Hehe. Great use of sound effects and lighting to make up for lack of available resources. Speaking of resources, what do you use as a resource for sound effects?
It still amazes me at what can get accomplished in 48 hours when I am still struggling to put something together after several months. I'll get there eventually.
Will Vincent
06-17-2008, 08:32 AM
Most of the effects were from some Sound Ideas libraries.. Though several sounds were already recorded along with the dialog, car doors, etc..
oakstreetphotovideo
06-17-2008, 08:52 AM
Great job, Will. I loved the lighting. Give my compliments to the actors and writers, also. They did a great job. The story and dialog were entertaining and the acting was top notch.
You also did a great job with the sound.
Thanks for sharing that.
directorik
06-17-2008, 10:31 AM
Nice work, Will.
I worked on on last weekend. Got called at the last second to
shoot it. Our biggest mistake was allowing actors who weren’t
good at improv to improvise. And not using actors really hurt us
too.
Good acting made this one really stand out.
Did your team write the script and lock it before shooting?
I’m thinking of creating a team for the next one here in L.A. - we
had such a good time and I loved the challenge and restrictions
we faced.
Will Vincent
06-17-2008, 04:21 PM
Doug -- Thanks, this was the first time I've ever really been fully in charge of lighting. ;) (I was wearing a lot of hats on this project)
Rik -- Friday night the five of us on the crew brainstormed the story, and then hammered out the rough script, then the director/writer sat up for several more hours that night doing a rewrite and putting in the dialog he had been writing while we sat around and talked the story out.
Basically, one writer wrote the general framework, the other wrote the dialog, and then when he put the dialog in he tightened up the story a bunch.
We did allow the actors to improv a little bit, but in that regard, Sasha (the passenger in the car) is hands down the best actor I've worked with in town... and Tim (the driver) is the guy I work with when I'm DJing, he's been an MC for many many years, and improv is a big part of his job. Ultimately though, the majority of the story -- including dialog -- was already written.
If you're interested... Here's (http://216.17.37.184/myspace/RoadKill.pdf) the script we used on the shoot. Surprisingly enough, the entire 8 and a half pages fit within the 7 minute time limit. :)
VPTurner
06-17-2008, 05:13 PM
Thanks for posting the script. I was interested. Now I'd love to see diagrams of your lighting setup. :)
Will Vincent
06-17-2008, 05:24 PM
Thanks for posting the script. I was interested. Now I'd love to see diagrams of your lighting setup.
Well I didn't make any for the shoot, but I'll see if I can sketch something up a little later. Just about to head out for the premiere.
EDIT: Here's a couple production stills that will give you some idea...
150w halogen's on either side of the car, for a little fill, a 500w halogen on the corner of the desk behind Carol (not visible in the photo) fluorescent shop lights on either side of the car, 3 500w halogen's on the right (hidden behind the pallet rack in this photo), another 250w visible on the right in front of the pallet rack. a 250 and a 500w on a short light stand for the "headlights", hooked to a dimmer pack, and 2 120watt red flood lights, along with a 500watt halogen behind a piece of red gel for the "tail lights" (visible in the second photo)
additionally there is a 60w compact fluorescent scoop light between the two front seats of the car for car interior light. The flashlight that appears in the two shots by the tire was a practical light -- small LED flashlight.
There was also a very large overhead lamp off to the right that couldn't be shut off -- so I used it as the motivation for the light set up, playing it as the "moon" and adding the rest of the lights to bump the exposure level up, and fill in some of the shadows. That's basically it, the lights didn't get moved much, the fluorescents on either side were moved closer or further as needed for different shots, but otherwise everything stayed put.
I think there were some extra overhead lights on in the photos...
I shot 24p, with a shutter speed of 1/48. Every shot was somewhere between f2.8 and f4... we honestly could have used a lot more light, it would have been nice to have a 2k for the key, and maybe a 1k for a hair light, but we didn't have the lights, or the gear for rigging them where they should have ideally been placed.
Hope that helps some. ;)
VPTurner
06-17-2008, 06:52 PM
Interesting that you were able to mix halogen and flourescent. My last attempt to do so had unfavorable results because I was white balanced to the halogens and the flourescents had a green cast. Did you gel the flourescents?
I am at work, so it may be my monitor, but is that black felt? It actually looks purple. I have a full roll of black felt for this very purpose (and other flagging/cutting tasks - I am going to glue some black felt to one side of some white foam core so it can play double-duty).
I like your DIY dolly. That is also on my project list. How much weight do you think it can hold with the plastic PVC rails?
Will Vincent
06-18-2008, 02:20 AM
Interesting that you were able to mix halogen and flourescent. My last attempt to do so had unfavorable results because I was white balanced to the halogens and the flourescents had a green cast. Did you gel the flourescents?
I am at work, so it may be my monitor, but is that black felt? It actually looks purple. I have a full roll of black felt for this very purpose (and other flagging/cutting tasks - I am going to glue some black felt to one side of some white foam core so it can play double-duty).
I like your DIY dolly. That is also on my project list. How much weight do you think it can hold with the plastic PVC rails?
I didn't gel the fluorescents, no.. I used "Cool White" bulbs, which are fairly close in color temperature to the halogens, and then just let the camera auto white balance.. to be honest, I didn't even think about the white balance at all while shooting -- really it doesn't matter because it can always be color corrected anyway.
It's not felt, it's actually like a polar fleece type of material.. It is in fact black, though the still camera picked it up as a purplish brown -- the lower piece more so than the upper. I didn't bother to adjust to colors and levels on the stills, but I think that coloring is due to the overhead metal halide bulbs..
As for the dolly.. I've not tested it, but I would guess it can EASILY hold several hundred pounds. With a tripod, crane, camera, counter balance and camera op on board that's definitely in the 200+ lbs range, and it still glides effortlessly on the track. It can literally be moved with one finger. Knightly has some video of that around here somewhere, though since that video was made I've beefed up the dolly some too, we were having issues initially with the deck bowing, so I added some 2x4 reinforcements, and it's rock solid now. :)
barnaclelapse
06-18-2008, 09:53 AM
Well I didn't make any for the shoot, but I'll see if I can sketch something up a little later. Just about to head out for the premiere.
EDIT: Here's a couple production stills that will give you some idea...
150w halogen's on either side of the car, for a little fill, a 500w halogen on the corner of the desk behind Carol (not visible in the photo) fluorescent shop lights on either side of the car, 3 500w halogen's on the right (hidden behind the pallet rack in this photo), another 250w visible on the right in front of the pallet rack. a 250 and a 500w on a short light stand for the "headlights", hooked to a dimmer pack, and 2 120watt red flood lights, along with a 500watt halogen behind a piece of red gel for the "tail lights" (visible in the second photo)
additionally there is a 60w compact fluorescent scoop light between the two front seats of the car for car interior light. The flashlight that appears in the two shots by the tire was a practical light -- small LED flashlight.
There was also a very large overhead lamp off to the right that couldn't be shut off -- so I used it as the motivation for the light set up, playing it as the "moon" and adding the rest of the lights to bump the exposure level up, and fill in some of the shadows. That's basically it, the lights didn't get moved much, the fluorescents on either side were moved closer or further as needed for different shots, but otherwise everything stayed put.
I think there were some extra overhead lights on in the photos...
I shot 24p, with a shutter speed of 1/48. Every shot was somewhere between f2.8 and f4... we honestly could have used a lot more light, it would have been nice to have a 2k for the key, and maybe a 1k for a hair light, but we didn't have the lights, or the gear for rigging them where they should have ideally been placed.
Hope that helps some. ;)
Those pictures are freaking awesome.
I would have been happy as hell to be around all that film stuff going on.
VPTurner
06-18-2008, 11:37 AM
Thank you for sharing! Great stuff.
John@Bophe
06-18-2008, 11:08 PM
Great work, Will!
knightly
06-20-2008, 10:14 PM
Here's that video...it was shot on my little point and shoot digital camera, so the quality and stability is poor, so I stabilized it in Shake... because I could.
oh yeah, we built that dolly for the 48 last year. The guy holding the rope in the background is sasha from will's 48 this year. The thing we're shooting here is "9th Life".
VPTurner
06-23-2008, 06:06 PM
Here's that video...it was shot on my little point and shoot digital camera, so the quality and stability is poor, so I stabilized it in Shake... because I could.
That's exactly the kind of rig I need to build. Nicely done.
Will Vincent
06-23-2008, 06:57 PM
That's exactly the kind of rig I need to build. Nicely done.
Everything you need to know to build the dolly is here: http://www.digitaljuice.com/djtv/segment_detail.asp?sid=186&searchid=55382
spinner
07-04-2008, 09:34 PM
Great work, Will!
I'm going to download how to make that dolly! And yes! Good lighting!
Maybe a few of us from IT should get together next year and do a 48hr Challenge!
-- spinner :cool:
Will Vincent
07-05-2008, 12:36 AM
Incidentally... Road Kill earned it's first set of laurels today. I received a call from one of the smaller festivals I submit to, and it's an official selection. :)
Just so happens, this screening is the day after the Shamrock Film Festival.. so that's kind of neat. Along with Road Kill, two other films I've been involved in will be showing here as well.
Death Bed, that knightly and I worked on in 2006, and Do Us Part; which has one of the writers and the same director as Road Kill. :)
It's not really a festival per se, but it's a screening and a worthwhile event.
A local theater company is hosting it as a fundraiser. Wish I was going to be in town this weekend now, I'll be missing both screenings. *sigh* I guess at least I'll be making money. :)
Arginate Studios
08-27-2008, 03:41 PM
Wow, really well done! Great shots, i liked the story and the acting was very convincing. The only complaints i could come up with were all sound related. The ambience track was too quiet in a few spots, the dialog had a bit of a boxy quality and the overall mix needed some compression to pull up the volume levels. The boxy dialog was the only thing that really jumped out at me though. I kept saying it sounds like they shot this in a warehouse with concrete floors. What mic did you use? You should have run the dialog through a gate to trim off some of the verb tails and then add some warmth to the midrange. Sound is the hardest thing to pull of for 48 hour films and yours was better than 90% of what i have seen.
Will Vincent
08-29-2008, 12:37 AM
Wow, really well done! Great shots, i liked the story and the acting was very convincing. The only complaints i could come up with were all sound related. The ambience track was too quiet in a few spots, the dialog had a bit of a boxy quality and the overall mix needed some compression to pull up the volume levels. The boxy dialog was the only thing that really jumped out at me though. I kept saying it sounds like they shot this in a warehouse with concrete floors. What mic did you use? You should have run the dialog through a gate to trim off some of the verb tails and then add some warmth to the midrange. Sound is the hardest thing to pull of for 48 hour films and yours was better than 90% of what i have seen.
Honestly I have no idea what mic it was... it was some crappy rental from a local cable station, that had clearly been beat up -- a lot. We DID in fact shoot it in a warehouse with cement floors, so that accounts for that.. ;)
I've since done a bit more work on the audio and fixed most of the issues, I agree it is very quiet in this online version.
Thanks for the compliments, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
Will Vincent
09-29-2008, 11:35 PM
I had a meeting last week with the producer of the Minneapolis 48hr film project, and I was surprised to learn that Road Kill won Best Director at the Shamrock Film Festival.
I hadn't heard anything from the festival, so I assumed it didn't win anything, but apparently it was an oversight on their part that I was never contacted as I was unable to physically attend the festival.
I'm actually going to be going to pick up the award tomorrow. :)
