The HD Shorts - VOTING CLOSED

[koolpenguin89]

The time is here. All of our contestants spent the last two months working hard on their films, and now it is time to view the fruits of their labor. A couple things first:

Rules For Voting
1) You must completely watch all (6) short films before choosing which one you think is best
2) You must watch all films in HD, or, if your computer cant handle HD, watch all of them only in SD
3) After watching all films, viewers can choose the film they think is the best from the poll above
4) Film creators can NOT vote for themselves
5) Voters must have at least 5 posts in their history in order to vote

All films can be seen here, on the HD Shorts Vimeo channel (http://Vimeo.com/HDShorts). Heres some info about the films (in no particular order):

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Title: Tin Heart
Entrant: hubrisincarnate
Entered by: Damon Stea
Equipment Description: HV20 w/ 35mm adapter
Production Description: Directed by Damon Stea, Featuring Sean Lask, Zack DeZon, and Cassanra Chowdhury w/ assistance from Patti Moore
Music by Striking Media Music
Vimeo username : Damon Stea

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Title: CONNECTION
Entrant: whtnova
Entered by: whtnova
Equipment Description: HV20, raynox 6600, canon dm50, cheap old sams club tripod, bungie cords, seven year old daughter, 10 year old son, and one stray dog!
Production Description: hurried-first ever attempt at a short.

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Title: Blaspheme
Entrant: tiny
Entered by: Carson Kuehne aka Tiny
Equipment Description: Stock HV20, Rockband Microphone, Audacity, Premier Elements 4
Production Description: This was just something I threw together with a friend real quickly to become familiar with the camera. I can't describe the film content without hurting the plot. I play the main character, my friend does my voice and is one of only two other actors.

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Title: She Diggz My Giggz
Entrant: Jay Youth
Entered by: Jay Youth (thats also my name on hv20)
Equipment Description: Hv20 w/ static 35mm adapter. Radio Shack lav microphones. Manfrotto tripod, 15inch monitor. adobe premier pro 2.0 with no prior knowledge on how to use it.
Production Description: Watch as CJ tries to impress an unsuspecting female prey using only his own binary soup.
This is a comedic commentary on how our technology and gadgets can be kept on our selfs in great numbers. Some people needs books while others need a clown car full of gadgets.

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Title: OBSESSION
Entrant:Jlew07 & Erik Bien
Entered by: ERIK BIEN & JLEW07
Equipment Description: 2 HV20's, Rode Videomic, Lowell Light kit, Lavaliere Mic
Production Description: Cast consisted of 4 cast members and three extras. We used two HV20's. Story by Erik Bien, Zach Reeves (not a member) and I.

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Title: After Whitecoat
Entrant: orchidsofwrath
Entered by: OrchidsofWrath
Equipment Description: naked HV20 (accept the occasional wide angle lens), Azden SGM-2x shotgun mic on a boom with the Behringer Eurorack UBB1002 mixer as a preamp. Zoom H2 for some sound FX and ambient stuff. Make-shift lighting from Home Depot and old lamps. Edited with vegas 7 pro.
Production Description: This film was shot in about 12 hours spread over the course of 3 weeks with 2 buddies of mine (3 man crew). One of which is an aspiring film composer and scored this short. A special thanks to him for pounding the music out in 3 hours due to some quickly coming deadlines. The post production was very much rushed because of technical issues in the final couple of days I had reserved for editing and such, so I apologize for the lack of fully refined editing and VFX. There are some SILLY mistakes in there that REALLY could have been fixed easily but I somehow missed them. This has been my first short film and my first use of the HV20. The setting is in the far future after the fictitious "biowars" that nearly wiped out all of human species. Two lonely brothers find a piece of the past...

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Thats it. Watch all the films, enjoy them, and then vote!

Dylan

[tiny]

Whoa. I was the only one running with no attachments.

I can't wait to see the one shot with two camera's, to see how that affects the camera work/editing. (Have all video's loading, very slowly, on my computer )

[orchidsofwrath]

tiny your not alone i too used the naked hv20, unless ofcourse you mean no audio attachments!

[tiny]

tiny your not alone i too used the naked hv20, unless ofcourse you mean no audio attachments!

lol, yeah, no nothing. But you for sure are the next poorest/cheapest when it comes to your setup. I guess though it is just a matter of time. Once I get a job again, we know where my monies are going.

[VideJo]

It strikes me, that many of the contestants have their entry leaning heavily on spoken words.
This is more pittyfull, as many folks from around the world visit this site and many of them can possibly not fully follow what is being said.
Films is something else than talkies. Film should aim to have the images tell the story.
To emphasize my statement, please have a look at
one of my shorts. It is completely without any wording.
Sorry for the quality of the short, but it is from the pre-Vimeo period.

[tiny]

It strikes me, that many of the contestants have their entry leaning heavily on spoken words.
This is more pittyfull, as many folks from around the world visit this site and many of them can possibly not fully follow what is being said.
Films is something else than talkies. Film should aim to have the images tell the story.
To emphasize my statement, please have a look at
one of my shorts. It is completely without any wording.
Sorry for the quality of the short, but it is from the pre-Vimeo period.

Ironicly(mine being the most dialog driven) I agree with you. My last film also had not dialog, and while it was just as rushed as Blaspheme was, I think it was a lot better done. Check it out. http://paperdeath.com/video/milkthief.htm - Let me know what you think.

[orchidsofwrath]

Films is something else than talkies. Film should aim to have the images tell the story.

I respectfully disagree. I think to have a movie based on images or a movie based on words depends on your own artistic decision and how you want to execute your story. I've never heard anything be called a talky before... Try to watch the bourne trilogy (identity, supremacy, ultimatum) without hearing the dialogue. I garuntee you won't understand a damn thing because its kind of a dialogue based plot. Those movies won academy awards...
I think a visual based plot is one approach, but you certainly can make a "talky" and still have it be a movie. I don't think films SHOULD aim at anything accept telling a story in an interesting way. however you want to go about doing that is fair game. I can think of tons of big hollywood movies that rely almost totally on dialogue and their still awesome movies.

[Erik Bien]

Heh ...

Just tried to imagine My Dinner with Andre as a silent picture ...

[net]

OrchidsofWrath

The SD version of "After Whitecoat" is not there... The pc I am watching these on can't handle HD.

Is this something that you have to upload separately? If so, could do you that, please... Only because the rules state I have to watch every video.

If it's too much of a hassle... It's not a big deal, but I can't potentially vote for that one if I can't watch it.

[orchidsofwrath]

wow I didn't even know about that. I thought vimeo automatically interpolated an SD version but i guess not! I have no idea how to upload an SD version! I'm researching it right now. Net i'm so sorry about the confusion. I'd love it if you waited for me to figure this out but ofcourse thats your decision if you want to since this is my fault.

[net]

wow I didn't even know about that. I thought vimeo automatically interpolated an SD version but i guess not! I have no idea how to upload an SD version! I'm researching it right now. Net i'm so sorry about the confusion. I'd love it if you waited for me to figure this out but of course thats your decision if you want to since this is my fault.

There's no rush, orchidsofwrath...


From the Vimeo faq:

Can I upload in HD right now?

Yes. To take advantage of HD, all you have to do is upload a clip that’s 1280×720 resolution or better. Our servers will make a standard quality version first, then a little later your clip will appear in HD.

Maybe you can ask koolpenguin89 if he can make an exception and allow you to provide a link to a YouTube upload or a second Vimeo link, so that you don't have to mess with what is already there at the HD contest channel.

Or maybe you could ask if you can upload a second one and just PM me the link...or to whoever else needs it...

In any event; take your time... I can wait, even if it takes a few days.

[koolpenguin89]

orchids, if you need to upload a seperate SD version, thats fine. I would check your preferences first though, because i cant see why their would be no SD version unless you specified it as such. Wierd..

[destruct007]

not sure why but all of the HD videos play well on my computer so far except "After Whitecoat" It's so jumpy, is there something to do with the compression? I thought vimeo did it all for you?

I voted for Whitecoat, but I wanted to give a shot out to "Connection" which I thought was really good too.

[orchidsofwrath]

I did some research and it appears to be a bug with vimeo. As for my HD version being jerky i dunno but it plays fine on my comp. Then again i have a really beefy system.
Anyhow i'm working on rendering an SD version for a new vimeo upload and i'll post the link here in this thread. Sorry about all this guys idk whats the deal. I don't mind if you guys watch mine in SD and the rest in HD I don't feel i'm disadvantaged over it.

[bachus]

Heh ...

Just tried to imagine My Dinner with Andre as a silent picture ...

That was my first thought too

[twoneil]

wooYeah!

All of the videos are great! I see a lot of effort in creating the films.
I didn't vote....I believe that all of you are winners

[Jay Youth]

wooYeah!

All of the videos are great! I see a lot of effort in creating the films.
I didn't vote....I believe that all of you are winners

I'm with you on this, its so hard to vote. Although I think connection is underrated right now and I think thats an awesome film. I'm still on the fence, I want to make sure I get my vote right. I'm going to watch them all again.

damn these are good.

[tiny]

I voted For 'She Diggz my Giggz' solely for 'that's a little weird' line. That had me on the floor laughing.

[Jay Youth]

I voted For 'She Diggz my Giggz' solely for 'that's a little weird' line. That had me on the floor laughing.

haha thanks. the pool scene in your movie inspired me to want to do an entire film like that. where the character finds him self in a "lag" where the rest of the world is just a few seconds behind him. we should collaborate. its brilliant.

my favorite line in she diggz my giggz is "do you want to watch the notebook with me?"

[orchidsofwrath]

ok guys for anyone whos having problems watching my movie in hd here is the compromise: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fstWzzX70io
this is a tech forum so i'm relying on anyone who watches this to see past the terrible compression artifacts and crappy sound of youtube. I can't do another vimeo upload as i don;t have enough left on my weekly upload limit. I hope not to many people have the problem with my vimeo version though.

[gatti]

I'd like to thank Jay Youth for bringing the contest to my attention. I watched all the shorts and the parties involved deserve great credit for making a finished piece. They all had interesting stories/ideas to share.

In regards to constructive criticism: One of the key things that I think could have helped many of the shorts is that some scenes needed to be cut-down. I felt that many of them run-on for too long.

[Rich]

All the videos showed talent and effort. Difficult to decide. Good job to all!



Rich

[net]

ok guys for anyone whos having problems watching my movie in hd here is the compromise: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fstWzzX70io
this is a tech forum so i'm relying on anyone who watches this to see past the terrible compression artifacts and crappy sound of youtube. I can't do another vimeo upload as i don;t have enough left on my weekly upload limit. I hope not to many people have the problem with my vimeo version though.

Got it... good job on the movie.

The scaling button on YouTube (bottom right/second to left) helps with quality.

Good vids from everyone! I hope to enter a future contest.

[bachus]

I was generally impressed. Each entry had its own particular strengths and clearly a good deal of thought and effort went into these. All of you film makers have my respect and admiration for those good efforts. After the voting is over it would be interesting to hear critiques and reasons for the “judges” selections.

I had to watch in SD because my machine (due to be replaced this year) was not up to the job

[icjefferys]

It strikes me, that many of the contestants have their entry leaning heavily on spoken words.
This is more pittyfull, as many folks from around the world visit this site and many of them can possibly not fully follow what is being said.
Films is something else than talkies. Film should aim to have the images tell the story.

I recently finished a movie where words tell none of the story. Sound is extremely important in it, however! http://www.vimeo.com/975274, or www.evermeer.com