Today's footage towards my short film

[GeorgeMaier]

Howdy, some of you may remember last year I had to make a film trailer for my media class, this year I have to make a short film about 5 min long.

I started filming today, and this is all I have so far, it's really not much, but I want as much feedback as early on as possible to help secure my A* and fight away the evil A lurking over me.



I used in hand camera to try and add energy and movement to the scene - effective?

Let me know what you think please

[blondandfun]

what year in film school do they teach what a tripod is? even if you literally jerk the camera around like a crazy man that won't cure it. Why not just go to the mental ward to hire your cameraman?

It's not worth reshooting, just a scene with a kid standing there like a moron. Maybe add some stabilization and move on to the next scene... I can't wait to see it!!!!!!!

[drapeama]

I used in hand camera to try and add energy and movement to the scene - effective? Let me know what you think please

Handheld here seems to fit the mood you're after. I like it. The color and the golden hour shooting is really well achieved here. Nice job.
Maybe the only thing I would work a bit more on would be the framing/shots: maybe more close-up and also you could try to integrate some nice tripod pans to the whole sequence, I think it could blend well all together in the scenes.

[Gillvane]

Did you go completely handheld? If so, try a monopod. You can just extend one tripod leg, and move the camera around on that. It gives you the movement, but takes out the shake. Or something like a cheap shoulder rig with at least 3 points of contact. Doesn't look bad at all, but there's a couple of shakes.

IMO, movement is for creating tension in a scene. A running scene, a fight, a heated discussion, stuff like that. It's not motivated when someone is just standing there contemplating the sun. If a monster is creeping up on him from behind and it's pov monster, ok sure, it's motivated. Otherwise, why is the camera moving?

[drapeama]

Did you go completely handheld? If so, try a monopod. [..] IMO, movement is for creating tension in a scene.

1) Good advice. It would help for sure. Otherwise for "handheld" shooting, something I find pretty usefull is my custom FigRig: it helps a lot to add some stability.
2) Well, 50/50 here: there's a lot of movie shot in "cinema vérité" style where a character is standing and the camera is handheld, moving around or just not being static. I think it doesn't add tension in the scene, but more emphasis on the feeling of the character.

[Dr. Benway]

I watched it and couldn't figure out what to say. What's been said has been good advice. I would add that good steadycam and perhaps even some slider work around him would work better than trying to convey motion through shakycam. As it is the motion is not really enough to say anything special - like the motion's too meek so why not make it slick to match the mood - smooth movements to add to serenity.

[GeorgeMaier]

cinema vérité is exactly what I was going for, like how Aronofsky uses it in black swan to convey the emotions which cannot be captured visually in a conventional manor. Apologies that there is little context in this short clip to give you as it of course makes it harder to critique. The final version of this scene will likely have a monologue voice over.

All of your feedback is really great and useful so far guys, thanks loads!

[drapeama]

cinema vérité is exactly what I was going for, like how Aronofsky uses it in black swan to convey the emotions which cannot be captured visually in a conventional manor.

That's what I thought, and I think (personally) that you did something very close to what you intended. Great work. I'll wait on your final cut of it.

[mark84j]

I like your footage, G. Great setting and backdrop.

However, I'm in the boat that is sort of 80/20 in terms of cinema verite... but that's just personal preference. While handheld creates the slight emotion a director would be looking for, I don't believe it worked so well with your footage. But nothing was taken away from it, don't get me wrong. I'm just a huge fan of slow pans, in case you haven't noticed lol. I use them constantly in my DELTA BOYS thread with my test footage. Keep it up, bud.