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"Late" - my first short film

C

cjw

New Member
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Late from CJ Westregård on Vimeo.</p>

Short film, finished in September 2009.</p></html>




Tell me what you think, people.



Oh, and sorry for not being a film student. It's called studentfilms.com after all.


/CJ, Sweden
 
excellent well done looks and sounds wicked. looks way better than my first attempt. did you write the dialouge yourself? well done
 
Originally posted by chellya2004:did you do this in college?so you're not a film student?
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This was just a personal project, but I've been working at a production company (mostly editing commercials) for over 3 years. No formal higher education though.
 
Wow, I really liked it! I love the scenery and the video quality, it literally was perfect for the video. The over the shoulder shots were nice.. I really thought the shaky cam effect was really good too.

There's this movie I wrote, and all the scenery is almost constantly alot like this, very surreal settings, old down towns, I hope to capture that really warm, reminescent feel alot like this video had, I really do love that feel! The shot where she was waiting at the bus stop and you saw her from the other side of the street was realllly good too, everything looked so warm and almost mysterious.

Any good production secrets to really get that whole effect? Or is it pretty much just genuine on location filming?
 
Originally posted by CSmitty:Any good production secrets to really get that whole effect? Or is it pretty much just genuine on location filming?
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No secrets really, very basic stuff. Everything was in auto mode, except for the gain. In post I mostly raised the saturation and made sure nothing was too dark.
 
I really enjoyed the voiceover and your writing was great, but as a film, I felt it was lacking visually. It seemed more like a short story synched to shots, rather than having the shots visually tell the story. As it progressed, the repetitive shots and narration felt distracting and I started to lose interest until the last minute. You had some good shots in the last part at the bus stop, especially the extreme wide shot of her from behind, but it was also the only part in the film where the visuals took precedence over the narration so it was nice to see action being played out rather than spoken. For a short story this is wonderfully written and narrated. From a film point of view, I would encourage you to figure out more visual ways of conveying story. You have a great ability for writing, and if you can combine that with more visually engaging storytelling, your films will definitely be a step above the rest. Good job!
 
Well, I just saw it and I have to say I didn't enjoy it a lot. The camerawork was nice, but it was too introspective for a film. Like Lotrfan said, it feels more like a monologue/short story than a short film. There's no tension, no real acting, nothing that really communicates anything to the audience outside of the voice over. The girl doesn't really leave an impression. It's essentially a one-sided conversation but we don't learn much about the person who the story is focused on.

If you separate the sound from the images, the images should at least grab the audience. But there is nothing that really jumps out from the short. It's just a series of shots of somebody walking but there is no other element at work. It was too passive. I'm glad you kept it short because I see a lot of shorts that are way too long. I think next time you should write something more cinematic, something that's asking to be seen and not heard.
 
Reply
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After watching this a few more times, I find the camerawork to be distracting at times especially between 1:38 and 2:11 when you're shooting with a longer lens. Be careful about shooting handheld. If you look at movies and TV shows, you'll notice that handheld is not random shaky movements but rather a sort of controlled chaos that still allows your eyes to focus on the most important part(s) of the screen. As with anything, keep practicing and your eye for composing and shooting with handheld will improve.
 
I liked this film... Though the shaky camera was a bit distracting towards the end (at the bus stop).

Here's what i thought was effective:

The long lens/out of focus/in the dark made it feel like you were inside her head.. like inside a daydream as she was walking. And the part where she talks about the dream, and everything slowly comes into focus... Absolutely ace! I was impressed in that i started to imagine what she was saying in the white void in the middle of the screen.

Also, the accent was good, but there were a few times where the swedish was noticeable, and i was like... that was weird pronunciation... I guess only because the rest of the time she sounds so North American. I'm always baffled by people from Sweden and Norway... You would think they were American or Canadian with the way they speak English until they say one word a little different.

Cool film
 
Is the main character single?
icon_biggrin.gif
 
Thanks for all your replies. I don't have much to say except that I realize a lot of people (though not as many as I'd expected) have problems with the shaky handheld (which is actually shaky steadicam).
Having been raised on the web rather than movie theaters, I tend to visualize a 640x360 .wmv instead of the big screen, and I think it's safe to say that the shaking will distract even more people at possible future festival screenings.
You always learn something.

Originally posted by Conrad Faraj:
Is the main character single?
icon_biggrin.gif
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Last I heard, yes.
The actress is taken though.

Originally posted by mikeg:
I really enjoyed this one. Fix that shaky telephoto shot like people said and don't change anything else.
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There is no fixing the final cut.
icon_smile.gif
 

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