use ADR? (heh heh)

Actually (if you don't count the boxer's voice-over) everything was recorded with a boom to a small mixer/preamp (Sound Devices, I think) and into camera; only one line was ADR'd ... care to guess which one? :hv20-smilie84:

[RojoMojo]

Hi everyone, just wanted to jump in here... I put together the team for this short film and handled a lot of the aspects of the production. Including much of the final editing, audio work etc..

All the audio was recorded as Erik said, boom mic through a mixer and recorded into the RED One. We hit several snags with audio. Mixer continuously having battery problems. The boxer's voice over had to be re-recorded during editing because it was so muffled due to mixer batteries going out during the original takes. Some other lines were also affected and boosted in post, there is some hiss present in a few of those that could stand some clean-up.

As for ADR... Where do I begin. No new recordings were taken for ADR purposes, but there are some lip sync issues. Most of the conversation in the pub is reconstructed from multiple takes and I actually feel that we pulled it off quite well considering the amount of time we had to work with and the material we had to work with. When Jasmin (the girl on the left) throws out her line about being superstitious, that line had to be rebuilt out of other clips because in the take we used (for the desired facial expression, etc..) her line was unusable due to ambient noise that peaked right in the middle of her line, crying baby and everything imaginable, no joke. The pub was busy and we didn't have any gear or means to separate ourselves out.

I think the soundtrack is the weakest aspect of this short film. Hopefully I can revisit this over the next couple days and clean it up some more.

Color grading also needs help. It's all entirely fixable, just a matter of time. We had some real difficulties in getting a decent color grade across the entire film due to our chosen workflow. We used this short as a means of testing the new Adobe CS4 RED workflow. And found out too far along into post that we don't have access to all the exposure controls, balance and other metadata. That combined with an already very difficult and time consuming edit in the works, we just didn't have time to do much more than a basic color correction on select shots and then copy and paste those image controls from one clip to another.

[Erik Bien]

LOL

Welcome to the forum, Jeff! It's a bit surreal to see the post-count on the other foot ... :hv20-smilie84:

^ ^

(Don't feel too special; I say that to all the n00bz ...) :hv20-smilie79:

[1]

Dang, I so want to watch this.

Any chance for a direct link to a file....eventually?
:)

[Erik Bien]

C'mon, Mal ... join the Torrent collective ... we are Vuze ... you will be assimilated!

[1]

...you will be assimilated!

I am assimilationphobic! :hv20-smilie15:

[Erik Bien]

Jeff (Team RojoMojo/Raw Meat's fearless leader) has posted a sort of mini production diary (http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=361646&postcount=191) at REDuser that well describes the process of putting our little opus together.

[1]

It's a bit surreal to see the post-count on the other foot ...


THAT can be fixed! :)

(I'll eventually find a computer that I don't mind putting this dirty, filthy bit-torrent stuff on.....oh, the agony...oh, the insurmountability!)

[RojoMojo]

There will be a direct download link as soon as the competition is finalized.

And thanks for the phony post count adjustment... That's just scary and wrong.

[Erik Bien]

Anyone who would like to attend the 10PM screening in LA next Saturday need only RSVP (http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=364013&postcount=203) (I can't, but I'd sure love to see all twelve entries presented on a fancy-schmancy Barco projector!).
:hv20-smilie72:

[Zacatac]

My behind the scenes i made for our short Damage Control will (i am told) also be screened along with all twelve films:hv20-smilie72::hv20-smilie72::hv20-smilie70:

[Erik Bien]

The envelope, please:

First place - All Good Things (http://www.vuze.com/details/3PUJAEM2EKVFSJ2IOX7BSKCVBS2SKTB6.html)

Second Place - Casting (http://www.vuze.com/details/7MHUFIZGK5SCNXU72LD4TLOK7AF3YEYA.html)

Third Place - Tick Knock (http://www.vuze.com/details/VZXCEU7ADFHZGTR5SCPUT5UAI6VXSPVB.html)

Fourth Place - Viewers choice award - Libido (http://www.vuze.com/details/5G7CHCFVWYV2PX2FYXA6TKO7LUQFHBWO.html)

Fifith Place - Damage Control (http://www.vuze.com/details/TA3M5GLYMSJO5LVNBU7XWVKFIXMPNZWS.html)

Congratulations to Zac (who PA'd on Damage Control) and especially to Director Kim and Editor David of Casting, who have always been outstanding in their field ... :hv20-smilie87:


http://www.hv20.com/picture.php?albumid=22&pictureid=103

[Zacatac]

The envelope, please:

First place - All Good Things (http://www.vuze.com/details/3PUJAEM2EKVFSJ2IOX7BSKCVBS2SKTB6.html)

Second Place - Casting (http://www.vuze.com/details/7MHUFIZGK5SCNXU72LD4TLOK7AF3YEYA.html)

Third Place - Tick Knock (http://www.vuze.com/details/VZXCEU7ADFHZGTR5SCPUT5UAI6VXSPVB.html)

Fourth Place - Viewers choice award - Libido (http://www.vuze.com/details/5G7CHCFVWYV2PX2FYXA6TKO7LUQFHBWO.html)

Fifith Place - Damage Control (http://www.vuze.com/details/TA3M5GLYMSJO5LVNBU7XWVKFIXMPNZWS.html)

Congratulations to Zac (who PA'd on Damage Control) and especially to Director Kim and Editor David of Casting, who have always been outstanding in their field ... :hv20-smilie87:


http://www.hv20.com/picture.php?albumid=22&pictureid=103


Nice job to everyone


And Erik, I'm scarred by your amazing hobo performance... you portrayed your character... too welll

[Erik Bien]

At last, Raw Meat is now available for your streaming Flash (http://www.rojomojo.net/) viewing pleasure ...

[RojoMojo]

Yep, for better or worse, our short is now online. For those of you who have already seen it on Vuze, this flash version is updated. This is the version that was screened, along with all the other contest entries, on January 31st at the LA Downtown Independent theatre. I was not able to attend, but I've been told all the entries looked great. Of course, actual substance is quite subjective and I feel is rather lacking in our submission... <cough>